Bryson Wins The U.S. Open

Written on 9-20-2020.

        Bryson leads the U.S. Open by four strokes with only four holes left to play, and I continue to be impressed.  The commentator said earlier that he is the most talked about golfer in the world right now, and I believe it.  He has experimented with how to play golf better, and it has paid off for him.  I like how he thinks.  He wonders how he can do it better, and he is not afraid of out of the box kind of thinking.  He was the pro who recently considered simplifying his golf game by playing with irons all the same length.  He is the reason why I switched to single length, although I am considering switching back.

I had no idea he would also consider more of a single plane swing.  He starts his swing with his hands pointed directly at the ball now, and the Graves Academy has taken notice, of course, as have many other golfers.  Tim and Todd Graves talk about it in their YouTube videos lately, and I know that they appreciate the free advertising for how they teach the swing, the Moe Norman style that I am trying to master myself.

I haven’t written in a while, so here is an update.  I have started my new second membership at Pinon Hills.  Thank you, Belinda.  So far, I have played two rounds, and I didn’t get an official score either time.  Too many handicap seven holes, but I did get two pars that first round on the front, and then I got three more pars on the front during the second round.

I actually played five holes until dark on the evening I started my membership.  I thought, “Hey, I can go play.  Why don’t I?”

I started this membership with a bang, and I hope it is a sign of things to come...

I hit the fairway and then the green on #1, and I two putted for a par.  Then I hit the fairway on #2 but missed the green (barely on the right side) and earned a bogey.  Then I hit the fairway and the green on #3, but I triple-putted for another bogey.  I earned two more pars on holes #4 and #5.  Then it got completely dark, and I could play no more.  It was a super start to my new season with my new swing!  

It definitely cooled off when I played the next day, but it sure was fun that first night, for sure.  I invited C.J., Shawn, and Eric for the first round, but only C.J. and Shawn came.  Eric is still busy with work.  Meleton sp? joined us, though, because Shawn invited him.  I always like playing with him.  

Written on 9-21-2020.

It’s a Monday, and I am still unemployed…sort of.  I just did some work for the Bisti Writing Project this past Saturday, but other than that, I haven’t had much.  However, I just received an e-mail with encouraging new from the CORE.  Despite being downsized considerably (from 88 schools to 40), the grant recently heard which schools we can work with from the NMPED.  36 of those 40 schools are in the northern part of the state, and that bodes well for me.  Hopefully, I can get one or two of those schools and start coaching/collaborating again.

I have continued to run on the treadmill most every day.  Last week, I did not run every day, because I played golf two days in a row, and I went to the range for over four hours on Saturday.  I also didn’t run when we went to Capitol Reef, of course.  It was a well-deserved break, but I started again this afternoon.  It felt great to run again.

Bryson won the U.S. Open.  Wow!  I am sure his style of swing helped, but it was more, in my opinion, his incredible work ethic, his obsession to detail, and his new and different way of looking at how golf can be played.  

I was getting frustrated again when I went to the range recently, and I even tried my old swing again.  It was a fleeting moment that has since passed.  I am back to the single plane, and with Bryson’s win, I am continuing my resolve.

My 7-iron head flew off on the range!  I asked everyone else there to hold up for a moment while I trudged out to go find it.  It was about 50 yards out and in the deep grass, but I managed to find it after just a few seconds.  It made the weirdest noise.  Kind of like “schwwwinngborangafleeeww.”  I realized that the head of that club was actually really heavy, especially compared to the graphite shaft that was attached to it.  I said I wanted heavier clubheads, since that was what Moe liked, but now I know I already have them after this incident.

I had some real success at the range on Saturday.  I tried to chip with just my left arm first.  I actually could do it…with a bit of practice.  I held my body really still, and I used my homemade steady head thing.  I recorded some of those, and I noticed that my club goes inside to outside when I do it.  Is it because the club is heavy, and I have a harder time controlling it with one arm?  I don’t know, but it really helped me to have crisp contacts.  When I added my right arm back into the mix, I oddly didn’t like it.  It felt as if it was interfering with the natural gravity of the left hand only swing.  What I really like about it (despite the over the top kind of look it had) was it helped me with the feeling of impact.

After I did that, I went back to the range, and I got all of the range balls I could ever want to hit.  Two large buckets were set outside of the dispenser, and one of those contained the cleanest range balls I have ever used.

I already had the large bucket I had bought, and I gathered half of a large bucket down by the putting green when I went to go chip.  Two other guys who were friends warmed up on both sides of me, and they also left me close to a large bucket after they left.  I thought, “I am going to hit all of these!  This is great!”

I nearly did it.  A full bucket costs $6.00.  If I practiced two days/week that would cost $48.00/month.  I can think of better things to do with $48.00/month, so when I get free range balls, I choose to stay and practice until they are gone.  This time, the amount of free range balls outlasted my desire to stick around.  I was exhausted by the end, and I left with a bucket and a half still unused. 

Here is how I felt I had success.  I chose to revisit my goal of graduating from the range.  I would hit my driver first, and a successful swing would get it started.  I would then switch to my gap wedge and try to get three out of five swings that were what I considered perfect impact or swept.  Then I would switch to my 3-wood, and hope for another good drive.  If it worked out, I would move up to my pitching wedge and attempt to pure three out of five again.  After that, I would go back to the driver.  I chose to alternate between my driver and my 3-wood between my iron shots.  I made it all the way to my utility club, so that is what makes me think it was a successful session.  It helped me to learn where perfect impact was happening.

The three things I keyed on were the three things I don’t see my body doing in all of the videos I take, and they are the things that Todd Graves can do.  They are things that are not “matching the model” still.  Right foot down through impact.  Head perfectly still or at least mostly still.  Finally, staying low throughout the shot, so my right shoulder replaces my left shoulder.  

If I can get those things down, I will feel I am pretty close.  James looked at some videos of my swing compared to Todd’s with me, and he noticed that my left foot was turned out slightly more than 20%, and my right elbow was farther away from my body on my backswing compared to Todd’s, so I can also work on those, too, but the biggest one is keeping that right foot down throughout most of the swing.  That is hard to do!  My head also tends to move back on the backswing and forward and down just before impact.  I see that Moe did that during a slow-motion video of his swing on YouTube.

When I kept my right foot down, and I managed near perfect impact, it felt magical.  I was assaulting the range balls when I did that.  They were compressed…definitely.  They just disappeared instantly when I did it right, and    I wondered where they went.  Straight with the right trajectories is where they went!     

Before I go to bed, I want to write about something I learned from Chandler Rusk during a recent FB live video.  He gave me a new checkpoint to look for for the side tilt.  He says to look for the rod, and to make sure it is straight.  Make your tilt/side bend, and then check for the clubhead and make sure it is under your nose.  Then (and this is the new thing I learned) if I do a salute that goes down from my from my nose to between my legs, it should end up right inside my trail knee.  As I typed that, I don’t see how your nose can be both over your clubhead and inside the trail knee.  Hmmmm.