How Did You Score? - 2025

Could be just me...but is a draw just harder now with a modern club...and ball I guess

I think it varies massively per person and club, you've too many variables. Lie angle, perimeter weighting, tungsten inserts, hollow faces, moveable weights, loft sleeves, offset. Then pair it up with your unique delivery.

My old stock loft/lie Mizuno JPX921 irons were flatter than the stock loft/lie Srixon ZX5s I stuck in this year. I could draw the Mizunos but the right miss was bad. Whereas the Srixons would draw automatically as they're more upright vs the old ones. The typical right miss is reduced to a small push fade too. So the fitting made it easier for me in that respect. It is trickier for me to try to fade the ball now but that is not my typical shot at all.

Had a rental set of old game improvement irons on holidays over Xmas. The offset meant I was hooking everything with my normal swing. Only "trying" to fade it, made a neutral ball flight.

Similarly, I had a low spin 3w (Sim2 ti) that loved to cut/fade if you struck near the heel. Changed to a stealth+ and it's much more forgiving with a slight draw tendency. That's without changing the loft sleeve settings but I am using a shorter shaft also.

My driving iron (Srixon ZX 3i) tends to be draw bias even though it has slightly less offset than my 4i. I put it down to the weighting.

First two full rounds of the season, new swing is bedding in pretty well but still some more work to go.

Just joined Elmgreen so run out on Friday and this morning.

Weather last Friday was mixed, we got pissed on by rain front 9 so bad we were considering calling it at 9 or 12, but sun came out and a lovely back nine saw a 5 stroke improvement vs the front. Finished on 91 (+21) with most of the damage done early (48/43 split).

Today was much nicer weather wise, but similar split strokes wise (shot 90, 48/42 split). Not completely sure where I lost the strokes this time round, hit more fairways etc, putting was about the same (with room to improve but same number of shots). Might be a warm up thing, not starting out strongly enough. No blowup holes so was a more even 48 but will need to work on it. I'm not hitting a tonne of greens, but part of that is new swing is changing my distances a bit. Friday I was missing short, this time I was missing long. Once that's dialled in should help improve it a bit.

I followed up a really nice +2 gross society outting at PM links last month with another good showing of a 12 hole round of +1 gross a few days ago at my home course. It was a strange 12 holes which I opened cold with 5 bogies in the first 6 holes, part of this was getting the feels of new driver in the bag and not having hit a ball for a couple of weeks. I eagled during the round, and had three birdies in a row. I also lipped for birdy on each of the last three holes on three separate putts. No doubt placing conditions are helping somewhat but hoping I can continue the run on the run into summer.

Currently playing par 5's particularly well. There's 4 par5's on the 12 hole route. I was -4 gross on these 4 holes and just missed an up and down attempt on the last par 5 to be -5 gross shooting eagle, birdie, birdie, and almost another birdie on the last.

Had our first 18 holes of the year in my home course at the weekend and I had a respectable 35 points playing off 9. Definitely by far my best round since mid August last year. I had a lesson in the days leading up to it and something has clicked. I've finally got a good understanding of a the basic swing mechanics for me and what I need to feel even if I don't always do it. Still far from perfect and there was plenty of poor shots during this round but my chipping helped a lot. Also a couple of 3 putts and one lost ball so plenty of room for improvement.

I am struggling with the fact that as my handicap stands I basically need to shoot in the 70's to break 36 points or even par and I've only shot int the 70s once last year. But if I want to be an single figure handicap I need to accept that and change my mindset a bit.

Well done, I could clearly see your potential at killarney 2023. But I also could see your short game getting in the way of that back then, great to see you make strides on cleaning up that side of things.

On the other end of the spectrum...

Played Dungarvan today and was pretty pleased overall, though I still felt I left shots on the board. Shot 96 which is pretty average given my handicap is around 22 (as per the app)

===

Pro's:

Felt like I took a big step towards understanding the driver mechanics. Was all over the place last week but after trying to break it down and a good range session midweek, I'm more confident in hitting it relatively consistently. Driver accuracy was at 70% which is a great sign.

