Golf Equation For Improvement

I started this article off with a picture of the face of my sand wedge after about three days practice. This is the first time I hit balls off anything but snow in about four months. I left the dirt on the face on purpose so I could see my shots' impact area on the club face gradually (hopefully) come back toward the middle.

Like always the first shots for me anyway are out toward toe of the club and I was manipulating the golf club. I used too much hands in picking up the club trying to derive power from leverage only instead of utilizing my core and chest to make the swing.

Then I started working on swing plane and all the shots came back toward the heel. This was better than on the toe because I felt I was at least getting the club on the correct path.

An interesting sidebar: I took the Ping fitting test online and was told that I needed clubs 3 3/4 degrees fllat based on my measurements of wrist to ground, height, and whatever else they wanted. So I bent my wedge and a few other clubs 4 degrees flat from where they were.

I hit balls on the range at Twisted Dune near Atlantic City NJ, and had some good results, except that my worst miss as always was left of left. So I started working on where my club face was pointing in relation to my alignment and discovered that I was aiming the face way left and trying to manipulate it back toward square.

So I developed a little routine where I align the club face at a 90 degree angle to my body lines. This instantly improved my grip and also allowed me to begin my swing by turning my shoulders instead of using my hands. The results were significant. Much improved as witness to the center area dirt marks on the wedge as pictured above.

The shoulder turn helps to get the club on the correct plane and path and squaring the face at address makes my impact in the center of the club face and gets my large muscles involved immediately and naturally instead of forcibly.

Result: better straighter golf shots. The flatter lie clubs also add to the equation for improvement.