My 2012 Golf Improvement Plan

Every year I seem to try something new in the off season in hopes of improving my game and this year will be no different.  Last year was a concentrated effort to improve my swing through regular film review, construction of a backyard hitting platform, and a lesson with Fixyourgame.com.  The two prior years, I focused on short game and mental approach and while I feel I’ve improved in each attempt, a quick review of my KPIs shows otherwise:

Year	No. Rounds	Scoring Average	GIR	Total Putts/Rd.
2007	33	80.76	8.06	33.12
2008	21	82.19	6.90	32.48
2009	27	78.22	8.70	31.81
2010	28	79.54	8.32	32.14
2011	35	79.60	8.74	32.86

I’m not the only golfer out there who’s stuck at the same level no matter what they try, but I firmly believe you need to change something that’s not working.  The biggest source of my frustration is my ball striking.  As a 5-handicap, who’s on-line index at the end of 2011 was down to 3.9, I’m flabbergasted that I failed to average even 50% of my GIR.  There’s untapped potential in there and a reasonable improvement target is 11 GIR.   This would yield a scoring average drop of nearly three strokes per round even if my putting stats did not improve.  The lesson with Fixyourgame.com was enlightening and demonstrated that I lacked the sufficient radial motion in my swing that makes true consistency possible.  I found it very hard to correct my loss of spine angle on the downswing.

The other day I took a few tests recommended by Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) and confirmed what I suspected; I have terrible range of motion in my shoulders, hips, and ankles.  This is precisely what you need to make an effective golf swing and is clearly the source of my inconsistency.  Any attempt to correct a swing flaw without the physical capability to make the change will be impossible.  So 2012 will be the year that I work to improve my balance, power, speed, and agility, and let those improvements deliver a better golf swing as an artifact.  TPI recommends a program that I ran through in about 45 minutes and has got me hurting in places I never knew I had muscles.  The plan is to work these exercises three days a week through the end of February and then hit balls in early March and hopefully get a positive read on what improved flexibility and strength can do for my ball striking.  Can’t wait to get started!

 

FixYourGame.com – review

Brant Kasbohm, Director of Instruction for FixYourGame.com is on to something.  I first learned about this great on-line golf lesson service from reading TheBirdieHunt’s review and watching his lesson artifact, and was impressed.  For $19.95, Brant will review video you take of your golf swing and within 48 hours, return a detailed written report and video lesson of the highest quality.  Here’s mine:

Brant’s eye for faults and his ability to articulate the reason you swing the way you do are enlightening.  His use of a telestrator-like tool to demonstrate angles and positions is very helpful.

I am a big proponent of filming my own golf swing especially after a mediocre ball striking day.  But everyone needs another set of eyes from time to time and after my last film session I knew I was in trouble because I had a laundry list of things to work on.  Which ones were the true faults and which were cascading behaviors of the faults?  Brant found a problem I hadn’t even considered and provided the clarity and direction to help me improve.

FixYourGame.com is high quality, affordable golf instruction, and has my full recommendation.  Thanks Brant.  Now, off to work on my swing!