Breaking 80 with the help of LSW

All right guys we need to start using the "Breaking 80" thread a whole lot more. We should put all our trials and tribulations and all the smart and stupid stuff we do into this thread, too!

I can't pick one, there are lot of them. If I had to pick one, here's one ? The OP made it to a 6.0 HC.

EDIT: Alternatively, we can make a "Breaking 85" thread because we have no idea what breaking 80 is like.

Happy to! Will try to track mine between there and my own swing thread

Edit: That said, in that thread there's a lot of stuff that goes against LSW like laying up to 100 yards each time and never going for par 5s.

Yeah, I agree.

Maybe we should start a new one that is LSW based.

"Breaking 80 with the help of LSW" or something like that?

All right guys we need to start using the "Breaking 80" thread a whole lot more. We should put all our trials and tribulations and all the smart and stupid stuff we do into this thread, too!

I'll start off with range sessions next Monday after re-reading the practice chapters.

Anyone else is welcome to put their goals and attempts into this thread as well. It's pretty much open to anyone to post or comment.

High handicaps are also part of the discussion because let's face it, most of us would like to get under 80 someday, right?

I'm stupid, and always forget: breaking 80 means shooting 79 or 89? I never remember whether it's the number or the decade

89 would be breaking 90.

Gracias. In that case I'm indeed looking to break 80. Should start with breaking 88 first, but definitely have 80 on the list as well!

I shot my first sub-90 round right before the snow hit in December, and that corresponded with the first round in over a year where I hit driver, having had a lesson for it. So I'm eager to see where I can go from there this year. Of course, we're getting slammed with snow now.

About a year or so ago, when I started getting serious again about improving (or depressed about how my handicap was increasing), there was an exchange on this site where one of the better players offered to show a not-as-good player how to practice. I forget what came of that, or who was involved, but I remember wishing that someone would make me that offer. Of course, chapter 12 of LSW does some of that, but I need to implement it. I'm going to ask a few questions, and I'm going to try to be specific enough that anyone with the book will know what I'm asking, but without giving away things that are in the book. The thing with the dry erase marker worries me a little bit -- if I do that, what do I have to do to the club to return it to legal? I know I can't put foreign material on the club (and I think powder or markers qualify) before (or especially during!) a round, but can I do it on the range on a day where I'm not playing? Some of the other stuff seems specific to grass ranges, which are few and far between in Los Angeles (at least at public courses). Fortunately, my folks live near two great grass ranges, so when I visit them, I'll be sure to get better practice in. I need to do the medicine ball drill described in the driving practice section. Seems like something I should be able to do a few good reps of every morning. It just feels like I'm doing it wrong every time I try... and I don't quite think I should post my attempts on the My Swing thread. There's no excuse for me for not doing the "Control Your Low Point" drill -- that can be done on a mat. In fact, I'll do that next time I'm at the range. I'll do this with my wedge shots too -- I think I have a good command of the swings to get 40-80 yards out of various other clubs, but I can't say I'm an expert at them. Okay, now that my excuses are out of the way... I haven't committed to goals for 2015 yet. Then again, we can go back to 2009, 2010, 2011 and see plenty of goals I didn't meet but "committed" to. So I'll simply say that I'm going to continue my work with evolvr and will aim to learn how to practice. Perhaps by doing the drills above. Perhaps by going to grass ranges more often so I can do things like the double tee drill. Perhaps by arranging to visit better players in the area and joining them for practice. Or maybe meeting up with others in my skill range who know how to practice that I can learn from. But yeah, breaking 80 is something I need to do. I broke 100 in summer 2007, broke 90 less than ten months later, and still haven't broken 80. I'm no longer delusional in thinking it's a matter of a better short game and that I can do it without a big tee shot. I also now have a tee shot that I'm much happier with -- and that my friends have commented on. I spend my practice time better than I used to and have a better swing, although I want to improve both the quality of my practice (see above) and my swing (evolvr).

First, thanks for the heads-up about both the video (I hadn't seen it, and am going to go view it as soon as I post this and a reply to another comment elsewhere), and about the dry erase. I use those pens enough at work, but was apprehensive about using them on a golf club. I keep a cloth on my bag, usually wet when I'm at the range or on the course. [quote name="iacas" url="/t/80905/breaking-80-with-the-help-of-lsw#post_1118274"] Like what? [/quote] Driver, two tees: most mats have only those odd places for one or two tees, rarely close to one another. Driver, hitting start line: with one exception, most of the rubber ranges I go to don't have a place to put anything 20 feet after the mats -- in fact, it's seemingly deliberately bare to keep people from using it as grass to hit from. But this excuse is dry for the rubber range I use the most. There's a similar problem for the trouble shots practice. Long approaches, similar problem with both the single gate and double gate drills. I'd love to find a way to do these with a mat instead of grass, since that's where most of my practice time is spent.

