The Rough Draft — Humble Beginnings

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All right. Um Shit, I wanna move this up here. Um, ok. Hello everybody. Welcome to the first of my golf diary.

Um Today is June 8th. Uh Basically,

um

I wanted to create this just to kind of document my document how I'm progressing in golf. I feel like it's, it's such like a roller coaster game up and ups and downs.

I wanna start like logging, you know, where, when I'm at certain places, um, in my golf game.

Uh, but both good and bad. So here's kind of the things I'm gonna go over today. Um Obviously just like things that I've been thinking about recently in terms of golf, so welcome everybody.

Um, um I think the format that I'm exploring with these is, let's see here. No, that's not. I want to keep that up is on the right hand side here.

I'm gonna, I'm just gonna have like a video of my current swing and, uh, maybe I'll get some thoughts on that, um, as we go, but otherwise it's just gonna be playing, um, that, that was from earlier today.

Um, ok, so, um, first thing I want to cover is, um, the Tory Pines lesson. So,

um, I'm

living in, I'm living in Lake Tahoe and

it's been, it was a long winter and I really couldn't stop thinking about golf. Uh, for a, for a huge chunks of the winter.

I've honestly realized how important golf is. Um, for a number of things for me, like it just, it just like it hits on a bunch of stuff that, um, II I really enjoy, you know, from like, um

like that, like a mental, like a challenge, a mental challenge off extremely challenging and um

obviously covers like some, some, some athletic uh needs as well as um it's kind of, it's one of the main things that my friends and I bond over these days.

Um And so there's like the social aspect, there's the um there's the mental aspect of struggling like you, like, it's, it's never, it's not just a linear progression, it's like you go through ups and downs.

So it's a really great, it's just such a, such a great game. Um That II I, so I, I started playing just during COVID.

Um maybe like, it's probably now been three years. So like 2020 around this time is when I started to pick it up.

And I was probably, I was, I, I feel like I was better like after the first year than I have been uh for, for the rest of the time.

So basically, like most of the last year, really sucked. I just couldn't keep the ball. I couldn't get, I couldn't get off the tee.

And that included for, um, this winter did some golf, um, trips or, or went to places that, uh,

where I could play golf, um, get away from the winter for a little bit. And, um, it was, I've been playing really bad, like, well into the hundreds for most of, for, for, over, over a year I would say.

And then I went and took a, took a course at Tory Pine or took, took a lesson at Tory Pines and the head pro there, Joe Joe Debock um

was, was amazing. Um He just like, within five minutes, like just spoke to me, uh like meaning like what he was saying, just made a lot of sense.

He like, he made about five or six different um observations and like, or like, like added like five or six swing thoughts and these were kind of the, um this is back, this is like four months ago now.

So it's been a little bit, but these were the uh the tips basically. Um

who basically the grip uh keep it, keep it really close because II I usually have a huge slice.

Um Actually, before we go into that, let me just show you my before and after with this lesson. So on the left is the, before you can see, I'm like hunched over almost, it looks like that.

In hindsight, the right. I, I look like I'm staying, I'm, I'm much taller, I'm bent over much more just at the hips.

Versus in the left photo, I'm bent over, um, in my knees a lot. And, um, I'm holding the club a lot lower, uh, in, in the initially than,

um, initially the club is almost, it's like, it's like just above my knees on the, on the,

um, right inside the club is

much higher and the reason that we, we decided, er, Joe decided to, like, have me hold the club hire so that, um, when I swing, I'm returning, I return the, the handle back to pretty much where I start.

So instead of in the first, um, set up my, like, uh, my club has to move a little more like there's more movement.

Um, so that's not necessarily good.

Um, all right, let me actually go through some of the other takeaways first, the, the, the, the points, so whole club hiring stance, um, stand tall.

So, like I only bend really at the hips, um, keep my right foot back, um, a little bit to, to and, and, and, uh, shoulders, um, in line with my feet so that I'm actually closed at a dress, I've kind of, I'm kind of playing with whether I need to do that or not, but basically the idea

there is, is just keep it closed so that I, it promotes even a more, um, leftward pa, uh, um, path.

So the ball, you know, if I'm like hooking it or if I'm, if I'm pulling it, then I'm too close.

But I'm rarely doing that because of the other things going on in my swing.

Um So the next huge thing is to, to keep my back leg straight during the down, during the down swing.

Um The reason why this is important is because I was previously coming towards the ball, I was coming as I was, as I was swinging, I was also moving towards the ball and you really want to keep your hips back to you to have enough uh room to swing.

Um Similarly, like keep front like straight straight. I think that, that like that was also just like, basically don't move towards the ball like you wanna keep your hips, you wanna stay back so that you have again have room to actually complete the swing

um falling the wrist if if you can maybe and then ultimately swing the club. This was, this is insane when I did when I was doing this uh during my lesson.

Um because it was like, I just felt like I was naturally swinging like I could just like I could let it rip and it was going straight.

Um That was insane for me.

Um Anyway, so here's the final before and after of like all these tips um

place a few times. So you can see

on the left hand side. OK. I get to,

I mean, I get to AAA you know, a similar spot but I'm just taller on the right hand side. But where, where, where things become really apparent is look how far look at where my butt is on the, on the right hand side, it pretty much stays, you know,

can click here. Um Yeah, it pretty much stays there. Whereas on the left hand side, I move up so much I move toward the ball just a ton

and you can see my right leg really getting in the way

on the left side,

I have much more room to play with. So on the right side or sorry, on the right side, on the, on the left side, my, my front leg is like moving toward the ball

before I've gotten there or before my hands have gotten there and it's getting, it's getting, it was getting in the way of me being able to fully get my, my elbow, um, ahead of my body and just turning.

