The "Epic" lowering your handicap "mega" thread

Corkblowin

alxmorgan wrote: »

I look forward to that. Some day over the winter I am going to take a bag out with 5 iron as my biggest club and see how I go.

Its definitely worth the experiment. I used to play out of a club with a short par 69 course. One evening we went out with nothing more than a 6 iron in the bag - I was level, my buddy off 2 was under par, and the other 2 guys (off 10 and 12) both broke 75.

But did we stick to it the next day out.......:o

Corkblowin

ssbob wrote: »

Where are you a member Corkblowin? Trying to imagine the finishing stretch you talk about?

Play out of Fota. The 15th is a sharp dogleg left and hitting driver off the whites means I need to hit a big draw or take on a carry over some trees to avoid running through the fairway & being blocked out. On 18 then hitting driver brings trees into play whereas a 3 wood is short of them but I can still have a crack if I feel like it.

It did not go well.........:)

ssbob

Corkblowin wrote: »

Play out of Fota. The 15th is a sharp dogleg left and hitting driver off the whites means I need to hit a big draw or take on a carry over some trees to avoid running through the fairway & being blocked out. On 18 then hitting driver brings trees into play whereas a 3 wood is short of them but I can still have a crack if I feel like it.

It did not go well.........:)

Shame on me, I live in Cork, and I have yet to play Fota.:(

Must get down there soon. 18th looks tremendous in photo's, kind of like the 18th in Congressional for the approach shot anyway!

paulos53

ssbob wrote: »

Shame on me, I live in Cork, and I have yet to play Fota.:(

Must get down there soon. 18th looks tremendous in photo's, kind of like the 18th in Congressional for the approach shot anyway!

Open Singles there every Wednesday in October & November plus a few mid-week fourballs also. Don't know which course they have in play though.

I am happy to join you if you want a game there any week. Might even be ideal practice ahead of the Ryder Jug

ssbob

paulos53 wrote: »

Open Singles there every Wednesday in October & November plus a few mid-week fourballs also. Don't know which course they have in play though.

I am happy to join you if you want a game there any week. Might even be ideal practice ahead of the Ryder Jug

Hey Paul,

Cheers for the offer, unfortunately mid-week golf is out for me Be great if I could get into the jug, except everyone who qualified seems to be playing:rolleyes:

Ilik Urgee

I recently purchased aGarmin s1 gps watch, has the basic front/middle/back yardages to the green on it.

Anything under 150 yards it sorts out the head as to the certainty of the club before taking the shot. I'd hazard it has saved me 2-3 shots a round.

Also put a super strike/stroke? grip on the putter, whether it's a confidence thing or less wrist breakdown I feel like I can 2 putt from anywhere on a green(not always the case).
Is it unfeasable to think a high handicapper wouldn't benefit from "technological advances" or is it all just marketing?

GreeBo

ssbob wrote: »

I totally get your point, the thing for me is I am just as likely to have a penalty shot off the 5/6 iron as I am with the driver, I could prob hit 7 iron but in a lot of places I may not even make the fairway with that!

My next round of golf will involve playing very conservative, I will report back!

You might think that, but the same swing with a 5i will never be as bad as with a driver.
Sure you might be in rough or even behind a tree if you are unlucky, but long term it wont be as bad.
15degrees left with a iron might put you just off the fairway,add another 100m to that (what you would get with a driver) and you are probably on someone elses land!


Report back with the results of your homework
But dont let bad sensible shots make you stop trying to hit sensible shots...

spacecoyote

GreeBo wrote: »

But dont let bad sensible shots make you stop trying to hit sensible shots...

I think that therein lies the issue for most people. They hit one bad shot trying to be sensible, it doesn't work out, so they switch back to driver thinking "Hey if I'm going to duff it anyway, may as well get the benefit of an extra 100 yards"

On a long run average though, they'd likely see the scoring come down with the percentage play

ssbob

GreeBo wrote: »

You might think that, but the same swing with a 5i will never be as bad as with a driver.

I can think of twice this year when I tried to play conservative(off the first anyway:D):

1. Playing in Monthly medal, hit 6 iron off the first, big push right into ditch, second shot shanked into ditch, hit driver down the fairway in anger:D Made a 9 in the end!
2. Playing in the heritage with BGS, hit 6 iron off the first, thought I was ok but was OB right again:rolleyes:.

I see what your saying in that 10 bad 6 irons will never be as bad as 10 bad drivers but you can still find trouble depending on the course!

