Breaking 90 (or myself)

k.p.h

I would say don't continue doing anything you know to be wrong unless you are shooting in the 70's.

At that stage it might be worth considering but when your not shooting low might as well try to do it the correct way and not build bad habits. Bit of a pain in the arse topping the ball down the fairway trying to do it properly but at least you are not limiting yourself to just breaking 90.

What I mean is I see a lot of guys shooting around the 12 - 16 hc range. They hit the ball the way they hit it and thats it set in stone. They have perfected their not so perfect technique. It get them round pretty good. But thats it they have hit their wall as far as their technique gos. Their swing is not good enough to take them any lower.

Last year I was knocking low 80's rounds in no problem even managed a pair of 79's. But the 79's were lucky and their was no way I had the game to get below the 80's. So I changed up and started trying to learn a good solid swing. Now it's been frustrating and I have not seen the results yet as I have a long way to go. But the way I see it why limit yourself you just being "good" at golf, if you do it right their is a chance you can be "very good".

I'm pretty sure their are a few of them bogey golfers knocking around out club looking at me shanking 6i's into the ditch wondering whats going on as I was able to hit the ball last year. TBH it's only the possibilities that keep me from getting pissed off,

But i think always trying to do it right is a sure path from dire to great. Not doing something to the best of you knowledge is a sure path to bad or maybe just ok. Just my opinion though

PARlance

great post KPH, that's the kick up the arse I needed.

bustercherry

ajcurry123 wrote: »

great post KPH, that's the kick up the arse I needed.

In fairness I'd have to disagree with you, KPH thinks about things too much and is criticizing people consistently shooting around the 12 - 16 hc range even though he openly admits he can't play to his 16 handicap. In fact his contempt for bogey golfers throughout the post makes me believe he (without being too harsh) thinks he's much better than he actually is (I've seen his swing on that other thread and it's no McIroy ).

Golf is all about the numbers and not about how pretty you swing. Furyk, Kuchar and Bubba are not swings you would teach but they get the job done, much like the bogey golfers he believe's have reached their full potential. While I do think you should work on basics like posture, grip, balance etc. I wouldn't get too caught up on trying to replicate the perfect swing or any particular golfers for that matter. If you can get the club face square at impact that's half the battle. I'd put money on it that most of those 12-16 range handicappers could get to single figures (and play consistently to it) if they worked on their short game. Based on my experience I'd say they are in and around the green in regulation and if they could get up and down more, their handicaps would drop significantly.

IMO most people should be able to shoot low 80's with the right technique but I also think that if you have good balance/athelitism/rhythm/core strength/talent (something people who play other sports have) you'll find a way to get their quicker than the guy who doesn't independent of technique. Saying that you have to have a bit of talent to be shooting in the 70's consistently combined with good technique.

Apologies KPH if this seems like a bit of an attack on you but tbh I think your a bit critical there of people playing off mid handicaps (above average players too).

k.p.h

Ah no bustercherry wouldn't take offence from what you said but I do feel you have taken me up a little bit wrong in regard to some of the stuff I said. Also it was said in a motivational context, almost as much for my benefit as AJ's.

I just think it you don't try to learn how to swing a club properly had learn some technique you limit yourself to somewhere in the handicap range mentioned. Obviously most people are happy enough playing the game and enjoying themselves so I have absolutely no contempt for them.

You inadvertently agreed with me when you said
" I'd put money on it that most of those 12-16 range handicappers could get to single figures (and play consistently to it) if they worked on their short game"
Because thats exactly what I meant except I would not limit it too short game I believe too that a lot of players could get to single figures if they just worked on their complete game. That would include the mental aspect of the game too.

In regards to me thinking that I am better than I am. Unfortunately I realise that the scorecards don't lie but i do believe I can be better and have to potential to improve with ambitions to be a single digit golfer. I have no problems admitting that and I'm doing my best and working hard to try to achieve it.

