The Huge Break

Norm's Accenture Match Play 2010 Recap

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:52:00 -0700

Another year, and another great year at the Accenture Match Play Championship! It's awesome to have a World Golf Championship event so close to home. I got some really cool signatures to add to my collection, namely Jim Furyk, the ever elusive Sergio Garcia, and Rory McIlroy. The only real big missing piece to my collection at this point is Tiger, and unless I somehow wake up 20 years younger, it's probably not happening anyway...

During the practice round I was also able to get this picture with Kelly Tilghman! Thanks for being so gracious Kelly!

The other picture I got was with Paddy. I was sure to put on my best Paddy teeth for the pic as well!

The week started off great, getting in some golf at Del Lago (Saturday), Canoa Ranch (Sunday), and Arizona National (Monday). Of course we also snuck a round in at The Pines later in the week (though we didn't have time to play 18).

The tournament itself was pretty fun, got to watch a lot of players on the range and even followed some great matches.

Range Highlights:

Sergio Garci

Padraig Harrington

Adam Scott

Ryo Ishikawa

Rory McIlroy

Ian Poulter

Paul Casey

Alvara Quiros

Kenny Perry

Vijay Singh

Anthony Kim

Retief Goosen

Ernie Els

Camilo Villegas

Match Highlights Included:

Paddy vs Dustin Johnson (Practice)

McIlroy vs Na

Villegas vs Dustin Johnson

Ishikawa vs Sim

Ishikawa vs McGowan

Poulter vs Scott

McIlroy vs Wilson

Ogilvy vs Villegas

Goosen vs Els

Ishikawa vs Jaidee

Garcia vs Clark

Garcia vs Wilson

Poulter vs Garcia

Villegas vs Casey

Villegas vs Garcia

Poulter vs Casey

Here are a couple of great videos we got, there are a few more on our YouTube page too!

Norm's Notes: Was really impressed with the width all the players had. They all did a great job of keeping their arms in front of them, keeping the elbows close, and releasing with extension through impact. All things I need to continue to work on.

Accenture Match Play 2010 Quick Update

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:49:00 -0700

Steve and I are back out here in Marana watching the 2010 Accenture Match Play Championship! In addition to watching some good golf, we have been able to get out for a few rounds ourselves. We did Del Lago, Canoa Ranch, Arizona National, and of course, "The Pines". Here's a picture from the 17th green at Arizona National!

After we get back from this trip we'll post some videos and our recaps of the week :)

First Lesson with Mark Thesing!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:35:00 -0700

I managed to get some time today with Mark Thesing, head instructor at Whirlwind Golf Club. I met Mark a couple weeks back playing a round at Club West Golf Club. I really liked what he was accomplishing in his swing and when I found out he was an instructor I was immediately interested. Today we worked on measuring myself off the ball a little better, and finally tackling my horrible takeaway! See the pic below for an illustration of what I mean!

I can't tell you how relieved I am to finally meet an instructor that gets me, understands and appreciates how technical I am about the sport, and can communicate with me in ways I understand. Mark was able to illustrate things immediately on video, just as I try and do on my own practice time. We were able to make corrections, and get that instant feedback to develop a feel for what the proper action is. Long story short: WE SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE.

As you can see from the picture above, taken end of 2009, I have immediate wrist hinge that sets the club immediately above the plane. This is something I have always known, and various friends have pointed out over time. Just never knew the PROPER way to fix it. Until now!

Mark first had me measure off a little closer to the ball, get my arms hanging more straight down (less reaching out). We also strengthened my right hand a little and got my right elbow more relaxed. Next we worked on getting my takeaway to be all about turning the shoulders, not hinging the wrists or raising the arms. Also worked on keeping the clubface more square to the arc. I have a tendancy to fan the clubface open immediately. We tackled that by trying to keep my right hand more on top until the club is parallel to the ground.

Once we got the takeaway within reason, we worked on hinging my wrists and folding my arms up to the top. Getting myself into a less laid-off position, with still plenty of width and extension. My shot dispersion immediately improved. Finally starting to have more control of the clubface and hit some solid shots.

Things are definately looking up, I'm going to continue to work on these drills and I'll definately be seeing Mark again soon! Good luck at pre-qualifying for the Open Mark!

End Of Year Swing Analysis

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:03:00 -0700

A lot of things happened this year with my swing, here is what it looks like as of last night!

The main differences/improvements this year were:

Posture: Notice how much straighter my back is. I have my rear-end suitably positioned outward, good balance, etc. My arms are hanging just slightly forward, my arms are nice and straight at address.