Irons are definitely being struck better, keeping my chest ahead of the ball which means better strikes, still thinning the odd one but overall the contact is better and I'm getting green side in reg more often.

Birdied the 13th, albeit it was down to 90 yards with the winter tees. Still, a distance I'd have struggled with before but now I can hit a full 60 and be confident in it. Pitched about a foot and a half from the hole and stuck the putt then.

Made four pars in a row at West Waterford last week as well, so definitely the game is trending up, just need to stop the blow-up holes

Cons:

Slow start again, tee shot was alright but hacked my way around the first five holes being honest.

Kept hitting my 4 hybrid and was stubborn because it's usually a club I like. Had a lot of 180ish yard approaches with the winter conditions and kept missing left big time.

With the ground that also meant a lot of lost balls that were plugged in the areas off the fairway/greens. Had a small bit of a meltdown on the 4th when I pured a 6-iron and arrived on scene to see absolutely no ball at all. Never found it. Losing balls like that really gets in my head, can understand when it's a poor shot but frustrating when you do hit a good one and you still have to take a penalty.

Still trying to develop some touch around the greens. Putter wasn't bad (just under 2 putts per hole on average, one 3-putt) but the chipping isn't great. Can't decide whether to stick with one club, or to switch between clubs based on the situation. Trying to bump and run where I can but the boggy conditions make that difficult.

===

Probably my last one before the next boards outing so it's nice to have had a good one. Last time was literally my first competitive round ever, so will be a lot better organised next time around.

Well done @charlieIRL, a standard Society cut based on exceptional scores is needed. 😀

Went out yesterday to Raffeen Creek, first time ever playing it. Absolutely mighty 9 hole course, some superb views, fairly short/compact course. Would be absolutely ideal for a senior golfer. Made 6 pars and a birdie, one or two disaster holes but overall touch around the greens was good and driver largely behaved itself.

Realise that perhaps I was being a bit harsh on myself over the winter, and finding now with summer conditions and the ball not plugging everywhere that I'm actually shooting a lot lower. Onwards and upwards!

I got out for a sneaky practice in Roganstown yesterday in advance of a weekend trip to Mount Juliet. And what a strange round I played.

I started well - two very good up and downs for par. Then the 3rd hole I topped my drive. I hit plenty of bad shots, but that's not usually one of them. Then I topped a 3 wood. Then I hit a really solid 9 iron that just landed the wrong side of a ridge, but I made a great two putt. So I've started very well. Then I sliced two drives OB - scratch on the 4th. Perfect drive on 5, followed by a shank into the water. Managed to salvage a bogey with a great up and down. Then a shank into the water on the next, I ended up 3 putting for a triple. Onto the 8th, another great drive and an excellent up and down for par. Then a 3 putt bogey on the next and a two putt par on the one after. So some great 1 putts and bad 3 putts. And great hits and shanks and balls topped. Onto the back 9…

Topped my drive into a stream, dopped, chipped out, topped a 4i, stuck a 9 iron to 6 feet and holed the putt. Next hole I was on the green in reg - 3 putted. Next hole, 3 putted for a double. Another 3 putt on the one after that for a triple (I was unlucky in fairness going into two bunkers). 2 putt par on 14, followed by 3 3 putts for bogies / double bogies on 15-17. And a two putt par on the last.

Now in fairness, I got a call from the childminder on 11 and wasn't sure if I'd need to leave the course to pick up the kids. That was a distraction and probably a contributor to 6 3 putts in 7 holes. But still. It was such an odd putting round in particular. 8 3 putts, 5 1 putts and 5 2 putts. And I'm used to my bad drives going onto different courses / planets, but topping a couple was odd. And the shanks were brutal too, but there were some great irons as well.

So I've no idea how I'm playing after that.