GreeBo

ssbob wrote: »

I can think of twice this year when I tried to play conservative(off the first anyway:D):

1. Playing in Monthly medal, hit 6 iron off the first, big push right into ditch, second shot shanked into ditch, hit driver down the fairway in anger:D Made a 9 in the end!
2. Playing in the heritage with BGS, hit 6 iron off the first, thought I was ok but was OB right again:rolleyes:.

I see what your saying in that 10 bad 6 irons will never be as bad as 10 bad drivers but you can still find trouble depending on the course!

for sure you can, but you will find it less often and it wont be as bad. (it might only be a little bit OB sometimes )

alxmorgan

GreeBo wrote: »

for sure you can, but you will find it less often and it wont be as bad. (it might only be a little bit OB sometimes )

Is there anything more heartbreaking than being an inch over the OB line :mad:
May as well be 50 yards over it

GreeBo

oh and another piece of advice (from my *vast* knowledgebase!)
if your plan calls for an iron/rescue off the tee or a layup on a par 3/4/5 *unless its stableford* if your first shot goes horribly wrong (OB, water, unplayable)*stick with the plan* for your provo/3rd shot.
If that plan is truly the best plan for the hole , then hitting a bad first shot doesnt change it in strokes.
Saying "screw it" and pulling out the driver after youve just knocked a 5i into Mrs Jones garden is what leaves you in the clubhouse afterwards saying "if I didnt have that 10 I Would have.....")

In stableford feel free to swing for the fences, IF you dont have a shot there...

alxmorgan

GreeBo wrote: »

oh and another piece of advice (from my *vast* knowledgebase!)
if your plan calls for an iron/rescue off the tee or a layup on a par 3/4/5 *unless its stableford* if your first shot goes horribly wrong (OB, water, unplayable)*stick with the plan* for your provo/3rd shot.
If that plan is truly the best plan for the hole , then hitting a bad first shot doesnt change it in strokes.
Saying "screw it" and pulling out the driver after youve just knocked a 5i into Mrs Jones garden is what leaves you in the clubhouse afterwards saying "if I didnt have that 10 I Would have.....")

In stableford feel free to swing for the fences, IF you dont have a shot there...

Now we are getting to the nub of some of my issues (there's many :rolleyes: )

I had a plan for a scratch cup this summer. Very tight course so it was 4/5 irons off first 6 or 7 holes until it opened up.

Hit a 4 iron off first. Pulled a little into light rough. 5 iron second shot to left of green. Shot onto green was poor and short and into bunker. Out and 2 putts for 6. Partner made a handy birdie after hitting driver.

So what did I do on 2 ? Give Mr Greebo a prize...I hit driver. Big push. Barely found it. And on and on for a truly terrible round.

What did I do wrong ?
1) I let playing partners score affect me.
2) I changed my plan for no good reason
3) The bad shots that lead me to change plan had nothing to do with irons off the tee. i.e. nothing to do with plan (so no good reason to change plan based on shots taken not to mind being so early)
4) I went from a not great 4 iron swing to a not great driver swing (what did I think was going to happen ?)

Dear Lord I need a caddie or a labotomy !!!!!!! :mad::rolleyes:

millerj

alxmorgan wrote: »

Now we are getting to the nub of some of my issues (there's many :rolleyes: )

I had a plan for a scratch cup this summer. Very tight course so it was 4/5 irons off first 6 or 7 holes until it opened up.

Hit a 4 iron off first. Pulled a little into light rough. 5 iron second shot to left of green. Shot onto green was poor and short and into bunker. Out and 2 putts for 6. Partner made a handy birdie after hitting driver.

So what did I do on 2 ? Give Mr Greebo a prize...I hit driver. Big push. Barely found it. And on and on for a truly terrible round.

What did I do wrong ?
1) I let playing partners score affect me.
2) I changed my plan for no good reason
3) The bad shots that lead me to change plan had nothing to do with irons off the tee. i.e. nothing to do with plan (so no good reason to change plan based on shots taken not to mind being so early)
4) I went from a not great 4 iron swing to a not great driver swing (what did I think was going to happen ?)

Dear Lord I need a caddie or a labotomy !!!!!!! :mad::rolleyes:

Out of curiosity - how did your playing partner finish?

alxmorgan

millerj wrote: »

Out of curiosity - how did your playing partner finish?

Ah Christ you had to go there didn't you ? :P

He blew up and barely bettered my fairly pathetic round. His driver got him into plenty of trouble on holes where based on any plan I could see he shouldn't have used it.

