Very excited to see this young junior golf swing. She hasn’t been playing much lately… so want to get her back into form. She won the Junior World Qualifier shooting 69 at Haggin Oaks in Sacramento… when she was 13 years old. She’ll be playing at Doral in Fla Optimus International Junior Championship later this month (age 16 now).
That’s a wonderful swing, Grace! You have a lot of great fundamentals going on. Looking forward too seeing and hearing about your progress.
I worked with Grace yesterday, and it was very interesting.
She’s been frustrated with her game for some time, not hitting the ball well.
With as good as her swing looked on the videos she sent me, it was hard to believe she would be having any major ball striking issues. Her swing is VERY ABS!
I watched her hit a few shots and the ball was moving left, pulling and drawing, but I could visually see that her clubhead was working nicely down the 4:30 line. I took a look at her clubs and they were simply WAY TOO UPRIGHT for her body and golf swing. They were supposedly professional fit to her… but as has been my frustration with this over the years… they were just terrible for her.
I had made up a set for her the night before if this were the case… which I suspected in advance. I had a super clean set of Haig’s… with zero offset, which is what she would need. I also bent them down to ABS Spec. I handed her a 6 iron and she hit it perfect… she then hit a few more shots… perfect. Then I gave her back her 6 iron and it was pulled left. Then back to the Haig… perfect ball flight. Then back to her club, pulled left.
Now here is were I would get most upset. If she were to go to a golf shop and get tested on trackman etc… what would that say? She’s two degrees closed and she needs to change her clubface or path at impact? I really angers me to be honest.
Her golf swing is nearly perfect. She did not need to change her golf swing at all. Just the lie angles on her clubs and get rid of any offset.
So after we did this back and forth between the two clubs… it was clear as day that the Haigs were set up for her perfectly… she’s 5-3. I am 6-0 and play off 6 degrees flat. Not a problem for her to play off 6 degrees flat at all.
She carries only 5 iron through wedges… I didn’t have wedges for her… which we will probably have to do.
I don’t know if there are any modern blades or cavity backs that don’t have offset… I doubt it. The modern clubs are made for hackers… not fine golf swings like Grace has.
Next I had Grace hit the Haig 2 iron. She was flushing it like a machine. So beautiful to watch. A good golf swing should be able to pass the acid test and it did… wonderfully.
We worked a bit on chipping and her putting is fine. She should be back to playing really good golf again soon and winning…
Grace said “I like to win!”
I took some video of her flushing the blade 2 irons… will post back here soon…
Some fittings are terrible. Most people put me into 1 upright. TaylorMade Perf Labs was surprisingly the best. They have all the cameras and sensors and recommended 3 flat to me despite my height (I’m 6’ 3").
That was years ago, probably won’t ever do fittings again as I know my swing and game better than anyone. I trust myself to set up the clubs how I like them.
Cool she got to hit some vintage irons.
I gave her the set… and told her she would be best to game them right away. Nothing to argue about the ball flight. The results were not at all subjective. Of course it is up to her… but she was also hitting them the same distance as her newer clubs. This isn’t about the driver… it’s about the irons for accuracy issue. We put a much stiffer shaft in her driver and that helped also.
I told her Dad, if she insists upon using modern iron set, use this set as a template. I don’t know if she can get a modern set that flat… probably someone would do it… special order etc… but I seriously doubt she would hit the ball better than this set. It’s vintage, but like NEW old stock… really nice set… super clean and new looking. NO OFFSET which is very significant. I haven’t seen a modern set produced without significant offset. Might be out there? I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that she needs 6 down for sure.
National Custom Works can make a custom grind for her. Don White is their clubmaker.
The one issue I have with the older clubs is the groove design. Modern clubs have the ability to put more spin on the ball, especially in the wedges.
Check out Grace flushing a blade 2-iron: