Being relatively new to this game, I often find myself a prime candidate for target of unsolicited golfing advise from everyone and their pet koala. I must admit, some are good, some are bad and some probably more applicable to other sports. But one common perl of wisdom was: "hit down on the ball". Although I doubt that some of the high handicappers offering me such advice actually employed it themselves.
I never quite understood what it meant to really "hit down on the ball". all this time i was sweeping (not scooping) the ball with my irons. Since I got pretty good with it, and developed a decent game around it, I never really understood why I'd want to hit down on the ball (and plug it in to the grass).
Then last week, I got really frustrated with a practice session where i was just all over the place. So instead of throwing my clubs over the range fence into the someone's BMW, I decided to take out my anger on the little dimpled white sphere mockingly sitting at my feet (closer to my right foot).
"Bloody thing! I'll teach you to laugh at me!", i said as I stomped on the sucker with my foot. Only to come close rolling my ankle on it!
It still sat there laughing at my incompetence. But I was not done with just pile driving the ball into the turf....oh no, I wasn't going to let the sucker off the hook that easily! So I took the 6i that was in my hand and decided to give the ball a good wack. But since it was happily settled in the turf, I couldn't sweep it as usual. So I came down a bit on it, almost like trying to gouge it out.
What happened next was worthy of clouds parting, angels singing, and harps going off somewhere in the background in Dobly Digital 5.1 surround sound. The ball just flew off the club face in a perfectly straight line, knocked the wings off one of the angels coming through the parted clouds and landed with a parachute at the foot of the 175 yard marker!
"aaahhh....so thats what they meant about hitting down". I guess I experienced my eurika moment. Anyone else experience anything similar? (minus the laughing ball, wing torn angels and harp MP3s of course).
-DVS
I never quite understood what it meant to really "hit down on the ball". all this time i was sweeping (not scooping) the ball with my irons. Since I got pretty good with it, and developed a decent game around it, I never really understood why I'd want to hit down on the ball (and plug it in to the grass).
Then last week, I got really frustrated with a practice session where i was just all over the place. So instead of throwing my clubs over the range fence into the someone's BMW, I decided to take out my anger on the little dimpled white sphere mockingly sitting at my feet (closer to my right foot).
"Bloody thing! I'll teach you to laugh at me!", i said as I stomped on the sucker with my foot. Only to come close rolling my ankle on it!
It still sat there laughing at my incompetence. But I was not done with just pile driving the ball into the turf....oh no, I wasn't going to let the sucker off the hook that easily! So I took the 6i that was in my hand and decided to give the ball a good wack. But since it was happily settled in the turf, I couldn't sweep it as usual. So I came down a bit on it, almost like trying to gouge it out.
What happened next was worthy of clouds parting, angels singing, and harps going off somewhere in the background in Dobly Digital 5.1 surround sound. The ball just flew off the club face in a perfectly straight line, knocked the wings off one of the angels coming through the parted clouds and landed with a parachute at the foot of the 175 yard marker!
"aaahhh....so thats what they meant about hitting down". I guess I experienced my eurika moment. Anyone else experience anything similar? (minus the laughing ball, wing torn angels and harp MP3s of course).
-DVS