My Swing’s Still On Track

I took the day off today to head to the western side of the state (Michigan) and play a round of golf. (I’ll post a review of the course later).

I played pretty well, concentrating on just two swing thoughts. The first, which I wrote about last week, was to try to relieve tension in my swing by gripping the club a lot less tightly. That really seems to do the trick.

The second thought comes from Jim Hardy’s The Plane Truth Book. In it, Hardy writes that a two plane swinger (as I am), tends to have a swing that is too steep, and too narrow. So today, I also concentrated on widening my arc on the backswing. I am probably taking the club too far outside, but for now, it’s working.

So with those two thoughts, I did pretty well. I had no mishits with my irons for the entire round (although not all of them were on target). And after a few poor holes at the beginning, my shots with the driver and woods also greatly improved.

In fact, I did something I’ve not done in a long time: I was on the green on a 475 yard par 5 in two. A good tee shot and a three wood out of the rough got me on the rather largish green, where I putted it in for a birdie.

One thing I’ve really noticed about that lighter grip is that I’m finishing my swing with a lot more panache. The relative lack of tension allows me to make a complete follow through, hands high and finishing in the classic shaft-across-the-back position.

I’m going to keep working on those thoughts.