There are so many websites out there claiming that one little trick can help you add 40 - 50 more yards to your game. But, that's simply not realistic. If you work hard, you're going to become a better golfer, but I'll never tell you that the PPGS will automatically allow you to hit the ball 50 yards farther.
With that being said, the PPGS will certainly allow you to become a better golfer, but there's a lot more to it than just a few swing tips. It's a body-friendly system that is designed to help you improve by utilizing physics and physiology. I've been developing this swing for decades and the proof is in the science.
With this being the last video blog entry for 2014, I just want to remind you all that you need to maintain realistic expectations whenever you are trying something new. They say that practice makes perfect, but actually...perfect practice makes perfect. If you're not practicing the fundamentals correctly, you'll never see improvement.
Whether or not you plan to tee it up once the calendar flips to 2015, just remember that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is!
Keep it vertical and Happy New Year!
The Surge
Comments
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to Don , Doc and all fellow Surgites. Keep vertical and stay out of the SBG.
2015 Golf Resolution
My 2015 golf resolution is simple: Play more than I did in 2014.
Happy New Year
Here's wishing everyone in the Surge Nation, and the rest of the world, a blessed and PEACE-FILLED New Year.
As for resolutions, I start with one and see how things go from there. If I get too many things to do, I default to procrastinating. So, my starting resolution for this year is golf related - get my clubs ready for the season by re-gripping my clubs and getting my lofts and lies adjusted. Happy New Year, Robert Meade!
Realistic Expectations
Happy New Year to all Surgites everywhere.
Scary as usual. Just a couple of hours ago, I dug out a very old Jack Nicklaus book. Lo!and Behold! One of the things I've just finished reading was on this very topic! My ball striking had been reasonably good the last time we played. That was a couple of weeks ago now nearly, due to a calf muscle strain : - ( Coming good and due to go out in the next few days. I will be using a 'go to club' off the tees and not the 'big dog'. As Jack said, you may hit your driver farther off the tee but be in the trees, and as Surge points out, you will in effect be farther from the green! Enjoying hitting a hybrid off the tee and being on the short stuff allowed me to think more strategically, more REALISTICALLY and leaving me smiling at the end of the last three rounds : - ]
Surge makes no promises, but he has MY undivided loyalty on all aspects of the PPGSwing.
So all those who desire to improve, look no further than this body friendly swing.
Now in 2015 let's go on hitting it ON-ON-ON square and solid and stay on/in the fairway.
DH and DL in NZ
Fifty More Yards
Surge nailed that one. If it seems too good to be true, It is TOO good to be true.
I hear all the stories from guys I play with complaining they can't hit their 3 wood as far as they used to hit their 5 iron. I started the game in my mid 50s so I don't stress over those comparisons.
Looks like no golf here for some time...18 * here tonight.
Happy New Year to all in the Surge Nation and especially to all of our military around the world.
Fifty more yards
HAHAHA!!! -- I started playing golf in the mid '60's - and the same hype was going around then too. Every year it seemed that the club makers, ball makers, and/or swing teachers all promised "use the all new this year xxxxx club, ball or swing and gain 50 yards instantly"
Of course they NEVER said 50 yards WHERE ! Deeper into the woods most likely. But it did (and still does ?)seem to sell a lot of clubs and balls!
Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG
Amos
Happy New Year! Everyone!
Another year. Another year under my belt with Don's fun PPGS swing. I just read a post by someone saying he did everything Don said and it was a complete failure to him. Kinda scratched my head on that one. PPGS to me is twofold. Number one, it's body friendly. This is most important to me because I play a lot of golf. I like to avoid sore elbows, shoulders, back, and knees. Number two is the on, on ,on, square and solid part of it. The swing. I like that as well. I still hit stinkers, but I hit many more good shots than bad. My 2015 goals are simply to stay with Don's ideas. I know I'll have a few streaks of some good golf and a streak or two of the other kind. That's OK. Both will have the body friendly feel I've come to enjoy. Good luck to the Surgites in search of their individual goals. Have a fun journey and always keep that glass half full.
New Year Resolution
Surge, you will like this one. I am noted at my Club for having a "peculiar" swing and often referred to as Jim Furyk. Playing earlier this week, one of my Partners said to the other two on the 1st Tee "Don't watch his swing whatever you do, it's ugly". My 3wood went straight down the middle 200yds or so, his Drive went 30yds along the ground into the Boondocks. You're swing certainly looked good, I said, but it didn't quite have the same result as mine!
My confidence is growing again and I intend to get my Handicap down again. My Target is to lose 2 shots and get back to 7 but I will settle for 8, which means sharpening up my short game. Keep up the good work
http://www.golfswingshirt.com/products/golf-swing-shirt
any opinion on this?
Golf swing shirt
Since no one else has commented on this message I will take a shot at it.
This devise has nothing to do with the PPGS.
Plus your link does not work.
Where has Robert M, Steve Smith,Dick, Robert Fleck and the old gang been.
Missing Surgites
Mike, I suspect most have been busy with the holidays. Dick is likely swatting trolls somewhere out there . ;0)) Maybe if I started food network conversation we could bring him out of the shadows. ;0) Maybe we can start a website promoting "magic pixie dust" that you cover your clubs with during the winter months that guarantees 30 more yards, middle of the fairway every time, no more missed putts and lowers you scores by a minimum of 10 strokes. We'll need a big name to do promos, so I was thinking maybe Tin Cup would be interested or, maybe not. You think perhaps I have too much time on my hands?
