Testing the Fix: 9 Holes in the Wild
Three days after Dave Theise identified the steep downswing path, I played 9 holes practicing his instruction in the wild.
Some errant shots. But I see what it can be.
The lesson
September 21. GolfTec Westport. Sixty minutes with Dave Theise.
The flight pattern: toe and heel misses from a steep path.
The fix: the clubhead needs to be flatter in the downswing — pointed more outside the ball at left arm parallel. The hand path needs to be deeper. Ball between the arms with a plane mate is the drill that combines both feels.
This is the throughline of every lesson this summer. June 1: hand path needs to lower. June 15: depth at the top. July 13: path more from the inside. August 17: let the clubhead catch up to the hands. September 21: flatten the downswing, deepen the hands. Same root cause, every time. When the downswing path is right, the irons gain 3-4 strokes. When it's steep, the contact moves to the toe and heel and the approach bleeds.
The Patterson Invitational proved both sides. Round 1 — approach SG +3.5, 13 of 18 greens. The path was right. Round 2 — approach SG -1.1, 10 of 18 greens. The path got steep. Same irons. Same swing. Different path, different result.
The test
Nine holes. Not a tournament. Not a qualifier. Just a chance to take the lesson onto the golf course and see what happens when the plane mate drill meets real turf.
Some errant shots. That's expected. Swing changes get worse before they get better — the body knows the old pattern, the brain is trying to trust the new one, and the first few times on the course the two compete. The ball goes places it shouldn't. The contact isn't clean. The miss shows up.
But you see what it can be. A shot comes off the center of the face with the new path. The flight is different. The ball does what it's supposed to do. And for one shot, the drill and the course are the same thing.
What's next
The plane mate drill stays. The range sessions need to happen — not just hitting balls, but rehearsing the feel until the downswing path is the default, not the conscious override. Two range sessions before Streamsong on October 8. One for the driver release, one for the approach path. The lesson is done. The competitive reps from the Invitational are done. The work now is frequency — making the new path repeatable.
Nine holes showed the shape. The next two weeks are about filling it in.