Hips: I've finally started to get my hips under control on my backswing. You can see they clearly turn just the right amount (<45*) and my downswing starts with my hips turning toward the target.

Shoulder Plane: The most recent of changes, I finally have my shoulders turning on a steeper plane. This is solving many issues, like clubface control and clubhead speed. With a "pure shoulder turn" you generate speed more effeciently.

Head: My head is not dipping down as frequently in the backswing, or during my transition from the top. As a result I am hitting the ball cleaner and more flush on average.

There are still some things to work on though, here are my immediate plans:

Takeaway: I'm still taking the club away a little outside, and I'm also lifting the club just a little early. I need to let the clubhead move more inside and also keep the club a little lower to the ground (straight left and right arms for longer).

Balance: Still have work to do on my balance. I want to fall forward during my transition. I need to make sure I swing more down and less around, and keep my weight nice and centered.

Reverse Pivot: Occassionally on my backswing my hips move forward toward the target and get outside my left foot. This premature move toward the target causes my hips to uncoil extra early in my transition, resulting in pulls and slices as my lower body clears too far ahead of my shoulders.

First Tournament!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:59:00 -0700

Steve and I entered and played in our first tournament this past weekend! The Avondale Amatuer was held at Coldwater Golf Club. The format we elected to play was in the "Net" division, meaning our gross scores would be adjusted by our Handicap®.

Day One - Saturday

The first day started off with freezing cold temperatures. There was a 45 minute frost delay, and access to the range was also held up. The turf was frozen, slushy, boggy and just plain miserable. Some heat packs, and a back heat belt, helped to keep me as warm as possible. I was able to avoid back stiffness, and was able to get reasonable warmed up prior to teeing off.

When they made the call, Steve and I ventured toward the 17th tee, where the shotgun start had us beginning our competitive round.

I struck a decent drive, hitting the fairway, and setting up a PW into the green. My PW drew a little more than I had planned, and I was on the green, left of the pin. A putt down the hill, and a tap-in led me to my first par. I managed my way around the next 4 holes the same. After a brief scare on my 5th hole, a 3-wood that sat a foot inside the O.B. stake, I sat on the 6th tee at even par. This is where things took a tragic turn.

I struck my drive. A vicious slice that started off on a line that would have been problematic! This ball appeared to find the houses. Without pause, I then proceeded to strike my provisional ball off the sole of the club, topping it barely onto the fairway. A stressful search did not yield my first drive. I then proceeded to pull a 3-wood for my next shot. A 250 yard attempt at the green. This shot was equally woe-some to my second drive. A topped/pulled ball that went an studly 35 yards. My next shot found me 215 yards from the green. Stock 5-wood. I pulled my weapon from its sheath and proceeded to top/pull this shot 50 yards up the course into a wash-like area. My ball was found in what can only be described as a "rock nest". I elected to take an unplayable and went back to the spot of my previous shot. The same 5-wood that had just betrayed me struck the ball and it ended up resting on the putting surface. 2 putts later I had carded a 9 on the straight forward, short, par 4.

Although obviously disappointed, I was proud of how I responded. Even with my confidence sucked dry, I was able to piece together a round of 84. Only getting seven more strokes the rest of the day. 2 doubles and a few singles where all that was to follow. My day ended with 12 pars, but I unfortunately played the other 6 holes to a +2 average.

I was extremely pleased with my short game. Chipping and pitching were both solid. My putting was stellar. I was able to start my ball online, with great control of my speed, throughout the day. I did not 3 putt. This on a day that found slow greens, and a lot of people struggling with them. I was able to use my system to adjust and adapt to the conditions. A previous weakness of mine, putting was my strongest assett on this day. Looks like that time with the laser level, starting at my posture in the mirror, and doing speed drills on the greens has finally started to pay off. I felt like I was going to make every putt, and I felt like I was the best putter at the event.

Day Two - Sunday

Day two started much like day one. Lots of cold, unforgiving grass. Nothing like hitting an iron off the toe when your grips are frozen and the ball closely resembles a rock in hardness.

Steve and I were not paired together Sunday, as the groups were formed based on the results of the previous day. My lack of confidence in the driver and fairway woods continued to plague me this day as well. Although the quality of shots I had on Sunday were much better, I still managed to find another O.B. on the 9th hole, and just couldn't get it going off the tee.