I'm hoping this is a watershed moment for me. The first stage is to admit you have a problem

spacecoyote

alxmorgan wrote: »

Now we are getting to the nub of some of my issues (there's many :rolleyes: )

I had a plan for a scratch cup this summer. Very tight course so it was 4/5 irons off first 6 or 7 holes until it opened up.

Hit a 4 iron off first. Pulled a little into light rough. 5 iron second shot to left of green. Shot onto green was poor and short and into bunker. Out and 2 putts for 6. Partner made a handy birdie after hitting driver.

So what did I do on 2 ? Give Mr Greebo a prize...I hit driver. Big push. Barely found it. And on and on for a truly terrible round.

What did I do wrong ?
1) I let playing partners score affect me.
2) I changed my plan for no good reason
3) The bad shots that lead me to change plan had nothing to do with irons off the tee. i.e. nothing to do with plan (so no good reason to change plan based on shots taken not to mind being so early)
4) I went from a not great 4 iron swing to a not great driver swing (what did I think was going to happen ?)

Dear Lord I need a caddie or a labotomy !!!!!!! :mad::rolleyes:

Had a similar idea about a tight course I played on a society outing. Rather than risk switching the plan & hitting driver, I just left it at home and stuck my 4 iron back into the bag instead.

Finished 2nd on the day in the end, so plan worked

alxmorgan

spacecoyote wrote: »

Had a similar idea about a tight course I played on a society outing. Rather than risk switching the plan & hitting driver, I just left it at home and stuck my 4 iron back into the bag instead.

Finished 2nd on the day in the end, so plan worked

Now that is an idea. If only I had thought of that

m r c

So I sat down today and as best as I could I did a statistical analysis as to where I'm losing shots.

The short story is that in all areas my game isn't holding up under pressure. Many cases if not most are inside 100 yards tbh so it really is a short game thing really.

So I've decided I need more of a fool proof swing and I'm going to spend the winter working in my impact position with all clubs.
I'm going for a more passive move through the ball with a bent left wrist at impact.
I went to the range today and mostly with irons but all clubs I tried it out and while I'm losing distance my misses were a lot tighter

This isn't a I can hit the ball 300 thread and I'm def not taking it there.

On a whole I'd say the whole swing feels quieter and once I had the feeling if the move it's a little but easier to just put the club on the back of the ball.

I'm going to drill the hell out of this all winter and give it at least one year before I'm going to say either way if it's working or not. But my current swing was too erratic and timing dependant on my off days.

A good example of oeople who hit the ball this way are Sergio or Gmac.

alxmorgan

m r c wrote: »

So I sat down today and as best as I could I did a statistical analysis as to where I'm losing shots.

The short story is that in all areas my game isn't holding up under pressure. Many cases if bit most are inside 100 yards tbh so it really is a short game thing really.

So I've decided I need more of a fool proof swing and I'm going to spend the winter working in my impact position with all clubs.
I'm going for a more passive move through the ball with a bent left wrist at impact.
I went to the range today and mostly with irons but all clubs I tried it out and while I'm losing distance my misses were a lot tighter

This isn't a I can hit the ball 300 thread and I'm def not taking it there.

On a whole I'd say the whole swing feels quieter and once I had the feeling if the move it's a little but easier to just put the club on the back of the ball.

I'm going to drill the hell out of this all winter and give it at least one year before I'm going to say either way if it's working or not. But my current swing was too erratic and timing dependant on my off days.

A good example of oeople who hit the ball this way are Sergio or Gmac.

When you say bent left wrist do you mean bowed or cupped ?
If you mean bowed ala Dustin Johnson for me that should mean more power as it should lower dynamic loft via shaft lean at impact

m r c

alxmorgan wrote: »

When you say bent left wrist do you mean bowed or cupped ?
If you mean bowed ala Dustin Johnson for me that should mean more power as it should lower dynamic loft via shaft lean at impact

Bowed ya definitely not cupped. I'll put up a video from a guy called Josh Zander showing what I was on about.

m r c

This guy is referring to it as the stable release.

http://youtu.be/xMjTOVv6e2A

alxmorgan

m r c wrote: »

This guy is referring to it as the stable release.

http://youtu.be/xMjTOVv6e2A

Good video. I played around with that earlier this year and had some success (and big distance gains) but I found trouble once I went past the short irons so I dropped it to not have different swings for different clubs.

