Good Shots to the Wrong Place

Thanks, i'll have to fix that. Now they are working. Thanks for the heads up Robert. Cheers

thanks / Ill give setting up nearer the hozel a try

Ronnie

We have not heard from you for a few days. I hope all is well with you. Give us an update on what is going on with you when you can.

Thinking of you
Dick

T Medley, I sincerely thank you for the most timely reminder on the actual position of the sweetspot. I gave the results to Dick Lee a few posts below you. It was very interesting indeed. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so they say. The 'in favour' or 'go too' clubs in my bag, had the sweet spots in the centre of the clubface,ie, putter, 24deg Rescue, Mizuno 3W and 5Woods and my much loved LW/SW and PW. The big surprise was the Ping Zero 3 Putter. It looks a little like an original Ping iron. The sweet spot on that was way towards the heel. It is a great putter and my wife getting three 20'foot consequetive putts across,up and down the golf practice green and she is not a golfer, is testament to that.Ping no longer make it, perhaps just as well ; - )
How many others will even bother? If they don't they may live to regret it.
PS I enjoyed the ball tip better than my 'tee' one, I could see the difference better and the all important Sound was more distinct.
Thanks again for the tip Keep it vertical, straight and long

Jack, Did you see this post from yesterday.

How to Find the CG of a Golf Club (Wood, Iron, or Putter)
First hold the club on the grip between the thumb and forefinger of your left hand, and let it hang down with the face of the club toward you. Take a golf ball and hold it between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand. Tap the ball on the club face and notice if the face twists to one side or the other or if it goes straight back. The point at which the club goes straight back is the “Sweet Spot”. This technique in not ultimately precise, but it will give you a good enough idea of the location of the “Sweet Spot”. If you hit golf shots on the “Sweet Spot” they will feel more solid, since the club is not twisting upon striking the ball, and the ball will generally fly straight. If you miss the “Sweet Spot” you will lose distance and impart spin on the ball. You might want to use a marker to indicate where the “Sweet Spot” is on your putter or driver, or you could just remember where it is. Don’t be surprised if it is not exactly at the location marked on the club by the manufacturer.
Knowing where the “Sweet Spot” is on your golf clubs gives you a better chance of hitting more consistent and solid full shots and putts. Give it a try- it only takes 5-10 minutes.

Great idea, i use the divott or any mark in front of the ball to line the ball to the target, not thinking i can use the same for feet positions, well done

Hi Dick,
8th of March 1958 eh? We are the same star sign,ie, Pisces on the Chinese Zodiac you are the same as my wife, a Dog. I am a Snake, heh heh heh.
This day 23rd of March a year after you were born, I commenced my 4 months basic training in the Army. How time flies when you are having fun.
Warmer here today and just back from a trip to post a letter and go to the market. A good brisk hour and twenty minute trip. Shoulder still a pain, but swinging all the same.
Hope your game today was up to expectations, Keep it vertical playing for free in Oklahoma.
Just off to check the rest of my clubs sweetspots. One putter OK two others a revelation, so checking the rest makes sound common-sense.

Robert

Evening pal. How was your day? You still reading until your head explodes? You keep learning more about golf and fitting, and you will have to forget some of the other crap you have been storing to make room for all the new stuff.

Dick

First off I don't keep this detail for every round. I try to keep it as often as possible. This was probably my average game. I thought my short game was much better than usual. Putting is difficult as the greens do not need mowing in the midwest yet. They really don't show much grass growing so the roll is inconsistent, even more so than my poor putting.

I should confess to being a club dabbler, too. I have about 5 sets of irons and three different drivers. I bought a beginner set on eBay, I assembled a set (true builders get upset when people like me say they built a set), a friend gave me two old sets that he assembled and I bought a set of TaylorMade. I now use the TaylorMade's most all of the time. I have three different drivers, two are brand name and one I assembled. I only have three putters, but I always use the same putter.

I feel that despite all of that, I am progressing. I prefer to hit the 5W off the tee. I then like to hit anything for the second shot as I generally am NOT going for the green. I like to be inside of 100 yards prior to going for the green. I want my second shot to be within this distance, easily. I feel that the round above was probably about where I was at for the end of last season. One of my better rounds last year was a 92. I really want to break 90.

Sunday I shot 102, used the driver quite often, and it was very, very windy; not too mention damp. Carts were only allowed on the cart path.

I appreciate the replies.
Bocomo

Jac, Don't leave us hanging buddy. "Joe also taught me another drill for the front up the tree, to ease off on my trying to come over the top." Spill the beans on the other tip. Please !!!!

