First Real Success With the Single Plane Swing

Written on 10-8-2020.

        For the first time, I had real success with the single plane swing yesterday.  Here’s what happened.  

When I arrived, I saw Mike working at the pro shop, and he checked me in.  He said to me, “You’re all taken care of, Mr. Swope.”

That was a wonderful surprise!  How nice.  I told him we should go get a meal after the round, and I would treat.  I asked for a small bucket, too, and he didn’t charge me for that either.  I bet he saved me around $40.00 or $50.00.  

I had plenty of time to do a full warm-up, so I went to the putting green first.  I checked the speed by putting across the green multiple times, and then I practiced several chips with different clubs.

Then I went to the range to warm up my full swing.  I am taking a break from “matching the model” in a few specific ways.  I am venturing out on my own.  I have always wanted to add my own personal flair to this swing to make it my own, and when I saw Bryson placing his clubs closer to the ball, I weirdly felt I got permission to do the same.  

Here is what I am doing now.  First, I am not...

setting my clubs six inches or a foot behind the ball like Moe did.  I just make better contact when I set the club about one inch or a few inches behind my golf ball, depending on the club.  Second, I am positioning my golf ball closer to the middle of my stance (not the five or so inches from my left foot) with my irons.  Placing it so far forward, I was topping my shots too often and not getting perfect impact.  

I guess those are the only two differences.  I am betting that if I were to video my swing, it would still not quite match the model anyway.

I am still trying to “match the model” in these ways, however.  Spine tilt.  One piece takeaway into a braced trail leg.  Head perfectly still.  Trail foot staying on the ground through impact or better yet rolling my foot towards the target (although I am pretty sure it comes up slightly).

I had success on the range.  I even hit my 5-iron and my 6-iron purely off a tee.  They went dead straight.  I wasn’t used to that.  Those are the clubs that top the ball more often than any of the others.

More later…

Written on 10-10-2020.

What a cool date in numbers.  Belinda, Kody, and I are at the Angel Peak Campground.  It’s beautiful here, somewhat similar to our hills behind our home, except for the stunning view of Angel Peak right over the hill.  It’s a Saturday, and we are staying just one night in our Baker Street.  Kody is lying down in the dirt outside, checking out the campground and the surroundings.  The sun is reflecting off of his recently groomed coat, revealing its amber sheen.  B is hooked up on my phone’s hotspot, and she is reading the news while sitting on one of our Freestyle Rocker camping chairs.  

I was watching golf on our little TV, but it just signed off for the day.  It was the ladies playing in the third round of the KPMG Championship this time.  Life is good.  Now, I am settling in for some overdue writing.

On to golf…

I haven’t written about how our match went this past week, so here goes.  It was lovely.  A day to remember, for sure.  I know Eric likes to play Hillcrest in the fall (we all do), and it was weird not to have him there, but it was wonderful for all the reasons we like to play there during the autumn season.  Incredible weather.  Good friends.  Changing leaves.  The view all around from up on the mesa.  And, sometimes a golf match that adds some excitement to our day.  This round had all of that.

It didn’t start well, though.  I chose best ball match play with Greg as my partner.  I didn’t think we would do too well (sorry, Greg), because I have really struggled lately at Pinon Hills, and Greg said in a text that his game was in rough shape, also.  I knew Mike had the most consistent game, and C.J. would have his good holes, but I honestly didn’t care so much about winning a game, especially with my game being so unpredictable.  

My first tee shot went out of bounds and ended up on the range.  Sigh.  My second shot was pulled left and went into the water.  Yikes.  That was after warming up on the range, too.  The two shots everyone tries to avoid on that first tee happened immediately to me.  I got a snowman, and they won the first hole.  Mike earned a bogey after his second shot went in the water.  He made an amazing approach to just outside of a foot, and we gave him the putt.

I should have earned a bogey on the next hole, but I had putting malfunction from short range.  I ended with a double there.   

I won’t go over the whole round hole by hole (it was fun, but not good enough for that kind of detail), but I will say that I started driving the ball really well on hole #7, and it was Greg who earned our way back to one up by the end of the first nine holes.  

I helped us out on hole #11 with a par.  I drove it to a spot less than 100 yards out with my 3-wood, and all I had to do to put it on the green was make a short pitch.  I pulled that pitch shot, though, and my golf ball ended up in the only bunker on the front left side.  When I got down into the bunker, the level of the green was near the top of my head.  I had to explode a high shot to get it out and onto the green.  It was so intimidating, I thought of pitching it out sideways, but Greg was in trouble, so I decided to just go for it.

Somehow, it worked!  My ball popped up and out and landed on the green, but it was still well short of the hole.  I made that putt, however, to give us a two-up advantage.  It was about a twenty-foot putt.

Mike and Greg tied with bogeys on the next hole, even though both of them hit the green with their tee shots.  Then Greg and I were scolded by Mike on the next hole for talking during his swing.  We didn’t mean to do it, but we were talking about our campers.  I felt really bad, and I told Mike, sincerely apologizing a second time.  I think he was more mad at Greg than me, however.  He knows I would never do that on purpose.

We ended up winning that hole, too, so we had our biggest lead of the day at that point, but it didn’t last.  Mike got a birdie on hole #16, just like he did once when we played together.  He certainly plays that hole well under pressure.  I got a par with another long drive, and my short pitch didn’t get pulled (like it did on #11) and it skirted past the bunker to get on the green successfully.  

They had managed to claw their way back to just one down with two holes left.  I think we Mike was motivated after our talking on hole #13.

I was a bit nervous teeing off on hole #17.  I managed to make a decent swing, but it didn’t hit the fairway.  It ended up very near the red water hazard line, and it was in the dirt, and it also got stuck behind some trees.  It took a while for Greg to find his tee shot, and it ended up being just past mine.  He was also in the dirt and behind the trees, but he was in the hazard, and his lie, unfortunately, looked much worse, too.  I went first, and I asked him to watch where it went, because it was into the sun.  He didn’t see it, but Mike did from across the fairway, thankfully.  Looking back on it now, that was my best shot of the round.  I kept it low, and I hit it far.  After that shot, it was inside 100 yards and on the fairway.  

I bungled my approach by coming up short, but I made up for that one with a putt from off the green.  It ended up even with the hole, which was cut in the back this time.  I made that putt for my par, but Mike also got a par.  We went to hole #18 one up with only one to play.

It started badly for them.  Mike and C.J. missed left.  Greg did a little better, going up the right side, and I managed one of my best drives of the day.

From there, I chose my gap wedge, and it came out straight, heading right towards the flag.  It dropped just short of the flag, however, and rolled back off the front of the green.  I had another putt from off the green, but this one was much closer than the one on the previous hole.  I used my putter, swung fairly hard, and it stopped a couple of feet short.  Everyone else finished, and I didn’t have too much pressure on me.  I could have two-putted from there and we would have still won, but the putting malfunction from earlier was gone, and I made that putt for par.

I was so happy and relieved.  I ended with three pars in a row that helped secure the match, but I was even more joyful that the single plane swing started to show the results that I had originally hoped for.  I drove it straight and long on many holes.  The iron game still has a lot of work, but it was great to get some encouragement from one aspect of my play.  I shot the best score of the group on the back nine with my 46, and I know that that is not saying too much, but I will take it.  Wow!  What a great round of golf.  Too bad Eric missed it.

Until next time…