Mike's tips that helped me make best swing ever & End of season 2017 procedures

Question 1

Mikes’s Cell:

Mike Ashurst: 520.345.6990

Overview.

Mike helped me to know:

1. Where on the club to contact the ball: Bottom grooves of iron.
2. HT escape any sand trap: Finish very high
3. HT finish every shot: Finish very high!
4. HT get pivot power rather than bump hips: Told me to pause at top of swing, drop to transition and at same time start the swing with a pivot timed with arms catching up and matching chest position going into impact. See note A on flip side for more details.
5. HT hit up on a teed up ball. I watched him tee off but did not know the secret until SOG had a long distance driver. See note B on a later card for the details.

Answer 1

Note A: The details of the pivot downswing.

The bump was working okay for me, but still pushed to the right many times plus lots of good hits with RHS gear action. The problem is I was running into myself with the bump which forced push to right and RHS gear action which rowed into the rough behind a tree many times.

Here are end of season procedures for basic fairway swing. This swing is a powerful swing and with will pull half a fairway sometimes to the left. To counter this, I line up my address position half a fairway to the right then take my stance. I have two ways I can do this.

A: Simplest way is to aim and setup half a green to the right. Just make certain you are closing CF to square as you come down to impact.

B: Second way is to line up square to target, then go around the imaginary pole on your transition coming to impact with a good in to out path and hit the ball at about 4 O’clock from your setup viewpoint. I thought of this as my towel snap and it made my ball go very straight because I countered the pull. Problem is I often forgot to perform the 4 o’clock towel snap resulting in a bad pull into the weeds on the left. FRUSTRATING! It is easier to do method A. This is how golf loopy wanted me to do it. Simply setup to the right then you do not need to perform a towel snap to counter the pull.

END OF SEASON UPDATE:

C: In the last day of playing owcc in mid November, I was just setting up at address with a slightly open stance. I then just hit square on the back of the ball and most shots went straight!

On drives I took half a step back from the ball so I had to reach out for it at impact. At setup I hovered my club and did a few practice waggles. Had many nice drives.

Question 2

Note B: Overview. Normal fairway swing detailed will follow this overview. From address position. Slowly BS to outstretched high hands at top of BS. Do not over backswing letting club lay down pointing to target behind your shoulders. Just stretch BS high as you can and stop with hands cocked with lag.

NOTE: The TA should be right above the ground, so much so that it will hit another ball on the ground 2 foot behind the ball you are addressing. This path is very important because it marks the route back down to the ball with your hands still cocking the triangle and swinging the triangle on this path to the ball. All the Pros say this is the most important part of the BS.

Transition with slow start to hip pivot. This start of transition is to position grip and shaft lined up with swing path to back of the ball. The right elbow just starts to point toward the ball but does not fully point to ball, or else you hit very very fat shot. So transition is now inline with grip pointing to back of ball. Still slow action here, progress more on your pivot with hands and shoulders following behind and not caught up yet with your chest. Now concentrate on hitting the very back of your ball and when ready, absolutely fire your shoulders into impact catching up with your pivot so pivot reaches ball a fraction of second earlier as your are firing hard your grip into the ball. Remember to close your CF going into impact. Now finish high, like Arnold if you can. You should feel like you just ripped it big time with a pivot towel snap perfectly timed shoulders and pivot.

Details: End of season 2017 check points and procedures fairway shot. [NOTE: GOING TO 3/4 SWING. READ CARD 3/4 SWING GOING FORWARD.]

1. From setup, hold the Hogan tension in arms and legs, then slowly do TA turning CF open 0900 to match your spine. The CF will be at this same open 0900 position on the way back down.
2. With Hogan tension holding your triangle, slowly stretching high as you can and having wrist cocked at top of swing. Now a quick pause.
3. Start pivot very slowly starting to bring Left heel back to ground for ground force. At this same time just a slight point toward ball with R elbow. Not a full point, just start to define a point going around the post and lining grip and shaft to back of ball. Note: you are still in full shoulder turn, you are using the transition to aim grip to the back center of ball. The key point here is you have not started to swing at the ball in any shape or form. You are aiming your rifle before you shoot at the ball.
4. Soon as you feel you are inline with the target you speed up your pivot. Shoulders still not swinging but way back at the BS position which has dropped and gone around the pole to hit with a slight in to out target line that corrects to directly in line with the ball at impact.

