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McRock's Cosmic Ride to the IA Amateur Championship and beyond...

Ok, after being gone a few days, and playing a whole lot of golf, there is lots to talk about.

First off, we did play in our golf outing. There were only 7 of us, which likely had a lot to do with the 730 tee off time, and it being 36 degrees. It did warm up by about the 10th hole in the mid 40s though. It had been so cold the whole week, it was at least 6 days since I had last swung a golf club. This was not good because I'm having issues with the driver.

First hole, I break out the big stick, BIG SWING AND.....I barely clip the ball with the heel of the driver, it trickles 15 yards forward and a little to my left. I proceeded to chunk the next two iron shots. We were all a little rusty, and the guy in my cart goes (I think were all dipping down right now). I'm pretty sure this was his coy way of telling me what I was doing with out it seeming like unsolicited advice. Nonetheless, I appreciated. Next iron shot, I made a real conscience effort to not change my spine angle and whack!, I hit a beautiful shot. I then proceeded to chip terribly around the green, and took a 9. Second hole, out of bounds on the left, I pull the big stick. BIG SWING!.....skied the ball 50 yards and on the other side of the road. I thought, 'hey, I need to get this figured out, this is just embarrassing.' Re-tee, normal swing, tried to make sure my spine angle stayed the same and.....skied the ball, 50 yards on the other side of the road, within 3 feet of my first shot. At that point I decided what was embarrassing was me hitting the driver. I went and picked up my balls, dropped in the fairway. One full iron shot and a chip later, I was on the green. I two putted for a 9. At that point, I stopped using the driver for about 7 holes. It worked out because really, if I can tee off my 3 iron 200-220 yards, rather than hit my driver 40, I'll take the 3 iron. I have no idea what I shot on the front 9, but I was averaging 6 after those first two holes.

On the back 9, I pulled driver. I felt it. I don't know if you've ever just 'felt' that big drive when your walking up to the next tee, but I did. And I blasted that driver. All of a sudden, I could hit my driver. I wasn't catching it flush, but it was going straight and 250 yards on some pretty rough fairways (it's early spring, they haven't been mowed yet). The whole back 9, I focused on course management and making sure I played my strengths and minimized my weaknesses. I knew I wasn't hitting any good shots from 30 yards and closer, so I laid up....a lot, to give myself 110-120 yard shots with my pitching wedge. The best was on a par 5 on the back side. My buddy had brand new clubs thanks to insurance and a car accident, so he was hitting a brand new TM R11 tour preferred. He bombed his drive 330 yards, but was way off to the right into the woods. I hit my drive 280 yards. Now I knew I could reach the green in two. I was 220 yards out, the green was way downhill (although not visible from where I was). There was a creek in front of the green. I took the safe play. Rather than risk not catching all of my 3 iron, I hit a 6 iron, knowing it would roll down the hill to a nice flat spot for an easy 3d shot into the green. I hit the ball perfectly, had an easy 3d shot, got within 10 feet. I made the putt for a birdie, my first of the season! While my buddy out drove me 50 yards, he took a snowman, and I had a bird.

I ended up shooting 49 on the back side. I was even 5's until the last 3 holes, and I think some fatigue set in, because I started chunking and generally hitting some poor shots. I only missed one putt inside of 5 feet, and I probably made about 10 four foot putts. So my short putting was doing great. My long putting was not, which is why I had a lot of 4 and 5 foot putts.

I went to the driving range yesterday, spent about half my bucket on irons. I wasn't really working on my swing with my irons as much as building a routine to help with alignment. My routine was to stand behind the ball and pick my line. Then I pick a spot 4-6 feet away from the ball that's on the line. Then I go up to the ball and align the club face first. Second, I align my feet. I turn my head to look down the target line, and if that 'spot' isn't what I'm looking at 4-6 feet in front of me, then I know I'm not aligned correctly. Again, this part of my iron game is just excelling right now. The aiming is good, the swing is good. I made sure to always change what I was aiming at too, just to make sure I aimed correctly each time.