The word educate's literal meaning is "to draw out" or "bring forth what is within" implying that knowledge and ability is already contained within everyone and the main task is to get to perform what they are innately able to do. What separates one person from another on the golf course or even in any part of life.?

Keano

I sort of understand where k.p.h is coming from. I play golf with a guy who is off 19 and should be off imo about 12. He went out last week and paid €220 on a new 12.5' driver to get more loft in his drives. Fair enough but I know that my cheap Dunlop driver will hit the ball just as far provided my technique keeps improving and I am only playing about 4 months's opposed to his 9-10 years if not longer.

Now he is perfectly happy off 19 as he keeps coming in with scores of just under 100 and with 19 shots is grossing 80 and he is winning stuff.

For me it's about getting as good as I think I can be. Maybe I will never reach single digit's. Not sure I have the mentality to but I want to be off a handicap I think I deserve to be and play to every single time I go out.

alxmorgan

Went to a lesson tonight and man was that a shock. Was having a terrible time with my irons so needed to sort it.

He videoed me hitting some 6 irons and man-o-man when I saw myself it was scary. I was hitting out to in so much you'd swear I thought I was f&*king Ronaldo trying to bend it around a wall.

He got me standing further from the ball and dropping my arms in the backswing and within 10 minutes I was hitting straight and true.

So to answer your question - yes make a change when you know you should....oh and go see your Pro

nocal

The next step is practise - what you learned this evening may come and go so keep working on it and nail it.

ssbob

Hi Guys,

Hadn't been feeling great about my game but decided to head out for 7 holes last night, started on 12 and sure enough hit one drive left and one right, I proceeded to top the left one and hit the right one heavy, eventually got down for a 7 & 6 on a Par 4, bogeyed the next par 3 and then par a short par 4 with both balls after two nice tee shots with my 7 iron, still not too confident I tried to draw my ball around the corner of the index 1 15th hole only to slice it and nearly hit a guy on the next fairway, did the same with ball two, extremely frustrated I laid both balls up to 150(just caught up to two guys ahead).......................

From here dropped another ball so had three in play from about 150, hit a heavy 8 followed by 2 shots that landed within 8 feet of the hole, couldn't believe it then standing on the next tee(short par 4 I would normally try to be up around the green), because the guys were still ahead of me I decided to hit my driver 75%, so I did, caught a beautiful fade about 255, decided to see if I could hit a draw, I did about 270, and decided to see if I could hit one straight, I did 260...............I found something, Parred 2 balls here and moved onto 17 where I drew two balls at will, did the same on 18 and struck my irons beautifully making bogies on both holes(poor short game)

I was stunned walking off the course knowing that I don't have to try and break the ball.................................90 here I come.

alxmorgan

Nice job Bob

I had a similar experience once.
Had 5 pts thru 6 holes and playing awful stuff
Then the 7th had a fairway that runs out quickly so I choked down on my driver and swung easy to make sure I didn't hit it too far....I flew through the end of the fairway by a mile.

Spent rest of round choking down and swinging easy and got 6 pars in a row !!
They say the pros rarely go above 85-90% of their full swing
Hard thing is to stick with it when you hit a speed bump which you will as we always do

PhilipMarlowe

I played with a pro recently and it was something I often wondered, like how much they have in reserve because my decent drives would be around his normal one...
Anyway, on one hole we asked him to go for a big one, over trees and a lake... about 330 to carry the lake into the rough (had a laser rangefinder). Well, we didn't find his ball but it was obvious that he hit it SO much harder than usual... unreal, wish I had a reserve :rolleyes:.

Also just to note, if you don't hit it as hard (shorter back-swing), it will have less (back)spin on it so it may run on more too. Useful when playing into the wind particularly.

kincsem

Getting a video of your swing is a shocking experience. When I was a teenager I was at Woodbrook GC with a friend for the Irish Open. This was probably at the start of video recording. They had a booth where you could pay and have a few swings recorded. I remember Sam Torrance let me go ahead of him.