Answer 2

Fairway procedure continues:

5. As you start the DS, your CF is straight open as you approach the 0900 position.
6. Now you do your towel snap by putting pivot turn to full speed and hitting the back of ball center with everything you got. In this step 6 you will be doing these actions:

A. At 0900 closing CF by feel with your grip position being your guide.

B. Stomping down on L heel and pivoting into impact leading with a strong left pulling grip into rear of ball.

C. Finish high Arnold style if you can.

The finished swing should feel like an explosion into the back of the ball.

Question 3

Teed up ball is mostly the same. Just a couple of changes.

1. Tee so ball is SECOND GROOVE FROM THE TOP, then setup with CF laying on ground behind ball.
2. Take a wider stance.
3. Lean upper body to the right so you can hit up on the ball.
4. Take your BS, transition, round the post and start on DS, all of these actions with you still leaning way back.
5. Stay leaning back through your swing and rip the back side of the ball a mile high and long. Your impact is dead center forward on rear of ball. Because you did entire swing leaning back, you automatically are “hitting up” on the ball by hitting straight through the center of the backside of the ball. You are swinging through the back of ball from 1500 thru the ball and thru 0900. The ball goes up because you are leaning back. You are hitting the ball from 1500 straight level to 0900. This has a lot of power so rip it!

This method works on all clubs, even 8, 9, and PW.

Question 4

WEDGES PART 1: Dave Pelz and SOG 10/2017

Using half swings – 1500 to 0900

1. Ball in center of stance. If ball is forward, you will chunk and hit fat!
2. If ball is going left, move ball back in your stance.
3. Left foot open 45 degrees promotes pivot made easy.
4. MN: Left foot has most of your weight
5. MN: Club face open on BS, closes square to impact.
6. Finish wedge shot with chest facing to the target. Important for keeping ball flight to target.
7. Make sure to use the bounce. Practice brushing bounce on grass three swipes before stepping into address. This prevents chunking blade in the turf. These steps prevent chunking and blading the shot and makes everything simple.
8. NOTE: Match CF loft and shoulders to the lie. Accelerate into ball on your swing. Don’t be timid! Uphill – Use less loft so you don’t sky the ball. Down hill – Use more loft (even open CF if needed) to get ball in the air. Do not hit into the slope! Hit with the slope.

After practice note: Important!] Oct 13, 2017. I practiced both styles at family golf range. Grass was cut very short and I kept chunking the ball. Later I discovered I did not have ball in center of stance plus my feet were together, not spread apart. I wasn’t finishing the shot with my chest facing the target either. Another reason for my chunking was I was trying to hit under the ball instead of hitting the ball. CHUNK. [Hitting under the ball should work on fluffy lie] I tried SOG “Seve” lean. Do not use the lean for now. It makes me chunk too much.

I like having left foot flared open and the SOG pre setup turn to the left seems to work, but more experiments need to be done before I make it part of my game. The sand wedge is my favorite for small pitches. It worked great for 20 yard pitches and 8 yard pitches.

I noticed I must aim to the right because the loft makes the ball go left.

I also discovered to use a very strong RH grip on the SHAFT for short pitches like 20 yards. I learned I must lead with my left accelerating through the ball but keeping my strong grip with my right hand makes the pitch go high and very solid contact. My left hand leads but it feels like my right grip is popping the ball high and solid. IE, I think 75% of the swing power is my right strong grip squaring the CF and popping the ball high in the air for the soft landing. Need more experiments to know for sure if this is a winning shot for my game.

I also learned to make this a slow-flow shot with weight transfer. Not a quick shot by any means.

CF is always open taking it back but not decided yet if I take it straight back or if I DS inside to square. More wedge notes are sure to follow, then I will rewrite wedge procedures.

Answer 4

Cutting strokes

A normal round is 96 strokes.

21 Driver/wood/hybrid

14 Irons

19 Wedges

40 Putts

To cut strokes, hone your skills on wedges and putter! If you get wedge shot close to hole you can one putt and take 19 strokes off your game!

Wedges SOG next card.

Question 5

Wedges part 2 School of Golf 10/2017

Reference: Standing at address, North is on top, South on Bottom, East to your right, and West to your left.

Rhymes makes it easier to remember.

1. “West is best” – Turn shoulders left (West) to about 11:00 position before addressing the ball. This makes it easier to hit the ball rather than the ground.
2. [DELAY THE LEAN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]”A little lean hits it clean” – Seve’s famous lean to the lefrt. (Don’t lean too much) This Seve lean results in hitting the ground and the ball at the same time. [MN: Each wedge shot I have to choose this style or the new chip style. For now I think new chip style works for small chips and very short wedge shots and “West is best” wedge shots for greater distances works on longer distances.
3. Finish every wedge chest facing to the target! This keeps the direction on target. Remember, “Chest to the West, go with the flow”.

