Too Many YouTube Golf Videos?

Written on 12-10-23.

    It’s another Sunday afternoon, and I am listening to the Broncos.  They are 6-6, and they are playing the Chargers (5-7).  Right now, they are ahead by seven at the end the first quarter.

B rode her stationary bike for five miles, and now we are relaxing.  I filled up the Cherokee’s tires with some air, too, because the freezing temperatures lowered the pressure.  They were all low (around 31 psi), so I brought them back up to 38 psi.

I did that after watching the end of the Grant Thornton Invitational.  Jason Day and Lydia Ko teamed up to win that premiere event.  I really enjoyed watching the PGA players joining up with the LPGA players.  What great athletes they all are, and they are a joy to watch together!

On to golf…

I just glanced at my blog, swopeofthegreen.blogspot.com, and I see that I had the brain surgery in 2011 and the stroke in 2019.  Now, it’s 2023, so it makes me think again that time keeps marching on.  This diary is coming to a close again, too, and that is another marker of the time just flowing by.

I saw a YouTube video with Rick Shiels and Bryson DeChambeau.  Bryson gave Rick a lesson, and I had an epiphany again.  

*Do I watch too many YouTube videos to try and improve my golf game?  An argument could be made for that, but I do enjoy hearing tips from people who are experts on golf.  The hard part is discerning which ones to try.  Mike Stark taught me about everything he could when I took a year of unlimited lessons from him, and I remember him saying something like this to me, “Once you have all to tools and information, it’s up to you to practice and get better.”

He was right, but there is so much to learn about golf.  I have heard of other golfers who learned something new, and it changed their golf games in unimaginable ways.  That is not the epiphany, however.

Back to the YouTube video I saw, and this is the discovery.  I know that...

taking a divot after ball is something all the pros do.  I have drawn a line in the sand at Riverview to help me get warmed up before, and I have taken multiple swings attempting to have the “divot” come after that line.  That was what Bryson was having Rick do.  He struggled.  Sometimes, his strike was too thin.  Sometimes, it was before the line.  Sometimes, he did it right, and Bryson got very excited about it.  Then Bryson did it, and he got ten in a row without any issues.  Bam, bam, bam, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, perfect, perfect, perfect…perfect!  He made it look so easy.

Then I remembered that I/we have unlimited sandy areas in the hills behind our house.  That was part of the epiphany.  I took my old, beat up pitching wedge with me on my daily walk with Kody yesterday, and I found some places in the large wash to practice.  I struggled worse than Rick until I tried again closer to home.

Instead of swinging in my “usual” way, I tried to just turn through after setting my right wrist (I am still using the new baseball grip).  I managed five in a row, but they weren’t as powerful as Bryson’s, of course.  Hmmm.  They were very accurate.  Do I have to keep learning this lesson?  My pitch shots are accurate when I do that, too.  I am thinking of all the less than 100 yard shots I took when I shot my best score at Hillcrest this year.

Another thing I noticed was I was more accurate when I brought the club back lower than normal, similar to when Troy taught me about “hands to the wall.”  The proof was in the sand.  I was making consistent contacts with those two things.

Broncos are leading 10-0 at the half.  I am going to do practice some putting for the second half on my little indoor putting strip, and if I think of writing something else, I will.

I did think of something.  When I played the back nine, I noticed that when I went out of my routine, even slightly, I had a mediocre result.  One example is the tee shot on #13.  I noticed that I didn’t have the new grip, so I just re-gripped right there during my routine.  Big mistake.  I should have rebooted instead. 

It also happened on a short putt on the very next hole, the only time I triple-putted on the day.  I only hesitated a moment before I putted.

One thing that went really well on that round was the use of my Sandy Andy.  It saved me *three times.  The first was on hole #7, and I saved a bogey there.  The second was on hole #9, but I missed the bogey putt.  The *third time should have been on hole #10, but I chose to use my new Cleveland wedge, and I sailed one over the green into nowhere land.  Bummer. 

My 6-iron worked really well, and I used it to hit the greens on #1 and #3.  Just beautiful, effortless swings with shallow divots.  Those were just lovely.

My 5-hybrid worked to hit the green on #6 again, too.  The young guys in our group were using 8-irons. One used a 9-iron, and it was from 177 yards.  I went last, and then I swung a beauty.  They all missed, though, and I got to say I had used my 5-hybrid.  They all agreed that it doesn’t matter what you use; use the club that gets the job done.

Well, my back is getting tired sitting here.  It’s after dinner, and the Broncos have defeated the Chargers.  They are 7-6 now.  Good for them.

I might play with Eric on Wednesday, so I still have a chance to get more birdies this year.  Here’s hoping.

Until next time…