The Swing Analysis (2013 Edition)

"I figured it out!"

I've said that probably two dozen times over the years with reference to my golf swing.  My brother has said it at least that many to me.  Our dad has easily doubled that.

We're always (eventually) wrong.  But that doesn't mean it's not worth working on.

This year's "I figured it out" moment came courtesy of a Sean O'Hair tip in Golf Digest.  You can see the video version below.  What he says isn't revolutionary, but it's the imagery of the hands and clubhead being on train-tracks on the take away that really clicked for me:

My problem historically has been what O'Hair refers to as "sucking in;" that move gets the club too far inside, and I have to make a big adjustment to get on plane at the top of the swing.  Sometimes that works, but sometimes it doesn't; just depends on my timing.

So for the past month or so at the range I've been rehearsing the "train tracks" take away over and over.  Below you'll see some video of my swing with this mental image at the forefront of my mind:

7 iron

Driver

A couple of things I learned from this: (1) this is definitely better, less of a wrap-around take away than I've had previously, and leads to a controlled but powerful weight transfer (especially with the driver); and (2) no matter what I think I'm feeling, the video tells a different story -- I'm still too far inside.

7-iron swing sequence - click to make larger

Ultimately I think I'm doing a better job with the first 25% of the backswing, but then I go right back to rotating the club as I continue backward as opposed to lifting it.  The past 2 range sessions (after these images/videos) I've been focusing on the full backswing, and I feel it becoming ingrained.  The question now is how long I can keep it that way before the old habits creep back in.

The Bottom

In addiction treatment, there's a long-standing saying that goes something like "you have to hit rock bottom before you can rise up." 

I am a golf addict.  And in terms of my quest for even par, I believe I've hit rock bottom.

Two years ago I had 5 rounds that were within 5 shots of par.  Last year I had 2 such rounds.  This year?  Zero.  My best round this year is +9.  And even worse, of my last 8 rounds, 5 have been in the 90s.

I've been so inconsistent I can't even pinpoint where the trouble is.  In one round I hit 50% of fairways and 50% of greens in regulation (including 9 out of 12 in one stretch) and still shot 94 (the problem: terrible short game).  Two weeks later I had 9 penalty shots en route to another 94. 

But there are signs that my game is coming back around.  On Tuesday this week I went to the driving range for the first time since the beginning of the season.  Practice helps!  (Who knew?)  I worked almost exclusively on staying connected through the swing by practicing with a head cover tucked in my left armpit (see example below).  I truly believe this is the perfect drill, and a novice could probably learn the proper swing by just hitting golf balls this way without any other instruction (well, except maybe learning proper grip and "keep your head down").



Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of being invited to play at Brae Burn Country Club in Newton, MA.  Brae Burn is one of the truly historic golf clubs in New England, having hosted the 1919 US Open as well as several US Amateur tournaments.  It's currently ranked as the number 18 course in Massachusetts by Golf Digest.  And it was spectacular, with uniquely contoured holes and absolutely pristine conditions.  And finally my game seemed to be back on track, at least for the first 12 holes.  My very first shot was a pull-hook, but after that I played nearly flawlessly on the front 9, carding a 3-over 38 that was marred by 3 missed putts inside of 6 feet.

I followed the front with a birdie on the short par-5 10th hole to get to 2-over, then bogey-par on 11 and 12.  Unfortunately I fell apart after that, going 9-over on the next 5 holes before recovering with a par on the 18th.  So definitely not a great round, but I really had it going for 12 holes, which is a lot better than I can say for any other round in the past month.

I plan to get back out this weekend.  Here's hoping I can put 18 holes together and start to get this mission back on track.

The Swing Analysis (2011 Edition)

I know, I know... it's been awhile.  Truth is, I haven't been playing much golf.  And when I have played, it hasn't been very good.  [My last round was at The Links at Union Vale in LaGrangeville, NY.  I actually played fine, but a disastrous 9 on the par-4 11th hole derailed an otherwise decent round.]

The same problem I commented on in my last post has continued -- all my misses are left, and most of them are pull-hooks.  While I was in New York my brother shot some video of my swing.  I think there are still a lot of good features, but let's take a look at some of the problems.