I spent the other half of my bucket on the driver. It's still a mess. Hit a lot of shots off the heel for a good 20-30 yards. It got better towards the end, but it's nothing like what I was hitting last year. I ended the bucket at least hitting the driver 200 yards down the range with a 20 yard slice. It's better, but not nearly good enough. I'm not sure what happened to my driver swing over the winter, but I went from hitting 280 yards with a 15 yard draw last summer, to barely making contact with the ball this year. I was on the range for about 80 minutes.

I then spent 60 minutes on the practice green. I spent 30 minutes just putting around with long putts. No real drill here, just sort of casual putting. Since my long putting is a little rough right now, it seemed like the thing to do. I spent the last 30 minutes doing a short putting drill. I put 1 ball 15" out, the 2d 30" out, and the 3d 45" out. Each ball is on the same line to the cup. You putt the closest, then 2d and so on. It's a drill I learned a long time ago and it does two things for me. First, it teaches me that 4 feet isn't anymore difficult than the one foot putt. Second, it teaches me that if there is minimal break on the 4 foot putt, to just aim inside the upside edge of the cup, and putt the ball 'to the back of the cup.' If I miss, yea, I'm going to be 3-4 feet past the cup, but this drill just teaches me to 'putt' with confidence. Every 3 balls, I move the balls around the cup so I'm not putting the same 'direction' every time. I ended when I made 6 putts in a row. My last putt was a solid 4 feet, and it did have some break to the right. To put 'pressure' on me, I told myself if I make it, I could go inside the clubhouse for an adult beverage and then go home. I made it, which kind of surprised me, so then I rewarded myself.

Well, this has been a very long write up, but then, I've played a lot of golf the last couple of days. These were my 3 short term goals I set a couple of weeks ago.

1) get my driver swing back
2) correct aiming deficiency or push
3) hit irons consistently

I have achieved goals 2 and 3, and at least I'm hitting my driver down the fairway. My new 3 short term goals and focus of my practice is

1) get that awesome low ball flight and draw back with my driver
2) long putting (aka eliminate 3+ putting)
3) green side chipping (consistently chip inside of 5 feet being the goal)

While the above goals are going to be the focus of my practice, I will be continuing to be building my routine and alignment with my irons when I'm out on the range. I'll try to get some new videos of my swing soon too to see if my swing looks better than it first did a couple of weeks ago.

Until then....

~Rock
 
McRock said:
Hello everyone. As some others have done, it's time for me to set a goal, and publish my challenges and successes right here on THP.

Brief background. I'm from rural southern Iowa. I've played golf since I was a little kid with mickey mouse plastic clubs in my hand. I remember every set of clubs I have ever played. Mickey Mouse Plastic, Ram Junior, Wilson Junior, Lynx (predator I think), King Cobra II, Taylormade Burner, to my current Taylormade 300 irons. There have also been an assortment of drivers.

To me, golf is the one sport where I can go out and play by myself, and completely shut out the rest of the world. I can goto a driving range for 2 hours and not think about anything except hitting the next ball. It's also just a blast to play with friends, or simply trade golf stories, as so many of us do on this forum.

So my goal. Well, the title of the thread says most of it. I'd like to make it to the Iowa Amateur Championship. I don't necessarily set the goal of winning it, but I am setting the goal of making the cut. The cut seems to be about +10 after 36 holes. Currently, I shoot bogey golf, so I have a ways to go. My plan is to achieve this in 2-3 years.

As for the beyond part...well, I told my wife that my retirement plan was the senior pga tour in 21 years. She said that would be fine. I guess if I don't achieve that goal, I always have my career to fall back on.

So, that's the introductory stuff, now onto the current status of my game. I've had two trips to the driving range so far this year, with one round of golf in between. The first driving range visit and round of golf were pretty much as horrible as it gets. Bladed a lot of shots, sliced every driver, wasn't hitting the sweet spot, lost of lot of balls, just all around typical post-winter first time golfing syndrome.

