The Breakfast Ball has moved!!!

I've moved the blog over to wordpress. Here is a link to the new site;

www.thebreakfastball.wordpress.com

There are hopefully a lot of changes coming to the blog and this is the start of those changes. Check it out and I look forward to seeing you over at WordPress!!

It’s almost history! The slice that is…

I had a real big dose of reality the other night at Callaway. My range session didn't go as well as it has been going in the past weeks. I started out in a funk of fatness. Swing after swing I was hitting it fat, and not just a little fat. It took me what seemed like an eternity to figure out, but I hunkered down and went through my swing in slow-motion and realized what I was doing wrong. My weight shift was almost nonexistent. After some practice swings focusing more on my weight shift I started hitting the ball a lot cleaner and with more consistency.

I'm happy to say I was still hitting the ball with a draw/hook, until I got to my driver. After I got my fat shots corrected I started over with my SW and worked my way through each club in my bag. My 7i was a joy to hit. The shots were very consistent and had fantastic ball flight. Same could be said for my 6i, 5i & 4i. My hybrid is still a work in progress, although I'm hitting better than I ever have, it's still a very new club to me and I just need to practice with it more. I feel the same way about my 3W. Again I'm hitting it better than I ever have I just need more practice with it. Next week I think I'm going to work a large portion of my range time with those two clubs and see if I can get the wrinkles ironed out.

My driver wasn't there for me this outing. I wasn't able to zone in on a comfort zone like I did last week, and it showed early and often. Not that every shot was bad. I did manage to get some very, very nice shots with it and in the past I would have been satisfied with that, but it's no longer acceptable to me. Consistency is what I'm after and that wasn't happening. I'd make three really good swings and follow that up with a terrible one. Knowing what went wrong made it better to deal with, but I was still frustrated with the fact I couldn't string together a nice set of swings.

I'm 90% confident that I have eliminated the "Over the Top" portion of my swing. That being said, I now know that anytime I slice the ball it's all related to an open club face at impact. That little bit of info has really helped me make a correction after I hit a slice with my driver. What "grinds my gears" is I'm making the correction after the shot and not before it. I was really hoping that at this last range session I was going to be able to go out and hit shot after shot with some consistency and accuracy. I don't think that it was an unreasonable thought considering the success I've been having of late. What I was hoping for didn't happen, for the most part, and it's something that through hard work and a lot more practice I plan on being able to execute. It's difficult to get all the moving parts working correctly and it's even more difficult get all of the moving parts working correctly together and at the same time!

After realizing that my driver didn't want to participate I decided to switch it up and work on another portion of my game that is in dire need of some practice, my short game. I'm talking about from 65 yards and in. I set up in an area of the range that has a short target green and on the green there are three flag sticks at 40, 65 and 95 yards. I took aim at the 95 yard flag and was tattooing it with my SW! I was a playing a little game to see if I could land it short and to the right and with my draw ball flight roll it right up to the flag. It worked and it worked out great. I played that game for about 30mins, it was the most success I have ever had hitting my SW. The consistency and accuracy I was looking for with driver may not have been there but it was a completely different story with my wedges.

Next I took out my 52° wedge and was hitting pitch shots at the 65 yard flag stick. The greens at Callaway are all artificial turf and the ball will roll for ever if the shot comes in low and fast. It was a good challenge to see if I could land the ball where I wanted to and get it to check up and stop on the fake stuff. My goal was to leave myself a makeable putt from 65 yards out. I probably hit 50 balls and I can honestly say that 45 of them accomplished what I had set out to do. That made the night a success in my mind it was a great workout with my wedges and a successful workout at that!

I went through my irons again from SW to 4i after I was done with the wedges and walked away satisfied. The one thing I'm very happy with is the fact that I didn't slice any of my irons. Not one of them! I didn't even hit any shots to the right, at all! My iron play has improved some much over the past month I'm dying to get out and see if I can transfer it to a course.