Sunday did have some bright spots, I was able to birdie hole #7 (my 11th), and hole #14 (my 18th). My putting was once again spot on, however I did have a couple of 3-putts where I simply didn't read the greens properly on my first putt. (Not seeing the downhill, or reading the break the opposite direction). Green reading is still something I continue to occassionally struggle with. More than anything its lack of diligence on my part, not taking the time to read the break from at least 3 different points like I normally do in my routine (behind the ball, behind the cup, on the "low" side).

I was able to card an 82, with basically no driver in my bag. I Finished the tournament toward the bottom of the leaderboard, but I left with my head held high. This was my first event, and I played with people on average 10-20 years older than me. And with players, even at my age, with much more expereience and years under the belt with this game.

Final (Swing?) Thoughts

I took away a few key things...

* I really need to start focusing on my driver more. Experimenting with equipment (shafts, loft, etc) should also be included in this. I plan on doing some more video analysis to get to the root of the problem (why I am so inconsistent with this club when I am fairly solid throughout the rest of my bag).

* Steve pointed out an issue that has caused me a lot of grief throught all of my various swings: Hip "spinout". This is apparently being caused my my hip sliding forward in my backswing. When I transition I'm already on my left side and my hips spin out quickly, creating a ton of lag between my hips and shoulders, and causing everything from slices to various power leaks. I did some research, looking at face-on views from a lot of players, and none of the good players have this forward hip movement in their backswing. Easy fix, but it's just going to take time to build that muscle memory so I don't have to think about it while playing.

* I can hang under the pressure. Sure, I made a rookie mistake and didn't focus on my provisional, and kind of let things slip away quickly on that blow-up hole. However, I was able to keep my head and finish the round with a reasonable amount of dignity. The experience gave me exactly what I had needed, some direction, exposing my weaknesses under pressure. Now I can work on those areas and prepare for the next tournament, just like the players I respect on tour, always striving to improve themselves, find that extra stroke, and place higher in the next event.

Dove Mountain: The Sequel

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:17:00 -0700

Steve and I made it back to Dove Mountain this week for two and a half days of battle! We had our moments, but I think it's safe to say the 7800+ yard course had more. The trip was 3 days/2 nights, starting with the drive up Monday for a twilight round at Tucson National.

Day One

After a quick trip down the 10 we arrived at Tucson National a few minutes late. Not a problem, however, as the course was pretty much empty. The Catalina course used to be a PGA Tour stop, and a course that Johnny Miller used to devour. The course was in pretty good shape, and both Steve an I managed to plot our way around the course fairly well. The course has a nice mix of trees, water, doglegs, and elevation changes. The bunkers were all well positioned as well. It provided a good challenge, yet was very fair.

The highlite of the round were the bombs we hit on 18, positioning ourselves perfectly in-between (2) water hazards. At one point in time this hole was one of the most difficult on the PGA Tour. We both followed up our drives with crisply-struck iron shots, pin-high, on the green. A couple of easy pars on a tough finishing hole, a great way to end the round.

Day Two

Day 2 began with the trip down the windy road to the Ritz Carlton at Dove Mountain. After the standard warmup (chip/pitch/putt/range/putt) we tee'd off at 10:30 AM on the Wild Burro course. This course is not played by the Pros during the WGC Match Play event, and we were both looking forward to playing it. After we made the turn it was fairly obvious why the Tour doesn't play this 9. It was somewhat tricked-out, with blind shots, lots of harsh desert (doesn't lend itself to spectators moving in packs), dramatic elevation changes, and tighter fairways.

For the second 9 we played the Saguaro course, which plays as the front nine at the WGC Match Play event. This 9 doesn't disappoint. It's long, with undulated greens, throw in some wind and it becomes a very tough test.

After 18 we were able to grab lunch at Cayton's, and do it all over again! On the back 9 of the second round we started to notice the weather taking a turn for the worse, with some lightning and rain in the distance. As Steve and I both drained our par putts on the par 5 17th the cracks of thunder and the sprinkles finally got to us and we decided it was unwise to continue. We drove past 18 and by the time we got to the clubhouse we were in the midst of a monsoon.

The ballstriking was average for both of us on Tuesday, with me struggling the most. Just couldn't take the cut out of my driver swing (I know, I need to release the clubface!). That loss of distance combined with a lot of shots into the wind didn't help my cause, adding a club or two to my approach shots on an already lengthy course.

Day Three

After waking up, showering, and getting some breakfast, day 3 began with high hopes. Steve and I had a good conversation the night before about having a straight left arm, as well as sequence of the downswing. We also reviewed some swingvision footage and made some key observations. I was anxious to get to the range and experiment.