By my second trip to the driving range, I had a little more going for me. My swing was better, I was hitting my irons a lot better, but I still need to get some consistency in distance. Then, I'm either pushing the ball, or I'm not aiming correctly.

I changed my swing a little during my range session. I stood up a little taller and didn't choke down on the irons so much. My driver is just gone. I went from hitting 280 yard draws last year on dry ground (people in Iowa will understand how little dry ground we had last year), to hitting 200 yards with 50 yard slices. Nonetheless, I'm hitting my clubs.

This is the stage where I can start making plans on what I need to work on. So, my current work program is:

1) get my driver swing back
2) correct aiming deficiency or push
3) hit irons consistently

The short term training will be updated regularly, as well as any challenges I face and successes. But it should be an exciting ride, and I'm excited to share it with all of you. It's sort of like the Haney project, except without Hank, or a camera crew, or celebrity status, commercials.....ok, it's nothing like the Haney project.

Still, there should be some exciting things happen in just this first year. Could there be exciting lessons from a pro? Maybe. How about a new set of irons? If you've seen my posts in the TM TP CB thread, you know that's a possiblity. There may even be a tournament or two.

On to some fun stuff. Here are a couple of videos from my most recent trip to the driving range. I haven't figured out how to edit yet, so sorry for the long pauses in between actual shots (there's two shots per video).

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This was before the swing change I noted above. Hopefully the swing change will make it so I'm not so hunched over with a 6-iron. From these videos, i learned 3 things:

1) I'm a little hunched over with my upper back
2) I still lift my left heel on the backswing (I'm curious to hear who all was taught to swing a golf club that way)
3) when taking video with my cell phone, tell the person to hold it horizontally.

I'll keep everyone posted.

~Rock
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Best of luck to you!
 
As promised, a few videos of my latest trip to the range. It was extremely windy that day, and I actually went to the range specifically to try and get used to the wind. It's not that I can't figure out how to hit a punch shot or aim in the wind or club up, it's that the wind is noisy, it blows me around, and generally aggravates me. As far as trying to get used to the wind, I did not, I got frustrated more than once that day at the range. Perhaps I should have started on a day when the wind was only blowing 20 mph instead of 35.

Anyway, here are the videos. First video is me with the driver. You can see it doesn't look right, my follow through is off. On the second shot, you can see where I look up and to the left as I sky-pulled it. After seeing the video, I'm sitting down a little more (more knee flex), and it has helped, but it's still not acceptable to me.

The second and third videos are me with a 6 iron. Compared to the videos in my first post, my spine angle is much more straight (less hunch in the shoulder area). My follow through and 'ending pose' look a little better as a result. You can also see I'm not choking up on the club as much. I'm hitting my irons awesome right now.

Spoiler


Spoiler


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Until next time,

~Rock
 
Well, another week down, and another review of where my game is at. The past week did not afford of lot of opportunity for good solid practice. My boss was out of town all last week, which meant I was in charge. I was a lot busier than I wanted to be. However, I still managed to get out and play two 9-hole rounds, and I spent an hour on the range. 3 days out of 7 doesn't seem too bad.

The second of the nine hole rounds was a 38. Don't get too excited though, it's a par 31 course, so that's 7 over. The good news of it though as that shooting 38 is as good as I ever did last year. I'm taking that as a sign that I'm already as good as I was in my peak last year. There's a whole lot of weeks of golf left, so I'm planning on big improvements this year to my game.

My three short term goals I set last week were

1) get that awesome low ball flight and draw back with my driver
2) long putting (aka eliminate 3+ putting)
3) green side chipping (consistently chip inside of 5 feet being the goal)

Well, like I said, I didn't get much practice in. But as for goal one, I'm going to call it a success. I had watched the video of my driver swing (posted above) several times, and I thought that maybe the reason I was popping the ball up was that I was pushing forward off my right foot like a baseball swing. I wasn't rotating my lower body. So I went to the range, and purposefully decided to let my torso pull my legs through and BAM!, perfect driver shot on the first try. I followed that up with 25 more great driver swings. The wind was blowing 25 mph, and I was hitting with the wind, and the wind was pushing my ball just a tad to the right. So I don't know if I was ever drawing the ball, but I definitely had my nice low ball flight back. And, I was consistently hitting the center of the club face. So I think we can cross goal one off the short term list.