One last thing I want to talk about is how I've been practicing at home. Over the past seven days I have been testing out swinging my clubs without a glove. Last week at the range my glove was annoying the piss out of me. It has become a little loose over the past month and was bunching up in my fingers where I grip the club. I took it off and hit some shots and the feel was tremendous. I felt a lot more connected with the club compared to swinging with the glove on. Since the 16^th I've been practicing in my garage without a glove and I've been really happy with the way the club is feeling in my hands. Something else that has happened in relation to not wearing a glove is I'm gripping the club with the head of the iron on the ground. If you have ever seen any of my video you'll notice that I always grip the club in the air out in front of me with the shaft pointed at a 45° away from my body. I then lower the club to the ground and address the ball. It's the way I've always done it. In an effort to get the correct shaft angle so I have the proper club lie I'm now addressing the ball with the club on the ground, getting my posture and alignment in place and then gripping the club. It is a completely different process for me but I think its working, my shot have been a lot more accurate of late and the ball flight has be a lot better.

This last range session I didn't even take my glove out of the bag. Everything was going fine until I had about 20 balls left. I had worn a blister into the right side of my left hand halfway between where my pinkie meets my palm and my wrist and another one between my first and second knuckle of my middle finger. I had to break out the glove to finish. I was a little upset that it happened, but Whatcha gonna do?

I get conflicting stories about calluses. In Harvey Penick's Little Red Book he talks about how a golfer should never have calluses and says that they are caused by shifting your hands on the club after you have taken your grip, which I strongly believe I AM NOT doing. Then in Hogan's book Five Lessons he has an illustration showing the correct locations of calluses. So I don't know what to believe. I do tend to wear out gloves rather fast and that was one of the reasons I wanted to correct my grip. I happy with the way I'm gripping the club now compared to a year ago, I just wish I had it down to an exact science. When I grip the club and do it with very soft hands I feel so out of touch with it, like it's just flopping around in my hands. My shots always seem to go to the right when I hold the club that way. Then on the other hand I feel completely out of control when I grip the shit out of it. I was sure I had found a happy medium where I was still holding the club firmly but not too firm. I guess I'm going to have to do some more research on it, because I really like my swing without the glove but I can't allow it to cause blisters and hinder my practice sessions!

This just in...

Deer Creek Golf Club. Boca Raton, FL

Pat was kind enough to send me a photo this morning of one of the courses we are going to play when I head out to Florida in six weeks and five days.

1,000 piece puzzle

I've had the mat I purchased from Callaway for a week now. I never really expected to see positive results from it but I think what took place on Tuesday night was in direct correlation of it.

I've been trying, really trying, to get 40-50 swings in every day. I can say I've been probably 90% successful in that venture. Being able to record my swings on my iPhone and get some instant feedback and analysis is something that I'm really excited about. The swing plane app is fantastic and it has allowed me to analyze myself so much better than what I was previously doing.

It was another beautiful night at Callaway and the place was packed. The spring league had started Tuesday and the parking lot and tee boxes were nearly filled up to the limit. I found a couple of spots upstairs and setup there while I waited for Randy to arrive. As I looked around at the other people on the range I was pleasantly surprised to see several people swinging the new R11. It's only been out a handful of days and I counted at least four people, in just the tee boxes near me, swinging it. This one guy was all decked out in white like he had just returned from the "White Out" event that was held at the Golfsmith store in New York. He had R11 everything, hat, shirt, bag and towel.

Randy showed up and we started hitting some balls. I started out a little tight and didn't feel very comfortable in the begging, but after a few swings things started to fall back into place and I was hitting the ball really well.

I decided to try something new and it I did it without my normal over thinking of it.I read an article on the internet about how to create a draw shot. Now me being a recovering notorious slicer I really haven't been concerned with learning a draw shot, my main focus has been swing plane and contact. This particular article that I'm referring to was talking about the address for a draw shot. It describe how to do so you picking your target, aiming your body a few degrees to the right, but keep the clubface aimed at the target. Mainly a closed clubface at address is what I took from it. Why not I thought to myself and decided to give it a try after I was warmed up.

Back when I started playing golf again, which goes back 15 months now, I was unaware of how truly uninformed I was on the workings of a golf swing. I've always had a general understanding of the swing but as my desire to get better came to be I quickly realized that I didn't know shit. Lately it seems that every time I "figure" something out, like my swing plane, or learn something new, like club lie and angle, I realize just how uniformed I was. It's a lot of information to take in and store, then recall and reuse.