What I had realized watching my own videos was that my arms are not as straight at address as the pros. I've always wanted to be "comfortable", but at the same time you could clearly see the bends in my elbows. I simply straightened my left arm, which felt a little strange at first, stood up a tad taller (to make room for new reach in my arm hang), and began to take swings. Strangely enough, I was releasing the club better, had more clubhead speed, and was hitting everything a club further!

The other observation was the downswing sequence. These past 4+ years have been all about the backswing for me. I believe I have foolishly told myself that "if I could just make a good backswing, I will hit the ball perfectly". What I finally realized is that the backswing is important, as it gets you into a good position to START A DOWNSWING. You do not hit the ball with your backswing, and even if you make a great backswing, if you do not have a proper downswing it was wasted. Finally I have reached a point in my game that I am fairly confident my backswing is within reason, and I can start thinking about the most important part of the swing, from the top to the bottom--CONTACT.

What I am trying to do is make sure that my first move in the downswing consists of my hands slightly dropping while my hips turn open. It's important that my hips don't slide forward, but that they only turn. Once that happens I can then turn my shoulders through the ball as hard as I want, and I am approaching from the inside on a good plane.

In the past I have had the problem of beginning my downswing with my hips and shoulders at the exact same time, with no hands dropping in the slot. This creates an outside-in move that results in pulls and slices.

Steve also made a little tweak to his driver swing, by making sure he took the club away a little lower than he had been he was on a better plane and knocking it out there, "pounding it miles" as we like to say.

The side story to the trip was putting, more specifically, reading greens. The greens at Dove Mountain are very tricky to read. You have influence from the mountains (valley pull), the "sombrero", grain, double-breaking undulations (tiers galore), and to be frank, Jack tricked out the greens a little. I made more than a few putts with the help of Steve that I wouldn't have made on my own. I learned that I need some more work on my green reading, and I plan on doing some research to see how I can improve. I can't make putts, even if I roll them perfectly, if the putt breaks the opposite way I read it!

All in all this was a very succesful and fun trip. Got to play a lot of golf on some prestigious courses, leared some stuff about the golf swing, had some good food at Cayton's, and shared some laughs. What else can you ask for?

Norm on The Golf Fix with Michael Breed!

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:03:00 -0700

As promised last week, I was on The Golf Fix with Michael Breed today! I want to thank The Golf Channel and Michael Breed for taking the time to answer the user emails and actually show user-contributed video on the show!

Michael's comments were very valuable. I have been practicing a lot this year on my short game, really focusing on pitching and flopping the ball onto the green. These shots typically require very little (if any) release of the clubface in order to generate spin and altitude on the shot. As a result my pitching has vastly improved, as well as my bunker game. However, as Michael illustrated on the show, you can clearly see the bleed into my full swing!

To rectify the situation I plan to work on releasing the clubface prior to starting my full swing practice. I think hitting some bump/run shots with a little hookspin should do the trick. Finish nice and low and let the clubface turn over, get a feel for that release point. I can also use Michael's tip where I pinch a glove under my left shoulder to help me rotate my forearm through impact.

Thanks again Michael! I'll be sure to send you an updated video after I work on this for a few months!

Norm's Driver Swing on The Golf Fix?

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:01:00 -0700

I got word today that the Golf Channel's latest successful show The Golf Fix will be analyzing my driver swing on the show! The show is hosted by top 50 PGA Instructor Michael Breed!

The segment was supposed to air today but did not make it into the taping due to some technical difficulties on my end (getting the high-res video to the shows producers on time).

At the end of the segment Michael graciously extended a "shout-out" to me and promised to try and get the segment in on next weeks show (8-24-2009)!

"The Golf Fix" airs on Monday nights, at 8:00 PM EST. Stay tuned, and LET'S DO THIS!

Norm's Mid-Summer Swing Update

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:34:00 -0700

I took a little time off from golf, only got to practice a few times the entire month of May. I guess you can say I got some time to recharge the batteries, replenish the golf energy! The past few weeks I have been analyzing my swing and determining my weakest areas, identifying the areas I stand to improve the most. One thing that has always plagued me is vertical head movement. This vertical movement often results in fat shots. Another thing I have issues with is lateral lower body movement. The videos below are of me hitting a driver this past weekend, I'll use them to illustrate a few things about my current swing.

