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You might remember me. I’ve written you before and mentioned I have been working with Jim Razzetto, PGA Teaching Professional at Westchester Golf Course. A little background on me: I’m 48 years old, married, with a 7 year old girl, and we live in Pacific Palisades, California. My professional background is in finance and I have been an underwriter for years. I’m currently incubating a healthcare company and as such my time is limited to the range, putting and pitching practice at Westchester on Sunday am and two other random brief times during the week. I squeeze in practice whenever I can. My athletic background: Played all sports as a child, including tennis, football, baseball and masters swimming throughout college. I played volleyball in high school, letter 3 years in a row. When I played little league baseball, I was able to hit effectively from both sides of the plate. In college I trained for and competed in about 50 short international distance triathlons and placed 88th at the Canadian Ironman. You can see I know how to suffer, so it made me a perfect candidate to play golf.
My golf experience started about 15 years ago with a major break of 5 years. I took a break from the sport because my wife and I welcomed our daughter into our life and I was working full time whilst attending business school during the evening at Loyola. Needless to say, I was busy and golf took a backseat. Three years ago I resumed playing golf. January 12th of 2013, to be exact, I was attempting to hit balls at Westchester in a driving rain. The only other person on range was Jim Razzetto, PGA Teaching Pro. I asked him to work with me and we’ve had a standing lesson every Sunday @ 7am ever since. Despite the flaws present in the video I’ve come a LONGWAY. I currently have a 13.5 handicap; however I haven’t been able to play enough rounds to lower it. For the record, I am left-handed. In the beginning, I tried to swing left-handed. However, I absolutely couldn’t hit the ball out of my shadow. I was a pretty good tennis player with a more effective and consistent back-hand than forehand. When I swung the club right-handed it felt very comfortable. I know you and Jim Razzetto are adamant about left-handers play left and right-handers play right, but I’m playing right-handed. Issues I have with my swing that Jim and I have been working on: Balance can sometimes be uneven. Additionally, the right arm side-arm motion and right wrist hinge can sometimes be unevenly applied. For the last month, Jim and I have recently been focusing on the right arm, wrist and side-arm motion. Incorporating this into my swing has been a process and has increased power, and improved balance. I cross the line with some clubs. The Driver is really crossed. Jim and I debate about the importance of eliminating it. I want to, but he says many hall of fame golfers crossed. Sequence I think is ok, but I’m not the professional. My big miss is left, when my lower half spins faster than my arms and I hook it. I would add, in the last month with right arm, wrist and side arm motion work, my big miss left has been mitigated dramatically. If I don’t swing with authority, I tend to push it right. Which isn’t all bad, I guess.
I think I’ve mentioned this to you before, Jim Razzetto and you are absolutely from the same school of thought on the swing. Always be working to improve it. Trackman is good, but to improve your swing you need video and input from a qualified PGA Teaching Pro. Jim is also looking forward to your input so I can continue to improve.
As you will see in the video Michael has a pretty good handle on his issues other than his sequence, which I show is a real problem. Once again it is the takeaway and right arm issues in the backswing that lead to transition problems and thus problems at impact. I think that if Michael got his initial takeaway to stay on plane (hands more inward, clubhead more outside his hands by keeping the left wrist cupped), and then learned to limit his right arm bend heading to the top of the swing he would be making major improvements. It looks to me like the overturn of the right upper arm and shoulder area cause his upper body to lean forward toward the target before his legs start the forward movement, which as we know is out of sequence. The idea of right arm extensor action combined with wrist cock will help him be wider and more structured at the top and will be important items in fixing the sequence issue.
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