Beginners Log

youcancallmeal · 06-11-2018 5:07pm

srfc d16 wrote: »

I joined Stackstown this year and scored similar to yourself on my initial 3 cards. I was given a hcap of 24 so I'd say your'e pretty close with the 25.

Yep, came through today and I have 25 handicap. Happy with that, lots of room to improve and can manage my game more effectively now. I found when playing for my handicap I was taking on ridiculous shots and hitting drivers off certain tee boxes where an iron would've been better.

Halloween Jack · 08-11-2018 5:23pm

So, a friend very kindly took me and my old man around delgany today.

I very much enjoyed it, it’s a nice mature course, we got lucky with the weather and there was some nice autumnal colours up there.

It’s a very short course, par 69, with only 2 par 5’s. One thing I found is that there isn’t much danger either left or right off the tees on most holes, but if you don’t land the ball in the right spot you can forget about getting on in two.

The greens are quite small but full of undulation and pretty tough to read, even though they were slow enough given the damp etc.

Clubhouse and facilities were nice and it was lively enough down there for a Thursday.

Was fairly impressed overall with the place and am strongly considering joining, would also consider joining Druids Heath as I very much liked the course, in any case I’ll have to make decision quickly as delgany are introducing a joining fee, so I’d need to complete the application process soon.

In terms of my game I had an odd day, would be good one hole and poor the next. Was generally fairly poor with my tee shots but hit a couple of crackers, was much better with my irons today than Saturday, though I hit a few fat from downhill lies (beginning to hate a downhill lie). I pitched pretty well all day, nearly holed a 50 yarder on 17, but conditions helped greatly as greens were slow and damp. Again was a weird day with the putter, holed a couple of nice putts, a 12 footer on the first for a par, but also had some bad, bad 3 putts, a couple where I totally misread greens and one where I made an absolute wretched stroke and the ball came off the heel.

So I’ve completed my recce of the local courses, enjoyed them all for various different reasons, have to decide now with my playing partners what to do;)

spacecoyote · 08-11-2018 11:57pm

Halloween Jack wrote: »

In terms of my game I had an odd day, would be good one hole and poor the next. Was generally fairly poor with my tee shots but hit a couple of crackers, was much better with my irons today than Saturday, though I hit a few fat from downhill lies (beginning to hate a downhill lie). I pitched pretty well all day, nearly holed a 50 yarder on 17, but conditions helped greatly as greens were slow and damp. Again was a weird day with the putter, holed a couple of nice putts, a 12 footer on the first for a par, but also had some bad, bad 3 putts, a couple where I totally misread greens and one where I made an absolute wretched stroke and the ball came off the heel.

Re non flat lies, a simple tip, lean with the slope. The aim is to create as close to a flat lie as possible for yourself.

Halloween Jack · 09-11-2018 10:13am

spacecoyote wrote: »

Re non flat lies, a simple tip, lean with the slope. The aim is to create as close to a flat lie as possible for yourself.

That makes sense actually, much obliged;)

spacecoyote · 09-11-2018 10:27am

Halloween Jack wrote: »

That makes sense actually, much obliged;)

nice little video on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtfhGODeZV4

Halloween Jack · 09-11-2018 4:52pm

spacecoyote wrote: »

nice little video on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtfhGODeZV4

Cheers! Seems like a decent channel that!

Glebee · 27-11-2018 12:37pm

I have 3 cards to submit, 109, 104 and 101:o. What sort of HC would I expect?

fred funk }{ · 27-11-2018 3:07pm

I'd say around 25. Were your dropped shots all spread out fairly evenly or were there some good holes and some really bad holes?

I ask because the HC secretary will revert the high scores on single holes to double bogies.

Glebee · 27-11-2018 3:22pm

fred funk }{ wrote: »

I'd say around 25. Were your dropped shots all spread out fairly evenly or were there some good holes and some really bad holes?

I ask because the HC secretary will revert the high scores on single holes to double bogies.