As for long putting, I didn't spend much time putting other than during my two rounds. Shame on me, but I'm going to have to put in more time on the putting green. I've been so concerned about my driver and my complete inability to hit it. Now that it's fixed, I think I'll definitely be more willing to spend more time on the practice green. Goal number two is not finished yet.

I spent a little time on green side chipping. I changed my stance a little and went from chipping with an 8 iron to a 7 iron. I did pretty well, but I'm still not comfortable with it yet. So this goal is partially completed.

I also spent some time at the range yesterday teaching myself a proper pitch shot. I have never learned how to pitch the ball, I just always opened the blade on one of my wedges and lobbed every ball up there. Sometimes the distance would be right, and sometimes not. I'm hoping the pitch shot will give me a lot more consistency in the 15-85 yard range. It took about a dozen balls to get used to the swing, but then I hit about 40 more shots, and 2/3 of them were solid contact. I have to make sure my feet stay quiet. I also have a tendency to lower my right shoulder when I get too 'lazy' with the swing. I'm very pleased with my progress already. I'll be continuing to perfect this swing to achieve 90-95% consistency in contact with the ball.

This week looks a little iffy on the weather in the last half, but Tuesday and Wednesday should be solid weather. So my new 3 short term goals are

1) Draw the driver
2) achieve 80% consistency with ball contact on pitch shot
3) eliminate three putts by focusing on long putting

until next time

~Rock
 
It's really tough to get back on your game after a long winter, glad to hear you're having success though!

I played 9 holes the other day in 30+ mph wind and was really frustrated, so I feel your pain there.

Keep up the good work!
 
Glad to hear you seeing improvements already, Rock. Keep it up!
 
Great goal McRock. I just moved to NW Iowa last august from NC. BTW the weather defiantly stinks this winter was hard on me. Have you thought about playing in the Mid-AM in May?
 
Golf84man said:
Great goal McRock. I just moved to NW Iowa last august from NC. BTW the weather defiantly stinks this winter was hard on me. Have you thought about playing in the Mid-AM in May?
Click to expand...

I haven't thought about it, but with the way my game is coming together, it might be nice to get a little competition in. When and where is it? Is this the USGA mid-am event? Does it have qualifying rounds (like, do I start by playing in an event in Iowa and play my way up to the mid-am championship?)
 
McRock said:
I haven't thought about it, but with the way my game is coming together, it might be nice to get a little competition in. When and where is it? Is this the USGA mid-am event? Does it have qualifying rounds (like, do I start by playing in an event in Iowa and play my way up to the mid-am championship?)
Click to expand...

There isn't a qualifier that I know of. It's being held this year at Centennial Oaks in Waverly, IA. So its in Iowa and a good place to start if your trying to play in the AM.
 
McRock said:
I haven't thought about it, but with the way my game is coming together, it might be nice to get a little competition in. When and where is it? Is this the USGA mid-am event? Does it have qualifying rounds (like, do I start by playing in an event in Iowa and play my way up to the mid-am championship?)
Click to expand...

Your can go to www.iowagolf.org and fint the information on it and enter online
 
That tournament looks like a great place. It certainly has my interest. I'll have to think about it, and probably get a handicap. I haven't had an official handicap for years.
 
McRock said:
That tournament looks like a great place. It certainly has my interest. I'll have to think about it, and probably get a handicap. I haven't had an official handicap for years.
Click to expand...

Hope it works out I was going to play in it but my one knee scope turned into three so I won't be back to a 100% in time
 
keep up the good work!
 
Normally I don't do mid-week updates, but hey, I'm just too pumped. Today, I decided to play 9 at one of the best courses in the area. I wasn't hitting my irons that great, a little too much fade in my shots. Despite some struggles with the irons, I shot a 3 over par 39. It's pretty early in the season for me to be shooting that low already. In fact, that's about as good as I've ever shot on a front 9.

