Thursday, May 14, 2009

Summary of my Golf Lesson.

Your drive landed on the short grass, you are 135 yards from the pin and figured that you want to attack the pin. Sets up and go ball!!!!! it ended up in the greenside rough. This is what i have been going through the past month. My shot dispersion has never been worse. Tried some practice at the range, however it's still dispersing wildly. I am not hitting a consistent slice, hook, push or pull. It is more of a combination of all four. Conclusion is... Yes, I suck and my swing is just out of sync. To counter this problem, I took a lesson with a PGA professional, Chuck Mayhew. This is the first time I ever took a golf lesson that I have to pay for. This better be working, I thought. What an amazing result it yields. After taking just one lesson, we figured that my alignment was way off, therefore I need to somehow manipulate my wrist and body to hit the target. Result? INCONSISTENCIES. The second thing we figured out was that I am having too much unnecessary movement during my golf swing, my body is moving everywhere and I tend to slide instead of turning my body towards the target.
The first thing we worked on was my alignment. The first time it was changed, it felt so awkward, it feels as if you were hitting the left side of your target. Chuck warned me that at first your aim would feel out of whack, but you are actually aiming at the right target. He said that because I have been developing a habit of aiming improperly, a good change would feel unnatural. The second thing that we weren't suppose to be working on but figured out, was how my head was tilted away from my shoulder tilt. This in turn induced my head and body to slide during the backswing, which consequently alter my spine angle. To compensate the sliding motion, what I did was return to my previous position by sliding back instead of turning. What would this translate to? INCONSISTENCIES. To counter this tendency, I tilt my head away from the target and try to keep my head steady. This would encourage a turn rater than a slide and the steady head would also keep your spine angle steady. Imagine that your whole body is an elastic cylindrical tube ( most probably that's what others perceived me as, an Xtra Large one :)) . If the bottom was bolted down to the floor, it can still be moved left to right, however if the top was also bolted, all that it could possibly do is turn. This will yield more consistency and amazingly enough, more power from the coil of your body.

After that one hour lesson, it took me about 3 more range sessions to absolutely get a hold of this new concept, getting the club square at impact and breaking the old habits. Hope this helps.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

R7 TP irons review

Model under review: R7 TP irons with PX 6.0
In golf, your score is computed based on how many shots it take you to get the ball into the hole. In a par 4 for example, it doesn't matter whether you hit your drive 300 yards or 200 yards, if it takes you another three shots the get to the hole, a par is still what you'll get. Therefore, having a consistent iron set that would deliver the same distance through every shot across the board would be crucial. This consistency is being offered by the R7 TP irons. With the inverted cone technology Taylor Made tried to develop a player's club that offers more forgiveness without sacrificing feel. Did they succeed in making one? Here's my review.




Looks
Compared to other player's irons, the R7 TP can be considered oversize. This might be a trouble at address to some players. To me, however, it is a boost in my confidence, it gives me the sense that I still have some room to miss a little bit off the center of the club face without being penalized to severely. A lot of people made a big fuss on how the carbon motive and the elaborate ornament on the back of the club might be a drawback to these irons. I don't see this as a problem at all, because it is invisible at address. I personally think it looks neat and fits perfectly to the way the club was built. Built to accommodate scratch golfers and low handicapper, these irons have a somewhat thin sole and top line, although not as thin as those on muscle back irons.

Performance
Here is the meat of the review. The R7 TP offers a soft feel with abundant forgiveness. For a player's iron, Taylormade really came through in the area of forgiveness. A slight mishit travels only 5 yards short off the perfect hit. Feel-wise the club has a soft feel at impact, however, it is way out of the league in feel when compared to forged clubs. The clubs are just not as buttery soft when hit perfectly, but it also doesn't sting when hit imperfectly. For a cast irons though it is on the top of its league.
These irons have very consistent trajectory and shape. I have a natural tendency of a draw in my shots and this club produced just that with the same amount of ball movement from shot to shot across the board. It is also very easy to work the ball the other way (fade) and to do it with a lot of control.

Conclusion
I would recommend this clubs to those players that are good enough ball striker to use player's clubs, but still need some assistance here and there. These irons will definitely help in finding the green more often or recovering some errand tee shots.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Intro

What's so hard about rolling down a ball down the lane to knock down 10 oddly shaped wooden pins? How could whacking a small hard white dimpled ball into a small hole be so interesting? This blog serve to entice your curiosity about some of the interesting facts on bowling and golf. It will answer questions ranging from very general ones like how does a bowling ball curve, to very specific ones like what does golf ball compression mean. Enjoy!!!!