Plain, simple Jake

A Tale of Two Stances, or How I Learned to Golf Merely Badly, Rather Than Disastrously

It was the worst of times. The very worst. I was hitting the golf ball about as bad as it can be hit, and it was getting worse. Then I hit bottom: I was swinging so badly that I wasn't hitting different clubs different distances.

I'm not even joking. I was hitting consistently, which in most circumstances would be a plus, but not here: every shot, with every club, was going 50 yards forward and 50 yards to the right. I swear I could have been swinging a putter out there.

Frustrated, I turned to my oldest and best friend: the internet. As usual, she had so much to say that it was difficult to sort through, but I did find a helpful site (from the BBC, of all places) with a section called "Why does my ball do that?" And as I read through it, it came to me: I'd fucked around with nearly every other aspect of my swing, but I never changed how far I was standing from the ball. I'd been standing too damn far away. So the next time I went to the range, I tried standing a little closer, and sure enough, it now makes a difference what club I use!

Not that I'm swinging well now, though. Oh my, no. I still have a dreadful push-slice, to the point that I aim 45 degrees left of target and still end up to the right half the time. But now, when I swing my pitching wedge it's a push-slice that travels 65 yards in the air, and when I swing my driver it's a push-slice that travels 165 yards in the air, instead of every club being a push-slice that travels 50 yards in the air. I'm going to go ahead and call that a step forward.

Plus, further study has given me some thoughts on what might be causing the push and the slice. I must get back to the range to test out my theories. If I can fix both halves of the push-slice, that should also go a long way toward solving the distance problem.

posted by Jake @ 11:59 PM