Quest for single figures getting closer :)

Tones69

So after making nice progress in the past 7 weeks, got cut from 18 to 14 in 3 comps..Hopefully can keep the ball rolling and hit 12 for june and hopefully get to 9 by september as i set out to do last November. Need to get more consistent though, im either hitting 40 points or 30! Cant seem to bang in steady 36's, still thought plenty time left! Roll on summer!

irish bloke

Tones69 wrote: »

So after making nice progress in the past 7 weeks, got cut from 18 to 14 in 3 comps..Hopefully can keep the ball rolling and hit 12 for june and hopefully get to 9 by september as i set out to do last November. Need to get more consistent though, im either hitting 40 points or 30! Cant seem to bang in steady 36's, still thought plenty time left! Roll on summer!

Your a brave man Tones, ill give you that;)

You have a seriously tough audience here but best of luck to you and I hope you make it..

Corkblowin

Good start Tones - keep it up!!! It's well within your capabilities from what I've read on these forums - the main issue you may have is when you plateau - which you will - just keep plugging away & don't get disheartened. It's a real culture shock when bogeys only get you 1 point & doubles nothing - you'll really feel it around the 12 mark!

I went from 15 to 8 in one year once I started taking golf seriously -my plateau occurred then - hovered between 7 & 8 for years until I was good enough to make the next jump.

Look forward to the updates.

ForeRight

Tones69 wrote: »

So after making nice progress in the past 7 weeks, got cut from 18 to 14 in 3 comps..Hopefully can keep the ball rolling and hit 12 for june and hopefully get to 9 by september as i set out to do last November. Need to get more consistent though, im either hitting 40 points or 30! Cant seem to bang in steady 36's, still thought plenty time left! Roll on summer!

I'm in the exact same boat. Got my first ever GUI last July and was given 18. Played a good bit last summer but not too much in official events to get cut. When I started in them then I went to 16 and carried that into this year when cuts began a few weeks ago.
I've played lots of opens and club comps in the last 2 months and went to 14 then 13 and now 12 after having 39 points today.

I'll easily go out at the weekend and shoot 30 points off that 12 and then go out the day after and shoot 40. Nightmare. I know I can shoot very low as I have had loads of 74-78 rounds in practice rounds but it's a different ball game in comps obviously.

Would love to get down to single figures in the next month or 2 but with my driving recently having got from long and straight to long and all over the course I can't see it happening!

I'll keep going out and letting the course beat me into submission in hail rain snow or sunshine though as I love the walk and solving the worlds problems with my playing partners :0

Tones69

Corkblowin wrote: »

Good start Tones - keep it up!!! It's well within your capabilities from what I've read on these forums - the main issue you may have is when you plateau - which you will - just keep plugging away & don't get disheartened. It's a real culture shock when bogeys only get you 1 point & doubles nothing - you'll really feel it around the 12 mark!

I went from 15 to 8 in one year once I started taking golf seriously -my plateau occurred then - hovered between 7 & 8 for years until I was good enough to make the next jump.

Look forward to the updates.

Yeah i hear ya, sucks only getting 1pt for a bogey Suppose its the only way forward though!! Deffo gets hard past 12 id say, 0.2 instead of 0.3 too

TheDoc

I've got that goal too, to get back down to where I was. Just went back out to 12, but know I can do it.

Its always a good goal to be striving down to a lower handicapp, its the best reward for me in the game to see my hanidcapp get lower

Tones69

Got cut another stroke (on top of the 1.2 for the comp) in that exception scoring thing for that win thursday where I beat css by 4. Down to feckin 11.5 now! I better get practicing

Mr. Larson

Just keep doing what you're doing mate - forget your handicap and don't start focussing on that - that will take care of itself. Nothing much extra needed to continue down. Some people on here, myself included, could be eating humble pie if you can keep up the good golf.

Tones69

Jabberwocky wrote: »

Just keep doing what you're doing mate - forget your handicap and don't start focussing on that - that will take care of itself. Nothing much extra needed to continue down. Some people on here, myself included, could be eating humble pie if you can keep up the good golf.

