Back to the d board, again

Last blog, quite a while ago, I mentioned driver - ball position, and I've stuck to the procedure I developed then. That is, I position the ball off the front foot heel, but set the club about 6 to 8 inches behind the ball, so that I don't open my shoulders at set up. I'm driving the ball reasonably with this method, playing a draw, and only hitting the odd push shot and rare hook.

Fairway woods are, however, proving to be a slight problem. I can't quite work out the optimum ball position - and perhaps I've been playing them with the ball too far back. On the other hand, I like to compress fairway woods if possible and I'm worried about moving the ball too far forward. I'll experiment this coming week.

Irons are on the improve. It's a case of let the club do the work with my irons. I'm also trying to channel the easy swings of players like Tom Watson and Inbee Park with my iron play. As always with irons, you need to give yourself that split second extra to get the weight forward onto the front foot to make sure you get ball first contact. I see many high handicappers hitting their irons fat all the time - it seems so obvious what's required, but that's the way things are.

Pitching and chipping are reasonable at the moment. I'm still generally leaving too many too short, but I'm making good contact, trying to tell myself to hit the ball with authority and it's going fairly well. I'm pulling the odd pitch, which is definitely worth working on to correct.

Putting is the area of most concern to me, most recently lag putting. My distance control has left me for the moment and I think it might relate to the anti pull or push putting grip I've been trying. Rotating my top hand to a weak position and my bottom hand to a strong position has given me some confidence with short putts, but I think it is affecting my ability to feel the distance with longer putts. I might go back to a more conventional grip for a while.

On putting again, I think with shorter putts in particular, it is crucial once you have picked your line, to concentrate on making a good stroke, i.e. to focus on the process of the stroke and forget about the hole and the result of the putt. I believe this has helped me recently, and I've no doubt the yips comes on for anyone who is hole and result focused, more than for any technical reason. The theories that include the weakening of the lower hand or lead hand low probably help a bit with confidence, but should not be the be all and end all of putting for me or anyone else.

Anyway, the test will come soon enough.