Had a couple of rounds in the Sim at work today, and the driver was well and truly on song. What wasn’t were my irons, I was missing greens, and as I said to my playing partners, missing way too many greens for my handicap.

The irons I’m using are the new Wilson Staff Model Irons. They are so nice to look at and soooo nice to hit, but way too many greens missed of late.

So, to find out why, out came the impact tape, the lie tape, and the lie board, and lo and behold, everything was off the face slightly towards the toe, and on the underside of the club the lie board marks were also out towards the toe ……. bugger!!

How so, I hear you ask?

Good question, and its one that I grudgingly asked myself too. The same marks were present throughout the iron set (from long to short iron), which means its my bloody swing that is to blame.

To hit out towards the toe a touch must mean that I am pulling back from the ball through impact, and to hit out towards the toe on the ground means that I am also lifting the heel off the ground at the point of impact.

So, that would mean I’m pretty much rising up out of my stance, and moving back from the ball at the same time through impact, and I’m doing it consistently with every swing. So what to do about it?

I could try to retrain my swing to stay in posture, as well as to get my hands lower so that the clubhead comes in flatter…… or I could bend the toe of the clubs up more to try and short cut my way to a partial resolution.

Out comes the loft and lie machine and cue the music ……. A short while later and a degree or two more upright lie angle across the iron set, and then re-tape the clubs and try again.. A slight improvement across the set, some better than others, but its a small step in the right direction.

No doubt though, my swing will continue to change, particularly as I hit so many different clubs these days. Some of the irons at work are half an inch over, some are half an inch under, some flat 2 degrees, some upright 2 degrees, some standard. with all manner of different shafts and flexes, and lofts.

I may go back to the good old days of a couple of years ago, where I had each of my iron sets at a different lie angle spec, and then I’d just swap and change between Saturday and Sundays rounds. That was fun back then, and I managed to get then to work okay for the most part

One thing that I have learned over time is that ….. give anyone any club, and they will eventually find a way to make it work for them. Give them a stiff shaft or a ladies flex, and within a month they’ll have it under control more often than not ……

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Madam, Hack2489

Played this morning on my day off, in just slightly less than ideal conditions.

A touch of cold air, and more than a drop or two of precipitation throughout the round. Some good shots were struck, but they were few and far between and were interspersed with too much rubbish.

I’ve tweaked the Cobra F9 driver a touch of late and am getting used to its differences. It’s a touch shorter now, the grip has also been on a diet, and the clubs loft setting is down to about 7.5 or 8.

I’ve also introduced a bit more body tilt when hitting off the tee, and gone with the 3 1/4 inch tees, rather than my usual 4 inch tees for the driver.

The reasons being, previously without much body tilt away from the target, I was hitting closer to the low point of my swing, swinging flatter, losing loft, and adding sidespin (hence previously using 4 inch tees to try and alleviate that issue and force myself to hit on the up).

The new method does show some promise, I hit a few nice launching ones today, and they flew nice and long (there is no run on the course at all with it being very damp underfoot). I have a few issues with the clubface at impact in getting it set just right (a couple of big draws), but its a visual thing at address. I need to set the angle of the clubface correctly at address and good things happen . if I have it closed a touch, then look out hook …… so its just getting used to that visual cue of the clubface and how it should sit at address in order to make it repeatable and predictable.

My irons were not too bad today, I hit some nice ones despite the conditions, but I got penalised on at least 3 approach shots where I flushed them onto the green by a few metres, only to see them spin back off and down the sloping front fringes. In fact the only time they didn’t spin back was when I put a couple past the pin ……… much to my annoyance.

Pro V1X …… nice balls though despite spinning a lot or not at all.

Putting and chipping were just woeful today, and led to at least 4 wipes from memory. I wasn’t that fussed though, I was just happy to be out there having a hit on my day off. I’ve long since stopped worrying about my score, preferring just to enjoy a round and the fun or challenging shots it might occasionally offer up.

In other news though, my regular playing partner and I may be looking for a different home of golf later on in the year when the membership is up for renewal.

I reckon I’m starting to get over the soft wintery conditions and will possible be looking for firmer, greener pastures, particularly a landscape which has maybe more than 7 bunkers and is truly playable all year around.

Having been at Beacy for around 8 or 9 years, I reckon its time for a change, but where to go …. that’s the question. I had thought of Cranbourne but I see that’s in the news this very evening, as someone has carved swastika’s into some of their greens. I don’t mean to cast nasturtiums at anyone, but a few former Beacy members have moved to Cranny recently, so if I were the boys in blue, they would be a good place to start!!.

That being said, its not a course I’d really entertain. We are sussing out the memberships of various other courses, and there is not much between a few of them, notably Keysie, Sandhurst, Settlers Run in terms of cost etc. (A Keysie membership does come with some baggage I believe), as well as being a bugger of a spot to get to.

One of the things I’m used to, is pretty much getting to play when I want, eg early morning etc, so that is a factor to consider.

Other possible courses involve more of a drive, and that being the case, that may get a tad annoying or monotonous, so at this stage there is no preferred option leaping out of the pack. The old membership doesn’t run out til about October anyway, so we have plenty of time to consider all of them, and try a few.

Anyway, that’s enough to ponder for one evening, time to go load some decent music clips on the tube of you, whilst the Beloved’s busy watching Home and Bloody Away ……..

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