I also hope one day to be the old guy on the golf course that gets to play golf for free. There's one company here that has three nice golf courses up in Sumerlin.That's a nicer neighborhood in Las Vegas. Anyhow I inquiered with one of the "cart guys" what the deal was for golf if you worked there. He said they use to be able to play free there now they even charge employees 20 bucks to play. Hell no! I won't be looking there for extra work. I pay $25 there anyway as a players card holder. I just want to find something like that one or two days a week so I can play and practice for free. Someday. Lucky dog Dick.
Enjoy!
Robert F. does a local $40 a month for all the range balls you want program at our local muni.
Maybe I'll join that one when my hands allow.

Thanks again. You guys are great!

Bocomo

I think you and Amos are the two most detailed shot records keepers on the site. I am starting to keep up with what goes where like Surge has recommended, but nowhere near what you and Amos do.

It was interesting and insightful to see your game broken down like that.

Dick

glad to see the Surge is back....

Way cool Jac, great stuff. Spring is in the air ain't it!

Dick, if I could remember 1/3 of all the golf stuff pouring into my eyes and and brain cells I'd damn near be a walking encylopedia. I just hope it translates into "feel" on the golf course some day.
Honestly I am learning alot of cool things lately. I am buying most of my books on Amazon.com for great prices. It's the best way to stock your library.

Doc, last year I went to my locale pro who taped the face of my clubs. After hitting, on the bottom of the club, contact was right in the middle. On the face however, contact was off the grooves and near the toe end of the face , with almost all hits. Any ideas why ?

Bob
That is why I love your posts. I hope you know how much you help me to think about things I am doing in my swing and how my clubs respond. Well, I probably should have said how my clubs don't respond.
Dick

Thanks, Surge! Last time I was on the range, I was having this exact experience with my short irons. Suddenly every one was going a good 10-20 yards right of the target. I turned back into my setup, put down the club along my toe line, and it was pointed right along the line where the ball went, 10-20 yards right of what I thought I was aiming at. The setup really does determine the motion, people, so if the result your getting doesn't match the result you want, the first place to look is in your setup.

Thanks Robert i was unable to find the video blog but i will keep searching thanks for the tip Paul L

It is quite straight forward stuff, but can be done wrong if you are the sort who starts to move about after you have addressed the ball. Or some just don't bother to align at all! I find it easy to
Pick your mark in front of the ball aligned to target> align club head face groove lines to mark> align feet/knees/hips/shoulders parallel to the club head grooves > you are now aiming parallel left of target.
After this point don't keep looking at the target as you will get the perception your aim is wrong and start to dance about!

That's strange, for some reason your links about alignment did'nt work (above) but the ones like 16 enteries down responded no problem. No biggy. Computers!

Here is my second round of the season. Course is easy Par 70 and 5869 yards, rated as 67.2 and 105. My score was 98. My driver wasn't in the bag as I left it out the previous night swinging it.

Here are the details, 35 putts, one 3 putt and two 1 putts. I used the 3W 8 times, 5W 23 times, 4-iron 2, 5-iron 2, 7-iron 2 8-iron 4, 9-iron 14, PW 6 times, AW 1 and had one Texas Wedge shot. My 9-iron and PW were really pretty good. I was reasonably satisfied with my short game. All 3W shots were off the tee, the other 10 tee shots were 5W. I had no pars nor anything greater than double bogey. Ten double bogeys and eight bogeys for the 28 over.

My thinking is that I need to be a bit better off the tee. Tee shots were fairly short and seconds weren't terrible. I had three holes with three FW shots, 7 holes with two FW shots and 8 holes with second shots an iron. I was 5 over on 4 par threes and two over on the two par 5s. It was fairly windy and pretty damp.

Advice and thoughts desired.

Agree, particularly the last point. I find that if I look up at the target before swinging, the "dominant eye" makes me feel misaligned, resulting in a poor shot. Now I just try to have faith in the set up routine. It usually works. But Keith, did'nt you mean align at right angle to the grooves, not parallel?

Dragonhead
I think my father might have wanted to run off and join the Army after I was born too. Haha.

Glad you are able to work through the pain. Keep after it.

As to how time flies, it sure does. I think as I am getting older, the times flies by even faster. I started off on an old steam powered train. Now I think I am on one of those bullet trains. The telephone poles are going by faster than the little white lines on a highway at 70 mph.

On the subject of sweet spots on clubs, I have reached a conclusion on that. I think the people who made my clubs put all my sweet spots on someone else's clubs. You guys all check your clubs and see if you have a set with two sweet spots. If anyone does, let me know and I will give you my address so you can mail them out here to me.