Here I am at the top of the swing with the driver:

On the plus side, I've made a good, full turn, and my weight is where I want it on my back heel.  But my shaft angle and club head is way over-the-line (inside the target line), and the club is completely shut.  In order to get the club back on plane for contact I'll have to come at an outside-in angle (which will lead to a pull), and the closed club face will cause the hook.

Compare that shot to Adam Scott* below:

Rotationally, we're in a fairly similar position, though he tends to stand up at the top of the swing and I tend to squat a bit.  But you can see his shaft angle is exactly in line with the target, and the club head is much more neutral (though still slightly shut).

When I was a scrawny 17-year-old, I figured out how to hit a 300 yard drive -- take the club way inside to generate a ton of rotational torque, swing your weight way back on the take away and hard forward on the downswing, and rip it as hard as you can.  Needless to say, I was not a very consistent golfer.  I have learned over the years how to rotate with a more consistent, compact swing... but I still struggle with my take-away.  Look how far inside I am (again compared to Adam Scott):

You can see without any other images that the natural arc of each of our swings will lead to the positions you see at the top.

Needless to say, there will probably be some bumps in the road if I try to make a big change and get my takeaway more upright, so that may be a project for the offseason.  But at a minimum I have to limit my early rotation so that I can get into a better position at the top... starting now.  I know that I can do that -- just check out my video from 2 years ago; even though I take the club inside at the start, my position is much more on plane at the top.

I know what my problem is, and I know how to correct it.  The only question is if I can do it.

[Here's the full video from last week:]

* CREDIT: Adam Scott images taken from golfdigest.com.

The Mid-Season Analysis

This has been a funny year on the golf course for me.  For some reason I have not been nearly as consistent as I was in the past few years -- I'm still having some good rounds, but I'm having a lot more bad rounds than I'm used to.  My initial thought was that I'm not playing as much, but in looking at it I've actually played only 1 fewer round through July 20th this year than I did last year (27 vs. 28).  Over that time I've had 8 rounds in the 70s (vs. 7 in the 70s through this date last year), but I've had 7 rounds in the 90s (as compared to 5 last year, one of which was at the extremely difficult TPC Boston).

So... what happened?

Well, let's look at some stats:

As you can see, many of the numbers are pretty similar, especially in the short game areas.  Even my par and birdie-or-better percentages are almost exactly the same (which, obviously, means I'm having more blow-up holes this year).  But there's a big difference in fairway percentage, where I'm hitting 16% fewer than last year, and (probably in part due to the fairways being down) greens in regulation are 12% less than 2010.


In order to tease that out a little more I looked at my driver fairway percentage and my 1-hybrid fairway percentage (which are the two clubs I hit off the tee most often).  The 1-hybrid percentage is roughly the same (about 50%), but my fairways hit with the driver is dramatically down (23% worse than last year).  


I think the difference is more philosophical than anything else.  Historically my bad miss off the tee has been the pull-hook; last year I really focused on taking the left miss out of play with the driver, hitting predominantly a fade (which was in general my natural ball flight with all my clubs).  This winter, though, I worked at the range on getting my hands more inside, which has resulted in a little bit of a lower ball flight and a more natural draw.  And the stats again bear that out -- of my misses, 61% are to the left this year (as compared to 49% last year).  I'm guessing that relates to the most telling number: I'm having 3 penalty shots per round this year, vs. only 2.1 per round last year.


It looks like going forward I'm going to have to re-commit to the power-fade off the tee and take the pull-hook back off the table.

The US Open | What I Learned from Brian Gay

This weekend I was fortunate enough to attend the 111th US Open at Congressional Country Club.  My good friend Kevin lives in Bethesda and was able to score us tickets to the 3rd round.

I've been to live golf events before (the Deutsche Bank Championship, twice), and although professional golf affords you the chance to stand amazingly close to some of the real icons of the game, in general it's somewhat difficult to actually follow the tournament when you're there because so much is happening away from wherever you might be standing.  For that reason I find that more often than not I'd rather watch the events -- and in particular, the final round -- from the comfort of my couch on my plasma screen.

All that being said, seeing the Open was a truly incredible experience.  I give tremendous credit to the USGA for making the event both a real test of golf and a true spectator sport.