Question 6

3/4 SWING END OF SEASON 2017

14 Oct 2017: I tried out the half and 3/4 swing at the range.

I settled on the 3/4 swing with hand lag at the top of swing. With this swing, it seems like I am going back almost as far, but not as high as I do with the full swing. I was surprised that the 3/4 swing goes as far as my full swing.

NOTE: My swing thought for 3/4 swing is go slow, slow, slow then bash it! [REM the long drive champion said go slow until the end then bash it]

Nice things about 3/4 swing are:

1. Very few weak or miss hits.
2. No gear action when I hit it right.
3. 3Wood and 4 Iron make long and straight drives.
4. Even short irons like 7, 8 and 9 I can rip it and they go pretty straight.
5. This swing SB my Go To swing on all drives for hitting the fairway! Works well on a teed up ball, one finger above ground.

Things to look out for:

1. Don’t have as much time for transition. In fact it has a shorter transition. To fix this I must go very slow into and out of top of swing. Like full swing, CF is open at 0900 on BS and on DS.
2. Must be thinking I will square the club at impact.
3. In the transition I still line up the grip and shaft, and start my right elbow to drop club into slot. It just seems that transition is a much more compact operation than my full swing. There are a lot of adjustments going into and coming out of the top of BS. I must slow this part of swing down, giving time for all operations to get completed.

That is it for right now. I see no benefit in using the full swing since even my driver goes long with the 3/4 swing.

Answer 6

Putting:

To prevent all these backing off the putter as I stroke and leaving the ball half way to the hole. I am going back to Billy Casper’s style of giving it an extra boost.

I do this by making my putter impact go through the ball and hit the front of the golf ball. So for a three inch TA, I only go back the three inches, but when I putt, I follow thru like I can hit the front of the ball. Seems to work well. I just need to calibrate before my golf round and I will be fine.

Question 7

End of season finall thoughts 2017

OWCC Final epiphanies 11/2017

1. Make straight left arm shoulder turn inline with your DS path. Then arms already are inline with target path and all I have to do is pivot and close CF at impact. If this is done correctly it automatically lines up R. elbow to fold into my R. side!
2. Power my DS with pivot, not arms. When I swing with arms, I top the ball or mishit.
3. Driving with 3 wood. Tee up one full inch. (tip of thumb nail to knuckle joint.) Now hit through the ball center, not upward! Hit level at dead center of ball Beautiful drive using 3/4 Jacobi style swing. Finish FT LOW for distance.
4. Tee up 3 Hybrid drives a little higher than the one finger. Lay CF tilted open at address but hit a level center through the ball center like you are driving a nail into the center. It went further than my 3 wood. [NOTE: This should work better with my half step back, slight open stance and hovering 3 hybrid at address with waggle] SWING SLOW AND CONTROLLED. When finished you SB turned 1/4 turn toward target with all weight on left foot.

Answer 7

Nov. 12, 2017. To get much more distance on drives with longer irons (6 thru 3 wood, teed up balls):

1. After address step 1/2 step backwards from your setup. This makes me reach more for the ball and keeps my L. arm straight and extended.
2. On BS, stretch shoulder turn and L. Arm to outer limit of BS reach. This gives max power on triangle and hits ball about 30 yards further.
3. At address hover and waggle CF. Do not rest CF on ground. But hover to get feel of where my impact point is going to be.
4. Low TA just above the ground first two feet of BS. REM the ball on golf channel he would brush that ball on his TA.
5. (Most important part) Do a low FT on long irons just like hitting under a tree. This gives the line drive trajectory instead of a towering flight and ball goes much farther.
6. From top of BS into transition: The club does a flat gravity drop. Just like if you held the club horizonal then dropped it to bottom of transition position at 0900 with CF up pointing to the sky. Now you finish your pivot and fire the club into the impact!

Question 8

Pitching Wedges

PW full – Ball middle of stance, low TA. Stay centered upper body over legs. Practice bounce a couple of times. 3/4 swing with no shoulder turn. Swing SLOWLY! Hands in front of the CF. Leading with the left and supporting with your right, make a swallow swing close to the ground. Should feel like you are pulling the club with your left thoughout the swing. Stay committed! Don’t back off!

> 20 yards, use PW not SW.

1. L. foot open. Do not pre turn to left like on small pitches. Practice bounce area. Low BS over grass.
2. No shoulder turn. Club BS to 0900. No open CF on BS.
3. Hit solid with left arm, R arm solid support.
4. Finish chest to target.

< 20 yards. Same as above except.

1. 0800 BS
2. Pre turn left before addressing ball.