Cheers will do. Not gonna lie, got a little shock there when i see the extra stroke gone again, just gonna practice now for a while and not worry about playing every second comp, i need to adjust for all these strokes that have gone missing the past 2 months ha

pinkdoubleeagle

Tones69 wrote: »

Cheers will do. Not gonna lie, got a little shock there when i see the extra stroke gone again, just gonna practice now for a while and not worry about playing every second comp, i need to adjust for all these strokes that have gone missing the past 2 months ha

Short game, short game and short game again. That's what will do it for you. Keep it going

thoscon

pinkdoubleeagle wrote: »

Short game, short game and short game again. That's what will do it for you. Keep it going

+1
Totally agree with this.short game was a massive help to me getting to single figures ,been able to get up and down for par when you miss greens is a massive plus
Fair play to you tones hope you achieve your goals .

Dr_Colossus

Well done, that's great golfing and a great achievement so far. Very early yet in the season so well on target to achieve your goal. Hopefully the Independent/GUI run the Most Improved Player again this year as you'd most definitely make the category 3 top 10.

alxmorgan

You're an inspiration Tones

And I'm actually not messing. It's great to see that someone can set a goal work hard and make great progress towards achieving it (for the record I do think you'll do it)

This bloody game would wreck your head but knowing hard work does pay off helps you keep on going

Tones69

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

Well done, that's great golfing and a great achievement so far. Very early yet in the season so well on target to achieve your goal. Hopefully the Independent/GUI run the Most Improved Player again this year as you'd most definitely make the category 3 top 10.

Never even thought about that, that would be great ha. We'l take it one step at a time.

alxmorgan wrote: »

You're an inspiration Tones

And I'm actually not messing. It's great to see that someone can set a goal work hard and make great progress towards achieving it (for the record I do think you'll do it)

This bloody game would wreck your head but knowing hard work does pay off helps you keep on going

cheers, yeah for sure, some days you feel you can do anything out there then the following morning it could be the exact opposite. Just need to keep pluggin away i guess. At the moment I feel like I can play to an 8 or 9 on a good day but could have a stinker and play to 18 on a bad day. I wanna be at the stage where Im consistent, IE: 8/9 on a good day and 10/11 on a bad day

Tones69

pinkdoubleeagle wrote: »

Short game, short game and short game again. That's what will do it for you. Keep it going

I agree, my driving is solid at the mo. Need to just keep practicing with the short sticks. Missed a good few greens last thursday with an 8/9iron, got up and down on one and not on the other. Cant be missing greens from inside 150 imo

Tones69

So presidents prize this morning, bit windy but nice enough and escaped the rain. Had my first taste of what par golf feels like, i shot 36 strokes for the front 9 with a 20 foot bird on 8. Had some 2 putt pars and nice up and down pars on 6 7 and 9. Back 9 was a bit of a muddle, 3 pars, 3 bogeys and 3 doubles . Was driving the ball great, irons were good but putting was flying (bar a SILLY 3 putt on 17).

Top 15 best nett scores get in tmrw to a 9 hole playoff which would be great to make but i dunno if the 68 will do it for me, fingers crossed, either way its a minimum cut of 0.8 to 10.7 . Possibly 10.5 if css was 73 so we will see.

Delighted with the progress so far, 7.5 strokes since march. Ive 4 months to make my target which is at the moment, 1.3 strokes away

TheRoomWrecker

Great stuff dude, you are flying!!!
time to reassess that goal;)

pinkdoubleeagle

TheRoomWrecker wrote: »

Great stuff dude, you are flying!!!
time to reassess that goal;)

Unbelieveable amount of shots lost to date. Fair play to you man

Tones69

pinkdoubleeagle wrote: »

TheRoomWrecker wrote: »

Great stuff dude, you are flying!!!
time to reassess that goal;)

Unbelieveable amount of shots lost to date. Fair play to you man

Il be able to give you a game someday if i can keep it up ha. Cheers lads. Still feel like ive another couple shots in me, roll on summer

Myksyk

Make sure you tick the box on golfnet for the most improved golfer of the year. Well done. Keep it up.

the lawman

Some serious improving there Tones. Keep it up man.

Tones69

Myksyk wrote: »

Make sure you tick the box on golfnet for the most improved golfer of the year. Well done. Keep it up.