Um, so that promoted a huge slice. You can see I sliced that one massively. That was normal. Look and look where I finish.

You see, you see where my feet, my feet are my and, um, on the left hand side of my foot, my right foot is way way out there, way in or as much further apart, uh,

is much further forward on the, in the before take and then versus the after the after take my foot is much more back and it just, it just goes to show like my legs stayed more back the whole time.

Um, another important thing there is, I'm, I'm keeping my more weight on my back side as well. So I'm like, kind of leaning back and I'm, I'm, I'm swinging from behind the ball.

Like, I'm not, like, totally trying to come forward.

Um, so anyway,

it was really amazing and, and pretty much every round since then has been um off the tee. I've been really good and so that leads me to the Arcos app, which is something I've been using.

I, I have the sensors on all my clubs and um it's just so good how much data it gives you for free.

Like I barely, you know, I don't, I didn't even, I never even logged into the website before today.

So I never even knew you had all this information, but this is incredible. Um

Yeah, I just give so much information. So for,

for example, here, like it's calling. So II I call this. So I'm comparing to 18 handicap, so I'm trying to break 90.

Um And you could see my driving and approach over the last few rounds. I been, I been above, I've been shooting under an 18 handicap um pace since like the the lesson was after Anthony's ranch.

So it's or actually it was right before it. So that was the first one I did but you could see prior to that these my driving it is so bad.

Um

Yeah, it was just really terrible. But anyway, the Arcos app is awesome. It's so good. Um How much data it gives you?

So, I mean, there's just, it's pretty wild. Like I can go back and play any, any hole or I can go look at any hole.

Um This is my most recent round just uh a couple of days ago and I can go, you know, any hole and see, see what I did.

Um, quite impressive. I don't know, I've been trying to tell my friends how great it is and they don't seem to care.

But, uh, yeah, it is like, I think this is the coolest thing ever.

Um,

anyway, so, yeah, my golf goals. Um,

yeah, my current golf swing is here on the right. I mean, it's pretty much what you see in the right hand video of, uh, the tour Pines lesson.

But, um, I've been just like swinging so well and so much more freely than I had been before because before if I the, the harder I try to swing, the more it's sliced.

But now I can swing hard and like play with my swing a little bit and it's not just slicing. Like I, you know, I have some, I have much more freedom to like tweak things and not be a total disaster.

Um Yeah, so as far as my high level goals. I am trying to break 90. Um, I've had II I shot 94 at Edgewood.

I shot um Lake golf course isn't fully open yet. Um So that's part of the problem. That's partly the problem.

Like I haven't been able to play a, a 18, um, this most recent round that I had was

the most recent round I had. Why can't I see? Ok. Scorecard, I shot at 42 in the front nine so like I'm pretty sure I was, was gonna break 90 even though I had a pretty rough back nine, but I was at 74 with three holes to go but they like those holes aren't open, but I was in contention to

break 90. I'm I'm playing about bogey golf right now, which is great.

Um ok, so if we do analyze my current swing, let's see what things I can say that I think I'm still doing wrong.

Oops. Ok, so

all right if we watching my swing over here, um

let's see, let's go to the takeaway offshoot.

Oh no. Oh boy, I kind of just go. Oh man, sorry

that's all I wanted to do at all. Can we just go back there? God damn it. All right, whatever it does matter.

Oh my God, none of these controls work.

Ok. I wanna get back to. Well. Ok, we're gonna take an orange, orange one.

Ok, so if you look at my takeaway,

I'm my, my club face is so open, it's crazy. Um But that's partially because I'm taking such a more closed grip now than I was before that.

It's OK, like whatever I do to like close the club, club face now it works. But like you're supposed to club face, you're supposed to match your spine angle.

So that's obviously a problem. I'm also playing around with if I need that really closed stance. Um

OK. At the top, I feel like I'm in a pretty good position. Um

Yeah, I don't know. Um So one thing I'm trying to work on here is actually getting si think it's swaying just a little bit um towards the left hand side or towards my front foot or at least shifting my weight back over to my front really quickly.

Um

OK. I,

all right. You could see I start, I actually come inside. Um which is great like II I start my hands coming lower.

Um One thing with my feet, uh not closed like in a neutral stance is I just have less room. Um Like I need, I really need to keep my butt back and my hips back.

See if I do that here. Oh my God. Fuck my bad.

Why does that not just let me

go like a like a second at a time.

All right, I'm just not gonna try and pause it, I guess.

All right. So I really wanna keep my, my butt back and I still come forward. I still do come forward.

You see, like I'm moving pretty heavily towards the ball. I really wanna like try and stay back.

Um, and just turn my hips. I think, I think I, in this session, I like realized I was doing that.

Um, let's see, what else? Oh, you know, one big thing that I, I notice I do with my iron swings is I really release a lot of wrangle at the top.

Like, if I could keep that wrangle up here

and, uh,

hold it for much longer. I mean, that's just like free distance I'm losing. Ok. You see here, I'm exaggerating the, the, um, keeping my hips back.

That's what that is.

Um, but yeah, otherwise I, like, I'm swinging the ball really well here. You know,

same here. Like I'm crushing. These are, these are practice balls going 2 50 at least. I mean, this is an elevation also.

It doesn't quite,

it's not quite the same as, uh,

not at, not at television

anyway. Those are

currently where I'm at with my swing. I'm really hoping I can break 90 here. Uh, this summer. It's the goal I'm all, I'm all over right now.