The Bump Is For Real!

NeilofOz, 

I sense that you are fine.  I think the thought of bump per se is to get away from a sense of lunge or dip, but, as you say, a slide leading with the hip, that can be slide or bump, whatever is the correct feeling for the golfer.  Others will chime in. I would say, keep playing good golf

Sorry you didn't pass it the first time, Dick, and even sorrier that it exacerbated your injury and now you're benched for a month. Don't let the chemistry fool you into short-cutting the actual healing time. 

Bubba swings on a pretty vertical plane, yes. A lot of that has to do with his narrow stance, fairly upright setup, physical height, and general craziness. He has a LOT of hand action in his swing, though, is generally aligned anywhere but where he intends the ball to go, jumps up on his toes and almost pirouettes through impact, and who knows where his weight is during any of that.

 Robert

As I said to the other guys, thanks for your thoughts.  I will go take a look at your comment now.  The more, the merrier.

Right now, the key board is the only thing I can swing hard.  I guess we have to get the trolls on the blog from time to time.  Keeps us sharp and on our toes.  I would hope that between the Coach, Steve, and my comment he would get the idea.  It must be very confusing for a real narcissist when everyone else does not bow down to them and buy into their high opinion of themselves.

Then again, maybe we are not the only ones who are clueless, and he just doesn't get the point.

Either way, we are just here to help,
Dick

Sounds nice Mike, good playing!! Yes, sometimes we have to alter the tools a bit to see what flies best :)

Hi Robert, Good advice, I will be over the moon if I can get a more consistent bump going which will result in better consistent golf.

It seems to be on or off, and easy to lose!

DJ is, by the way, on the course as I type. Hope you're having fun following him, Phil. Looks like Harbour Town is showing her teeth this year. More than half of the first flight players are over par (unfortunately that includes DJ in the middle of the pack).

Thank you for your reply, and yes it sounds pretty silly to think that it could be the grip, but you say above to change the grip to stop slicing, change the grip to stop hooking, dont change the grip if your hitting them straight, why not change your swing path, if your slicing or hooking why not change your alignent, no you changed your GRIP, I'm telling you that all this money you spend, time and energy means sweet all, until you learn the grip, you tell me what it means to have a long thumb.

And remember Don calls it a lateral rotation of the hip, I believe. So whether bump, or slide or doe-see-doe, if the movement is correct, that is what Surge is after.  

 Rbirtch,

Excuse my frankness, but you Really are coming across as a sort of know it all prick, with this nonsense about the grip. It may in fact be proper and correct for you and your game, swing, etc..., but that does not make it necessarily right for Everyone.

In regards to the short thumb, there are those who teach a short thumb grip and others who teach a long thumb grip, and even some who teach both depending on their students needs, NOT YOUR NEEDS.  Some my need a slightly stronger grip, others a slightly weaker grip. It depends on the student's needs. Parameters for all is one thing, but your method of precise specifications for a Single One Fit All Method, is simply preposterous. 

If your methods work for you, then please just pass it on as such and not as the Holy Gospel Of Golf and infallible word of Rbirtch that all others must follow or be lost in the golf maze of hell forever.

Slow down and get a hold on yourself fellow, before you go too far.

Hi Surge, i e-mailed you last week but never heard back from any one?

 Robert

Nice job of tying it all up in a nice neat package that even he should understand.

Dick

Wow Terry, that's a serious dirt spoon. I remember seeing those wedges before but never tried 'em.
BTW have you messed around with your new tools yet?

 Steve,

You're not alone in that.  I also can't see the knuckles on either hand at address.

You could get a SwingRite of Doc, with the training grip on it, which puts you in the right grip position , so you can feel the proper grip while practicing. It would become more natural over time & you would get all the other benifits of the SwingRite.

The hips move laterally toward the target with the bump, then open slightly naturally as the arms power through to impact. At impact, as Steve Smith shows, the hips are slightly open. The chest is square to the aiming line. The point is that there is not a hard, intentional rotation of the hips in order to drag the upper body and arms around. 

Hi Dorothy.
There were 11 guys out there I think, so was a pretty small turnout,
Maybe Don will do a video with the results so not sure if I should say. I dont want to spoil it

Excellent reply: By the way Grip is Number 1 importance  then everything else comes 2nd. Dont forget most of the subscribers are no where near being good enough to put more then 1 or 2 solid rounds together in one week let alone a month, they do not have a clue where to start to correct themselves, when things don't work out.

