tuffluck's Tough Love Ball Striking Thread

i'm kind of in the same boat...for instance yesterday shot a 92 with two quintuple bogeys.  take those away and i'm in the mid 80s for sure.  lessons wouldn't have helped my round.  honestly not sure what would have helped my round--there was a bit of bad luck involved.

...   i don't understand how people shoot 80s consistently or 70s unless they are playing a whole, whole lot.  if you are a golfer that goes out once a month, mid 90s might be as good as you get....

I was stuck in low 90's for what seemed like ages.  As has been repeated several times now, take basic stats so you have an objective answer as to where you are suffering the most lost strokes.  That will tell you what you need to practice rather than what you think you should practice (not always the same).

For myself, I was hitting fairways but not hitting enough greens.  And when I did hit greens I wasn't getting nearly enough 2 putts.  When I missed the green I was getting too many bogeys.  So for myself I decided to concentrate first on my short game.  I set myself a goal of getting up and down when I was within 30yds of the green.  This covered chipping, pitching and putting.  I decided to treat sand play as a separate area from the short game.  This brought me down into the high 80's surprisingly quickly.  After that I set to work on getting my approaches tucked in nice and tight.  Which is not to say I ignored my full swing during that time, I definitely didn't.  It just wasn't my main focus.

The other thing that could be unknowingly costing you a lot of strokes is going crazy with the driver on every hole that is long enough to hit it.  Take a look at the hole layout, the designer has generally left it pretty obvious where he wants your tee shot to land.  It might be only a hybrid or fairway wood instead of a driver off the tee.  Using the designated landing zone generally takes any trouble out of play and thus fewer recovery shots.  Not as exciting perhaps, but the view from the fairway is nicer than from the trees. 

Very good points, especially the last paragraph.

This doesn't just apply to medium and short par 4's either.  I've been applying this philosophy lately on par 5's too.  Assuming flat hole and no wind, my absolute perfect drive is 280-290, and my absolute perfect 3 wood off the deck is 240 tops.  That's 530 yards right there, so anything over that, I ain't getting home in two no matter what, so there is really no point in hitting a driver off the tee.  A nice 3 wood and 4 iron will put me within 100 yards of the green, and should set up a pretty routine par, and perhaps birdie.  If it's a tight fairway, worry about getting it in the fairway first, not down the fairway.

sorry you weren't totally arrogant (maybe a strong word), but some people are obviously more talented at the game than others, which has to be a consideration.

definitely not going to disagree with you guys entirely.  course management and instructions are certainly helpful, but i still think there are elements of golf that are just going to trump anything you learn or choose to do.  here is a great example, i'd like to hear thoughts...

so i was playing yesterday, 375y par 4 with the wind strongly in my face and a little to the right, probably around 25mph.  i hit a 3w (which i usually hit very low) towards the left side of the fairway, about halfway of it's traveled distance the ball shot up in the air and far right, all the way out of bounds (i never found it).  the wind was obviously much stronger above the tree line i couldn't see.  well i hit a provisional and played it.  i was then in the middle of the fairway and the path to the green was 130y but a thin opening.  i hit an 8i into the wind and started it as far left as i could without hitting into the forest, and the ball still ballooned up and pushed right into the forest on the other side of the fairway. now i'm on my 6th shot at the edge of the forest, but behind trees.  tried to hit a low punch 7i and it rolled into the bunker at the lip.  tried to hit it out, hit the lip and went back in the bunker.  next shot got it out, then 2 putted for a 10.

now, i don't think lessons could have helped me here at all.  course management MAYBE, but not the first tee shot since carry over the water was 210y, so i had to hit a 3w (although water would have been better than forest, which maybe would have been the wiser choice?).  the only course management help may have been on my fairway shot, instead of a high 8i, hit a low half 4i to avoid the effects of the wind above the tree line.  other than that, the other things that could have maybe helped me score better would have been a 1 putt instead of 2 and maybe if my 7i punch out hadn't rolled into the bunker.  and i know what you guys might say, "should have hit the 7i punch away from the bunker," but i looked at that angle and it would have been down a hill, perhaps saving me 1 stroke in the grand scheme of things had i not had enough clearance in the trap after the shot to get it out of the trap (but how would i know that before i hit the ball?).  still a tough pitch as your 6th is only going to get you a 7 if you somehow get really, really lucky.  an 8 or 9 is more reasonable.

last thing i will mention is that "can't get out of the 90s" is sometimes not as bad as it seems.  if you're playing a tough course a 90 could be a 15 handicap, so it's not entirely bogey golf after all.  course i played earlier this week i shot a 92 and it was a 13 handicap (i did have a couple of strokes over 7 that came out for my calculation, but total score was 92).

sorry you weren't totally arrogant (maybe a strong word), but some people are obviously more talented at the game than others, which has to be a consideration.

definitely not going to disagree with you guys entirely.  course management and instructions are certainly helpful, but i still think there are elements of golf that are just going to trump anything you learn or choose to do.  here is a great example, i'd like to hear thoughts...

so i was playing yesterday, 375y par 4 with the wind strongly in my face and a little to the right, probably around 25mph.  i hit a 3w (which i usually hit very low) towards the left side of the fairway, about halfway of it's traveled distance the ball shot up in the air and far right, all the way out of bounds (i never found it).  the wind was obviously much stronger above the tree line i couldn't see.  well i hit a provisional and played it.  i was then in the middle of the fairway and the path to the green was 130y but a thin opening.  i hit an 8i into the wind and started it as far left as i could without hitting into the forest, and the ball still ballooned up and pushed right into the forest on the other side of the fairway. now i'm on my 6th shot at the edge of the forest, but behind trees.  tried to hit a low punch 7i and it rolled into the bunker at the lip.  tried to hit it out, hit the lip and went back in the bunker.  next shot got it out, then 2 putted for a 10.