It was a 'winter rules' 39. Lost a ball in the rough, so I just dropped where I thought it was. There were no other 'foot wedges' or anything of that sort. So I considered that pretty good.

The crazy thing is how my stats were. Even on putting, 6 GIR, but only one fairway hit. After the round, I went to the range and figured out the slice issue on my irons. Maintain the spine angle through the shot. Wish I could have re-played the front 9 without the slice. Another day I suppose.
 
This week was a tale of two golfers. I was able to get out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and today (Sunday). Monday was all about putting and greenside chipping. Tuesday was a day on the range. Wednesday, I posted that awesome 'winter' 39 I posted above. Today, I played a full 18 and shot 95. Driver is still all over the place, but my 3 wood is becoming pretty automatic. I'm typically ok with teeing off with a 3 wood.

A few things to take away from my two actual golfing days. I need to develop confidence in my swing and in my alignment. I'm not aiming very well because I don't trust my alignment. Also, putting, putting, putting, and more putting. In my 3-over 39 round Wednesday, I made almost every putt from within 6 feet. In my round today, I missed almost every single putt 2 feet and out.

I'm not changing my short term goals. The short game is going to be my primary focus.

As a non-game practice matter, I've been seriously debating picking up the TM TP MC. Lately though, I've been thinking if there are other areas of my game that need new equipment first. I have a gap between my PW and 56* wedge that would be nice if I filled with a 52* wedge. My draw driver has worked in past years, but this years it is totally tearing my game apart. Part of it is alignment. The driver head is closed, but it's hard not to align my feet and shoulders to the face, so I lose the benefit of the draw. I may swing a TM 2.0 driver sometime this week just to see how I do with it. My grips also need redone. I've been putting it off a long time because I don't want to spend $100 regripping my clubs if I end up getting new irons. But right now, 3 of my iron grips have worn down to some sort of cloth fabric, and the rest of the grips aren't too far behind.

Decisions, decisions.

~Rock
 
keep plugging away at it, sounds like you and I are in the same boat. My driver isnt all over the place, its dead RIGHT every time. Thought it was alignment but it wasnt that, thought it was my grip like the guy at golf galaxy said, but that didnt help, must be my actual swing lol
 
Yea, I hit the driver 3 times during my Sunday round of 95. First time was a slice out into the prairie, so there was a penalty. Second time I pulled it into a creek (or crick if you live in Iowa), but at least I found my ball. Another penalty stroke. Third time, I figured I had nothing to lose, the score couldn't get much worse, and I completely skied the ball a total of 40 yards. I didn't even make the ladies tee (but I did hit a beautiful 4-iron after that).

It's kind of frustrating. I'm hitting my 3-wood, which is nothing special as a 3-wood, straight, 215-225 yards every time. But I pull out the driver, and its all over the place. Sometimes I think I'm pushing off my right foot again, and probably have too steep a swing plane. I'll get it one of these days.

The weather this week is horrible here in Iowa. Cold and rainy all week long. Thankfully, I'm heading down to Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri this weekend for Easter, and its supposed to be in the mid to high 60s there.
 
Another week down, and nothing good to report. First, the weather sucked in Iowa pretty much all of last week, at least Monday through Friday. Cold and Wet. Sometimes I wonder why I don't move to a better climate.

I was down in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, though this weekend. I made it to the driving range, and my hitting was horrible, I was push slicing everything. The only bright spot was this new pitch swing I started a couple weeks ago. I was really accurate with that. Then yesterday, I made it to my local driving range, and again, I was really trying to work on this slice push thing. I came away with a few new bits of information.