All fairy even, maybe about 8 very bad holes over the three cards (8 shots).
maybe 5 pars max. No birdies.

youcancallmeal · 27-11-2018 9:22pm

Glebee wrote: »

I have 3 cards to submit, 109, 104 and 101:o. What sort of HC would I expect?

Sounds pretty similar to the 3 cards I recently submitted so I'd say around 25 like me. I've played 2 14 holes comps since then. Scored 14 and 26 points. Delighted with the 26 points, nearly scoring to my handicap. I've made a point of targeting the holes where I've 2 extra shots. Like usually if a hole isn't going well I tend to give up and not make an effort expecting to scratch it. Now I'm not letting bad shots get to me and focus on scoring even it's just a point

Glebee · 06-12-2018 12:11am

Had some lessons this evening. My game is gone to pot... Trying to do what trainer was telling me to hit down on ball made it look like I had never played golf before..:(

Upgraded my driver last week and had it out this evening for the first time. It was like i never drove a golf ball before

Seve OB · 06-12-2018 1:16am

Glebee wrote: »

All fairy even, maybe about 8 very bad holes over the three cards (8 shots).
maybe 5 pars max. No birdies.

5 pars in 3 rounds? Or 5 pars in one round?
If in 3 rounds! I’d say you might get 18 probably no more.
If in a single round, maybe 13-14.

Though it’s hard to say for a few reasons. We don’t know what your scores were. Really would need to look at the cards to make a proper judgement.
Then from what I’ve seen on here some clubs are very harsh and give stupid low handicaps that players have no chance of playing anywhere near and other clubs seem to give stupid high handicaps.

One thing is for sure, with 5 pars wherever they came you should be gettin* nowhere near 25

spacecoyote · 06-12-2018 8:00am

Glebee wrote: »

Had some lessons this evening. My game is gone to pot... Trying to do what trainer was telling me to hit down on ball made it look like I had never played golf before..:(

Upgraded my driver last week and had it out this evening for the first time. It was like i never drove a golf ball before

One of the hardest things to do for beginners is to persist with the technique from lessons as it can feel like a big step backwards. If you can stick with it in the longer term you should see the benefit.

One thing though. From your description of the lesson, it sounds like he was working on your iron swing, so if you're using the same swing on driver too it might explain the poor driving results. The conventional wisdom would be downward strike on irons, upwards strike on driver (or at least not as sharply down as irons)

youcancallmeal · 06-12-2018 8:55am

Glebee wrote: »

Had some lessons this evening. My game is gone to pot... Trying to do what trainer was telling me to hit down on ball made it look like I had never played golf before..:(

Upgraded my driver last week and had it out this evening for the first time. It was like i never drove a golf ball before

Where did you get lessons? Lads I play with regularly who are off 12/13 keep telling me I need to get lessons. I've very inconsistent last few rounds. Scored 20 points on one 9 hole winter competition then 8 the next time, don't know what I was doing differently!?

golfguy1 · 06-12-2018 9:59am

spacecoyote wrote: »

One thing though. From your description of the lesson, it sounds like he was working on your iron swing, so if you're using the same swing on driver too it might explain the poor driving results. The conventional wisdom would be downward strike on irons, upwards strike on driver (or at least not as sharply down as irons)

Are you saying I should have different swings for woods and irons?
Golf is hard enough without trying to learn 2 different swings.
Lenght of club and ball position surely are a major factor in how much u hit down on the ball.
I definitely only have 1 swing type

FixdePitchmark · 06-12-2018 10:02am

golfguy1 wrote: »

Are you saying I should have different swings for woods and irons?
Golf is hard enough without trying to learn 2 different swings.
Lenght of club and ball position surely are a major factor in how much u hit down on the ball.
I definitely only have 1 swing type

Yes you need too different types of swings.

Irons are fairly steep action

Driver / woods , longer and flat along the ground

golfguy1 · 06-12-2018 10:11am

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Yes you need too different types of swings.