Dad and I are playing tomorrow. I will file a complete after action report when I get home.

Glad you had a good day sir.
Dick

Since you can't take the alignment sticks with you on the course,How can you tell if you're aligned properly at set up??

Paul we really want you to learn how to use the search bar above right. Sometimes you have to get creative with the word or phrase you put in. I just tried it for you again. Put in the words,
making H. That will get you lots of articles including the two Terry and I have refered to.
Try it again Paul.
Good luck

Jack,
There was a similar question yesterday and sevral comments afterword you may find helpful. It was on yesterdays on "distance and Accuracy", about 22 comments or so down.

Steve
You have a great sense of humor.

I spent 4 hours training with the guys today. What a great bunch of guys. They all play 4 or 5 rounds a week. A lot of them play together and they have already invited me to join them as much as I can. Even the guys who work on different days of the week know each other and play together. I am really looking forward to getting to know them all and playing some golf with them. I think I will be able to play at least 9 holes 3 or 4 times a week with my work schedule.

Kelly Jo got to web cam with our youngest, KP, today. She said he looked and sounded good. I am glad we have the tech to be able to talk to and web cam with the boys, their wives and kids as much as we do. I was thinking about it today. When I was in the service, my dad was lucky to get my letters a month later. By the time he got the letters, I was already somewhere else.

Life is good
Dick

Rf, You can use identity marks already on the ground, which is known as spot alignment. Pick out a couple of imperfections on the ground which are on your intended line of flight, use this imaginary line to align your toe line parallel to and to start your ball over. Here's a couple of additional lessons which are helpful. Good luck
http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Ho...
http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Ho...

Think Lucky, Be Lucky Dick! What a turn around from yesterday.Brilliant indeed. Good luck and good hunting on the two courses.

Actually, I think with the shift back to Disqus they're having to rebuild the search database, so Making the H isn't finding the old articles at the moment.

Actually making THE H is not, your right, but making H as I suggested is. Details, details.
Try it again Robert:)

Paul, if you put in the words 'Make H' in the seach posts area located at the top right you'll find two articles intitled Making the H. One is a clear video blog by Don about how to make our set up automatic. It is a routine called the two step. It's worth your research and does become aoutomatic with practice. I use it and i know rarely have to think about it and can focus more on my shot instead.

Jim

That would be great. I know what you mean about the work schedule. I run a one man home inspection and mold inspection business. Thank God, I have been very busy. Someone has to pay for me to have the time to get out and play golf. We have 3 grandkids over here. They play in our church's basket ball, baseball, and what the rest of the world calls football. Someone has some sort of game going all the time. I live right next to OU. I can hear the football games from my patio. That is really funny, since I am an OSU Cowboy fan.

When your son gets over here, let me know. We will have him over for dinner. Once he gets settled in, when you folks come over, we will have to get together. We can play some golf and then take the ladies out to dinner. I would love for you to meet dad. He is 75, but he kicks my butt if I don't go to the range a least a couple of days before we play. We have a bunch of family in Tulsa. We were all over there for our family Christmas party.

Thanks for your prayers, as well as all the other folks on this blog. The prayers of a righteous man avails much.

Dick

It may take an extra moment, but you can set up to the ball, place the club at your feet, step back and see if it's pointed parallel left (or parallel right for left handers) of your target line, adjust, set up to the club, pick it up and swing. You cannot have the alignment sticks in place when you swing, but you can use techniques like this, so long as any such aids are removed prior to actually swinging.

Alternately, you can check by setting up to the ball and pointing your left arm straight out to your left. Carefully look down that line and see that it is parallel left of your target, then return the left hand to the club and swing. This technique is more given to error, though, as we have a tendency to fudge results when we use our own limbs.

Frank, I'm not sure that i fully understand your question. You have obviously found the most recent blog, since that is where your question appears along with this answer. The basic format of the new site, is to have a kind of central Daily Videos Page, which lists the last several individual video lessons along with a short bio and comment count below each listing. By clicking on the appropriate GREEN comment count link, or the Video Lesson Title, you will be connected to that particular Video,and blog page with all of the comments. I hope i have answered you question. Cheers

Alignment, absolutely, my feet strugle to be paralell left of the target on about 6 out of 10 shots when playing around, the time it takes to correct i am over the ball too long and often a poor shot is the result, the surge swing is going well and when my alignment is right so is the shot, is their any pre set up for alignment that works in relative time spent with the feet postion, so my time over the ball is focusing on where to hit it. I use alignment sticks on the practice tee with no problem and the direction of the shot is always within the target area.

