Improved overall--having more fun at Oberlin Golf Club (46/41)

Golfer: Jim C

Date: August 21, 2020

Over the past two and a half years, I have watched many videos and listened to a great deal of instruction, and I think I am approximating the Rotary Swing. I did not have the discipline to figure out the system of building the stroke from scratch. I looked at the videos and tried the moves the lesson described. When the lesson videos came along, I really began to pick up the tips-they began to make more sense.
I had been told in my early golf years that I sliced the ball, because my right side was "not getting through." This led to years and years of right-hand-dominated swing and lots of frustration. As I eased into my 70's, I really began having power outages and weak shots to the right. Then my brother, a very good golfer, put me on to RS.
I have gone through a metamorphosis over the past thirty months. First I learned that I should be hitting the ball with my left hand dominate. I am left-handed playing rightie, so that should have been easy. Wrong. I am still experiencing the d--- right hand taking over, and the swings are a disaster. But that is happening less and less. The next thing I learned was to have the shoulders not the arms move the club back. Big improvement, when I did it right. I still would take the club too far inside, so I worked on a more outside backswing, and that helped. I still had a slice, because I was not loading my right glute consistently (although I was trying like h---) and I was not using my hips right. I was "chasing" the ball, and that produced a cut. The video that showed the pros' hip turns was very revealing, and it made it easier to hit the ball with my left hand. Back in the mix somewhere, I learned not to open my left shoulder during the swing. I had to make that mistake to feel like I had any power, but by doing everything else much better, I did not to move the shoulder, and, of course, as a result, my clubhead speed increased dramatically, and there was less tendency to cut the ball. The latest addition has been the sit-to-square, which gets me the "free power" and I do not have to swing the club with my arms.
My shots from 100yds in have been accurate and I love hitting those shots. My chipping is plagued by too much right hand. I am working on that.
So as you unpacked all of this in the lesson videos, I packed them into my swing, and I am having fun playing golf. I had five pars, two bogeys and two double bogeys on a very good nine holes the other day, and I feel it was the best golf I have played in quite a while. Thanks, RS.