My beautiful flowing swing when recorded on video actually looked like I was frantically chopping wood like a madman.

kincsem

The next time you get to Balla par 3 course try to get in a good few rounds, and write down your scores. I haven't played much par 3 but think you should be able to get down to about 60 shots.

I played a lot of pitch and putt with a best of 46 gross, and once did 13 consecutive rounds under par. That sounds like a boast (it is a bit) but you can save loads of shots with a good short game. You need to be an expert wedge player imo.

I was only a 14 handicap at golf but my best nine holes of 37 started with five pars where I chipped close and single putted, followed by a birdie at the next. I was never much use tee to green.

Young_gunner

ssbob wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Hadn't been feeling great about my game but decided to head out for 7 holes last night, started on 12 and sure enough hit one drive left and one right, I proceeded to top the left one and hit the right one heavy, eventually got down for a 7 & 6 on a Par 4, bogeyed the next par 3 and then par a short par 4 with both balls after two nice tee shots with my 7 iron, still not too confident I tried to draw my ball around the corner of the index 1 15th hole only to slice it and nearly hit a guy on the next fairway, did the same with ball two, extremely frustrated I laid both balls up to 150(just caught up to two guys ahead).......................

From here dropped another ball so had three in play from about 150, hit a heavy 8 followed by 2 shots that landed within 8 feet of the hole, couldn't believe it then standing on the next tee(short par 4 I would normally try to be up around the green), because the guys were still ahead of me I decided to hit my driver 75%, so I did, caught a beautiful fade about 255, decided to see if I could hit a draw, I did about 270, and decided to see if I could hit one straight, I did 260...............I found something, Parred 2 balls here and moved onto 17 where I drew two balls at will, did the same on 18 and struck my irons beautifully making bogies on both holes(poor short game)

I was stunned walking off the course knowing that I don't have to try and break the ball.................................90 here I come.

i heard a pro say once that the most common fault he sees amateurs make is trying to hit the ball too hard.
great post - hope you continue to improve !

alxmorgan

A thing you'll notice with the vast majority of players is that their practice swings are usually far superior to their actual swings.

I think we all get ball fever when we see the little white thing and want to blast the hell out of it.

Played with a mate recently who has adopted an 80% swing on all shots.
He was pinging them down the middle all day and while we were longer (sometimes) it was left, right, rough, trees etc as opposed to fairway

"Lord give me the strength to swing easy"

PFiddy

Excellent thread ajcurry123. I took up playing last spring and I'm still hovering over the 100 mark. Determined to make good progress this year & I have found some of the advice here invaluable. Aside from overall swing / short game / putting techniques I find that it is often my temperament that I need to work on - hitting a 7 or 8 early on can really get under my skin and I find it hard to bounce back. I find that confidence is the key when I'm playing well, which unfortunately hasn't been too often so far this year. I'm hooked though, and I'm picking up a little more experience with every round I play. Hoping to break 100 soon, will be sure to come back on here when I do

alxmorgan

May be of interest to some on here but I recently got my backup driver cut down by 2 inches and am hitting double+ the amount of fairways as a result.

Lot of threads online re length of pro drivers (they reckon its 44" average) versus my off the shelf which was 46 inches.

So far I'd recommend it as haven't noticed much length difference but huge accuracy difference

Keano

Up until a few weeks ago I thought breaking a 100 was easy, even though I don't think I have done it! However, the last 2 weeks I have found out the hard way but when you are playing really bad you need to dig really deep and just pull out or two shots to lift your spirits as otherwise the round is a wipeout.

Last night I scored 8 on a par 4 and then 12 on par 5 I lost two balls on each hole but I put more balls down and kept playing without getting angry or annoyed. Went on to play some really good golf and was happy leaving the course, so much so I stayed on to practice my short game for over an hour.

alxmorgan

Keano A Legend wrote: »

Up until a few weeks ago I thought breaking a 100 was easy, even though I don't think I have done it! However, the last 2 weeks I have found out the hard way but when you are playing really bad you need to dig really deep and just pull out or two shots to lift your spirits as otherwise the round is a wipeout.