I recently started to think of my game as a puzzle and when I started up again back in 2009 there was just a thousand pieces lying on the floor all scattered about in utter chaos. Slowly over the past year I've been gathering the pieces up and organizing them by colors, similarities and shapes and began the process of putting the puzzle together. I've come a long way since I dumped out the pieces onto the floor and when I look at it now it's no longer a pile of scattered pieces. It's beginning to take shape and piece by piece it's coming together. When you're in the process of building a puzzle and you come across that ever elusive piece that connects to large sections together there is a sense of accomplishment. It gets you over the hump and pushes you on towards its completion. I'd like to think of this "Draw" address I tried Tuesday night as one of those pieces.

The first shot I hit in the draw setup was an 8i and right away I could feel something in my swing that felt good. It took me a few swings to get used to it but it came around quick, a lot quicker than I expected. There was a small hiccup where I was pushing the ball right again and after remembering how that was fixed a few weeks ago I regrouped and starting hitting much better shots. I went through all my irons from my 4i through SW and executed each one with a draw. Never expected that, you could say I was tickled, and I couldn't wait to grab my driver.

I've never had so much fun with my driver on the range as I did this session. The first couple of shots I hooked really badly, I was more surprised about the hook then the severity of it. I adjusted myself a bit more to the left; I was aimed way to far right, and gave it another go. That one was much better; it had a bit of a draw but it started directly at the target, not to the right, and then hooked left. One more adjustment and it all fell into place like a perfect puzzle piece. My shots were starting out to the right and drawing back to the target. "That just happened!" I told myself, "You just hit that shot." I teed it up again and again I executed the same shot.

There is a lot of fine tuning I have to make, let me be the first to say that. I do feel like I made a huge leap forward though. I look back at one of my major issues that I've always had, the slice, and what I've done to correct it, the progress I believe has been tremendous. I had no real idea what was happening back then. Even worse had no idea how to determine what was wrong or how to fix it. Now, that's a completely different story. I now know that my swing plane was horrible and I've corrected it. I now know my grip was disturbingly awful and I've corrected  that too. I now know my posture was un-athletic and my tempo was anything but rhythmic and that too has been fixed. My clubface was open at impact, my shoulders were not rotating, my backswing was very erratic and I put the ball way to far forward in my stance. It was doing ALL of these wrong actions together that made my slice. Through the process of educating myself and building my puzzle I think I'm finally getting a grasp on my golf swing and the confidence that I'm creating from this process is incredible.

Combined we must have hit nearly 500+ balls. Randy was working on some things and I was still in the process of processing this new draw of mine. We went through a ton of balls and boy did my hands and arms feel it! When we were finished I was flat out exhausted. There is a real euphoric feeling when you mix exhaustion with accomplishment. 

It wasn't my best range session, but it was for sure the most memorable.
 

TaylorMade Demo Day

TalorMade tent at the Demo Day.

This past Saturday I attended a TaylorMade Demo Day at Rio Secco Golf Club. The demo was from 7:30am to 11:30am and I had a ton of things to do Saturday so I left the house early trying to be there right at 7:30am

It was gorgeous outside. No wind, clear skies and the temperature was in the mid 50's. When I got out to the range, the TaylorMade guys had just gotten done setting up the tent and were ready to go.
Spoke with one of the gentleman and let him know I was there to test out the R11 of course! He said to grab an iron and get warmed up. He asked what I was swinging now and said he would return in a few with the R11.

The iron I happened to grab was a new one that's not available yet, which I found out later. It was a Tour Preferred CB iron. Holy shit this was a nice stick. I've never really been fond of TaylorMade when it came to their irons, but this one felt so good. It was a 7 that I had grabbed and from the first swing I took I was impressed. The club felt so good at impact and I was launching the ball. I hit about 15 balls and I can honestly say I was happy with every single one of them! It was a great way to start the day!

The TaylorMade Guy (TMG I'll call him from here on out) said he was ready whenever I was. I hit my last ball then feasted my hands on the most talked about driver I think EVER.

What a sweet club it is. I saw one last week at Las Vegas Golf and Tennis, but it was just on display. The "TMG" set me up to start with the basic setup. After a few swings, he made some adjustments and added the weight to the toe end and changed to the closed clubface setting. That, along with a tip that I was addressing the ball WAY TOO far in front of my left foot, made the next fifteen minutes a joy.

Shot after shot I was creaming the balls down the range. The impact of the R11 is astonishing. It was like I was hitting a soap bubble with it. I didn't want to put it down, but after plenty of swings I figured I had swung it enough.  Since I wasn't there to buy, I gave up my tee box.