I'm afraid my clubs are put away for the winter unless we get a warm spell. I'll just do my daily stretching, workout with my dumb bells (weights, not goofy friends) and keep my legs in shape with long walk/runs with my new Lab/Shep mix rescue who drags me out the door at least 3 times a day. She doesn't seem to care what the weather is doing, rain or snow is no big deal. She thinks I should quit golf and take up tennis. Tennis balls are a lot more fun.
Meanwhile I'll just have to live vicariously through DH, Rusty any any of our Surgites fortunate enough to be living in warmer climes.
Cold here this weekend
Lynn
Hope all is well with the missing Surgeites. This is the first weekend that it has been to cold are rainy to play here in Cincinnati. Does not look good next week either. I just started really playing mid 70 golf again after the year and a half from hell I had a bunch of health issues that are pretty much straightend out. It will be fun playing going forward. I just about have all my distance back and willl be off and playing again when the weather permits hope you had happy Holidays.
Missing Surgites
Don't know about the others but I am still here -- just not as frequently as in the past.
I suspect Steve Smith is still "getting over" the Alabama loss in New Orleans though.
Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG
Amos
Driver length
Looks like the rest of the world is starting to see the light with what Doc & Surge have always said about the length of drivers
www.mygolfspy.com/mgs-labs-is-longer-really-longer/
Expectations
I've been trying to follow the PPGS precepts since about August of 2010. Since that time I have lost between 20 and 40 yards per club. My index has risen about 2 strokes per year. It has gone from a 23 to a 31. It used to be rare for me to foul up a tee shot. Now it is fairly common. I am on the golf course once per week (I don't call what I do playing golf.) I also practice once per week. Given that, what would you suggest I should expect for the coming year?
Expectations
I'd like to see Surge's answer to your question. I can only relate my own experience with the swing. This is my fourth year with the vertical swing. My former rotational swing had got to a point, where I couldn't enjoy the game that I love. Surge's instruction, very quickly gave me all the information that I needed to play decent golf.
Although I've kept my swing and setup within Surge's parameters my swing has evolved a lot over the last 4 years. It still seems like every week, I come up with some small tweak that enables me to stay within the Surge swing template and constantly improve. This tells me that the Surge swing is the right one for me,
My advice would be to try to find out for yourself, what swing thoughts you can use or create to make the swing more your own, while staying within the basic framework of swing. The basics of the Surge setup are straightforward and help to ensure consistency. The Surge swing itself while relatively simple, is still a complex athletic movement requiring key things like a stable lower body and well timed footwork and arm swing. All of these things are easier said than done and what works for one person, does not always work for another.
Expectations
I am trying the same thing. Unfortunately, I haven't found those thoughts or actions as yet. It seems I am in the "harder I try, the behinder I get" mode.
Exprectations
Dgundling
First one would have to be properly fit for all your clubs are you?
Example to long of a shaft in you're driver would not allow you to swing it vertically.
Do you have the manual and videos the ones you have to buy l do.
My opinion is if you are only practicing only once a week and playing once a week that is not much practice.
Have you ever taken video of your swing to see what you are really doing ?
This would tell you wether you are doing it correctly. What happens when you strike the ball ?
Second the taking a video of
Second the taking a video of your swing. Take a video. Post it on youtube and post the link here in the blogs so others can see it.
Expectations reply
MikefromKy,
My clubs were fitted to me when I bought them.
No problem swinging vertical with my driver or any other club.
I have and have read all the manuals and watched (usually more than once) most if not all the videos.
The rate of play and practice I do now is more than I was doing before my index started rising.
Haven't taken a video.
When I strike the ball cleanly it usually goes pretty strait.
There lies the problem. I feel I am following most if not all of the PPGS directions and suggestions. For me they appear to be producing negative results.
Expectations
I think you can expect good things for the coming year. I believe your problem is that you "can't see the forest for the trees." I was in the same boat as you until last year. I started off at a 12 and ended up with a 20. Nothing was going right, even though I fully understood all the PPGS concepts and thought I was doing it all correctly. I was thinking about all the key points of the PPGS, but getting nowhere. Last year, I took a lesson from Stretch Condor in Phoenix and found out I wasn't turning to the 70*. I started hitting the ball much better, but not as far or as well as I thought I should. Then I remembered a comment from a while back. I needed to stop thinking about all the mechanics of the swing and just start swinging away. I learned to trust the PPG swing that I had developed and just made the swing. Since then, I have gone from hitting 190-205 yard drives to hitting 235-250 yard drives, mostly straight. My handicap is starting to drop again. I am hoping to be down to a 15 by my birthday in May. Hope this helps.
Kevin
Surge and the 'others'
Speaking of a new year and a golf season. Many options out there on golf instruction. I love golf and I listen and read all kinds of stuff. All these new ideas and teachers can make your head spin. 4 years ago, I was so confused. Both on the driving range and on the course. Being a student of Don and Doc has cleared my head of so many negative thoughts. Before that moment in time, it was like hiking up a mountain and taking 1 step forward and 2 backward. I have absolutely no desire to change to anyone else. My body feels good and I have a very repeatable swing that seems to work all season. My touch and feel comes and goes, but that's just normal. Like shooting a free throw in basketball. One day you have it. The next day you don't. Don's approach just works. I'm close to Don's age. But I expect to take the PPGS into my later years. Absolutely no reason to change. None.
That's a great testimonial!
That's a great testimonial!
Thanks Brady
i just wish I could convince or sway more of my friends to PPGS. They all think they have a better way or an idea that is better. Sadly. They don't.
Thank you none-the-less for
Thank you none-the-less for trying to help spread the word! We all here at Swing Surgeon Thank You!