Last night I scored 8 on a par 4 and then 12 on par 5 I lost two balls on each hole but I put more balls down and kept playing without getting angry or annoyed. Went on to play some really good golf and was happy leaving the course, so much so I stayed on to practice my short game for over an hour.

With that commitment sub-100 ain't far away.
Talk me thru the 12 on the par 5
(btw a mate and me once lost 7 balls between us on the 16th in East Clare - beat that )

Keano

alxmorgan wrote: »

With that commitment sub-100 ain't far away.
Talk me thru the 12 on the par 5
(btw a mate and me once lost 7 balls between us on the 16th in East Clare - beat that )

The 12th. Hit a lovely drive right down the middle. Took out the 3 wood and topped it. Hit it again and took off right into the bushes. Next ball I hit with the 3 iron and went a bit right into the light rough. Cannot remember what club I hit but over hit the green and it was gone into the really heavy rough ah the back of the green. Dropped another and barely hit the chip. Chipped on and putted it out.

My 3 wood is not coming anywhere with me again. It's not for me.

alxmorgan

Keano A Legend wrote: »

The 12th. Hit a lovely drive right down the middle. Took out the 3 wood and topped it. Hit it again and took off right into the bushes. Next ball I hit with the 3 iron and went a bit right into the light rough. Cannot remember what club I hit but over hit the green and it was gone into the really heavy rough ah the back of the green. Dropped another and barely hit the chip. Chipped on and putted it out.

My 3 wood is not coming anywhere with me again. It's not for me.

I've always found a 3 wood hard to hit off the ground.
You got any rescues ? They are much easier IMHO

But I recently got a high launch 3 wood - 17 degrees cleveland launcher and use this technique and its been working a lot better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq5gzmIeRQ8

Keano

No rescue in the bag. I'm an old school iron man. I might look into it though.

He makes that look so easy :pac:

alxmorgan

Keano A Legend wrote: »

No rescue in the bag. I'm an old school iron man. I might look into it though.

He makes that look so easy :pac:

He sure does. I recommend a hybrid/rescue. Very easy to hit and get into the air and you can play it as an iron too so no messing with ball position

PARlance

Well all,

First week in quite a while now that I haven't got out for a round or had any practice..also limited to hinternet so thanks for the advice/comments in the meantime.

One of the reasons (several last week) that I couldn't get any golf in was that I had to go down to Enniscrone for a funeral, or to be exact, to mind herself's nephews and niece during the funeral formalities, as the funeral was on her brother in laws side...Confused? I am too
Meant that I had to cancel the Wednesday game that was arranged. It was made 100 times worse by the fact that we were minding the kids in a hotel with views of Enniscrone golf club...agony!
Note to self, never go anywhere without the golf clubs in the boot. Turns out I could have got a round in.

Just to pick up on a few comments in my absence.

Think ssbob and Licksy had mentioned about swinging at 70-80%, I have to say that this has worked out great for me lately... I came about it out of necessity really. My natural shot is a fade, but I had developed a massive hook with my driver... when trying to figure out what the hell I was doing wrong, I decided to ease off a good bit and I found myself hitting the fairway (or there abouts) an awful lot more...The distance I was losing (IF and thats a bit IF i had hit the fairway at 100% wouldn't make a massive difference). I've stuck to it since and getting a lot more joy not looking in the next field for my ball.

A quick question I've been meaning to ask for a while.
I play golf right handed, I write left handed but would only use left for that and more fidgety things, more power in Right.
I've heard the "normal" shot for me would be a Draw, however my natural shot is a Fade, is there anyone else out there that is the same?
I've been thinking that it may have something to do with the fact that my left hand would be relatively strong for a "weaker hand"?

Might be opening a can of worms there, am aware there could be loads of reasons, but it would seem to make a bit of sense.

Off to P&P and putting green tomorrow to get my fix and hoping to get a game in Weds & Thurs...will keep ye in the loop. After last round of 95, in or around that would be great to see if I can get some consistency.

