Swing Surgeon Golf School: Day 3

I have no idea about the 60" waist thing. Based on some of his posts i believe him to also be a senior, and just perhaps not fully up on the newer methods and equipment involved in modern day club fitting. As he has said he's old school. I myself have assembled many clubs in the past, using just a swingweight scale and wooden carpenter rule. I have learned a lot over the past winter thanks to Doc, and now know how little i did know then. That's why I'm in process of a complete club fitting for an entire set. Well, I'm heading to bed, it's 10:30 at my end and I'm usually up before six.

Gordie

Thanks for your thoughts. As my other brothers have said, it is great to hear from one of the "survivors" of a Surge school. Makes me want to knock off a bank or two to raise the money to go.

It is always good advice to be physically and mentally ready before showing up for one of these events. It allows you to take what they throw at you and also to just have to refine the swing rather than trying to learn it from scratch.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, and it is great to meet another member of the Surge Nation.

Dick

Hi Robert, I agree with one part of your anwer but not the other. I really don't think we should be trying to change the direction of travel of the club head through the ball - especially having taken so much time to learn Surges' swing.
My favourite is to select an aiming line that will ensure the obstruction is avoided, and then open or close the club face so that it is facing the target. Then I just take a normal (Surge) swing along the selected aiming line. If I've chosen the right club, the ball usually finds its' way to the green.
A good idea is to practice this at the range so that the amount of cut or draw can be observed for various amounts of open or closed face.
No matter how well we have learned the Surge swing there are always going to be times when we don't execute it totally correctly and we will at times find ourselves in such trouble - even the Pros have to know how to shape a ball.
Cheers

Barney, for two good articles on working the ball as with 99% of all golf questions you can go to the top right of this page and explore the use of the search posts tool. For your question put in the words - working the ball and you'll find those two. Remember, most common(and many uncommon questions have already been asked and answered and the is three years of archived answers found through this search system. Take advantage of it.
Of course you are welcome to ask other questions any time and often a helpful fellow Surgite wil answer it.

Putting is coming along well. Yesterday I took my putter to Golf Galaxy and had my putter fit. I noticed last time out that the lie was too flat for my set up and with the shaft alignment it was an easy fix. Now when I set my putter down it is easy to square it up to my line. Armed with six great drills from Surges first putting video I'm headed to the practice green. These drills are great because they give you a format for an organised way to practice, they come with built in ways to monitor your progress. Also are challenging and fun too. My hands are recovery well from surgury. Still a bit stiff so I have several therapy routines to stretch and massage them as they continue to improve. This is why my current golf is limited to putting for a while. Hopefully soon I'll be able to chip and pitch then later graduate back into full swings. Full fitting and new clubs still likely in May so there is a plan:)

T,
You'd still have to be bent way over to have it at 27". If you think about it, at address position, your hands are up more than if down by your side. He did say he has long arms. Not being ugly but more humorous, that would be GORILLA long. LOL LOL LOL

Thanks Jack, i even tested it after the name goes up of the first like clicker and it removes it as well. Good to know.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Question;
Who out there plays Mizuno blades(or cavity blades) and how much do you love them?
Also, anyone else who made the move to cavity back and then switched back to blades?
What's in your bag?

While no longer commenting on all that stuff, in fact I'm not reading 75% of blogs that even smell like it whether fron my good friends here or you know who- unfortunately that means I'm not reding over half of the current comments lately...I would like to say I apprecited the great link (which I added to my favorites) from Tom Wishon. He along with Maltby are among the best sourses for understanding equiptment and club fitting. I am on my third read of Wishon books of which the discussion of club length is covered very completly. Thanks T.

We now have Golf Schools in Europe the First School is in Bled Slovenia end of April
Click on Acadamy for info look forward to seeing you there, remmember only 12 lucky persons will be there
Malcom

Type your comment here.Robert, I play Mizuno MP52's and I really like them. they have a nice soft feel to them. I have PW thru 4 iron

My walls are papered.

Surge,

Sounds like you, once again, had a great school. I hope to make one in the future. Thanks for all you do to further the game.

Kevin

BrianF,

For the most part, my comment was an explanation of the theory, not specific advice on how to achieve that, but there are times when changing the face angle won't get you the ball flight you need. The ball leaves the club face flying essentially in the direction the club face was pointing, so it's most important that it be pointed clear of the obstruction, not just your aiming line, if the two are not matched up. It also depends on the specific ball flight you want, high, low, etc. Have you watched Surge's Junior Blueprint videos where he talks about shaping shots?

