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I’m going to comment on the video below but I want you to read Rick’s background info first. I find these short bios to be quite interesting because every swing that gets sent to me has arrived at the state it’s in due to everything that has come before it. So here’s Rick talking about his golf:
Age: 52 (just celebrated b-day earlier this month)
Started playing golf at age 7 or 8, first tournament at age 11, grew up in Des Moines, IA. Crowning achievement of Jr golf was Des Moines City Jr champ in ’81, personally meant a lot to me and my family at the time. Professional instruction as Jr was non-existent. It was my father and Hogan’s Five Lessons (poorly interpreted), pretty much just played every day as teenager as Iowa spring/summer weather allowed. Collegiate Golf didn’t happen for me, I tried walking on Iowa Univ. golf team, got frustrated and I left the game for next 7-8 years.
Resumed serious practice and play around 1990, moved to Northern California from So. Cal. Took a few lessons from a PGA guy in LA before leaving that had some good input, (he was Mac O’Grady nut), but then went and applied info by myself, certainly could have used more oversight.
Competitive peak of this period was mid-90’s, playing 200+ rounds/yr. at that point, won several club championship level tourneys in Nor Cal, competitive at fringe in bigger Am events (i.e. could make cuts, finish top 10 or 15 when playing well but not a threat to win)
Best / Worst thing that happened to me in this era was befriending the San Jose St. Golf teams. I became close friends with Janice Moodie, eventually a two-time LPGA tour winner, and I think she has more Solheim Cup points than any player in history. Anyway, I say it’s the best/worst scenario, certainly best because she is great friend and showed me how a real player plays the game, but worst because I thought , “crap if a girl can do that then so can I” – Ha… little did I appreciate the many years of coaching and practice she put in growing up.
So late 90’s , inspired by Janice, made serious commitment to swing changes, staring with going from about a 3 knuckle, to a 2-knuckle grip. You should see in video. Previous motion with strong grip was generally an upright swinging “rock & block”… or so Janice’s coach phrased it. With the new weaker grip change I was going for a more, on-plane, rotational swing, full body release. Needless to say I couldn’t break 80 for a couple years, but I was stubborn and kept at it. Press pause…. Then I got married, bought a house, had three wonderful daughters with my wife Jenny, and didn’t play again for about 8-9 years during 2000’s
Fast forward to now, have resumed serious / competitive play last handful of years. Grip/Swing changes got more comfortable. I have taken several lessons with a couple different instructors locally in recent years which have been helpful.
I ultimately judge my game by tournament play, I have won my current club championship in 2012, Almaden Country Club, but still hope to raise my game to win or seriously compete at next level of NCGA regional AM events. I think it’s reasonable to expect that of myself, at this point probably targeting senior events I’ll be eligible for in a few years as more realistic. The dream goal is to qualify for a USGA championship. I would love to add that competitors pin to my trophy case. I have kept game stats last several years with shot-by-shot. Have detail if needed, but here is last half of 2015 relative handicaps of different aspects of my game:
Driving: 3
Approach Shots: 2
Chip/Pitch: +4
Sand: +1
Putting: +2
Current USGA index: +0.4
2015 stroke avg. all rounds: 75.3
So short game is good, ball striking can be improved, which I think you and I can do. I do enjoy practicing – do something every day. Playing about 75-100 rounds a year now.
Outside of skill levels above, I’d say strength of my game is imagination and overall touch/feel. Weakness is getting too emotional – mostly not getting over bad shots/holes and letting those spoil a round, too much a perfectionist. I am a student of the game/swing, so also at times I get too mechanical or technical for my own good I think.
Miss patterns:
When I started playing again five years ago – miss was predominantly left-to-left: very ugly golf. I think a by-product of over-cooking an effort to swing more to the left after impact. Now the miss is not left, but it’s more of a block, either a straight right solid hit, or uglier thin, pull-cut. It’s hard for me to hit a nice a trap-draw. Also have flashes of surprisingly poor bottoming-out of release (i.e. fat, thin).
Not surprisingly, Rick is a Hogan buff, which you would probably have figured out just by watching him swing. There is a ton of good stuff in Rick’s move, and I really like the smooth but fast tempo and the nice catch at the top. From the face on view Rick does quite well, and I would like to see him incorporate just a bit of rightward movement with the upper body and keep his right hip up against the box line for just a bit longer. From DTL the thing that really jumps out is the closed clubface. When the face is as closed as Rick’s all the way almost up to left arm parallel the back of the right shoulder gets jammed up, and many times (and in this case) the left arm and shoulder will roll up the chest and lay off the club. Rick makes a nice transition move but with his left arm rolled up high his hands out, shaft shallow move kicks the club overly flat and the right elbow falls well under the left at left arm parallel in the forward swing. To complicate matters further the pattern seems to be encouraging Rick to hump his knees to the right of the target, which as always retards rotation and causes a loss of space for the upper right arm to move in front of the rib cage. The combination of these things causes Rick’s approach to impact to be from high to low with his left arm somewhat disconnected from his chest and the right arm a bit behind him, complicating his release action. Rick can use the shaft in the ground between the feet to help him aim his hip drive more left, and if he can open the face a bit with his hands in the backswing it will allow his left arm to stay down and his right arm to stay higher, and when he reverses that in transition his left arm will be closer and his right arm more in front of him.
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