PARlance

alxmorgan wrote: »

I've always found a 3 wood hard to hit off the ground.
You got any rescues ? They are much easier IMHO

But I recently got a high launch 3 wood - 17 degrees cleveland launcher and use this technique and its been working a lot better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq5gzmIeRQ8

Ohhhhhhh, that sweet sound I've been looking a lot (maybe too much, causing mental overload) of his vid's and find them very good.

I have a mizuno mx700 3 wood (15d) in my bag and love hitting it, I also love hitting my Seve B hybrid (21d) from MD golf.
Am nearly thinking about getting a 5 & 7 wood too as I really have a problem striking 4,5 and to lesser extent 6 iron.

Eric the Eagle

ajcurry123 wrote: »

Well all,

A quick question I've been meaning to ask for a while.
I play golf right handed, I write left handed but would only use left for that and more fidgety things, more power in Right.
I've heard the "normal" shot for me would be a Draw, however my natural shot is a Fade, is there anyone else out there that is the same?
I've been thinking that it may have something to do with the fact that my left hand would be relatively strong for a "weaker hand"?

Might be opening a can of worms there, am aware there could be loads of reasons, but it would seem to make a bit of sense.

.

I play the exact same, I am left handed but play golf right handed. My natural shot is a fade too. I never heard anything about the normal shot being a draw. I certainly haven't come close to getting a draw on my shots!!

ssbob

Got to say guys that I am loving this thread, I am on my own mission to break 90 at the moment, best being 95 to date and was 87 standing on 18th tee, only to take an 8 but hoping that I will benefit from a threeball I have lined up on Sat, playing with a 2 and a 10 handicapper, hoping that I will feed off their brilliance to pull in a good score on my home course.:D

charlieIRL

Eric the Eagle wrote: »

I play the exact same, I am left handed but play golf right handed. My natural shot is a fade too. I never heard anything about the normal shot being a draw. I certainly haven't come close to getting a draw on my shots!!

I'm a leftie too, do almost everything left handed except golf - and according to my instructor i hit a natural draw on most of my shots.

PARlance

PFiddy wrote: »

Excellent thread ajcurry123. I took up playing last spring and I'm still hovering over the 100 mark. Determined to make good progress this year & I have found some of the advice here invaluable. Aside from overall swing / short game / putting techniques I find that it is often my temperament that I need to work on - hitting a 7 or 8 early on can really get under my skin and I find it hard to bounce back. I find that confidence is the key when I'm playing well, which unfortunately hasn't been too often so far this year. I'm hooked though, and I'm picking up a little more experience with every round I play. Hoping to break 100 soon, will be sure to come back on here when I do

Thanks PFiddy, if it helps spur you on, a few weeks ago I jumped from 101(that I was over the moon with as it was by far the lowest) to 95 the next round, that good day is just around the corner for you.

PARlance

ssbob wrote: »

Got to say guys that I am loving this thread, I am on my own mission to break 90 at the moment, best being 95 to date and was 87 standing on 18th tee, only to take an 8 but hoping that I will benefit from a threeball I have lined up on Sat, playing with a 2 and a 10 handicapper, hoping that I will feed off their brilliance to pull in a good score on my home course.:D

I'll race you so bob
Best of luck with it on Saturday.

The one thing that I find playing with the lower guys is that I try to push my game with them. I haven't played with them since I've started to see some improvement but I'm keen to see how I'll play with them now.

The one thing I found when playing with them before was that I was forcing myself around the course. If I could offer one bit of advice...and its something I haven't managed myself yet... is to enjoy their shots and ability and keep calm when you're not pinging it like them.

I'm out with one of them on Thursday, hoping to heed my own advice for that.
The last time I was out with this guy I was looking up numbers for shrinks... 4 hours of beaten myself up had left me shattered.

bustercherry

First time I broke 100, I also broke 90. Kill 2 birds with the goal and all that :pac: