[Hennybogan]

Bagger,

If it were easy, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun when you succeed. Lots of good info already. I'd like to post a bit about getting ready for the club championship or your personal major.

I don't see any problem with being a range rat if that's what you like to do. I quit playing in '99 but continued to hit balls on days I could not fish. On the rare days I did play (one year the only rounds I played were at Kingston Heath in Austrailia and a couple of great unknowns in England), I was happy if I hit it pretty well and broke 80. Now, I've got the bug again, and I'm trying to be more balanced in my approach.

If you want to play better in the club championship, more time on the course and more tournaments (that are not as important to you) will help. You do not have to change your pattern for the year, but it would help leading up to the big tourney.

The concept is called tapering. Working less on your swing and playing more golf in the period leading up to the big day. If your club isn't too crowded, you can warm up briefly and go and play 3 or 4 holes in the same time you would use for practice. Adding one extra round a week for the month before the event would help as well.

I work on my swing everyday, and I don't have any events coming up other than a grudge match this weekend. I find myself working more on my all around game because it is in my head to play better. I'm lucky that I have a place to practice and then go play a few holes every couple of days. I'm constantly testing my action and the adjustments I'm making on the range by playing a few holes.

This routine forces me to "get out of my head" (a place too easy to be on the range) and simplify things so they work in the real world. I've been studying the swing for twenty something years and at various times I have felt amazing on the range and completely lost on the course. I spent last fall working on compression and FLW without playing much. I went out to play with my player before Q-school, and he laughed at my inabilty to hit any type of soft shot around the green. It does not mean I was working on the wrong thing, but I might have been overdoing it some. I had also changed my game: I kept good driving but gave up good long irons and picked up good short irons. It turned out that I was trying to create more axis tilt when I already had too much.

By the time we played in Atlanta, he said he thought I would be better than I had ever been once I got more used to my new pattern. I used to not hit any really bad shots but not a lot of close ones either (and I played everyday). With better alignments, I hit many more weavers (where you bob your head from side to side to see which side of the pin you are on), but I'm still getting some of those stuck between swings type of shots.

When you maintain your swing but don't change it, you often know how to fix the bad miss on the course. When you improve your swing, you may change the miss and not be able to fix it even if you understand it. It takes time and experience to sort it out.

I have a buddy who is an amateur tournament golfer. He loves to hit balls and try to perfect his swing but he wants results too. He stops filming video leading up to bigger events and just works on contact, shape, ball flight, routine, etc.

My advice is to let this one go. In the coming year, test your swing and the changes you are making throughout the year by putting it under pressure to make sure you are headed in the right direction. I understand dragging another one over to get the perfect feel, but once you have it, try to make little piles on the range while going through your routine. Play more events so you get used to the way your body reacts to pressure.

It takes time to develop trust in a new pattern. It takes time to get enough repetitions to make the move automatic. You have to learn the lessons, like the one you learned about adjusting your pattern on day 2, to be able to apply them faster the next time. When asked by his sons why he did not get upset at a bad shot, Caude Harmon said (paraphased), "I know what I did wrong, and I don't do that very often." It takes a lot of study to know the whys and hows and a lot of practice to get to where you don't miss very often. It sounds like you are on the right road, just not as far along as you would like to be. Welcome to the club.

HB