Not quite effortless

My new connected swing is working well - not perfectly - but satisfyingly enough. The timing of the arm swing with one's body rotation is not a perfect science, which means that although the connected concept previously espoused is undoubtedly 'the secret' of a good golf swing, things can go wrong.

At the moment, the major improvement in my game has been with my irons. The connectedness of my upper left (i.e. front) arm has added power and consistency to my 4 to 9 iron shots. I'm still have a bit of trouble with the longer shafted clubs and with the wedges, partly because of the course condition (lack of grass), but also because I'm probably rushing or over-thinking at times with these shots.

I'm confident that I will continue to improve in all these full and three-quarter shot areas over the coming weeks, and I'm sticking with the method. I've also made something of a breakthrough with my putting methods.

Recently, I decided I needed to do something about my short putting (the inside five foot putts we expect to make nearly all the time). On average, I've been three-putting about four or five times per round and usually missing several good par or birdie chances in the five or six foot range. Unless you're Jason Day, you can't expect to make all these putts, but this failure rate was not acceptable on my handicap.

Therefore, I decided to try a fairly radical reverse overlap grip, left (front) hand low, with the hands split and the right hand pressed against the lower left arm. This grip takes the wrists almost completely out of the putting stroke and it feels very mechanical. However, it contributes considerably to keeping the club face square through the stroke, which is critical in short putting. Because it feels restricted and mechanical, however, it is not really suitable for longer putts, say from nine feet and longer.

So, I have decided to do what most people think inadvisable or haven't thought of at all (excepting one person I listened to on the web) and that is to use two different putting grips - a conventional one for long putts and my new left hand low grip for short putts.

I tried this out yesterday, and it was very successful. The rest of my game was ordinary, but my putting was very good. I did not miss one short or shortish putt that I expected to make. This is a massive improvement on recent months. I will again experiment with this approach in my next game and report on the results. Fun, if not quite effortless, times ahead.