Blocking

[AlanN]

I seem to have cured most of my pulled shots, having made a deliberate effort to approach the ball from inside the target line. I'm striking the ball well but, have developed a slight push, which is more pronounced the longer the club.

As a senior golfer, I struggle to make a really full shoulder turn. Could this mean that the longer clubs don't have time to square up to the ball or, is there something else going on here? Ball position, getting ahead of it a bit?

Also, I tend to hit the occasional drive off the toe of the club and, sometimes, catch more of the top of the ball, resulting in a low trajectory.

Any ideas as to what might be happening?

Thanks

[BrianW]

Re: Blocking

Play the ball a little further forward if possible.
Flare your front foot out a little to promote a good forward turn.
Try weakening your grip a little.
To increase shoulder turn let your left heel come off the ground a bit in the backswing.

[ilang]

Re: Blocking

Yes sound advice above.
I am a senior player and find sometimes when I play the hard ball opposed to the soft Pro V1,I get the ball coming off the club face very fast without much control.You get less distance with the soft ball,but more control.As we get older we are always looking for more distance,but at our age its around the greens that is more important.

[AlanN]

Re: Blocking

Thanks for the help guys.

Brian; did you really mean weaken my grip a little? Surely, this would mean that the clubface will be more open at impact - no?

cmays; I'm sure that I'm not steering the ball. I'm getting good distance, a fair bit of clubhead speed and good extension through impact. As I near my 65th birthday, I regularly drive over 250 yds and, today, got a couple out to around 280. Fortunately, my regular course is quite open. On a tighter course, I will have problems with this slight block.

ilang; I play with a Pro V1, most of the time. I get this block/push with any ball, at the moment.

I'm going to the driving range on Tuesday, before a match on Wednesday, so will report back later.

[AlanN]

Re: Blocking

cmays; thanks for the link. I used to "slide by it" quite a lot but, thought I'd eliminated this. Perhaps I haven't!!

[RandomHero1090]

Re: Blocking

1. Cape Cod Golf -Cape Cod golf courses and events

Great article! Hanging back on the right side is my fault of choice these days. I'll blast 5 in a row, right down the middle. Then, out of nowhere, I will hit an UGLY push-fade.

I am more of a one-plane swinger. What has worked for me lately...

I pick a spot where I want my torso to point at when I am posting my finish position. This spot is usually at 8 o'clock (if my feet are square, so my right foot is at 3 o'clock and my left at 9 o'clock).

This thought really forces me to rotate my body and shifts the weight. However, I do have to remember to maintain that spine angle.

Also, don't overdo the backswing. If you get that right hip jutting out, instead of rotating, you are in trouble. The correction on the downswing will leave you hanging back.

[AlanN]

Re: Blocking

After an unimpressive practise session on Tues night, I was dreading the match, yesterday. It didn't start too well as my long game was quite bad. Fortunately, my playing partner, a 9 handicapper was on top of his game.

After a few holes, he told me that I was getting ahead of the ball at impact, because I was rushing to hit the ball. He told me to relax my grip a bit and swing slower. I took his advice and off the next tee, I sent my drive straight down the middle. After that my game improved a lot. I hit most fairways from then on in. There was still the occasional pull shot with mid-long irons but, I played well enough and made a good contribution to our 4 & 3 win.

I was looking for all the swing technique reasons of what was going wrong, when it was something so simple. Crazy game!!!

[bill reed]

Re: Blocking

hi Alan
i know when my game goes tits up 9 times out of 10 its because i speed up, not just my swing but how i walk and address the ball. i now make a point of walking up slowly the last 15 yards to the ball and try and get in a slower frame of mind and it does seem to help a lot.
bill