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What do You Think Is More Important? And Why?


firefighter2711
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Alot of people have different beliefs about what should be concentrated on by new golfers. What is everyones take on what should you concentrate more on Getting your Driving down first or Iron shoots? Or Chipping and Pitching?

All Views are welcome and encouraged. Hope this becuase a long laundry list of different/same views
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By far, the short game is the most important in my opinion. Really from 80 yards in most shots are wasted. Spend time on the range with your wedges, practicing full shots, 3/4 and half shots, get your distances down so when you are on the course and you have 60 yards to the hole you know what club you need to use and how much of a swing to put on it. Finally work on putting. There is always room for improvement here. I spend twice the amount of time on the practice green than I do on the driving range and my putts per round have gone from 40 per 18 holes to now I am averaging between 24-26 per 18, that's a savings of almost a stroke per hole.

909D-Comp
909F-2
585H Hybrids
755 Irons
Vokey Wedges 2-Ball F7 B330S

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Driver and long irons first because you can't play it you loose all of your balls.

R9 9.5*
MP630 3 Wood
MP630 CLK Hybrid 17*
MP-32 3-pw Rifle Project X 6.0
56*10 satin & 60*10 oil can Method #1

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I agree. I think that the game should be learned from green to tee. Get your putting down because if you can't putt your never going to be able to score. Then work on short chips to full wedges. Go to your irons then finally work your way up to fairway woods and your driver.

in the bag

Driver: 909D2 9.5° Oban Devotion Shaft

3 Wood: G10 15.5°
Hybrid: 3dx RC 20° Ironwood 

4-PW: MP-57's S300

Wedges: 51° MP-T Black Nickel 56° Vokey Spin Milled 

Putter: Tracy II 35" Iomic Grip 

Ball: Pro V1x

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Alot of people have different beliefs about what should be concentrated on by new golfers. What is everyones take on what should you concentrate more on Getting your Driving down first or Iron shoots? Or Chipping and Pitching?

Neither. Putting. No one wants to believe it, but putting wins championships - or for a newbie, putting means beating your friends. Everyone wants to believe that mashing the driver is the most important thing because thats usually what beginners and teens think is the fun thing to do - but chipping and putting will lower your scores.

I do think driving + a great short game is more important than great iron play. Now one thing to note - EVERY single facet of the game is extremely important. But if you ask what is more important to learn, to me its driving accuracy and average distance with a great, consistent, dependable short game.

In my bag:
Driver: 907D1 10.5*, Aldila Spec-Grid S67 reg
Woods: Looking for a wood. Titleist 906F4 or Nike CPR.
Utility: CPR 2-3 hybrids, 22*-26*Irons: 755 Forged 4-PW, Tri-Spec Steel RegWedges: Vokey 200 series 56.10 SW, 60.04 LWPutter: Tracy 33"Ball: DT CarryI mark my Titleist by...

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For a brand new golfer I'd say irons first. You can have a great short game, but if you shank, top and slice consistently with your driver and irons, it does not matter how good you chip and put. You need to at least be able to hit a ball reasonably well with a full swing to be able to get anywhere close to double-bogey. Driver is also important, but it is more difficult to learn. You may be better off hitting your 7I two times than your driver once.

To start out I'd work on your full swing. Once you are reasonable comfortable and have something that you can reasonably reproduce, add chipping and putting to the mix. Then, when you get better the short game and putting become more and more important.

I know this is different from what others have said, but I am talking about people who have never hit a club in their life. Be honest, does it really matter whether you two- or four-putt if you keep shanking or topping your ball 40 yards on a 400 yard hole?

This is how I started and I broke 50 on 9 in less than six months after picking up a golf club for the first time. I recently switched to 50% long game, 50% short/putting for practice. I expect to end up at 30-70 or so.
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Irons.Irons.Irons.

Go to any instructor, and s/he will pull the 7-iron (or thereabouts) out of your bag for you to swing during the lesson.

The driver is the longest and therefore, generally speaking, the most difficult difficult club in your bag to swing. You need some sort of consistent swing before you should expect to be able to handle the driver. As blfatty said, green to tee is the way to learn the game.

Or to put it another way, you can always hit an iron off the tee if you don't swing driver well, but you can't hit driver from the rough, the sand, or from close in.
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Full shots (driver and irons). You use the same swing to make it simple.

Once you can break 80, start working on your putting and short game. I never visited the putting or chipping green until I was scoring in the mid 70's.
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Drive for show, putt for dough - Short game, especially putting accounts for 50% or more of your shots so I take stock in that.
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Full shots (driver and irons). You use the same swing to make it simple.

I strongly disagree with this.

First of all, the driver swing and an iron swing are not the same. Similar, but not the same. The driver requires more of a sweeping motion. Second, if people didn't practice putting and the short game until they broke 80, 99% of people would never break 80. Putting and the short game are the KEYS to lowering scores.
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Alot of people have different beliefs about what should be concentrated on by new golfers. What is everyones take on what should you concentrate more on Getting your Driving down first or Iron shoots? Or Chipping and Pitching?

