Saturday, July 28, 2007

Another cause to left palm slipping

I found it might be off-center (closer to toe) hit that caused my left palm slipping with iron shots. If it is driver or faiway wood, then the impact is not so strong to cause any palm slip feeling.

The same old story continued in July: driver slices, or push-slices.
Two factors: open face and/or off-center hit.
Three adjustments:
1. stronger grip
2. closed stance
3. driver face closed at address

Tried these 3 combined at today's round, and managed to avoid slices most of the time. 2 tee shots were adjusted a little too much and went to left of faiway. But distance is not as long as before (would be satisfied with a drive over 190 yard now).

92: 3 par, 10 bogie, 5 double-bogie at West and East of Glenview.
33 putts, no 3-putting. Missed a couple of short putts and chip/pitch, could have broken 90.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Left hand slipping with iron shots --> gripping problem

I had this problem intermittently this year that my left hand sometimes slips with iron shots. Last week, I thought it might be I need to change my glove. Today with my new glove, after Hole #4, it still slipped with almost every iron shot. What the heck is that? I got to fix this problem.

When I got back home, I checked out my golf instruction books and now I think I figured it out. It should be a gripping problem. My left hand gripped clubs with too much fingers. I just need to use more palm to hold the club firmly, but not too much pressure though. I will try out this new grip in the driving range next week.

My pitching pratice last week paid off in today's round. I pitched to about 5~6 feet to the hole at least 3 times, but they were all wasted with my terrible putting. Today my chipping was also ok, but I missed 5+ short putts (5~7 feet) and had 37 total putts toward a 95.

My driving today was good, 9 out of 14 fairway. The misses were not bad either. 3 GIR, 2 other shots were very close to the green.

Got a birdie at Glenview South Hole #2, and that was the only putt I made longer than 10 feet today.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Fixed driver slices, but putting not so good.

Went to Crooked Tree course's driving range on Sunday (July 1) evening and hit a big bucket of balls, mostly with driver. With the club face a little closed, my stance square or a little closed, and an easy swing, I managed to avoid slices for most driver hits.

Went to Crooked Tree on July 4th after some heavy rain and played 18 holes in less than 4 hours. Hit 10 out of 12 fairways, most of them are quite straight, right in the middle of faiway.
There are a couple of slices/fades though, but only one went far away from fairway, the other fairway miss was due to an unlucky bounce.

However, my putting was not good on the back 9. I needed only 15 putts for the front 9, including a 0-putt at a par 3 (yes, made a chip-in birdie). But I had 22 putts for the back 9, including four 3-putts.

The total score is 93 (front 9: 43, back 9: 50). Although Crooked Tree is a par-70 course, I think it is more difficult to break 90 on this course than Glenview. I would have broken 90, if I had played the back 9 a little better.

Now I need to focus on approach shots (fairway woods, irons, and more importantly: pitching shots) at the driving range.