There are times when the ability to work the ball is essential for good scoring or recovering from a misplayed shot or bad break. That's why it's essential for the pros to learn to shape the ball. It's helpful for amateurs, but it's a situation of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. I was advising Barney that he shouldn't want to think about it the way Bubba Watson does, who simply never hits the ball on a straight line. It works for Bubba because it's what he grew up teaching himself to do, but for the rest of us, most of the time we want to play within ourselves.

BrianF, your way of seeing it is EXACTLY the same as mine & if I've interpreted Steve S (below) correctly I think he is saying something similar
I don't swing any differently, I just arrange my feet & clubhead to suit

The ball starts off somewhere between the toe line & the clubface direction
Factors making it closer to toe line aim are:-
(1) faster swing speed
(2) lower loft club
(3) less differential between clubface & toeline aim (small fade or draw)

Factors making it closer to clubface aim are:-
(1)Slower swing speed
(2) Higher loft club
(3) Going for a large hook or slice

The tricky part for me is deciding whether I can get a clean contact on the ball
Any debris between the clubface & ball decreases the sidespin I may have planned on

Having said that, I read a well respected coach saying that my way has been disproven & he is in total agreeance with RobertF's description

Yours works for you - Mine works for me - Steves works for him - Roberts works for him - the coaches method works for him
The laws of physics don't change so are we all doing the same thing but percieving it differently?

T T T!? Resist sir, be delivered from your "demon".

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, guys. I think if you get the chance, it would be nice to see a video of some of what's going on during the classes--even just quick cut overviews so we can see the gorgeous facilities and these great instructors in action, kind of like what you did for the tournament last fall.

And, sorry for the trouble on 18 today, DJ, but it was a good round. Looks like you'll just miss the cut, but we'll be here cheering for you next week!

Robert F,

I have been practicing what Brian F is talking about and getting pretty consistent results. I pick the line around the obstacle (a tree, for example), then, however far I aim right (for a draw/hook) or left (for a fade/slice), I close or open the club face the same degree. If the angles are the same, but opposites (aim right, close face; aim left, open face), I hit the ball around the obstacle and toward the target fairly consistently. When I fail to get matching angles, I either curve the ball too much or not enough. Like I said though, I have been practicing these a lot because of all the trouble I tend to get in. I would never try a shot like this on the course, and especially not in a tournament, without having practiced it many times.

FYI, To any interested parties. Here's a site link that explaines how to obtain a proper wrist to floor measurement. As an example, I'm 5' 11" normal build with a 36" WTF.
http://dyn.pga.com/improve/tip...

Robert

I see you decided to take the easy way out with changing the angle of your putter. I did my best to help you out. You probably made the right choice. Hope the fix works out for you.

Let us know how the putting went. Inquiring minds want to know.

Dick

Evening all

I had a long and wonderful day. Played pretty well. Took dad and his posse by 4 strokes. Nothing real remarkable about the game. I am going to the range for a couple of hours tomorrow to work on some issues that reared their ugly heads today.

Surge

I enjoyed the video. Good to see what is going on. Hope the next school goes as well. Sorry for the weather you have had down there. Hope the storms were not near you. Just another reason I left the "Sunshine State."

My loving wife just came out with a big bowl of Angle food cake, strawberries, and cool whip. I think I hear the sirens of of the blog police coming, so I had better find a way to work this back into a golf thingy. The bowl was round like a bunker. The cool whip was white and fluffy like well raked sand. Some of the strawberries, which served as the balls, were sitting up on top of the sand and some were partially buried. I used the spoon like a sand wedge to just scoop the strawberries out of the white fluffy sand of the cool whip and right into the mouth, which served as the cup. Just so you know, I had several hole in ones with the strawberries going into my mouth on the first try. Unfortunately, there was one shot which came up a bit short. Kelly Jo says it will come out in the wash. So, I guess that makes her part of the grounds keeping crew. Now, I have to go to the head and make another hole in one. I have a fresh roll of score cards so I can do the paperwork. Hope I don't end up in the water hazard. After that I think I will stop off at the ball washer station. As always, don't forget to clean you clubs after you get done. And make sure you wipe down your magic shaft.

What was I talking about, oh yes now I remember. The golf was good, and the desert was better.