Irons are fairly steep action

Driver / woods , longer and flat along the ground

Surely the lenght of club determines how steep the swing is.
Golf is difficult for beginners to learn never mind been told they now have to learn 2 different golf swings.
We all have 1 golf swing(You included) but due to lenght of shaft, a driver swing will have a flatter angle of attack to a pitching wedge.
Please stop telling beginners they need different swings for woods & irons

Glebee · 06-12-2018 11:12am

I can't get my head around this downward hit with irons, I keep trying to just pick the ball off the surface.

Stacksey · 06-12-2018 11:24am

Glebee wrote: »

I can't get my head around this downward hit with irons, I keep trying to just pick the ball off the surface.

Weight onto your front foot in the downswing and ball centered in your stance will mean a downward strike on the ball

Amaru976 · 06-12-2018 11:42am

Halloween Jack wrote: »

Howdy, i have popped in here asking a few questions lately about various topics, thanks to all that replied.

I thought I might borrow a concept from the Athletics forum whereby people log their training etc on an ongoing basis and chart their progress, and seeing as I’m a beginner, my hope is that if this goes well it might be a resource of sorts for anybody who finds themselves in a similar position over the next while. Alternatively it dies a death and fades into the obscure nether regions of the forum, either are fine:)

So, a bit of background, I’m 36, played a small bit of golf as a teenager around Kildare, was never a member anywherebut played with pals intbe summer who were members of Naas and craddickstown and occaisionally I played a round with my dad in other spots in the area. I would say I never displayed any natural talent whatsoever, but enjoyed getting out etc.

I then discovered various other extra curricular activities and completely left the game behind, save for a brief spell around 2005 when I bought a cheap set of clubs and hacked around stepaside for a few months.

At the start of this year, myself, my brother and my old man played a round of par 3 by chance one afternoon, and despite being hideously inept all enjoyed it. We continued playing par 3 on occaisional weekends, basically as an excuse to spend a bit of time together. I found it a bit of a nuisance initially as I had (and still have) a number of other commitments. But slowly (inevitably?) the occasional rounds of par 3 became more regular and I found myself thinking more and more about the game between rounds. In the spring I invested in clubs, shoes, attire etc, and have been playing full rounds weekly, normally interspersed with visits to the range. It’s gotten to the stage where I’m pretty much hooked:)

In terms of my recent play, I have played Stepaside and Charlesland multiple times recently and visited Wicklow once.

The rounds have been to varying degrees, bloodbaths, have shot 118 in Wicklow, normally do around 110 at Charlesland and a bit lower than that at stepaside. Best there is 101 a few weeks ago.

Yesterday evening I played 9 at Charlesland and went round in 45, by some distance my best 9 hole score, despite not hitting many good shots, didn’t lose any balls though and had no absolute disaster holes.

In terms of where the game is, it’s really too inconsistent at this stage to draw any conclusions, I spent a number of weeks being unable to do anything other than duff my tee shots, but hitting my irons pretty pure, shortly after that it was reversed and I was managing to hit decent fairway woods off the tee but proper duffing all my iron shots.

The only constant Thus far regarding the swing is that generally I slice with a longer club in my hands and pull with a mid/short iron (I’m told these are related).

Regarding short game I nearly always end up making 35-40 putts, I generally hole very few of any length and have problems getting a good lag from anything properly far away, furthermore the putting gets markedly worse the more pressure is on it, have missed many putts from 4-12 ft for par or, less often birdie. The only birdie I made since I started playing this year was the result of a tee shot to 18 inches or so, which nevertheless while putting made the hole seem about 10 feet away and around an inch in diameter

So, given we are coming in to the off season I intend to use this thread to chart my progress in practice and scoring etc and of course to grub around for any advice/tips etc I can from you guys on here:)

The initial stuff on my agenda are to find a club to join that suits (many thanks for replies on Druids Heath thread), obtain a handicap and set about getting it down a bit. I would also like to take a couple of lessons to make sure I’m not ingraining some hideous flaw into my swing and that I can practice away.