First, I'm pushing off my right foot with my irons. That used to be limited to the driver, but now it's happening with the irons. Second, my posture is out of whack, and I only know that b/c my golf swing is not fluid right now. When my posture is correct, the follow through happens naturally for me. Third, my stance is open to my target line, which right now, I can't tell except by putting a board down by my feet. My eyes are trying to deceive me. Fourth, as a temporary fix, by lowering the plane of my backswing, I am hitting the ball straight with my longer irons. However, lowering the plane on my shorter irons does not help with the push. In fact, it usually just leads to a big pull. Fifth, I know for a fact that I'm swinging too hard. This is causing me to throw my club at the top (the start of the downswing), creating a circle and therefore, an outside to in swing. Sixth, I'm trying so hard not to push with my right arm at the moment (I use a baseball grip/thumbs down the shaft, not the Tommy Two Gloves baseball grip), that I'm pulling too hard with my left arm and taking some fairly sizable fat divots. It's causing me to lower my right shoulder and all sorts of other things. Seventh, when trying the overlap grip, the same thing happens, and I try so hard to pull with my left arm that I hit the shot all sorts of fat. Finally (eighth), grips worn down to some sort of cloth fabric isn't helping any.

When I first started this season, my swing was smooth and natural, which was a result of a loose grip. My grip has progressively gotten tighter and tighter as the last remnants of my golf grips faded away. So, I finally decided that I was not going to get new irons this season. I left my clubs at the clubhouse yesterday and told them what grips I wanted put on. Should be done by Thursday when the weather gets nice in Iowa again. So the first thing I'm going to try when I get my clubs back is 'loose grip, swing easy.'

The other nice thing about not buying new irons this year is that if needed, I get to buy a new driver instead. I still haven't decided on whether to get a 52* wedge, but that's also a possibility, since I have a gap there. My driver is only 4 years old, but it feels ancient compared to some of these new drivers.

Until next time,

Rock
 
The driver you have is thought by many to be the best TM driver made in a long time. That said, it sure is fun to go driver shopping ;)

Keep up the good work!
 
McRock said:
Another week down, and nothing good to report. First, the weather sucked in Iowa pretty much all of last week, at least Monday through Friday. Cold and Wet. Sometimes I wonder why I don't move to a better climate.

I was down in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, though this weekend. I made it to the driving range, and my hitting was horrible, I was push slicing everything. The only bright spot was this new pitch swing I started a couple weeks ago. I was really accurate with that. Then yesterday, I made it to my local driving range, and again, I was really trying to work on this slice push thing. I came away with a few new bits of information.

First, I'm pushing off my right foot with my irons. That used to be limited to the driver, but now it's happening with the irons. Second, my posture is out of whack, and I only know that b/c my golf swing is not fluid right now. When my posture is correct, the follow through happens naturally for me. Third, my stance is open to my target line, which right now, I can't tell except by putting a board down by my feet. My eyes are trying to deceive me. Fourth, as a temporary fix, by lowering the plane of my backswing, I am hitting the ball straight with my longer irons. However, lowering the plane on my shorter irons does not help with the push. In fact, it usually just leads to a big pull. Fifth, I know for a fact that I'm swinging too hard. This is causing me to throw my club at the top (the start of the downswing), creating a circle and therefore, an outside to in swing. Sixth, I'm trying so hard not to push with my right arm at the moment (I use a baseball grip/thumbs down the shaft, not the Tommy Two Gloves baseball grip), that I'm pulling too hard with my left arm and taking some fairly sizable fat divots. It's causing me to lower my right shoulder and all sorts of other things. Seventh, when trying the overlap grip, the same thing happens, and I try so hard to pull with my left arm that I hit the shot all sorts of fat. Finally (eighth), grips worn down to some sort of cloth fabric isn't helping any.

When I first started this season, my swing was smooth and natural, which was a result of a loose grip. My grip has progressively gotten tighter and tighter as the last remnants of my golf grips faded away. So, I finally decided that I was not going to get new irons this season. I left my clubs at the clubhouse yesterday and told them what grips I wanted put on. Should be done by Thursday when the weather gets nice in Iowa again. So the first thing I'm going to try when I get my clubs back is 'loose grip, swing easy.'

The other nice thing about not buying new irons this year is that if needed, I get to buy a new driver instead. I still haven't decided on whether to get a 52* wedge, but that's also a possibility, since I have a gap there. My driver is only 4 years old, but it feels ancient compared to some of these new drivers.

