COMMUNITY

In February at EKU I got together with the guy in our PGM program who's kinda deemed as the swing guru on staff, Ross. I told him I wanted to break through the ceiling I felt like I had reached and change my swing up. He told me when we first got together that my upper body was generally about as good as it can get from start to finish, but my lower body was a complete disaster. We changed my hip and knee movements and right away I noticed it increased my distance and made me hit the ball more solidly. I played great golf after that and up until the end of March. April came and I had a massive regression and couldn't break 90 all of a sudden. I went back to him at the end of the month and we worked on me getting the club more inside at the start, and making damn sure I'm making contact with the ball from the inside. I've come to find that's basically the key to me hitting the ball well. If I'm taking the club inside and hit the ball from the inside, I'm golden. If I'm not, bad things happen. For the most part I've done a good job with that and the lower body because my handicap is lower now than it ever has been and I'm not far off from shooting an even or under par 18 hole round like I've been trying to accomplish for years.

Ethan, I am really glad Ross has been able to help you. Puzzling though that you went through years on your high school golf team and all those Golftec lessons and no one picked up on this. I suppose this is something you've thought about too.

My varsity high school golf "coach" was more of a supervisor than anything. He never offered any sort of tips out to any of us, just oversaw everything as far as the roster and what tournaments to play in. My JV coach was slightly more helpful as far as lending out swing advice, but not to the point it was going to lead to any permanent changes.

I've basically had lessons with 4 people over the years. Doug, in 2008, who taught me the basics. Walter, in 2010, who turned me into a mid-handicapper. Nathan (GolfTec), in 2012, who got my game into the single-digit region handicap-wise, and now Ross, who I'm hoping will turn me into a scratch player. Obviously it's not like each 1 of those guys told me, "I'm going to get you good enough to reach this point, but not any better than that." I think it's just a natural flow of progression I've had with my game.

What starts the downswing is my focus right now, before it would be leg or shoulder rotation but now I am using the left hip to trigger the start of the downswing. This has greatly improved my ball striking particularly with the mid irons. However when I started this I had a tendency to collapse my left leg forward which resulted in a heavy chunk. So now if I maintain a semi stiff left leg and start my downswing with the left hip it's smooth sailing. Finally getting the HC back down.

As many professional instructors have been known to say, "Post up the lead leg and turn."

My general quest the last couple of years has been getting the ball closer to the hole. Here's a couple things I did in the Spring toward that goal.

Got fit to a tee. Last year I got dynamically fitted for a fairway wood. This year I got a full assessment with driver, irons and wedges. Got to see just where I stand with a variety of shots and situations on all kinds of shots. I eventually got range fitted for a new driver, irons and ball and been practicing and playing with just that equipment (with the obvious exception of range balls).

Of course, there is an adjustment period with this level of change, but it hasn't been bad. I'm encouraged and am starting to see results in my overall game.

Mark, I love you dude but Blah, Blah, Blah.

The only way to see "needed" results and improvement in your golf game is to find out if your game travels and translates to other course conditions. Playing the same 2 courses over and over will always yield great results because you are playing the same shots over and over to neaseum. A 6000 yd course with 6 bunkers will never give you true perspective. Play a championship course and see how those distances translate, otherwise we are just hearing the same advice and noise from the guy who has never gotten a single stamp in his Passport but who thinks he gives the best travel advice. You gotta show us some real REAL results man.