Had a look there and it says for 2011, dont think its being done this year? Cheers anyway il keep pluggin away!!

Tones69

Handicap January 1st 2012 = 18.2
Handicap as of May 27th 2012 = 9.7

Lets do this!!!!

Got a lot of practice in today, good bit of putting and 27 holes.

nocal

So far so good....that is amazing progress.

So enlighten us all - what practise/coaching/playing regime have you used? When is the book being published?

And tell me - when you achieve your goal -then what? Will you become bored with the game/challenge or will you put the same amount of effort into becoming a Cat 1 golfer and then a scratch golfer?

Tones69

nocal wrote: »

So far so good....that is amazing progress.

So enlighten us all - what practise/coaching/playing regime have you used? When is the book being published?

And tell me - when you achieve your goal -then what? Will you become bored with the game/challenge or will you put the same amount of effort into becoming a Cat 1 golfer and then a scratch golfer?

Same practice as what i said from a few months back, just regularly playing with low single figure golfers every week and picking things up, practicing my chipping and putting.

Have had 2 lessons, one back in feb and one about 3 weeks ago. Just going over alignment and swing path etc. Other than that its just been trial and error and picking up tips here and there fro the guys

Honestly couldnt tell you, but il stay practicing and playing as much as possible, I always said id be happy being a solid 6 or 7hcap and being able to shoot in the 70s on any golf course.

Tones69

Had it in the bag saturday but blew it, was playing great golf and was +2 standing on 16th tee in Stroke play comp in athy, made a total hames of 16 then bogeyd 17 and 18. Still got cut 0.2 but should have been at least 1.0 or 1.2

9.6 now, got cut to 9.5 sat then got back a 0.1 sunday ha, knew i should have cancelled but said feckit and went ahead anyway.

Inter scratch this sunday so just gonna practice this week and try put in a score that will take me down to the magic number

nocal

Tones69 wrote: »

Had it in the bag saturday but blew it, was playing great golf and was +2 standing on 16th tee in Stroke play comp in athy, made a total hames of 16 then bogeyd 17 and 18. Still got cut 0.2 but should have been at least 1.0 or 1.2

9.6 now, got cut to 9.5 sat then got back a 0.1 sunday ha, knew i should have cancelled but said feckit and went ahead anyway.

Inter scratch this sunday so just gonna practice this week and try put in a score that will take me down to the magic number

Pressure getting to you Tones?

Great progress - keep it up. Looking forward to the "I did it and F3ck the Begrudgers!" post.

Tones69

nocal wrote: »

Pressure getting to you Tones?

Great progress - keep it up. Looking forward to the "I did it post. F3ck the Begrudgers!"

lol nah no pressure at all dude, just the golfing gods softened my cough for me trying to pull the reigns in ha.

Its coming soon though I can feel it, level par standing on the 11th tee was cool. Must be great to do that on a regular basis!

-Wheeler-

Tones69 wrote: »

Had it in the bag saturday but blew it, was playing great golf and was +2 standing on 16th tee in Stroke play comp in athy, made a total hames of 16 then bogeyd 17 and 18. Still got cut 0.2 but should have been at least 1.0 or 1.2

9.6 now, got cut to 9.5 sat then got back a 0.1 sunday ha, knew i should have cancelled but said feckit and went ahead anyway.

Inter scratch this sunday so just gonna practice this week and try put in a score that will take me down to the magic number

Fair play to you. The progress you've made is incredible, real inspirational stuff for the rest of us!

How much practice do you do? What would you say has been the key to your success, for instance, how much of it do you put down to practice on the range versus playing competitive rounds? Which do you think has contributed more to you becoming a better golfer, more hours on the practice ground or getting more competitive rounds under your belt?

I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Cheers.

ForeRight

Tones!!!


It's possible, keep plugging away. I've done it since getting my first ever GUI last August. Got 18 and I'm now off 9. Shot 35 points in the European today in their open and there were 12 cards in before me and the best score was 24 points so I could be facing a nasty cut if the ESHR kicks in again.

Tones69

-Wheeler- wrote: »

Fair play to you. The progress you've made is incredible, real inspirational stuff for the rest of us!