For me, getting the correct sense of the bump made the difference.  I found the lateral movement on my own last week (completing missing the bizillion times Surge has mentioned it...lol).  I was making  a dipping movement and bouncing my club into the ball.  Once I started really concentrating on the lateral shift exactly, then I started returning my club square and really flushing a whole bunch of shots, with four different clubs.  I have yet to take this onto the course, but with practice I know I will get consistent.  I was amazed how that and the simple handshake take away that Surge mentioned in the 14 Drills could really change my ability to connect, not only solid, but really flush shots with that beautiful "whick" sound of the ball perfectly struck.  I have golfing hope once again!! Thanks Surge. 

I don't think I would have and the gonads to try that shot with the win on the line I would have watched Louis hit his second shot and seeing him come up short I would have chipped out into the fairway and played for 4 no worse than five. I guess no guts no glory.

Dick,

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I went through a similar rib problem a few years ago. Mine was accidentally popped out and then almost immediately popped back in(when he realized what he had done), by an over aggressive sports doctor, who thought he was a chiropractor. At any rate it was about 3 weeks before I could make any aggressive swings. I wish you speedy healing and better luck with your next PAT attempt. It is well beyond my expectations to ever get that good again.

Hi Folks, Not been here for a while, I am not renewing my golf club membership this year as I need the money for something else. 
I have been practicing in the back yard though and have made some progress in the fact that I know and can feel the bump. It is soooooooooo easy to lose it though, and when I do I top the ball consistently! 
Basically start hacking again! 
But I have now worked out how to turn it back on again, and like Surge says the bump is so important.

I need a trigger point to bump and that is the point when my forward arm just gets under the chin, heavy right or light left! is also crucial for me as the light left foot then allows me to start that connection with the ground  or feel like I am squashing something! And like Surge has said it gets the club going in the the right direction without you knowing it!

When I get it wrong I can feel the shoulders and hips working and moving at the same time.

When I get it right it feels like the hips just slightly unwind as they move forward and you can feel the club lagging behind, the ball contact at impact is crisp. If I get this somewhere near I have found that slight errors still produce decent contact.

When any kind of bump leaves me then it is consistently bad shots, especially tops and poor contact that you can feel through the club.

One part of this swing that I just cannot get, is vertical.....................
I am starting to think it is a myth!!
The closest I can get is the shaft in plane/line with my forward arm about 11 0 clock, I just cannot seem to stand the club up, I have tried getting the right arm flying a bit but this feel wrong and produces bad shots, in the mitt then lift- feels wrong, 3/4 turn then it is all lift feels wrong and robotically two planed!

I can seem to get in the vertical position in slow motion, but putting proper movement in place just seems like there isn't enough time or space due to the limited turn.

May be I am not getting the club toe up quick enough so then I can just lift, I have tried all sorts with regards getting vertical and to be honest hit the wall with this part!

At least the bump is coming together, I have just got to get it going naturally or more consistently..

Regards Keith

Ok guys I've been testing the site again for surges comments and he obvously is not commenting like he did when I purchased everything and the manual over a year ago, I have gone from a 14 to 3 handicap and all I'm saying is we can all get better if we knew that all of the other things in the set up mean nothing without the proper grip, If everyone who has commented on my question were to sit in the same room, all the grips and understanding of the grip will be different, perhaps slightly but that is all it takes for inconsistent contact.  All you guys and gals who are having trouble, it is the grip. Do you realize if your grip is out 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch each and every other time, you can not play consistent golf it throws everything off, have you ever got to the point in the back swing and hit the ball and told your chum, "that did not feel right I should have stopped, it was the grip, your hands are not on the club correctly.  Don did not make up a different grip for the up right swing, has anyone asked Don in 2 years how he came up with the way he grips the club, Don will probably say that he learned his grip from a rotational mentor.  I did not turn my game around until I understood how the club fit in my hands and how to grip it properly and consistently, and I grip my putter the same way and I average 20 to 30 putts a round, everthing will start to fall in place once you master the most important part, the Grip. In Canada we do not have anyone close to teach PPGS, so we have to depend on learning things on our own, my golf got so bad that I had to quit and start all over, break everything down step by step and finally boom I started with the grip, once I had an almost perfessionally understanding on how to hold the club properly everything else fell into place quickly.  I do not read the daily blogs like I used to, so I looked last week and everyone commenting are stuck and are not progressing.

