2023 Golf Season

No blog update in entire 2022, which means it was ok, not too bad, but not great either...

Started 2023 season with some great rounds of solid ball striking:

April 2, Sharon Woods, 52~55 Deg F - Almost all drives solid (a couple of shots into woods); all hybrid found sweet spot (2 GIRs); all irons solid (5, 8, 9, P); 7 GIRs, 10 Fairways.

Swing thoughts:

Driver swing the same as before (described in a blog on Oct 25, 2021) - loose grip, full arm extension, early hinge at 3/4 L-shape, then shoulder/chest turn, initiate down swing with hip clearing out of way.

Hybrid swing smooth straight to top (front side of head)

Irons: stand tall (to avoid toe hit), swing back with full-arm extension, initiate down swing with left foot pressing down to ground.

Solid ball striking continued from April to June and early July (no golf for 20 days in May due to a business trip) - GIRs typically from 6 to 8, a couple of rounds up to 10 (scores broke 80).

July 1, Glenview South/West: 8 fairways, 10 GIRs: South holes: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6; West: 2, 3, 4, 7, 8

July 3, Indian Ridge: 10 GIRs, 1 birdie, 14 pars.

Best round on July 8, Winton Woods (thunder storm interruption for 1.5 hours in between): 10 fairways, 10 GIRs, 31 putts (5 1-putt), 2 birdies, 11 pars (3 up & downs), 5 bogie

Later, found hybrid/irons would go longer if using the same swing as driver - early hinge at 3/4 swing.

Then driver started to perform not as well as before - sometimes it goes very high, sometimes to left, sometimes slice (hitting club face heel).

Went to driving ranges a couple of times, tried several fixes: tee it lower to avoid sky-high drives, stand lower to avoid hitting club face heel, no early hinge at 3/4 swing - just smooth full-length swing back to top. These seemed to help, to some extent; however, the struggle with driver continued on golf courses...

Recently realized two things: 

1. Early hinge at 3/4 back-swing sometimes could lead to extra tension for left-arm, and this would rob driver distance. Even worse, it could also cause too much hand actions, leading to a slice.

2. Set-up alignment tends to aim too much to right, this should normally set up for a draw. But if a slice happens, this would only make the ball go even further to the right.

Will need to pay attention to set-up alignment, and also keep arm tension free, even with an early hinge at 3/4 backswing...