I chatted with the "TMG" for about ten minutes after that and he talked to me about the club and the irons I was hitting. He told me I have a nice swing with good club head speed and to keep at it.
I'm not sure if I'm the right person to "review" a driver, considering my HDCP index and all, but I will say this is one VERY nice driver. I spoke with the TMG and he was explaining to me the versatility that comes with the R11. The ability to make changes as you either progress or regress is an incredible feature. I would have liked to have had more time and made some more adjustments to the club just to see ALL of what it can do, but that was all of  the time I had worked out for me and I was thrilled that I gotten the chance to swing it.

The group of TaylorMade guys that were there were so nice and pleasant to talk to.  They really have their shit together. They were as laid back as could be but were still as professional as it gets. I had a blast and will definitely be attending any other demo days that I can. It didn't hurt that this one was at my favorite golf course and was only 10 minutes away from my house!

I don't plan on going out and getting the R11 anytime soon, I have a nice driver that isn't even 8 months old, and I like it! But, I will say this when I'm in the market for some new irons I will be definitely looking at what TaylorMade is offering because those Tour Preferred CB's are incredible!

BEWARE FLORIDA!!

Why?

Because in just 54 days I'm taking my hacking skills 2500 miles away to the Sunshine State to the lovely town of Boca Raton!!

I have my travel plans all confirmed and even picked up a travel bag so I can bring my clubs along! Pat lives out there and I've never been out to see him since he left Vegas. Heck, I've only been to Florida once in my life and that was when I was 4 years old.

Needless to say this is going to be a blast. Four days of Sun, Beaches, and Fishing and of course a little thing called GOLF!!

Cannot wait!

A great night at the range!

Tonight was incredible.

I started off horrible. I warmed up with my SW and wasn't too happy. Everything was going right. Same with the 8I, 7I, and my new found love my 4I. I was slicing my Driver like a mad man and couldn't straighten it out.

Callaway is still having their 2 for 1 bucket promo so I had two large buckets to go through, at only $9 that's a deal and a half!! I had about 20 balls remaining in the first bucket when I took a break. I even called Pat and left him a message begging for some help. I was making good contact just everything was going right. I've ran across this in the past but it has always seemed to work itself out, this time that wasn't happening.

Pat hadn't called back and I didn't want to go into bucket #2 with the anxiety I was having so I sat down and took a breather. I was really windy all day today and the range was empty so I was pretty alone at the bottom right of the range area. I closed my eyes and imagined in my head a perfect swing, Hogan style in slow-motion. I got up stretched a bit and went back at it.

Started this time with my PW, I hate to say I have a favorite club, but my PW and 9I I'm money with so I wanted to start on a good note. I took a few practice swings and new right away what I was doing wrong. I wasn't committing to the backswing. Everything else was working fine but I was leaving my backswing short. That, paired with a weak shoulder turn and I had a sure fire recipe for a "to the right" ball trajectory.

With a lot more focus on my shoulder turn and getting the club back further on the backswing it all fell into place. No more "to the right" shots. I got out my nemesis 5I and had great time hitting it. Ball flight was spot on, and was very accurate. Next I wanted to give the big stick another go and see if what I had realized was causing the slice. Sure enough it fixed it. Nice relax, but powerful swings and the ball was launching off the clubface. Best work I have ever done with the driver. Gave it a go with the 3W and the 3Hy and was way too happy with the results. I hit the hybrid so good I didn't want to stop hitting it, by far the best I have ever hit that club, it felt great!

That was just one of the good things that happened tonight. The other good thing was something I've wanted to do for a while I've just always forgotten to ask. This time I didn't. I mentioned to the guy at the counter at Callaway that one of the kids outside told me you guys sell your old mats. He confirmed that and told me they ask $50 for them! Wow, I thought I probably would have paid $100 for one.

When I got done with my second bucket I went in and paid for it and the kid took me out to the shed and I got to pick one out. We hauled it over to the car and I loaded it up. I got home and couldn't believe the difference from what I had been swinging on. This was at least a $500 mat, I've been pricing them on-line for months trying to get a good deal but they just aren't out there. It's a 5'x5' mat that has so much padding in it, it feels like grass. I never realized how soft these are when I'm using them at Callaway, but compared to what I've been using this was paradise!

I hit 180 balls at the range and when I got home I swung the clubs about 50 more time. I was just too excited about having the mat in the garage!! This is going to make my 100 swings a day goal a lot more realistic.