If you isolate my head in the above videos, you'll notice it's fairly under control. Compared to past videos, these videos are considered "quiet". However, there still is a little movement, but nothing I think is too alarming. My tendancy is to drop my head on the back swing, raise it up at the top, then drop it again on the downswing. I was able to get this under control by doing on simple thing: Keeping my chin up at address. It's easy to get in the habit of staring straight down at the ball, essentially curving your neck and hunching your upper back in the process. This leaves no room for a proper shoulder turn, and will give the sensation of falling toward the ball as your shoulder cannot clear your chin! The feeling I have is that I can see some of my cheeks while looking down at the ball. So I can still see the ball, but my entire head is no longer pointed downward. I now feel like I have plenty of "space" to deliver an agressive swing through the impact zone. It actually felt like I was going to hit the ball thin at first, but that never happened. Instead I hit pure shot after pure shot, and only one fat shot in an entire range session.

To address the other problem, lateral movement to my right side, I am working on keeping more centered, with my weight getting to my left side at impact. My miss right now is generally a push off to the right, where I get stuck on my right foot and finish my swing almost falling backward. Generally this is a result of me tilting back away from the target slightly on the takeaway, causing my left hip to actually move slightly toward the target as well. Obviously a power leak! More face on video is needed to continually monitor this and get it under control, however, paying closer attention to where my weight is on my finish will probably resolve this problem shortly!

One shot that I have really improved on lately is the greenside bunker explosion shot. If you take a look at the following video it is easy to see why. I have a reasonably quiet lower body, and I really get my wedge open at the top and maintain it through impact, utilizing the bounce. I'm using a 60* wedge in this video, and I'm carrying the shot around 10 yards, so you can see how large of a swing was needed. You can also see how well I stay down through the shot and really focus on throwing the sand out of the bunker. This is essential if you are going to take a big swing and try to throw the ball up high with spin. The last thing you want to do is catch it clean and hit it 100 yards over the green!

Return To Dove Mountain

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:39:00 -0700

Steve and I were able to make it onto the Ritz Dove Mountain Course to play the "Match Play Configuration" a couple of weeks ago. It turns out it was the last day this option was available for play, and also the last day the private course was being booked to the public! We were able to play the course twice getting in 36 holes!

During the 2nd round the course got a little windy and played even longer! Both of us played well, but the course did have its moments on a couple of those longer par 4's. The highlite of the day was when Steve and I both carried the wash and ended up about 40 yards short of the green on the driveable par 4 15th. This was immediately following the group ahead of us taking 2 balls each trying to drive the green--and no one in the group even carrying the wash!

Here are a couple of pics we got on the beautiful par 3 12'th hole.

WGC-Accenture Match Play Review

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:03:00 -0700

Well, last week was the much anticipated WGC-Accenture Match Play event held just northwest of Tucson at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain. I really looked forward to going as the previous year was a lot of fun and Norm and I had predicted that Tiger would return at this event (which he did). We followed his practice round and his play was outstanding. His competition rounds featured a little less control, but still fairly solid. Not bad for being out of competition for 8 months. Last year the biggest thing that I noticed with all the pros was great tempo and the sound the ball makes coming off of the club face. This year this wasn't quite as impressive as I've improved enough to make the same noise of flushness on occassion. This year, it was their work ethic that was the most impressive thing. Being there the whole week, I was able to watch the practice habits of the pros and I can tell you that they treat golf like an 8 hour a day job. Their routine usually consists of an hour and a half on the range in the morning, short game and putting for an hour, followed by a lunch break and then back to the range for another hour and a half followed by more short game. On days they play, it goes range, short game, putting, round of golf, range, putting. Prior to seeing this, I thought I practiced an insane amount. Geoff Ogilvy was unstoppable. The course was nice, but the greens are tricked out. Just tons of undulation. I'd rather see half the undulation running at 12. Here are some pictures that I took at the tournament.

Norm's Swing Evolution

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:17:00 -0700

Here it is, some of the footage I vowed to never let anyone see! I went through my range footage archives and threw together this video, which I call "Swing Evolution". You can clearly see the slow removal of the two-plane tendancies, and the mechanics of the one-plane swing slowly find their way into my golf swing. There was a lot of hard work in 2008, with most of the "smart" work being done mid October and on (when I tracked down Jim Hardy's miracle book!). I can't wait to see what 2009 brings!

Are you ready for some matchplay?

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:13:00 -0700

What better way to get pumped up for the matchplay than to remember this:

FBR Open Lessons Learned

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:56:00 -0700

Well the month of January really flew by! With the FBR Open in town, and the Cardinals playing in the Super Bowl, the last week especially seemed to pass quickly. I wanted to take a little time to blog on what I saw at the FBR.