Some of my friends are just getting started in golf, so I've had this on my mind lately. And, since I haven't had the time to post here much this summer, you're getting a full answer out of me, to make up (in my mind at least) for my lack of summer posting

I know lots of people will say you need to spend a majority of your time on short game: pitching/chipping and putting. But if you're beginning, I think this isn't fully right. Yes, you should do some short game, but it doesn't have the same weight if you aren't able to hit a full shot with anything resembling consistency. As you're beginning, you should spend your long-game time on three things: * Getting the ball in play. Find some club that you can hit to the fairway, over any carries your tees may require (hint: if you need a longer drive that you're comfortable with on any hole, you're at the wrong tees for now), when you need to put the ball in play. This might be a 4-iron. This might be a 7-iron. A buddy of mine broke 100 using nothing longer than a 7-iron, so don't feel that it has to be a long club. By the way, if driver is that comfortable club: great! Don't think it can't be it. I hit my driver well from the time I got one with the right flex. * A go-to distance club. Pick a club you love hitting and can hit reasonably accurately. If you can't go for the green on this shot - maybe it requires long club you're uncomfortable with - lay up to this club's distance. For me, this was my 95-yard PW when I began. Now it's my 51-degree wedge. But whatever it is, having a go-to shot is a good practice. Plus, it gets you used to the idea of hitting a given club a given distance, and this will promote a comfortable swing. This will help with all your other clubs. * Your 7- or 8-iron, which may or may not be one of the two above clubs. Practice making a comfortable swing and getting things like ball position, grip, and stance right. If you're able to get these down, the benefit will transfer to other clubs. Your short game practice should be used to figure out how to chip out of different common lies. Figure out what kind of lie you like chipping out of. Some people prefer to chip out of the first cut of rough, others out of fairway. Some people love the sand. Figure out where your preferred miss to a green will be. This will help when you're deciding whether to go for a flag or just the green at some point in the future. Finally, you should putt to make it. Practice within 7 feet or so of the cup. See how many 3 footers you can make in a row. Don't worry about longer putts during practice time. You'll want to hit a few before a round to get a feel for how much putt you have to put into to get different distances.

-- Michael | My swing! 

"You think you're Jim Furyk. That's why your phone is never charged." - message from my mother

Driver:  Titleist 915D2.  4-wood:  Titleist 917F2.  Titleist TS2 19 degree hybrid.  Another hybrid in here too.  Irons 5-U, Ping G400.  Wedges negotiable (currently 54 degree Cleveland, 58 degree Titleist) Edel putter. 

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Irons. You should work on being solid with your irons first.

Whats in my :sunmountain: C-130 cart bag?

Woods: :mizuno: JPX 850 9.5*, :mizuno: JPX 850 15*, :mizuno: JPX-850 19*, :mizuno: JPX Fli-Hi #4, :mizuno: JPX 800 Pro 5-PW, :mizuno: MP T-4 50-06, 54-09 58-10, :cleveland: Smart Square Blade and :bridgestone: B330-S

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i would say working on ur irons/woods/hybrids game is the most important (basically the clubs you will be using for ur second/third shots). i cant tell you how many strokes i have wasted because of duffed second/third shots. develop a consistent swing that you can use for each of your irons and one you can use for your woods/hybrids, and get to know what distance you use each club for.

i just started golfing this year and i really locked down and focused on the stuff i just listed and i have lowered my handicap from 36+ to 26 in just the few months i have been golfing. im not saying it will work for you, but i kno in my case, it was my second/third shots that were killing me.

now as im getting better, and im starting to count my putts for each round, im realizing that now i have to work on putting. so like some others have said, i think its most important for beginners to work on their iron game first, then worry about putting.
In my Datrek Cart Bag (soon to be replaced):

Driver: Lynx 2008 Predator Ti (10.5*, Regular Flex)
Woods: Walter Hagen AWS (3 Wood)
Hybrids: Walter Hagen MS2 Hybrids w/ graphite shafts (18*, 22*)Irons: Walter Hagen MS2 Irons w/ graphite shaftsWedges: 56* Taylor Made rac w/ steel shaft ; 52* Slazenger...
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As a beginner you really need to work on everything. Split your time between finding your full swing and putting. Then throw in more short game time as your full swing develops.

--------------------------
"There are only 3 kinds of people in this world -- Those who can count, and those who can't."

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Before I would've said "Short Game" with no hesitation. No I'm kind of mixed. I'm actually leaning towards driving. It's really hard to make birdie or par when you're in the woods and having to punch out. If you were to drive it into the woods, you'd be struggling just to make par. Forget about birdie.

All in all, really you need to be exceptional at everything to be great. So practice it all.
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i don't see how driving is most important when you can score a good round with a good three iron off the tee on par 4's and 5's. i can probably par most 5's with 5 iron off the box actually. any par 4 under 375, no problem either. leave the big clubs at home for a few rounds and test yourself.

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If I would make a priority list of clubs I suggest a beginner should become competent with it (to be able to break 110) would be:

PW-7I
Putter
Wedges
Driver
5I-6I
Woods/Hybrids
3I-4I

However, this list may be personal, it may be different for others. I have trouble hitting low irons, so I compensate by making sure I don't need them often by getting a long drive on the fairway. On most Par-4's you can leave you long irons in the bag if you drive well.

Now to master (break 80) the clubs has a different order. Wedges become a lot more important and the long irons probably tumble down the list behind the driver.
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Putting. I CANNOT putt. I could have a much lower handicap and be alot more satisfied with my golf if I could just putt better.

MacTec 460 Draw Driver
V-Foil M565 Irons
MT 3 Wood
GigaGolf 52deg gap wedge
Wilson 55deg sand wedge MT Don White 60deg Lob wedgeknockoff 2-ball putter

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Note: This thread is 5687 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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