Keeping it vertical, and talking golf, in Oklahoma.
Dick

Listening to Bruce (The Rolfer Golfer) talk about taking a break from hitting balls and swinging in the opposite direction, got me to try swinging lefty, just for amusement. I am totally miscoordinated (how's that for a word?), so trying to swing that way was very difficult. However, the SSGS is so great that after just 4 minutes of trying, I managed to do the SSGS left-handed fairly well using the left-handed club I got for my grandson. I will have to try hitting balls that way when I get a chance this weekend.

Mmmmmm - A hate button?
Careful, Kim or Brady may be listening & they can make it happen

What about some extra buttons like:-
"You are a narcissistic dipshit"
"If I wanted to see your opinion, I would not have flushed"
"I have validated you, don't you feel better now?"

I better stop - I decided to curtail my activities (a bit)

Amen brother

Kevin

My wife is a lefty and I had my old neighbor build her a set of starter clubs 10 or 12 years ago when I first started to get interested in golf. We were out practicing one day and she was having a real problem hitting the 3 wood. Since dad taught me to swing an ax lefty and righty as well as a baseball bat, I offered to try it to show her how. I hit about 150 and she just stared at me with THAT look and hasn't attempted the game since. I told her it was just a lucky shot. Not sure she believed me. Women, go figure.

LynnF

If you've never seen it, check out the movie "If You Could See What I Hear." It's about the life of Tom Sullivan, a blind musician and athlete who was, in fact, a near-scratch golfer among other things. There's a great scene of him playing golf with his soon-to-be father-in-law. :) (There's also a lot of really funny other stuff, and some serious stuff thrown in.)

I'm not positive, but since I'm close to his height. I think he may have taken a wrist to floor measurement, from his address position with a driver, instead of from an erect standing position. That's the only way I can get close to that same distance. That's why I posted a link explaining the procedure, which he claims to have never heard of, even though he is a qualified club builder.

I attended the last school held by Don and his team at Orange County National and I can tell you that it was definitely worth it. For anyone who has been on this site when it was PPGS and now Swing Surgeon and have watched the videos, read and reread the manual and may have still wondered if Don practices what he preaches, I am here to tell you that he is, in fact, the real deal. He is as pure a striker of the ball as I've ever seen (I'm 72 yrs. young) and I have seen many, including Moe Norman. Listen to what this man says. He has likely forgotten more about the golf swing than 95% of the many teaching pros who take many of our hard earned dollars without showing results have ever known. He has surrounded himself with some talented and dedicated instructors who really care about what they are doing. It's a highly motivated team that makes learning this swing a pleasurable experience. One word of caution. Don't go to a 3 day school out of shape or without having practiced the swing a good deal. I hit more golf balls in that three days than I've hit in the last 3 months!! Of course, my age and a bad neck and back didn't help much either. It's taken me two days of R&R to loosen up and I can't wait to get back out on the range and apply what I've been taught. Thanks to Surge and the team!!!!!!

Dan

I have rolls of paper. At least my paper is good for something, and like a well made golf club, it fits just right. Makes me really appreciate Surge's instruction about not taking a big divot.

Dick

Kevin,

It's one way to change the ball flight, but you have to remember that when you turn the club like that, you're also changing the loft. Consequently you're changing how quickly the ball gets into the air, and how it lands, and so on. If you watch the Junior Videos, you'll see how Surge does it. I originally learned to work the ball in a method similar to what Steve mentions, and still use that at times. By changing only the toe line in my setup I can change the club path enough to create the spin I want without changing the loft of the club I'm swinging. I simply move the right foot off the parallel left toe line in the direction I want the ball to spin. Only if I need a big hook or slice do I fool with turning the club in my hands.

All of it takes practice to get the feel for what you're doing and to be able to repeat it in a situation where you really need it to work.

Gordie, that's awesome. Your recommendation is making want to go ever more so. I had a "taste" Surge teachings and his team last year at the PPGS Winter Golf tournamnent where we also got to meet/liston and watch DJ in action. You're 100% right. He and DJ hit the ball so clean and crisp,Wow! And they are all so genuine and a pleasure to learn from. We also got enjoy a couple of golf clinics and personal help from Don his team.Thanks for sharing your experience.Hold onto it as long as you can. As Amos would say "Hit em straight and long" and Down the middle!