Anyway it seems like it should be more reliable as relies less on timing. Best of luck with it and let us know how it goes

m r c

alxmorgan wrote: »

Good video. I played around with that earlier this year and had some success (and big distance gains) but I found trouble once I went past the short irons so I dropped it to not have different swings for different clubs.

Anyway it seems like it should be more reliable as relies less on timing. Best of luck with it and let us know how it goes

Thanks, there is another benefit as regards my poorer swings I was always in the habit of having forward shaft lean and sometimes this caused me to leave the face open through the strike. As in through impact sometimes the butt end of my club would be too far in front of my left thigh. Harder to explain in words than you'd imagine but you'd probably get my point but when you move through the ball this way the face is squarer longer and should serve to suit my miss better. Anyway I'm not expecting anything quick this is a slow burner.

Edit
And ya I'd like to take as much timing out of my swing as possible. And if as a consequence my longer game suffers in the short term that's not something I'm worried about.

Dbu

m r c wrote: »

So I sat down today and as best as I could I did a statistical analysis as to where I'm losing shots.

The short story is that in all areas my game isn't holding up under pressure. Many cases if not most are inside 100 yards tbh so it really is a short game thing really.


your statistical analysis is spot on,
As i said previously it doesnt matter if your off 24 or 4 its all about the short game.... and one other thing ..keep it simple...dont spend 3 minutes reading a putt line, get the pace right and aim for the hole,,youll be grand:D

Freemount09

GreeBo wrote: »

Nicklaus had a saying that he would always make sure to not beat himself...if someone else played well and won, fair play to them, but dont ever beat yourself out there. This is basically my interpretation of that.

(my mother game similar advice, but I dont think she was talking about golf! :eek:)

Thats funny cause your mother gave me the exact oposite advice !! :P

OilBeefHooked2

My sincere condolences mrc, you start a new thread to get away from the incessant preaching about "course management" and it follows.....

spacecoyote

Not really getting your point david-k.

Its a thread about tips to get your handicap lower. I would have thought..."improve your course management" is a valid Tip to get your handicap lower?

OilBeefHooked2

spacecoyote wrote: »

Not really getting your point david-k.

Its a thread about tips to get your handicap lower. I would have thought..."improve your course management" is a valid Tip to get your handicap lower?

Yes of course it is part of reducing ones handicap and yes of course you can point it out to people and then let them learn in their own good time, but constantly ramming it down peoples throats in a throll like behaviour gets old and tiresome after about the thousand time, golfers are just like everyone else and there are as many wide and varied ways to put a score together as there are people on the planet, but apparently here on boards.ie we have a 9 handicapper who holds the exclusive rights on how to manage ones game around the course.
Well newsflash a "one size" fits all appraoch does not and can not ever work, and I for one welcome that, it makes golf more interesting when the fairways are not infested with Greebots.

dwd

I've been fairly fustrated this year with no progress in getting handicap going in the right direction, and have been stuck at 13 for the last year and half.

So I've 3 main aims for this winter:
1, Strength & conditioning, I've an old shoulder injury and I really need to strengthen up my back, chest & core. I've started working on this since August, hitting the gym about 3 times a week and I definitely think this is helping already with regards swing consistency and not walking of the course with an agonizingly stiff upper back.

2, is the mental side of things, I'm terrible for losing concentration for a few holes, making silly mistake and bad decisions of the back of mistakes. So, I'm planning to reread the Bob Rotella books again, haven't read them in years and maybe also go to a Karl Morris workshop if I can find one in early spring as most of what I've heard has been positive about him. I think a good pre shot routine would help here aswell.

3, practice, practice, practice, I want to keep working on the changes I've made with my coach during earlier in the year and try to get them to really bed in going to the range at least once or twice a week and then to work on my short game and putting on a Saturday before and after my once a week game.

not much to do so but I think if I can do this over the winter I'll easily make it in to the single figures next year :cool:

m r c

dwd wrote: »

2, is the mental side of things, I'm terrible for losing concentration for a few holes, making silly mistake and bad decisions of the back of mistakes. So, I'm planning to reread the Bob Rotella books again, haven't read them in years and maybe also go to a Karl Morris workshop if I can find one in early spring as most of what I've heard has been positive about him. I think a good pre shot routine would help here


This bit in particular is massive, I've even noticed my concentration go at the range when I'd be working on something in particular which is mad. I've been beginning the swing changes I mentioned above and hit 200 balls today and yesterday and feck me if I didn't hit some really bad ones out of pure lack of application to what I was at.