The Chase at Coyote Springs

My day started out great. Because our tee time wasn't until 12:30pm I got to sleep in!! That doesn't often happen for me so I took full advantage. I got up, had some breakfast, got all my clubs cleaned and loaded up the car.

The Entrance to Coyote Springs off of Hwy 93

Coyote Springs is in the middle of nowhere north of the Las Vegas valley. There wasn't any traffic the entire drive so I ended up getting out there about hour and forty five minutes before our tee time. The course is still under construction, kinda like how Conestoga is still under construction. The have a nice set up though. I think they are planning on being in the trailer for a while because they really have done up the exterior to make it look like it is NOT a trailer. I was greeted in the parking lot by some attendants who asked me to pop the trunk and proceeded to get my clubs out and get them on a cart, and that was nice.

I checked in and headed out to the range. The trip out to the range seriously took about 5min. The practice area and first tee will be a lot closer to the clubhouse if and when it ever gets built, but right now it's a journey.

The driving range is a thing of beauty. It's freaking huge! By far the largest driving range I have ever seen. It was pretty packed when I got there and I found a spot on the end a little bit away from everyone to warm up.

My warm-up started awful. I couldn't get anything working. The wind had really picked up by the time I was stretched and loose. There was a 15-20mph wind coming from left to right across the range. I'm not sure if I was just trying to adjust too much for it but I was driving me crazy. I went back to basics and started my session over with my SW. That helped a ton, I got more relaxed and starting hitting some good shots, finally! Driver was another problem. My attempts at my 3W were lackluster to say the least. I was I trouble before I even got to the first tee!! A good thing for me is about 30min before our tee time it started to come together. Drives were heading straight and the irons we doing much, much better. Still was having a problem with 3W and I should have remembered that because it bit me later on.

Practice facility. This is only half of it, there is more to the left!

I drove over to the putting green and quickly learned what my friends were talking about when they told me the greens were fast. HOLY SHIT!! These things were incredibly fast. So fast if fact that Randy even said if all the holes are like this, this aint gonna be any fun.

The putting green. One word descibe this and that's FAST

I had high winds to deal with, super fast greens on the course and a course that I've never played. Odds were not on my side that's for sure, but that wasn't the unfortunate circumstance we encountered. The course decided to let a group of 12, yes 12 go out in front of us and 3 foursomes. Problem was they all wanted to play together and from the start of our round we had a group of 6-8 in front of us. I have a photo I'll get up later that has 5 golf carts and 9 people on ONE hole!! It was unbelievable!

5 carts & nine people!

That being said and off my chest I'll get to how I played. The front started and ended most excellent. I hit a great drive on #1 and two putted for par. On the second hole my tee shot found a fairway bunker and after a very nice sand out I had a decent approach to the green. There was water right so I aimed a bit too far left and missed the green by a good ten feet. A solid wedge shot and a very nice putt had me scoring back to back pars! I was off to a great start. The next five holes need not to be mentioned. I'll skip right to 8 & 9. Par, Par. There that wraps up front. I had four pars and shot 49. Yeah, 3-7 were rough on me for sure.
The back started a little better, then got worse and I never recovered. My driver started slicing REALLY bad and I just have it in me to try and figure it out while playing so I switched to me 3W off the tee. I had some great success with it. I was hitting it straight and long. Some holes it was too long and I carried the fairway, but all in all my play with it off the tee was a success. It saved me from the 110's!!



I ended up with a 107. I've taken into consideration the new course the wind and the slow play on the front (that group of 12 left after the 9^th, there were a lot of complaints called in!) for my poor performance. Not that I would have shot in the 90's but it did have some effect on me. I hit my irons probably the best so far to date; they were crisp and had good flight (the majority) I just made some really poor choices on the course.
For example, twice I decided to play out of the dirt/rocks and attempt a shot I had no business taking. The first one was my second shot and it went through the fairway and came to rest on some pebbles just after the cart path, it at least a decent lie so I went at it. If I would have taken to penalty shot and backed up to the fairway I would have had a 110 yard shot to the green and that's a shot I'm very confident with. Instead a punched a PW and left myself a nice shot from 60 yards to the green. My error was choosing a 60 yard shot (which I'm not confident with) over the 110 yard shot. I struck the 60 yard shot with a wedge and caught it thin. It raced across the green into a bush. I hacked out of that and then had to chip to the green. Mental error number 1

View looking West from the front nine.

