Equipment and the State of Golf

DGman wrote:

2. golfers should invest in proper coaching instead of spending all their time and money browsing the internet for virtual lessons and wasting a load on money on stuff that will not help their swing. remember input = output. unless its a good golfer, the equipment will not make much difference.

Sigh...

nientsu wrote:

Hey Paul

what are your thoughts on paul bertholy drills?

Hi Nientsu

Never heard of Paul Bertholy so did a quick search on youtube. Looking at this guy and what he is demonstrating, I dont think much of it. I dont hink this guy is a good advertisement for his drill or reputation, maybe he's not doing it correctly. Will have to research more before I can comment but I would not like to see a students wrist looking like that coming into impact and his head ???

However I like the split hand drill and it helps with certain swing problems. I do use it quiet a lot.

Goes to show how a student executing something wrongly can reflect negatively on the coach or their philosophy. We RSS coaches are also victims of this phenomenon

An example from a lesson today showing the exact problem I see on a daily basis with too upright lie angles. I also suspect the clubs are too long.
At address the toe sits up and at impact the sole sits flush on the mat. The ball is going nowhere but right here as his hands have had to lift higher and away from his body and his shaft has become too upright.

By shortening and flattening his clubs he would have a better chance of getting his impact looking more like his address position. I've sent him off to Wizgolf to get the adjustments



Next lesson I will post the pictures once the changes have been made to his clubs

My two fave topics "Equipment & GOLF"

Being an equipment slut, I never failed to read up on new clubs, except callaway, which I never liked the brand and the sound of it...

1. I have a regular coach which I go see on regular basis esp after losing heavy bets.
2. My game has improved quite significantly since I did.
3. I am still an equipment slut.

But to be fair to that statement "Feedback" I have gotten away for the longest time with old irons without stacking at impact (first lesson my coach, Mr AK taught me is the stack and I somehow inculcate bad habits and went sweeping them again) .

When I did the same on my new irons, I felt like a cow on ballet shoes, topping and shanking the balls...

Now i just feel like a bigger cow for forgetting the basic that was taught to me on my first day... It was all there and not applied...

So is feedback overrated? I dunno.. it helped me, but I'm sure it didn't make me happier initially..

Begbie wrote:

My two fave topics "Equipment & GOLF"

Being an equipment slut, I never failed to read up on new clubs, except callaway, which I never liked the brand and the sound of it...

1. I have a regular coach which I go see on regular basis esp after losing heavy bets.
2. My game has improved quite significantly since I did.
3. I am still an equipment slut.

But to be fair to that statement "Feedback" I have gotten away for the longest time with old irons without stacking at impact (first lesson my coach, Mr AK taught me is the stack and I somehow inculcate bad habits and went sweeping them again) .

When I did the same on my new irons, I felt like a cow on ballet shoes, topping and shanking the balls...

Now i just feel like a bigger cow for forgetting the basic that was taught to me on my first day... It was all there and not applied...

So is feedback overrated? I dunno.. it helped me, but I'm sure it didn't make me happier initially..

Thanks for sharing with such honesty.

Similarly, I thought I was a pretty good ball striker w the Mizuno MP52, until I put the Miuras into play. A rude awakening. Found and fixed major flaws in a hurry.

Thanks to Paul posting this thread, I decided to take a look more at the Bradley Hughes website to try and understand what everyone is talking about in terms of impact position.

It was a very interesting read. And although I only had time to watch one video, the comparisons between impact (and post impact) positions of the classic players and current players was very interesting.

Just so happened that I got to play a last minute round of golf in the evening, so I decided to try it out. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the feeling and outcome. The wind was very strong yesterday evening, so it was tough to tell whether there was any difference in distance. However, contact was definitely better than what I have been going through in recent months.

The really bad misses trying out this technique was a big hook (ball started at the flag on island green hole 13 at MBGC and hooked at least 20m left with a 9 iron, right to left wind did not help either). Any comments or educated guesses why this is happening.

In any case, will spend some time at the range today to explore more about it.

Hi Derek
The logical explanation would be that now your hands are lower and closer to your body at impact, your club will be flatter. This would mean the heel would be contacting the ground too much and causing the face to close more at impact. This is where you would need to consider flattening your lie angles. You will also be coming more inside promoting a right to left flight.
Wizgolf or BFG will be able to help you here if your irons are soft enough to bend. Maybe 1 or 2 degree to start with and see how it goes. Without seeing your swing I am just making an educated guess however.
Good luck with it