Overall swing suggestions

Hi Paul,

Deciding what to work on with your golf game can be tricky. But as Paul Azinger once said, "you're only one swing away from finding magic". So keep grinding.

Looking at your swing, there are a couple of areas that could tighten up, but we probably want to know more about your goals. Are there specific areas of your game holding you back from getting lower than a 5? The big four are:
1. Driver
2. Irons
3. Wedge Play
4. Putting

Your pattern has some timing elements, so what you need to work on will depend on your feedback. I imagine when you play a lot it's pretty good (until you play too much and lose it from neurological fatigue). But when it does get off is it more:
- missing too many greens from 80-140
- driver gets too hook biased off the tee
- lose contact with the longer irons
- poor recovery shots

PS - I'm guessing it's not the contact because the video has some good lighting and we can see the contact wear pattern below. ;)

Let me know and we can move forward with your plan.

Tyler

Tyler, Thanks for your reply. I'll try to give you insight into my game and where the improvement should be focused. I have been playing for 54 seasons since I was 12. Hooked/fascinated with the game ever since.

1. Driver - I am a pretty good driver - hit a good number of fairways - short - hit maybe 230-240 - and straight-ish. Driver is easy to hit for me cause its teed up!
2. Irons - I play up to a 4 iron and miss a lot of shots form 6 to 4 iron. my 7 is OK and 8 9 W are pretty good.
3. Wedge Play - pretty solid - I used to be better but I consider this a strength. I am comfortable hitting 50-70 yarders
4. Putting - I take 33-36 putts a round - many more rounds under these than over. I dont consider myself good on 3 to 10 feet. I three-putt no more than 2x a round and usually none. I read greens fairly well and judge pace well.
5. Sand play - used to be better - the course I usually play changed their sand to a much heavier textured sand and I have found it much more difficult to control the amount of sand...
6. Mental game - we can all improve here - sometimes get wrapped up in playing golf-swing to limit / control my flaws. I am always focused on mechanics because I figure the only way to lasting improvement is through solid mechanics. I see the reverse pivot in my swing and the overswing at the top and the early cast from the top (see the shaft flex?) - these are very very difficult for me to fix.

I hit balls 7 days a week for about 1 1/2 hrs equally split between long shots (of these 1/2 are wedges/short irons) and putting.

Some good information there. If your goal is score, then it's pretty obvious where you can gain the most stroke drop. Putting for scratch golf is an average of about 31 putts, can be lower if you're not hitting a lot of greens. See the stat screenshot from the "How to Be Your own Coach" for help prioritizing your time.

With the long irons, you have a couple of challenges to work through. See this video on long irons to give some background. https://www.golfsmartacademy.com/golf-instruction/3-wood-and-long-irons/

As far as your comment:
The shaft flex is due to rolling shutter, it's not really happening but the frame rate makes it look that way.
I wouldn't say you have a reverse pivot or a cast. I'd say it's more of a slide with steep arms and more of a stall flip down at impact. If you did want to tackle it, you'll need a little shallower arm action (either backswing or downswing), less slide and more body rotation which could be more of a feeling of the hips getting open or the spine being more rotated, and then arm the arm action at impact would have to adjust as well (more of the Moe Norman/Don't break my arms idea.

If it were me, I'd start with some impact drills and 9-3's to get used to the body and arm position differences at the same time. Then I'd use video to help monitor which was easier to think about (body open with less slide) or less of a flip with arm feels.
But either way, the stats are pretty clear that putting should be a big short-term focus if you are really up near the 36 putts range.

Happy Golfing,
Tyler

That's great you keep some stats. What about the GIRs? Better than 9 per round?

So far we can see that from a scoring perspective, you've got some room with your putting. Your putting stats are at about a 10-15 HCP level. Which would take some pretty big jumps in the other areas of your game to overcome.

Tyler

GIR 12,7,8,7,7,7,11,5,12,11,7,10,8,10,6,10,9,5,7,11,4,3 = Avg 8 GIR.

I always thought that my putting was sub-par (no pun intended). I manage my ball well and do not make a lot of doubles. (I play 6600 yd course which at 65 plays longer for me than it did when I was a young 55 lol). I am shorter but straighter than I was 10 yrs ago and much straighter than 20 yrs ago. My miss was a hook and I drew the ball but rarely do either now. My ball tends to fade now and my strong shots are straight.

I need to work on alignment. I have conventional reverse overlap with an old school Scotty toe weighted anser style head - Newport 2. I have a pendulum style motion. I recently been missing birdie putts in the 7-10 ft range... If I could get even down to the 33 PPR range I'd consider it a success. Its been a long time since I've had the 28-to-32 PPR.

Well, the good news is that from a GIR perspective, you're on par with your handicap. So there's no reason you shouldn't be working to improve that as well. It would have been a really bad sign if you were more around the 10 GIR as an average. You showed with your good days you can get there, but it's not an average yet. But while you're working on your ball striking, I'd definitely try to clean up your 5 footers. It's nice to make birdies, but a scratch golfer only averages about 2 birdies per round. Getting down to that scratch level is more about avoiding doubles and saving pars when you miss a green.

As far as the full swing, I think your choices are going after the arms/flip, or working on adding more body rotation from the hips. They go together and help a lot with the longer irons.

Happy Golfing,
Tyler