I'll give you my impressions of the course and, more importantly, what I took away from the event that is going to help me reach even par below.  If you'd like to see a detailed itinerary of our day at the Open, CLICK HERE.

CONGRESSIONAL COUNTRY CLUB

To put it simply, the course is a beast.  I know the scores didn't reflect that this weekend -- and Rory McIlroy in particular made it look quite tame -- but that is because the conditions could not have been more ideal for golf.  With rain every night and then dry days with no wind whatsoever, the greens were receptive to long irons and hybrids instead of kicking those balls off as we're used to seeing in US Open conditions.

Trust me, it's 7574 yards but plays much longer than that with almost every green elevated, or, in some cases, straight up hill.  The greens, too, are treacherous -- we watched about a dozen or more groups play the 12th green and saw only 2 or 3 one putts; and those were all essentially tap-ins on up and downs after missing the green.  It seemed nobody could correctly read the double break that every angle to the hole presented if the putt was more than 5 or 6 feet.

The course is very nicely routed, with the front 9 somewhat compact and the back 9 a little more spread out.  The green-to-tee distance is essentially zero except between the 9th and 10th, the 11th and 12th and 17th and 18th (all of which require the players to hike a good distance to the next hole, mostly uphill).  Because the holes do generally flow so well it was logistically quite easy as a spectator to essentially walk the whole course.

The USGA set up a number of crossing areas on most of the holes which further facilitated getting around.  It also meant we could stand in the middle of several fairways -- and let me tell you, they are immaculate.  Even the areas that were trampled by the crowds were better than most of the fairways at courses I play.

Even the practice area is impressive, with enough space for about 50-60 people to use the range, a great variety of target flags, and (obviously) pristine grass hitting areas.  And that brings me to...

WHAT I LEARNED FROM BRIAN GAY

Brian Gay is far from the most exciting PGA tour player.  If it wasn't for his typically colorful outfits and the fact that (through a hard to describe series of circumstances) he once left passes for my parents at the Deutsche Bank event, I probably would hardly know he existed.  He's currently the 127th ranked player in the world, ranks dead last in driving distance but first in fairway percentage, and probably gets mistaken for Ian Poulter more than he gets recognized as himself.

Brian Gay

Ian Poulter

I certainly had no intention of studying Brian Gay closely, but when we sat down around lunch time to watch some players on the range he came out and set up shop right in front of us.  There were a number of more fascinating players also out on the range (defending champ Graeme McDowell and number 3 in the world Martin Kaymer come to mind), but the eye is naturally drawn to that which is right in front of you.  That meant we were able to see his entire pre-round routine... and it was so impressive that I'm planning to duplicate it.

Obviously I'm not privy to his thought process, but it seemed fairly evident to both Kevin and I what he was trying to accomplish.  So some of this will be editorializing and assumptions based on what we saw, but I think it's fairly accurate.  Here are the steps:

1. Pick a hitting area that is straight in line with one of the closest target flags.  Set up any alignment tools that you wish to use to keep yourself on line.
2. Warm up and get a feel for the type of crisp contact you want to make by starting with very simple chips or half-shots with a wedge aimed at the target (even if they won't reach that target).
3. Advance to 3/4 wedge shots again aimed at the same target flag, and then full wedge shots, maintaining that same pace and contact feel as from the chip shots.
4. This is most important: as you work through the longer clubs in your bag, don't pick a new target.  Instead, continue to hit balls aimed over the same short flag that you started with.  This creates a mental picture of keeping the ball on line in a narrow scope, like you're hitting the balls through a tube.
5. Work your way up hitting roughly every other club.  Hit 5-6 balls with each, up to and including your driver. 
6. After hitting driver, drop back down to wedges, then 3/4 wedges, then half-wedges/chip shots to again accentuate that straight shot controlled feel.

Gay went through that routine over about 30 minutes, and we saw him hit only 2 balls that were not exactly on line at or over the target flag.  It was incredible, and you can see immediately why he's the most accurate driver on tour.  I'm certainly not planning to change my game and become a bunter like him, but I do think running through this routine regularly will help my mental approach to ball striking and keeping the ball straight.  At least I hope it will.