As stated I’d appreciate any tips, comments, thoughts and wisdom,

Much obliged;)

Very similar position to yourself, took up golf late last summer, played 3 or 4 rounds then left it alone. Decided to invest in a cheap set early this year to start me off, proper hooked now!! I now find myself in a position where my next purchases are to be a decent driver, decent putter, GPS etc. Have a less-than-perfect set of MacGregor irons to tide me over for the time being.

Joined a club earlier this year and got a h'cap of 28 from my 3 cards. Since then I've played plenty of society golf (the odd win under my belt too) as well as a handful of comps in the club and plenty of non-comp rounds. Best total is 96 thus far, delighted to have broken the 100... Yet to get myself lessons but still enjoying my golf, steadily improving, but horribly inconsistent at the same time - shooting rounds of anything between 20-40pts, with one 41-pointer on a day where nothing went wrong for me...

Played a small bit thru the winter but this time of year it's difficult to get out as much with the reduced daylight and other commitments etc. Already looking forward to next spring/summer time, hoping to make a significant dent in the h'cap.

In terms of lessons, I've yet to invest, but I see someone has posted a vid from the MeAndMyGolf lads. I found them earlier in the year and have actually found a lot of their tutorials very helpful on the course - particularly the pointers on chipping on - never even dawned on me to think outside the box and use anything other than a PW, but now I'm actually getting quite close most of the time when using a longer iron to chip on with lots of green to play with (probably not worded very well but hopefully understood).

spacecoyote · 06-12-2018 4:47pm

golfguy1 wrote: »

Surely the lenght of club determines how steep the swing is.
Golf is difficult for beginners to learn never mind been told they now have to learn 2 different golf swings.
We all have 1 golf swing(You included) but due to lenght of shaft, a driver swing will have a flatter angle of attack to a pitching wedge.
Please stop telling beginners they need different swings for woods & irons

I think you're being a bit too literal in the interpretation of the language myself or Fixed have used.

Fundamentally someones swing might not be drastically different, but there are absolutely differences in set up, as well as how you swing the club with Iron vs Driver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4D04439ZYE

The above is a reasonably good explanation on it.

I know myself, if I do my "iron" swing with the driver & get too steep, the ball pops up in the air, about as high as I'd hit a lob wedge and travels about as far too

golfguy1 · 06-12-2018 6:09pm

spacecoyote wrote: »

I think you're being a bit too literal in the interpretation of the language myself or Fixed have used.

Fundamentally someones swing might not be drastically different, but there are absolutely differences in set up, as well as how you swing the club with Iron vs Driver
I know myself, if I do my "iron" swing with the driver & get too steep, the ball pops up in the air, about as high as I'd hit a lob wedge and travels about as far too

My question is do you have an 'iron swing' and a woods swing??
Or do you have changes in set up which effect the steepness of your swing.

I have 1 swing for all clubs. Nothing changes except my stance width

FixdePitchmark · 06-12-2018 8:37pm

golfguy1 wrote: »

spacecoyote wrote: »

I think you're being a bit too literal in the interpretation of the language myself or Fixed have used.

Fundamentally someones swing might not be drastically different, but there are absolutely differences in set up, as well as how you swing the club with Iron vs Driver
I know myself, if I do my "iron" swing with the driver & get too steep, the ball pops up in the air, about as high as I'd hit a lob wedge and travels about as far too

My question is do you have an 'iron swing' and a woods swing??
Or do you have changes in set up which effect the steepness of your swing.

I have 1 swing for all clubs. Nothing changes except my stance width

Yes completely ,

Youve seen a video from a top pro .

My weight completely shifts to right side and my angle of attack is totally different adding dynamic loft .

I accept some people have very similar swings .

But set up and swing do change for I'd suggest a majority of golfers .

If I swung a driver like I swing an iron , the head would come off a club.

Please don't post that there are not two swing types . Weight transfer and angle if attack are a fundamental aspect of a golf swing and ignore this with a driver and best of luck with your game .

golfguy1 · 06-12-2018 11:03pm

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Yes completely ,

Youve seen a video from a top pro .