The other error came in a similar instance. I again carried the fairway and had a terrible lie with a LARGE rock immediately in front of the ball. There was water in front and a patch of fairway 90 to the right so I decided to try and get the ball to that patch of fairway. I had my left foot on the rock about 12" above the ball & my right foot was in the dirt about 10" below the ball. This didn't go well. I hacked at the ball (I'll call it hacking cause it was nothing near a golf swing) and it went about 8' in front of me in a worse position then in was previously. That attempt went worse, the ball ended up in the before mentioned water and I was left with a horrible place to drop. The next shot ended up where the original one as planned, just I was now hitting stoke 6 instead of stroke 3. The smart play was to take the penalty and back up to the grass and hit a 95 yard shot to the green and try to save par. I hit the wedge from the fairway and two putted for 8. I cost myself possibly 4 stokes on that hole more than likely 3 with a two putt but never the less I was a huge mental error on my part.

I have to work on my course management. That is a sure fire way that I can save some strokes. Making the correct play is very important and that has never been more relevant to me then it is now!

A good thing did happen as I was loading up the car. The course manager came out and apologized for that group that was in front of us and gave us all a complimentary round of golf. That was unexpected but very refreshing.

I'm looking forward to playing it again, it is a very fun course and I highly recommend it. Hopefully next time it won't be as windy and the pace will be a lot better!

It’s coming around!

I can't believe it's been 16 days since my last post! A lot has been going on so let's get right to it!
First off I have my next round scheduled for tomorrow with fellow Breakfast Baller Randy at The Chase Golf Club in Coyote Springs, NV. This place is supposed to be amazing. I've spoken with a few people who have played it in the past few weeks and both of them said the course is in great shape and the greens are the most challenging they have ever putted on. Nice!! I think!
Here is a link to the Course:
http://www.coyotesprings.com/golf/golf_courses.html


My last post back on January 16^th I was talking about my progress with my new swing. Well I pleased to announce that in the last two weeks things have only gotten better. I had another range session on the 26^th of January that started off not so good, but I was able to get it turned around. What started it all was a new show I watched on the golf Channel called "School Of Golf". After watching the show I decided to put some of new things I watched from the lesson to the test and failed miserably. Not that the lesson was terrible, I just didn't execute it properly.

The shows instructor (I'll get his name remembered sooner or later) talked about spine angle and the 15°/20° change from address, to the top of the back swing and back to impact. It caught my attention because in watching my videos of late I've been standing very straight up & down and not moving my spine at all throughout the swing. He talked about how that is a recipe for disaster, so I went out back and started playing with the idea. I like what I was seeing and decided to give it a go at the range the next day.
I started screwing up right from the first swing. Looking back at it now I know what I was doing wrong. I'm angrier with myself for taking too long to figure it out. Randy had to take off and I had about 20 balls left to hit. We were hitting off the mats because the grass area is just crap this time of year, which we found out the hard way the week before. So, Randy leaves and I have the remaining balls to hit. I still hadn't figured out what I was doing wrong and continued to make the same errors over and over. Frustrated with what just happened I gathered up my stuff and started to head out. I got to the upper level and started to get really upset with myself. Three solid weeks of progress and I just blew it tonight. I told myself it can't end like that tonight! I went and got another bucket and found a mat upstairs to hit off.

I had a different approach this time. I thought back to the four main principles in Hogan's book; Grip, Stance and Posture, Backswing & Downswing. I'm very confident with my new grip, not the issue. The Stance hasn't changed just my posture slightly, implementing the new spice angle at address was a change but not a game changer (at least I thought). When I started to think about my backswing the realization of my error hit me like a ton of bricks!

I was executing a completely different backswing based on my new position at address. Without even hitting a ball from the new bucket I was convinced I knew what I had been doing wrong, and I was right! I relaxed calmed myself down and began my session over. This time the results were way better! I started with my 7i and was hitting some of the cleanest 7i's I've ever hit, same thing with my 8i and my 9i. The true test would come later. I hit some more with my 8i and SW and decided it was time. Over in my bag looking at me, mocking me was my 5i. I put the SW away and there was that EVIL number 5 looking right back at me almost taunting me. "Betcha can't hit me bitch!" You could easily state I had already lost the mental game at that point but considering how poor I've been with my 5i it's not like I was being beaten down further, I was at and have been at the bottom for a while now.

