Woke up again to rain! I'm not too bothered about today's weather but I really hope tomorrow is clear as I want to play in the New Years Eve Texas Scramble at
Theale Golf Club. The Christmas Eve Scramble was canceled due to the snow so I really hope tomorrows goes ahead. Texas scramble comps are always a really good laugh, the teams are also drawn out of a hat so you get to play with people who you wouldn't usually go around with.
Last night I spent some time over on
The Sand Trap forum. There are quite a number of people who have bought
The Stack and Tilt Swing book so I spent some time reading their views on it and convinced myself this was the swing for me in 2010. I ordered the book, watched some videos on YouTube and had a few practice swings in the house before bed time.
I headed to the range just after lunch and gave the swing a few tries. I was hitting the ball quite well with the Stack and Tilt technique but I'm not convinced as I can see it is very easy to hit big pulls with it. I also like to try and draw and fade the ball as I need to and don't think it will be as easy to hit a fade with the S&T swing. The book arrives tomorrow though so I'll take a read of it before making my mind up. I'm also going to ask a few questions on the forums to see if people who have tried it ended up sticking with it. It's always too easy to think that something like this is a magic bullet that will fix everything, but after a while the underlying issues are still there no matter which type of swing you use.
I popped over to
Sandford Springs before heading to the range for a chat with
Neal Granville. Sandford Springs is my home club now and I've been having lessons from Neal for around 18 months and am really happy with how things have gone. I'm looking forward to working with him in 2010 to help with my golf challenge. I mentioned the Stack and Tilt swing and he mentioned a funny quote Bob Torrance said to a pro who mentioned he was using it:
"keep doing that you'll be stacking shelves"
Neal said to give it a go, but didn't think it'd be worth pursuing over the longer term. It's apparently pretty harsh on your lower back - hence the Bob Torrance quote. Neal also lent me a new book that should help with the diet and fitness side of things:
How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy
There is a small quiz to do at the start of the book which is to evaluate yourself before trying to improve things. I'm going to do it now and then post the results!
Total range balls hit : 180
Time spent in gym : 0.5 hours