 Steve

Count me in the group with you.  No knuckles visible when at address.

Dick

Deb, I guess I don't understand what you are saying, can you try again?  please

Thanks,
marilyn

 Congrats Steve, I recall you saying a week or so back, you had not figured out how to keep the lines as part of the video when saving or posting. Looks like you're figuring it out.

 I'm not there yet, just called a Taxi and waiting at the hotel, I would have liked to be out there earlier but I was pretty slow to get going this morning.
I will make sure Im there when the gates open tomorrow

I'd have tried the shot. Not expecting to get closer than you, but certainly I'd want to try it for fun. :) I find it funny that many of my best shots came when I couldn't actually see my target. 

Good to see DJ playing this weekend hopefully he will have a great weekend

 Holy cow Dick, I didn't even know you could get a rib "out of place" without breaking it. Sounds mighty painful. I hope your healing is quick.

Dale

Dave:

Yes I've seen it all, Surge needs to do a close up of the grip, not from across the back lawn and how it has to sit in both the hands and what he feels in the swing, the pressure points, long thumb or short thumb etc etc. Not everyone gets the grip by saying interlock, overlap, and 10 finger, good grip gets the left elbow in the proper position in the set up.

I think you're over thinking it, Neil. 

 Steve

Thanks pal.

I will keep you posted.  We are looking at some real serious weather here over the next couple of days.

Keep us in your prayers,
Dick

Thanks!

marilyn

He figured it out by videotaping his monitor. ;-)

Tomorrow you could sleep in, as DJ won't be teeing off until probably 12:30. :)

 Robert

This is not directed at you.  There was no space to reply to Rbirtch's comment below.

Rbirtch

Do you have to work hard at being condescending, or does it just come natural to you?  I think you are making a big leap off a cliff when you say that most of us are no where near being good enough to put together more than 1 or 2 good rounds, or that we do not have a clue.

I guess we should be glad that once in a while great golfers, who seem to really like themselves, will take the time to stop by our blog and set us straight.  I guess you must use a 56" driver to hit the ball from way up there on your high horse.

Here is a clue for you.  Be nice, or be quite.

Keeping it vertical, and "clueless", in Oklahoma,
Dick

I don't know if anyone else happened to watch Feherty's interview with Ken Venturi this week, but he was very interesting about this exact move. He talked about why so many young guys had knee problems and it sounded like I was listening to Surge. Twist the hips and snap the knee straight and you wonder why your knee and ankle and hip and lower back are all sore But if you look at the swings of the players from the 40s and 50s, even guys with flat swings like Hogan or Jones, you'll see that they begin the transition with a lateral move of the knees toward the target.

Hi Mike,
Yes, let's wish him well this week. DJ did the clinic for the Surgites lucky enough to be at the Spring Surge Tourny held this week at nearby Old South Golf Course. I'm sure many of those attending are going to be at Harbor Town following and cheering DJ on.
Hope your well and playing golf Mike.

Steve

My grip is in the fingers. I have really thick hands.. My V may pointing closer to the right ear than at the nose.If I try to see 2 knuckles on my left hand the V would be off my right shoulder My thumb maybe between 12 and 1 its been the same for ever. If I get the club to much in the palm I lose to much power. I have switched to standard size grips even though my fitter fitted me to midsize the midsize wants to slide up into my palm because of not being able to get my heal pad on top of the grip because my hands are so thick .

If I get the grip in the palm I lose to much power even though I hit it straight.   

Makes you scratch your head how he does it and has $3,124,138 in earnings in 8 events in 2012.

If he misses the second shot on the second play off hole and puts it who knows were probably out of play he looks the fool.

Glad he won was great to watch. 

Hey, for what it's worth, most of us didn't pass our PATs on the first try, second try, and I"m not going to say more!   You'll do it!!  Get well first.

Remove the word "rotation" there, Dave G. A "lateral left shift of the hip and flexed left knee."