Until next time,

Rock
Click to expand...

I have a R9 with your name on it!
 
I just have to remind myself, to not get too hasty on the excitement over a new driver. First, I'm going to get my driver swing back. There's no point shopping for new drivers if my swing with a driver is all out of whack. The sole purpose of getting a new driver is 15-30 yards in extra distance. If that doesn't happen, I'm just going to keep what I have. I want to be pushing that 280-300 yard mark on dry flat ground. That would do wonders for helping me reach a lot of my par 5's in 2 with an iron on the second shot. Right now, with a solid driver hit, I'm typically 10 yards short of my 3-wood range to reaching my par 5's in 2. And I'm not great at aiming my 3-wood off the deck, so I'd much rather hit an iron.

But it'll still be fun to hit all those new drivers. I've always hit TM, but I'm gonna try them all this time, Titleist, Cleveland, Cobra, Taylormade, Callaway, Ping. Should be good times.
 
Today I'm going to share a story about a massive breakthrough/revelation I had yesterday while out at the range.

My irons are currently getting regripped, and so I only had my 3 wood and driver yesterday at the range. I figured that was ok since I wasn't hitting either one perfectly. In fact, my driver play this season has just been awful.

First, I learned a neat little trick to get into the proper posture everytime, and that has definitely helped the natural flow of my swing. I'm ending up in the picture-pose follow through, and when I do that, I know I was set up correctly. Unfortunately, after a large bucket of balls, I was still doing a huge slice with the driver, and a pretty good sized slice with my 3 wood.

At this point, I decide to go try out 3 new drivers. 'Hey, I'm out at the range, maybe its just my driver' said the guy (me) who was in denial that his golf swing needed help. So there I was, hitting the new Callaway driver, and the TM Burner 2.0 and R11 driver. Didn't like any of them. While they launched to ball lower (which I like), I still was slicing them.

Well while this is going on, the head pro is out on the range. He had just gotten done hosting a high school tournament, and he was a little bummed out his team didn't play well at all. So he's just out there hitting balls. Anyways, I think he notices my frustration when I don't hold my pose, and he tells me to put the ball about a foot back in my stance, and really roll my hands over. Then he apologizes for giving unsolicited advice, and I was like "no really, I want the advice, my driver has been terrible all season."

So first swing, I really rolled those hands over, and not only pulled the ball to the left, but even had it hooking a little. I made a sheepish/embarassed comment about how maybe i shouldn't force my wrists rolling over quite that much. So, next shot, he has me get that ball back in my stance again. I take a normal swing and BAM!, straight, and I'm guessing it drew a little because we had a nice left to right wind yesterday and the ball flew straight. I had about 30 balls in my bucket left, and I mean, I was just hitting good shot after good shot. Probably 75% of my shots were straight.

Just to write it down so I dont forget, the ball, at least in my eyes, seems like it is almost in the middle of my stance. He wanted it to be about one foot inside of my left heel. At address, to my eyes, and with a draw driver, it almost looks like a nice forward press with the driver. Either way, while it may look a little odd to me, I didn't have to change my swing at all. Just where my ball was at address.

I cannot wait to get back out to the range today, and hit more drivers to make sure I really have this down.

So the moral of the story is this, and I've said it before, and I will say it again and again....a golf pro can fix a swing flaw in mere minutes, but it would have taken me a month or two. In my case, it took him two swings to fix my driver shots (and it's always nice when you get something free). If you have a problem, buck up, lay the cash down, and pay for a lesson. It's worth it in the end. I know I'm considering more and more of buying a set of lessons from this guy.
 
Glad to hear you're having some success now with the driver! I've also been making some setup changes with the driver and I'm sure it'll lead to more success after a few practice sessions.

I'm curious though. It would seem that by moving the ball so far back in your stance that you would experience a massive decrease in distance since you'll actually be hitting "down" on the ball and creating a bunch of backspin. Have you noticed that at all?
 
glad to see you had a good revelation, keep it up man!
 
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