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Hi Wayne – I recently played in my first tournament in about 10 years (Massachusetts Mid-Am) and had a great experience. I finished T-23 with rounds of 75-73-78 (qualifying round to get into the tournament was a 72). The ball striking was generally good (averaged 12 GIR) during the tournament. My miss was a block to the right which I think was caused by getting my weight in the heels during my setup and then having my weight move toward my toes in the downswing with my right hip shooting toward the ball.
My last on-line lesson revealed a bad transition with the shaft getting overly steep in the downswing. I think have this fixed. The areas I am focusing on right now are: (1) weight on the balls of my feet in the setup; (2) less of a sway to the right off the ball early in the backswing; and (3) do not let the club get inside my hands during the takeaway.
As I critique my swing, I see a few things: (1) my club is still slightly laid off at the top; (2) my head backs-up significantly in the downswing; and (3) my hands come in high with my driver swing and my lower body action is not as efficient compared to my iron swings. When I work on not having my head back up in the downswing, it feels incredibly awkward and unnatural. However, winter will come fast up here in Boston, so I will have plenty of time to work on whatever changes you suggest. I will definitely play more tournaments in 2018.
I included Slow-mo swings again as the regular swing videos are rather blurry at impact. I look forward to your analysis and thoughts.
Mike has done a nice job with his swing over the last year and the observations he makes about what he sees and needs to improve on are spot on. Here I suggest that the main issue that causes the laid off top of the swing position, the high hands on the approach to impact, and the backing up of the head is the combination of his right arm staying too low and in front of his body at P3 (which causes his left arm to roll up his chest), and the lateral movement of the upper body toward the target in transition (which is really a sequence problem and causes the upper trunk to rotate too quickly). If Mike can initiate his lower body movement while keeping his head more behind the ball he should be able to feel the lower back muscles being pulled before the upper back and shoulders, which will delay the right shoulder, create more right lateral bend, and allow the hand path to be deeper and more descending.
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