How much practice do you do? What would you say has been the key to your success, for instance, how much of it do you put down to practice on the range versus playing competitive rounds? Which do you think has contributed more to you becoming a better golfer, more hours on the practice ground or getting more competitive rounds under your belt?

I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Cheers.

Tbh i actually havent practiced that much on the range as such from 14 to 10 the past 6 weeks, but what i have been doing is really taken time to work on my setup and allignment, ive been hitting much straighter shots lately.

Short game is so important, and while it was on fire saturday it was definitely not sunday ha. I play with a couple of long and short hitters in the 4-9 hcap range and sometimes the only diff u can tell is in the short game! Im gonna keep working with my wedges and putter as i really believe this is where the low scoring really comes in

Dr_Colossus

Myksyk wrote: »

Make sure you tick the box on golfnet for the most improved golfer of the year. Well done. Keep it up.

Tones69 wrote: »

Had a look there and it says for 2011, dont think its being done this year? Cheers anyway il keep pluggin away!!

I enquired about this with the GUI and received a confirmation email from them stating that the Irish Independent/GUI Most Improved Golfer competition will not be going ahead this year. I've requested additional information as to why but haven't heard back on that yet.

It's very disappointing really, the competition has been run for the past two years and gave club golfers of all levels from all over the country a good incentive to work at reducing their handicap and bettering their golf at little expense to either the Independent or GUI. It was easy to enter and fair for all.

With the work and subsequent reduction in handicap the likes of Tones displayed they'd have been shoe-ins for the final. Very disappointing indeed. Keep up the good work Tones and don't let that news deflate you. The Independent/GUI don't appear to be overly interested in seeing players improve but that doesn't mean the golfing public aren't.

Whyner

Tones69 wrote: »

Had it in the bag saturday but blew it, was playing great golf and was +2 standing on 16th tee in Stroke play comp in athy, made a total hames of 16 then bogeyd 17 and 18. Still got cut 0.2 but should have been at least 1.0 or 1.2

9.6 now, got cut to 9.5 sat then got back a 0.1 sunday ha, knew i should have cancelled but said feckit and went ahead anyway.

Inter scratch this sunday so just gonna practice this week and try put in a score that will take me down to the magic number

You must be favourite on Sun, on fire and your home course.....

Tones69

Whyner wrote: »

You must be favourite on Sun, on fire and your home course.....

Very much doubt it, some very handy golfers in there off 10..But we'l give it a bash

PARlance

Tones, fair play on your progress to date, super stuff.
Fingers crossed for you this weekend.

mikeunt

Tones69 wrote: »

Very much doubt it, some very handy golfers in there off 10..But we'l give it a bash

if you are going well after around 13 or 14 holes this is the time to say to yourself to start playing conservatively
if you tend to slice the ball under pressure just say to yourself "whatever you do tones, dont slice this one out of bounds"
or if you start to get jumpy over a pitch or chip around the green pull out the auld 3 wood and bump it on
safety first
nerves and jitters can ruin a great round even on the last hole
your good round could all be spoiled in the last hole with a shank or a duffed chip or something
best of luck

Tones69

mikeunt wrote: »

if you are going well after around 13 or 14 holes this is the time to say to yourself to start playing conservatively
if you tend to slice the ball under pressure just say to yourself "whatever you do tones, dont slice this one out of bounds"
or if you start to get jumpy over a pitch or chip around the green pull out the auld 3 wood and bump it on
safety first
nerves and jitters can ruin a great round even on the last hole
your good round could all be spoiled in the last hole with a shank or a duffed chip or something
best of luck

Guess i should have hit 8iron last saturday in athy on 16 instead of driver was driving it well all day though so the thought would never have crossed my mind. By the way i dont call myself tones ha

TheDoc

Your doing it alot better then me!

I keep bottling it the last couple of holes so rounds that should be 38+ points or in the 70's come back rubbish
Few times now been a dead cert to get cut, then finish getting .1 back.