Surge Nation

I know I already said good night, but I just got this and wanted to share it with you. This should satisfy those who like the funny side of this blog, and at the same time pacify those of you who think we should talk about golf more.

I hope you enjoy it.

ONE FOR THE GOLFERS

Stevie Wonder and Tiger Woods are in a bar. Woods turns to Wonder and
says, “How’s the singing career going?”
Stevie Wonder replies, “Not too bad. How’s the golf?”
Woods replies, “Not too bad, I’ve had some problems with my swing, but
I think I’ve got that going right now.”
Stevie says, “I always find that when my swing goes wrong, I need to
stop playing for a while and not think about it. Then, the next time I
play, it seems to be all right.”
Tiger says, “You play golf?”
Wonder says, “Oh, yes, I’ve been playing for years.”
Woods says, “But you’re blind! How can you play golf if you can’t see?”
Wonder replies, “I get my caddy to stand in the middle of the fairway
and call to me. I listen for the sound of his voice and play the ball
toward him. Then, when I get to where the ball lands, the caddy moves to
the green or farther down the fairway and again I play the ball toward
his voice.”
“But how do you putt?” asks Woods.
“Well,” says Stevie, “I get my caddy to lean down in front of the
hole and call to me with his head on the ground, and I just play the
ball toward his voice.”
Woods asks, “What’s your handicap?”
Stevie says, “Well, I’m a scratch golfer.”
Woods, incredulous, says to Stevie, “We’ve got to play a round
sometime.”
Wonder replies, “Well, people don’t take me seriously, so I only play
for money, and never play for less than $10,000 a hole.”
Woods thinks about it and says, “OK, I’m game for that, when would you
like to play?”
Stevie says, “Pick any night.”

See Doc, maybe it really is about making sure you don't let someone else make the rules of any contest so stacked against you that you have no chance to win. I am in your corner.

With that, I really am hitting the rack now.

Good night all.

Keeping it vertical, and laughing myself to sleep, in Oklahoma
Dick

Did anyone else notice during the coverage of the Northern Trust Open in LA that Freddy Couples takes a lefty swing after almost every golf swing? The commentators mentioned it, but didn't go into the explanation. Too bad, because that's something that might have actually helped the legion of Sunday golfers with back problems.

I do this after every five or ten swings, and I also practice occasionally chipping left handed (comes in handy sometimes).

I have two words iPod app that is what I think the surge needs to come up with. I received something a out tiger woods having a swing app with instructions and side by side video analyzing you swing against his, and I was like the surge needs to do the same. I think it would be a helpful tool for all of us.

Thanks Jim, I'm considering the MP53"s PW-6(and maybe 5).

Robert, Your welcome. I've been trying to stay away too, but you know who, kept making comments about what i said being lies, and i just had to correct HIS errors. As for JB, i think he has a better understanding and has tried to make amends, so i'm willing to forgive and forget in reference to him. As to the rest, i couldn't care less. I awoke this morning to a fresh white blanket outside again and a temp of 24*

Surge,
Can you advise when Dave will be set up at the Odessa Golf Club in Middletown, De. I want to see about some personal instruction lessions, etc.

N/A

Gordie, Thanks for the comments. It always nice to hear from those who have attended one of the schools and get their opinions.

FYI - REMOVING YOUR LIKE
I found by accident that you can remove your like from a comment
This was not available on the old site
To remove your like, just click the "like" again
I told you Brady was a genius

The easy answer is that once you have solidly mastered doing the Surge Swing correctly, you do it wrong in the correct, controlled way. Side-spin is imparted to a ball when the direction of travel of the club head is different from the direction the face is aimed at impact. Everything Surge teaches is to get you to bring the club face through the impact area traveling along the aiming line and facing the target. To work the ball, you change either the direction of travel of the club head, or the direction it's facing at impact to impart the appropriate spin, remembering that the ball will start traveling essentially in the direction that the face of the club is facing at impact, and spin away from the direction of travel of the club head relative to that line.

And, additional note, it can take a lot of feel and practice to know how the ball will react to small changes, and most of us haven't got enough control of our mechanics to do it right 8 out of 10 times, so trying to do it wrong the right way is looking for a problem. That's why Surge advises strongly that you only try to work the ball if you absolutely must, which usually means that you screwed up the shot before. Well learned, the Surge Swing should give you enough control to not just whack away from the tee, but to pick a landing area and hit it most of the time, so pick a landing area that makes the next shot as straight forward as possible.