My weight completely shifts to right side and my angle of attack is totally different adding dynamic loft .

I accept some people have very similar swings .

But set up and swing do change for I'd suggest a majority of golfers .

If I swung a driver like I swing an iron , the head would come off a club.

Please don't post that there are not two swing types . Weight transfer and angle if attack are a fundamental aspect of a golf swing and ignore this with a driver and best of luck with your game .

What club do you change from iron to wood swing?
Is your 9 iron swing different to a 5 iron swing?
Hybrid swing to fairway wood same or different swing?

Montgolfier · 07-12-2018 11:50am

Halloween Jack wrote: »

Cheers! Seems like a decent channel that!

I'm not saying this guy is better but it's quite a natural swing. I find him good.
https://youtu.be/qlC6tEb9_38

Simo67 · 29-12-2018 3:19pm

golfguy1 wrote: »

What club do you change from iron to wood swing?
Is your 9 iron swing different to a 5 iron swing?
Hybrid swing to fairway wood same or different swing?

The Driver swing is different from the irons, mainly due to the lack of loft in a Driver. In simple terms the idea with the driver is to try and hit the ball as high as possible, in order to achieve this you need to catch the ball on the upswing launching the ball in the air. You will often see videos of the set up of the driver where the right shoulder is dropped slightly below the left to promote the upswing. Turning the hips to clear the way for the upper body as you release the power through the shoulders. On the irons you are hitting down on the back of the ball the loft in the irons creating the trajectory, with the divot coming after the ball. Hold the release of the wrists, the common mistake is to try and hit under the ball with the irons to hit them high, which just kills the distance. The hybrids and fairway woods have enough loft for launch and you don't need to be hitting down on the ball like the irons, with the longer shaft lenght and slightly forward ball position of these clubs, it promotes are more sweeping strike.

Glebee · 07-01-2019 4:50pm

Played Portumna over the weekend. Ended up with 103.

Despite playing a good bit of golf over the Christmas my Irons have gone to pot... Hitting decent with my driver but could not hit my irons for nuts, topping alot of my iron shots and not getting down on the ball at all....:mad:

youcancallmeal · 07-01-2019 5:50pm

I'm playing a lot since getting my 25 handicap in November. I've been making changes to my grip and swing and pretty happy with my progress. I'm starting to score consistently between 16 and 20 points in 9 hole winter league rounds. Probably around the 90 stroke mark if I was playing a full 18. My short game is killing me at the moment so I've been hitting the practice area before every round working on my chipping. I've come to the realisation I need to put my 60degree wedge away for now and stick with my sand wedge until I can at least hit that properly.

Here's a recent hole where I had a great drive and just needed a simple chip onto the green for possible birdie or at least a par. Ended up with a treble bogey due to 3 bad chips followed by a 3 putt :eek:

spacecoyote · 07-01-2019 9:48pm

youcancallmeal wrote: »

I'm playing a lot since getting my 25 handicap in November. I've been making changes to my grip and swing and pretty happy with my progress. I'm starting to score consistently between 16 and 20 points in 9 hole winter league rounds. Probably around the 90 stroke mark if I was playing a full 18. My short game is killing me at the moment so I've been hitting the practice area before every round working on my chipping. I've come to the realisation I need to put my 60degree wedge away for now and stick with my sand wedge until I can at least hit that properly.

Here's a recent hole where I had a great drive and just needed a simple chip onto the green for possible birdie or at least a par. Ended up with a treble bogey due to 3 bad chips followed by a 3 putt :eek:

That's a smart move. Realistically you should only take out the 60 if you have no other option at all. Other than that it's too low a percentage club to use.

Seve always said that you should be using the club that gets the ball rolling on the green as quickly as possible

benny79 · 08-01-2019 12:48pm

Phil Mickelson has put up great tips on chipping on his instagram page if you are on that! really helped me.

Beginners Log

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