With the first swing of the 5i my outlook immediately changed. Shot after shot after shot I was hitting my 5i like it was supposed to be hit. I was just a tad bit giddy! In reference to my earlier statement it was a definite game changer! After I got done beating up my 5i for the first time ever in my life I brought out the driver. I was pleased with how it went, not the best I've ever stuck it, but it was decent. It's a different swing with the driver and I'm adapting to it. Ended the night on a high, I couldn't be happier that I had the passion and the drive to not be satisfied with a poor outing and did what I needed to do to leave on that high! Proud of myself for that!

******************

Over the weekend of the 29^th I really got my garage cleaned up and I moved my homemade range into there. It's been freakishly cold this winter and hitting outside in the back yard has not been enjoyable. With a now clean garage and some rearranging I was able to get my stuff setup in there where I now can hit my foam balls and get in more practice. I've told myself 100 swings a day NO EXCUSES. Yeah, then reality set in quick, almost immediately that had to be scaled down. It's very tiring to swing the club 100 times, on the range is no problem, but at home it's a different story, after about 40 swings I'm beat, so I changed that number to 40 and will work up from there. Sunday I did 40, Monday I did 40, and Tuesday I did about 25 due to time restrictions. Wednesday night I watched the 2^nd episode of "School Of Golf" this lesson was about the grip. I was real hesitant to watch it because I'm very happy with my grip right now and I didn't want to see something that would put a thought in my head and change what's working, I know, weak minded but it happens so easily. Then I thought about last week's lesson and how that turned out to be a positive and said what the hell, and I'm glad I did.

Everything he talked about in the grip I liked. I felt like he only reaffirmed what I had been doing. In all honesty I wish they would have had this show and instructor on last year! HA
Later on in the show the instructor put on a demonstration on how to help you hit the ball from the inside. Using a large inflatable ball and a hockey stick he showed how in order to hit the ball to the right you would have to strike the ball on the inside of the ball. For example if you're looking down at the ball you imagine a clock, now run a line that dissects the ball right down the middle from your target through the ball. That line would run from 12 o'clock (the front of the ball) to 6 o'clock (the back of the ball). What you want to do is attempt to strike the ball at 7 o'clock. I was immediately intrigued and headed right out to the garage to give it a go.

What I found to be so interesting is that with that swing thought in my head I could feel my hips turning sooner and faster, and I could tell that my swing plane was going from inside to out. I swung about 40 swings and afterwards I was really excited about getting to the range last night.

******************

Last night was AWESOME!

Everything was working for me. I started out with my 7i and attempted to swing at the inside of the ball like I was talking about earlier, the problem was I was hitting it straight right, a hard push. No slice, thank God, but straight right. I played around with a bit and decided that it's something that's going to need some work and went on to do some more work on my 5i. I don't know if those few swings that I made with my 7i implanted something deep in my skull, but for the rest if the night I was hitting everything with either a nice draw or a hook. Never before have I ever uttered those words in regards to my golf swing except for maybe talking about what I would like to see myself doing one day. It was something I had never experienced and it was neat. It took some time for me to adjust. One of the first things I did was to start opening up the club face just a touch. That seemed to help get me more straight towards my target. The driver was fun. I've never drawn a shot with my driver let alone hooked one. It again was an adjustment but once I got it down I was enjoying it very much!

I have another story about my club lie angle and my toe and heel of the clubs but that's for another day when I have more information or should I say more knowledge to talk about it without sounding like a moron!! I'll tease this, just because it's interesting. I picked up some of the stick on indicators that when you put on the club face it will leave a mark and let you know where you are impacting the ball at. Well the first four balls I hit with those on, ALL of them were on the heel side of the club, same thing with the driver. I don't know if the adjustment I made is the correct one, more research to come on that, but I just addressed the ball more on the toe side of the club and from then on I was dead center on all of the balls I hit. I'm sure that had a lot to do with my success last night too. I bug's the crap out of me to think I've been hitting on the heel side of the club all this time. We'll see how it goes, who knows maybe that's a game changer too!

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, this will be my first Nicklaus designed course that I've played and I can't wait. It's gotten some great reviews and from what I've been told we're in for a real treat.
Wish me luck!!