How's your game!

I hit about 10 baby draws today at the range. Felt so wonderful I almost cried. Winter work starting to take shape. Lots to do yet but right direction after weeks of hard work and rubbish scoring.

dan_ep82 wrote: »

Was your normal shot a fade?

I had a similar reaction when I started hitting a draw. I had no problem with a fade but a proper fade was just as rare as a draw

My only shot shape since I'm playing golf is a fade and not intentionally either.

Been working on club release and to hit some draws today felt surreal. I actually shouted 'yes' and fist pumped after I repeated 10 in a row.

had 34 points for 14 holes last weekend. thought i'd be in the shake up with that score off 14 holes.

winner was 38 followed by 2 36's. dont want to even think about how many had 35!

ridiculous scoring for 14 holes

Had one of my best range sessions today Went to the range to book 4 30 mins lessons for €100 with the assistant pro.

I was pretty disappointed with my game after the Heritage even though you can't be too hard on yourself in conditions like that.

The pro wasn't available today so I belted away myself anyway and was happy with about nearly 80% of my shots - a record for me - I'm rarely happy with my strikes.

Was able to shape my driver both ways at will. Probably only the 5 iron that wasn't great but still a couple of nice strikes with it.

Consistency is the main thing I'm looking for now, so hopefully the pro will be able to iron some things out. My left wrist is pretty badly bowed at the top as well as being a bit steep initiating an OTT swing path.

Slowing gaining a better appreciation of the swing mechanics, a couple of years ago I was completely clueless. I would just stand up and hit it without an idea why it was going where it was going.

I'm the kind of guy who needs to understand something fully before I can commit to it. Plus the swing is a pretty interesting thing - well to us junkies anyway :pac:

Out in Corballis today,21pts off 19

16 front and 5 back with ( I think) 5-7 scratches

Front 9 went alright if not great, back 9 was a disaster.

Trouble right on a few holes got the better of me and started swing left, which of course meant the ball went right. Then everything broke down slowly but surely as I lost interest.

Seriously though, Corballis is still the toughest course I've played.Some of the greens are very tough when on the wrong side of the hole. I hit some alright shots and got severely punished with the lies and rough, I might have had my fill for 2015 lol

Went to the range for about an hour to see if I could get back to where I was a few days ago.

Catching back of centre (hence going right) so addressing out the toe works but not mad about it as its only a patch.Going back tomorrow or Sunday when I'm a bit less wrecked ha.

Short game plan is on the back foot for the time being,meant to start this weekend

It's all really a mental thing, its been a while since my miss was right so its getting to me a bit which is making it worse.

Must think positive

Game is pretty decent... thankfully. I got out this afternoon for my first full 18 since early November. I've only play a Par 3 and 9 holes in between. No range either. So a bit of rust but good to know my swing hadn't left me.

Need to work on my driving and half wedges but was hitting my 3h great and irons were connecting nicely.

Have come on a long way since this time last year. If I had taken such a break before it would have been carnage today. It has certainly "clicked" from 12 months ago. Hope there are a few more clicks/levels to come.

I think this post is more of a therapy session than anything else.

I'm in a tough place with my game at the moment. I've been working on a few swing changes over the winter months to help "tighten" everything up. I feel like i'm making a good swing at the ball, i'm just not getting the results at the moment. All this came to a head when i played Mount Juliet at the weekend. Firstly, what a course. Its not as claustrophobic as i thought it was going to be and i really enjoyed my time, despite of my scores.

I play off 14 and went around in 98 strokes or 26 over. Going off my GameGolf stats I hit 50% of fairways (personal best) with an average drive of 215 yards and topping out at 247 yards, but i only hit 11% of GIR (which was only 2 greens). So my iron play is complete and utter rubbish. My short game yips have only gotten worse and the practice hasn't really improved anything. And i had 35 putts in the round, up from my average of 30 putts. Now that could be down to really tricky greens that i wasn't used to, but i also missed around 4 silly putts from around 3ft.

I just find it hard at the moment, and i get somewhat ashamed to say i'm off 14 but i haven't played to that hc in over a year and i had to scramble to get a total of 2 pars at the weekend. Consequently, they came on the 16th and 17th, after i tore up my card on the 16th tee (i was only paying green fees, not a competition). Perhaps a feeling of liberation came over me when i wasn't held to writing down my scores, i honestly don't know what it was.

But having said all that, my swing feels good. I feel like i'm making solid contact and that the vast majority of my problems lie in my short game. I'm only hoping that if i persevere it'll pay off and i'll be playing to my hc again when the weather clears up.

Norfolk Enchants_ wrote: »

Have you been getting lessons with the swing changes?, if not you definately should, it's next to impossible to successfully improve your swing/game with lessons, no matter who you are and how dedicated you are to the process.

I'm getting lessons at the moment, i changed from the pro i was working with previously to a new pro last November. I'm after having 4 lessons total so far with him and i do feel i'm after improving my ball striking with him. The changes that i've made aren't overly dramatic, just tightening up. Trying to stop at a 3/4 swing on my backswing and getting a full rotation thru the ball with hips and shoulders firing correctly.

hades wrote: »

I'm getting lessons at the moment, i changed from the pro i was working with previously to a new pro last November. I'm after having 4 lessons total so far with him and i do feel i'm after improving my ball striking with him. The changes that i've made aren't overly dramatic, just tightening up. Trying to stop at a 3/4 swing on my backswing and getting a full rotation thru the ball with hips and shoulders firing correctly.