Such a waste of 3 hours to mess it up in the last few : /

mikeunt

Tones69 wrote: »

Guess i should have hit 8iron last saturday in athy on 16 instead of driver was driving it well all day though so the thought would never have crossed my mind. By the way i dont call myself tones ha

Sorry tones69

well i wouldnt go to the extreme of hitting an 8 iron instead of driver but maybe a rescue or a 5 iron
ha

Kace

Congrats - I didn't believe that you would do it and have been proven wrong - obviously by hard work, a good mindset and some seroius playing ability.

Well done !

I hope to join you back down there at single figures some day and have been starting to make progress with my own struggle with a 2 shot cut over the weekend back to 11. I can look to yourself for inspiration


******************

Hey - where has the post gone that just confirmed that you got cut to 9.4 ???

******************

Tones69

Kace wrote: »

Congrats - I didn't believe that you would do it and have been proven wrong - obviously by hard work, a good mindset and some seroius playing ability.

Well done !

I hope to join you back down there at single figures some day and have been starting to make progress with my own struggle with a 2 shot cut over the weekend back to 11. I can look to yourself for inspiration


******************

Hey - where has the post gone that just confirmed that you got cut to 9.4 ???

******************

Deleted it for now dude as not confirmed yet, so il just sit tight then post up, should be 9.2 i think

ulysses32

Hi Tones,

Sounds like you have done great there. I have set myself a similar challenge after getting my first handicap of 18 last September. I think I am down to 9.7 or possibly 9.5 as of this weekend.

I hope to follow you down to the magic single figures fairly soon. Well done.

What's the next target going to be??

Tones69

ulysses32 wrote: »

Hi Tones,

Sounds like you have done great there. I have set myself a similar challenge after getting my first handicap of 18 last September. I think I am down to 9.7 or possibly 9.5 as of this weekend.

I hope to follow you down to the magic single figures fairly soon. Well done.

What's the next target going to be??

Well done dude, hmm no real target as such but just keep improving and playing good golf for the rest of this season. Play a few singles and Scratch cups etc, then practice loads again for winter and try hit 5 or 6 next summer, I will do it

That competition round last week where i was +2 standing on the 16th tee gave me great confidence, someday soon hopefully i can play very close to par golf

link_2007

Are you still practicing as much as you were at the beginning or is it a case of maintaining the progress you have made so far and then trying to improve again during the winter?

Tones69

link_2007 wrote: »

Are you still practicing as much as you were at the beginning or is it a case of maintaining the progress you have made so far and then trying to improve again during the winter?

At the beginning i was practicing everything, now all i really want to practice is wedges and putting, from now til the end of the summer im gonna try and practice a good bit more than I play which is hard to do when the range is 100 feet from the 1st tee

We've been getting crap weather the past few wks so haven't been able to get as much in as id have hoped but hopefully that will change.
From now til sept if i could steadily play to 9 and maybe shave it down close to 8 id be delighted, then practice like feck for the winter. That was my original goal last November and ive done it in a crazy short period which is cool but as ive said i wanna be able to play to it now, gotta cut out the doubles and silly mistakes

tommyombomb

Would you recommend playing a few rounds of pitch and putt to improve short game

Tones69

tommyombomb wrote: »

Would you recommend playing a few rounds of pitch and putt to improve short game

Dont see why not

Russman

Fair play to you Tones, super achievement.

irish bloke

tommyombomb wrote: »

Would you recommend playing a few rounds of pitch and putt to improve short game

Ive played a good few rounds this summer and have seen an improvement in my wedge play. Whatever you do though, play off the grass and not the tee boxes

Tones69

IMO you cant get enough wedge/chipping/pitching practice in, it will save you strokes, its where i lose most of mine, workin on it

Milkers

mikeunt wrote: »

if you are going well after around 13 or 14 holes this is the time to say to yourself to start playing conservatively
if you tend to slice the ball under pressure just say to yourself "whatever you do tones, dont slice this one out of bounds"
or if you start to get jumpy over a pitch or chip around the green pull out the auld 3 wood and bump it on
safety first
nerves and jitters can ruin a great round even on the last hole
your good round could all be spoiled in the last hole with a shank or a duffed chip or something
best of luck

The general thrust of this post is spot on but the bolded part is literally the biggest mistake you could make from a sports psychology point of view. You should never tell yourself what not to do (the classic "don't hit it in the water") instead give yourself a positive instruction of what TO DO instead.