Don often talks about the "sweet spot" and I understand what he means, however, there is a different sweet spot for each club or group of clubs Can you explain with a visual? Thanks

Could be that you're setting up too far from the ball and reaching a bit, so as you swing into the forward swing your hands pull in closer to your body to get more speed through. Could also partly be that your clubs are getting a lot of toe-down in the swing (depending on the strength and construction of your shafts and the power of your swing, the toe of the club actually bows down a certain amount as you swing it through the hitting area), so where your club head sits at address is actually not where it is in the swing, even if you bring your hands to exactly the same place. I often have this problem with my current clubs (I think the shafts are too soft for me, really, but they were off the rack so what do I expect), so I literally set up with the hozel almost touching the ball and imagine myself trying to hit the ball with the hozel as I swing. Given the amount of toe-down that happens, that puts the sweet spot really close to where the hozel would be if the club shaft stayed straight. Works for me, at least. Your mileage may vary.

Robert
How are the hands doing today?

I feel truly blessed to get this set up. Their first offer to me was that the only day that I could work would be on Sunday. They wanted me there at 9 AM. I stuck to my guns and said "Devil get thee behind me." I was not going to miss church to do this, no matter how bad I wanted it. They thought about it for a week and then came back to me and asked what time I could be there after church. I will be able to get there and start at 11Am. They agreed to that. I am really glad that I did not take the easy way out and chose golf over church. I guess my father was right when he used to say "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything." I prayed about it and felt I had to do the right thing. It all worked out in the end.

You keep looking around, you never know when something like this will fall into you lap. You know about this game and you would make a great addition to any team.
Dick

My allignment and accuracy improved dramatically when I put a cross on the ball, it gives a target line for club/ball/target and ball position to heel. Try it it costs nothing !

Paul, Scroll on down to my post from about 7-hrs before yours and you will find two lesson links that may be helpful to you. On second thought i might just as well cut and paste them here as well. BUT, I hope i can say this without sounding like a smart ass ! Many times, when folks ask questions, the answer has already been offered, if they would but scroll through and read the other comments of that days blog, they would easily find it, as in this situation. In addition, as Robert says below, We have a wonderful Search Engine on this site that is SOoooooo Rarely used. Just enter a key word or phrase and click, to get links to articles and information related to your quest. Again, Sorry if that sounded to obtuse, just thought it needed said again and every so often. Good luck

http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Ho...
http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Ho...

The sweet spot is a point in a direct liner position relative to the center of gravity of the club. Your request would be impossible to fulfill as it would require going through every single club head. Suffice it to say that if you hit the middle, you'll have nothing to worry about.

Good evening folks

Let me start by saying thanks for all you replies to my post about our sons. Just wanted you all to know you made my wife cry. As wives are prone to do, she has on occasion gotten a little pissy about how much time I spend reading and commenting on this blog. She read every one of your posts and my replies about our sons. She was crying and said I see why you like those guys so much. She asked me to tell you thanks. I think you all helped her to see why this blog is important to me. Then she told me to get off my butt and go play golf with dad. We have a tee time for 10:45 on Wednesday. Wish me luck.

I am proud to call you all my brothers in the Surge family.

Keeping it vertical, and with much appreciation, in Oklahoma
Dick

Robert
I know what you mean. I know why they have us go to school and college when we are young and can absorb all that stuff. Sometimes when I am getting ready to teach a class, my head hurts from all the prep work and studying I have to do to get ready. I think I learn more getting ready than the students learn from the class. We can never know too much. Sometimes it can be a real task to take what we know and turn it into what we do. I am sure you are up to the task. I expect great things from you when you get those new hands on the course.

I have put together a lot of my study and teaching material from Amazon. They are great and they take pretty good care of us adjunct professors. I got a great deal on a Dragon Naturally Speaking system. I just put on the head set, plug it in to my computer and I can talk all the information I want to write on my reports and my class lessons. It works great and saves me so much time and effort. Ain't tech stuff great?

Dick

Surge,
Last time I played I was slicing, almost shanking, every club. Today I went to an indoor practice facility that gives you the computer feed back. I was very careful about my allignment and focusing on the finish, but the feedback after the shot showed my clubace open and the comment was I made a push fade or a slice contact with the ball. This was the case for about 90% of my swings with the driver. What can I try to correct this? I did try griping down about an inch to shorten the club, but that didn't seem to make a difference. I'm really frustrated!

The comments from the old site did not transfer to this new site, and a few days ago they switched the comments control on this site to Disqus so that we could edit our posts and other wonderful functions, but in doing so removed the visibility, at least, of the old comments that have been posted here since swingsurgeon.com went live at the beginning of January.