Sounds like you on right path, I'd say stick with it and as with all swings changes, remember they are ongoing and take tim to "click" and bed in.
When you're on the course, forget about the card and just play what you see and leave the technical swing thoughts for the range or practice rounds.

hades wrote: »

I think this post is more of a therapy session than anything else.

I'm in a tough place with my game at the moment. I've been working on a few swing changes over the winter months to help "tighten" everything up. I feel like i'm making a good swing at the ball, i'm just not getting the results at the moment. All this came to a head when i played Mount Juliet at the weekend. Firstly, what a course. Its not as claustrophobic as i thought it was going to be and i really enjoyed my time, despite of my scores.

I play off 14 and went around in 98 strokes or 26 over. Going off my GameGolf stats I hit 50% of fairways (personal best) with an average drive of 215 yards and topping out at 247 yards, but i only hit 11% of GIR (which was only 2 greens). So my iron play is complete and utter rubbish. My short game yips have only gotten worse and the practice hasn't really improved anything. And i had 35 putts in the round, up from my average of 30 putts. Now that could be down to really tricky greens that i wasn't used to, but i also missed around 4 silly putts from around 3ft.

I just find it hard at the moment, and i get somewhat ashamed to say i'm off 14 but i haven't played to that hc in over a year and i had to scramble to get a total of 2 pars at the weekend. Consequently, they came on the 16th and 17th, after i tore up my card on the 16th tee (i was only paying green fees, not a competition). Perhaps a feeling of liberation came over me when i wasn't held to writing down my scores, i honestly don't know what it was.

But having said all that, my swing feels good. I feel like i'm making solid contact and that the vast majority of my problems lie in my short game. I'm only hoping that if i persevere it'll pay off and i'll be playing to my hc again when the weather clears up.

Have just come throught something similar. Your stats from game say your GIR is low.
My low GIR was not down to bad golf but a bad setup and alignment. Try and see where the miss is.
I missed everything left, all due to alignment and a forward ball position. This season so far averaging 8 to 9 GIR and misses left are smaller

hades wrote: »

I think this post is more of a therapy session than anything else.

I'm in a tough place with my game at the moment. I've been working on a few swing changes over the winter months to help "tighten" everything up. I feel like i'm making a good swing at the ball, i'm just not getting the results at the moment. All this came to a head when i played Mount Juliet at the weekend. Firstly, what a course. Its not as claustrophobic as i thought it was going to be and i really enjoyed my time, despite of my scores.

I play off 14 and went around in 98 strokes or 26 over. Going off my GameGolf stats I hit 50% of fairways (personal best) with an average drive of 215 yards and topping out at 247 yards, but i only hit 11% of GIR (which was only 2 greens). So my iron play is complete and utter rubbish. My short game yips have only gotten worse and the practice hasn't really improved anything. And i had 35 putts in the round, up from my average of 30 putts. Now that could be down to really tricky greens that i wasn't used to, but i also missed around 4 silly putts from around 3ft.

I just find it hard at the moment, and i get somewhat ashamed to say i'm off 14 but i haven't played to that hc in over a year and i had to scramble to get a total of 2 pars at the weekend. Consequently, they came on the 16th and 17th, after i tore up my card on the 16th tee (i was only paying green fees, not a competition). Perhaps a feeling of liberation came over me when i wasn't held to writing down my scores, i honestly don't know what it was.

But having said all that, my swing feels good. I feel like i'm making solid contact and that the vast majority of my problems lie in my short game. I'm only hoping that if i persevere it'll pay off and i'll be playing to my hc again when the weather clears up.

Forget everything else and focus on the highlighted bits buddy!

The rest will come, concentrate on the positives for the time being... and there are massive positives there.
From the round I played with you, your iron striking is not an issue. It may be at present, but it's not something that you won't "find".
I think you'll find that you'll click up a few gears if you resort to figuring it out for yourself for the rest of the year imo.

If I was to give you some tough love
1. I would say that it's time to leave the lessons behind. You're more than equipped now to go out and do it yourself. Figure it out by yourself now that you've got the ammo from your lessons (they can be a crutch sometimes).
Stop working on it and start figuring it out.
2. Short game has a lot to do with confidence, fool yourself into thinking
you're good. It worked for me. It's not an issue with your ability, that's there.

Having a real crisis of confidence the last few months. Decided to change my swing in October as I had made it to singles and I needed to add much more to my game to get even lower. My second shots in particular. I hit the range 3 times a week and I work as hard as I ever had on my game.

I seem to get some great feedback on my changes at the range but on the course it is complete garbage. I'm playing about 10 shots worse than my handicap. Now I could always have a bad round or two but I haven't broken 30 points since October.

And the worst thing about is the reliable and strongest part of my game is as bad as the rest. Short game. Rarely now will I get up and down and simple 2 putts are becoming 3. It's a real spiral of hell at the moment as I'm walking into the course feeling good but after two holes I'm already drained of belief.

I know and I will keep working away at it but I'm nearly at taking a break level of frustration. So that's my game right now. Shi*te.

Not great at all.

Work being mental I only got to hit a few 6i today for about 20 minutes since last saturday. Not really enough time I know but still I dread to see what the driver would do