With the pros, there is one key thing they pretty much all share: TEMPO. It's amazing how they all seem to be in unison at the driving range. Sure, some are a little quicker than others, but the differences are pretty minute. You don't see any of them whipping the club back violently on their takeaway. It seems they have all learned that you don't hit the ball further or straighter if you swing back quicker!

It was also interesting to observe that the longer hitters (J.B Holmes, Camillo Villegas, Anthony Kim, etc.) all have one thing in common. Very smooth takeaway, extremely stable base, then they really "let it go" as soon as they drop into the slot. They were definately not holding anything back. It is impressive to see them do this, as we all know it is extremely difficult to wratchet up the speed and still maintain your fundamentals. No mystery for these long hitters. They simply perform the same effecient motion as everyone else, only they can do it quicker through impact.

Some of the trajectories were also impressive. I noticed that the drives seemed to have a higher trajectory than my average, and the (3) woods were definately on a much higher launch angle. This is good information to have, something to compare to when at the range. It also brings up the question of a proper fitting for woods. Now would probably be a good time to get the launch angle, club speed, ball speed, and spin rates checked again. It might be time to switch shafts and/or lofts in order to maximize distance and control with my woods.

One thing that was very motivating was to see the pros hit the same shots you have attempted, and fail with the same result. Steve and I played TPC Scottsdale a few weeks ago, and we were astonished at the rough. It was even longer and thicker when we played the course, as they actually cut it down for the pros. The rough was essentially a "punch out zone". Seeing some of the pros struggle from that rough, when it was more playable than when I played the course, gave a sense of "Ok, it isn't just me".

Even more motivating was watching pros at the range hit the same clubs to the same targets I had hit at. It's very encouraging to get to a point where the average tour pro is only a 1/2 club or a full club ahead of you. Sure, there are some freaks out there who hit an 8 iron 190 yards, but the average is still around 155 yards. The average drive on the PGA tour right now is 269 yards, and I hit a few 270+ drives during my last round. At this point its a matter of improving my consistency, so that I can hit that shot every time, and not have the 240 yard drive every other shot. I have to cut myself a little slack however, as I am not doing this for a living, yet!

Overall I left the week with a feeling of "they are just people, hitting golf balls the same way I do, only they do it more consistently". This is a big change from the last time I saw a tour event, when I left saying "how the heck do they do that"!

Norm's January Recap

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:38:00 -0700

I've really been working hard the past month or so on a few key things:

* Tempo
* Spine Angle
* Stable Base (Feet/Knees/Hips)
* Extension At Impact

Jeff Ritter's swing contains all of the these things (pictured below):

For tempo, really trying to have a nice 1---2-3 action. Where my takeaway is slow and smooth (1), then my left foot presses down and my hips start turning (2), then my shoulders whip around trying to catch my hips (3). When I get the timing right between my hips and shoulders the results are amazingly consistent. When my shoulders lag too far behind I hit pushes, and when my downswing starts with the shoulders, I get pulls. I used to think these pushes/pulls were a result of the clubface being closed/open, or a path issue, but I've found it really has more to do with the timing between my lower and upper body than anything else.

My spine angle had also gotten a little bit too extreme. This was causing me to not have enough "room" at impact to fully extend my arms. It was also causing some balance issues and fat shots as it was hard to maintain such a high spine angle without gaining spine angle into the shot (falling toward ball). I've got my spine angle back into the recommended ranges for one-plane-swing, and my ballstriking has improved.

For my base I am putting extra time into keeping my lower body quiet. This means that my knees should point perpendicular to the target line for as long as possible, my knee flex should stay consistent, my hips should turn minimally, and my feet (mainly my right foot) should stay grounded for as long as possible. The past few months have proven that you don't have anything with your swing, if you don't have a stable base. As my base has strengthened my ballstriking has been directly improved. In order to gain the flexiblity required to make an effective one-plane action I have also added additional stretching, excercise and some diet changes to my regimen. I see this as a critical component of my golf swing now, which adds the necessary motivation.

The result of the refinement of these things has been superb. With a stable base and the proper spine angle, I am able to make a pure turn of my shoulders, and deliver the club back to the ball with maximum extension at impact. This creates more clubhead speed with no additional effort. I've seen my yardages jump another 5 yards as a direct result.

I'm looking forward to the future ballstriking that will surely result as I improve on these areas!