Quote:
Originally Posted by
mvmac 
How many greens in regulation do you hit per round? You can count fringes where you're putting.
not many, and this is basically why i am a bogey golfer. tee shot, 2nd shot close but not quite, chip then two putt on a par 4, which results in a bogey. i hit about 3-4 GIR per round on average and usually par those holes. but i always have a triple or worse in my round, sometimes multiple. in fact here is a look at my scorecard from my most recent outing of a 97:
1, par 4 - 5
2, par 4 - 7 (lost tee shot)
3, par 4 - 5
4, par 3 - 3
5, par 5 - 5
6, par 4 - 5
7, par 4 - 9 (lost tee shot, on second shot hit a limb and went into woods, chip out to bunker, duffed bunker shot into other bunker, out and 2 putt)
8, par 5 - 7 (20 feet away for par off the green and i duffed my chip shot and then 2 putted; should have just putted from the get go)
9, par 3 - 4
10, par 4 - 5
11, par 4 - 5
12, par 3 - 4
13, par 5 - 7 (lost tee shot)
14, par 4 - 5
15, par 4 - 7 (lost tee shot)
16, par 4 - 5
17, par 3 - 4
18, par 5 - 5
so 10 bogeys, 3 pars, 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 1 quintuple. though it isn't ball striking that causes me to miss GIR, it's usually poor judgment of environmental factors - elevation, wind (i play in lots of wind here), and green size. i usually hit at the pin and not until i drive up to the green do i realize the pin is tucked away in an area of the green with a small landing zone. probably my biggest error is hitting shots short; i can't remember the last time i hit over a green. but that's about surveying your shot, not ball striking. and i like to play new courses so generally don't have much of any idea of what a green looks like from 200y away until i drive up on it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
14ledo81
Like I stated before, you may be a good ball striker, just not a consistently good ball striker.
right, there are definitely two different aspects here. 1. good swing technique, and 2. good ball striking on every shot. i would argue that i have very good technique (which i have actually been told by an instructor during my club fitting), but that 2, i strike the ball perfectly on only 75% of my shots. this isn't a huge problem if you top a 4i on a par 5 and it rolls 150y, but it is a problem when a drive is shanked resulting in a two stroke penalty.
that being said, i do not believe the cost benefit of having an instructor is worthwhile because i do not think they will change much about my technique. the #2 i mentioned above--consistency--is something you work on yourself, not something an instructor can make you better at unless you are technically wrong in your swing.
my dad is an 8 handicap and he taught himself (and me). you don't need instructors to get there, no offense to any instructors here. though since they are in this thread, i would be curious how they would assess my situation and what benefit an instructor could offer in my game that i just don't see. i think i would benefit more from an intelligent caddy that knows the layout of the course more than anything.
