biggerboat's building boondoggle blog

thank you so much bb for openly posting your candid frustrations from a beginner learning golf
a couple of macro-suggestions
ldo predictible solid contact between ball and club face is the key to everything else from anywhere
the many ways to practice this include pitches chips and putts
astroturf driving range mats are the proper place to process all those words from that image you posted, not the course
how might one translate all those equations into positions your body might actually feel

the greatest to ever trod the sod possess an inate ability to shape the ball left or right at will
not by thought but feel
time to discover your own jedi mind tricks

Over the years, heard about these (probably apocryphal) pieces of advice from famous golfers. Got the main idea, not quoted precisely.

Jack Nicklaus :

After years of research, I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.

Lee Trevino, when asked how he reacts when bad weather comes to the course:

Run off the course, holding up a one-iron.

When asked if it wasn't dangerous to hold an iron aloft in a rainstorm, he said:

No, not even God can hit a one-iron.

Thanks.

I feel like I figured something out. I played the 9 hole today and, although it wasn't my best score, it felt better. Didn't lose any balls and managed to put it on a green that I've never hit before. I took a tiny step backwards with my swing but my misses aren't nearly as bad.

Hehe, I've heard that trevino joke.

My swing continues to baffle me. I'm hitting it pretty well on the range but so inconsistent on the course.

The good thing is I rarely top the ball any more. Not many bad slices either. But my distance has improved considerably which makes my pushes and hooks way worse.

I do hit really nice shots and my swing just feels right before I even make contact. But consistently hitting those is elusive.

congrats on the no lost balls over 9
by 'tiny step back' do you mean not swinging as hard?

No. I mean with progress on accuracy. I'm making more consistent solid contact but less consistent hitting it straight. Part of it is my distance has really improved which means it goes farther left or right when I'm a little off.

Had a rotten round again. I am probably overthinking my swing on the course. It's just not as free and easy as the driving range. Gotta stop that.

Also, I think I have to disconnect my driver swing from my iron swing. There are subtle differences that make each one better. I dunno.

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The last and third from last way too low.

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How's the book coming along?

Well, it is essentially done. I had my wife and sister read/edit it and I still need to put their corrections in, but that's about an hours job at most.

I want to re-read it one more time. I generally put stuff I write away for a while, then come back one more time to it. It's probably been long enough.

I didn't get glowing feedback from either person that read it. They were complimentary but I'm not sure how much was just not wanting to say anything negative. The book is sort of personal and I'm not really sure how many people it would resonate with. But, I'll finish it up and stick it on Amazon and see what happens

I just realized this is the one year anniversary of hurricane Helene (that flooded us).

You wouldn't even know we ever had a storm. House is back to the way it was. Yard looks great. All is well.

Congratulations!

But I wouldn't agree with the italicized. I've seen some of your other posts/threads. 😉

Have you seen any change at all in the way new houses are built? Up on stilts? Flood barriers?

Well, yeah. My wife gets pretty distraught when she reads about the state of "things" and when I hear it from her I try to talk about how we, personally, are doing well. We're comfortable and have great friends and neighbors so we aren't personally affected as much as many many others.

However, I do think our personal situation could disappear tomorrow because of everything else so there is that.

It never ever occurred to me that our country would go this direction.

Any new house in our area is required to build up. The "ground" floor must be a certain height above mean sea level.

It's really a mix. At first we saw houses being raised but we are seeing less and less of that. A lot of them now are gutting the first level that will be used for garage space, and building on top. But mostly people are just tearing them down and starting all over. I would say a good 10% of the houses in our area fall into one of those categories. I suspect that number will increase because there are so many empty homes here.

We don't see a lot of flood barriers, but there are some. One very large house near us installed them around the entire perimeter of the house. I'll snap a picture. It's crazy looking.

This is what I try to focus on too. And I additionally remind myself that we're still at the apex (so far) of human civilization in terms of quality of life and wealth (or we're very very close to the apex so far). Just a hundred or a couple hundred years ago the quality of life was waaaay lower. And not only that, we're very close to the top of humanity right now in terms of material wealth just by living in the US and not living paycheck to paycheck.

tldr: historically, we're in a massively goated situation objectively

I agree. But I feel like, in this country, we truly are at the apex but soon to be going downhill (if not already). Our society is pretty frayed right now.

Material wealth, yeah, but we've shoved it to the top. As far as living paycheck to paycheck, well, millions do.

I guess I'm not as optimistic but I get what you are saying.

Had a golf lesson today. It was at one of those places where they have a screen and the camera/computer analyzes your swing.

The first thing the guy told me before he even set up the camera is that I'm "arm-y." I definitely know this (everyone has told me) and I'm trying to engage the hips but something just isn't working. He had me do a couple of things like cross my arms and hold the club against my chest (I've seen this on facebook). But I just wasn't getting it at all. I can't translate the mechanics to my swing.

Then he gave me a medicine ball and told me to bring it back, then throw it against the wall. VOILA! It completely clicked. I think I can make that happen.

He quickly moved on to the next thing because I was able to pick that up pretty easily. He had me swing the club without the ball and concentrate on making my "divot" happen in front of the ball. Seemed pretty easy. Then he put a ball down and told me to do it again. Club hit the mat about 4 inches behind the ball. WTF!? We went through that routine for most of the rest of the lesson. Two practice swings, then a swing with the ball. Damdest thing that I can sweep the club perfectly in front of where the ball would be on a practice swing but put my "divot" behind the ball when there was an actual ball. Crazy ****. It's like an optical illusion where the lines are parallel but don't look like it. I still can't get my head wrapped around that.

Anyway, he gave me homework. 2 practice swings for every swing with the ball. Get to where my club does the same thing with or without the ball. He even suggested a divot board (already ordered).

He tinkered with my grip a little and told me to make sure my right hand "slaps the wall".

By far the best lesson I've had. No thinking about every little mechanical part of my swing. I definitely have other mechanical things to work on but this was super helpful.

My main point is the objective reality of our personal situations is ridiculously amazing historically (again, on paper). Even if we are past the apex or just at the apex, there's no way the world (on paper) slides back to 500 years ago that quickly. Having said all this, while our society has been great at making massive progress in a lot of ways, individual people aren't necessarily handling it well, even the richest of the rich. Anyway, just about anyone in the US (again, on paper) is way ahead compared to almost everyone alive a few hundred years ago.

Today I played without overthinking my swing. Not my best score but my good shots are getting really good.

I feel like I've really narrowed down what I need to work on. I'll forever need adjusting and tweaking but I'm starting to feel a lot better about my swing.

Could some of it be that you always have a perfect lie, or are hitting off the tee, on the range?