Very keen to get on board with this thread. My home course has a par of 70 rather than 72, so breaking 80 should theoretically be that little bit easier and whilst 78 is therefore my actual goal, 80 is a nice mini-target. I ended up with three birdies yesterday (my highest ever) but far too many doubles due to incredibly poor approach shots or wedge-gapping issues. Today's practice will be to attempt to sort iron contact out - I think I worked it out halfway through the round, but it needs to be far more consistent, as well as getting the wedges right. My putting could use some work, but the strongest part of my game is currently my driving, which is at its best-ever level (at least before fatigue hits). I'm also going to look at my course management and strategies for each hole really specifically using the LSW approach and see what I can do there. Looking forward to this and all the best for you guys, too!

First, thank you to @Lihu and @iacas for reminding me that I should be heeding all the advice in the book, not just the ones that are comfortable to implement. After all, it's the swing changes that felt uncomfortable and unnatural that have, I think, lead to the best improvements. (Which reminds me, I should update my "my swing" thread to show off how much better that is since my last update) And also, thank you again to Erik for today's fantastic reminder of just how much farther I have to go. Better to know now than to realize six months from now that I had that much more to do! So... today. I didn't even get past the 6-iron drills. Which is fine. I probably got more learning out of a bucket today than I've gotten out of one in a while. Putting an alignment marker - or here, a shaft pull, because that's what I have - 4" behind the ball ... I thought "no problem. I don't hit the ball that fat. I lean more towards hitting it thin anyway." ... I didn't think I'd have any trouble with this. And yet I did. Not every shot, but maybe 1 out of every 5. Far more than I'd have predicted. I wonder which ball flight those produce when the alignment stick isn't there but I hit [i]seriously, that far behind??[/i]. Dry-erase the face. Did this without the stick, but after. I ... think this means I'm hitting the middle-ish of the face, but a bit low? Here's the worst part: these two were all I did. "No, hitting the stick was a fluke. Let's take a few more practice swings, focus on what Stephen told you in the last lesson, and step up again. You've been hitting it great." And I have been hitting it great... and occasionally, and evidently unbeknownst to me, fat on occasion. Why am I not experiencing this on the course or noticing it on the range without the stick? Is it cognitive dissonance or does the club behave differently? I think I should have done these more. [i]And yet, these were the two where I should have had no excuse for not doing them back when I got the book![/i] I didn't even get a chance to plant the stick out into the field a bit to check where I start the ball. I know my swing is better than it was a year ago. I know I've made progress. I know I have a lot more to go to get to single digits... and yet, now I have a better idea of just how much further I have to go. I can't wait to find out how much further I have to go with the driver -- if my current driver characteristics (distance & accuracy) stick around while I improve the rest, I think I can get to single digits on that. But if I could get further and improve my launch? Life can be better. Anyway, today was good. Learning what I don't know but needed to hear (or experience) can only help long-term. Next question: how do I figure out what to do with this feedback? Do I send a description to my teacher on evolvr? Do I try to interpret it myself? I'm a little worried about my inexperience and trying to figure out what I need to do at the range. I've lately taken more of the "stupid monkey" goal to heart and have written down my evolvr suggestions and reading them every few shots at the range to keep me focused on that objective.

I had an interesting one yesterday where I hit the ball really, really well on the range. The tiny adjustment of moving my ball position about an inch further away from my body has meant a shallower swing plane, much improved contact and no shanks :). I took that swing to the course (for six holes) and shot 6 over, which is strangely worse than I did yesterday. Part of that was putting, as I'm still adjusting to the much faster greens at my new course, but a large part was decision-making. The most frustrating was a 5 iron shot that I felt was really good that somehow resulted in a lost ball. Whilst I know it was the shot I was aiming for, I'm going to ask for a bit of LSW advice on a few holes to check whether I'm right...

First up, my main nemesis - the 12th at Hindhead.

Off the tee, I think it's a relatively straightforward choice - I've put my approximate shot zones on for Driver (red), 3 wood (blue) and hybrid (yellow). The 3 wood at around 240-250 yards is the obvious choice for me; as long as I don't really go after it (the max I've ever hit it is 280 on a summer day with a good roll), it will stay in the fairway with room to spare. Yes, there's the odd chance that I'll mishit it and it'll go left/right, but far less likely than with the driver. The driver also comes very close to running into the heather and whilst I could tap one down, I can get a bit out of sync with 'easy' shots. The hybrid is the safe option if I'm having a really bad day, I guess, but has no advantages over the 3 wood.

The nightmare is the second shot, which is partially blind due to the sunken green. Yesterday (180 out) I went for it with a five iron, starting it at the left of the green and expected it to either bounce then roll onto the green if I didn't get all of it, or find the green if I did. It faded a little more than I would have liked, but I wouldn't have expected to lose the ball. There is a possibility of trying to take a 7 iron and pitching it 160 then rolling it down, but it may come in too steep - perhaps a 4 iron with a half swing? Or, should I lay up to take the big numbers out of play? Would appreciate your thoughts!

The very next hole has caused me a bit of confusion as well recently:

Normally I've taken driver off the tee, but this can run into issues occasionally. Missing left is ok as the fairway is fairly generous and it will kick right, but missing right is a killer due to the trees. The green is tough, but this is a hole I feel should be a nice birdie chance. Again, shot zones are Driver (red), 3 wood (blue) and hybrid (yellow). I've gone for landing zones on this one as it's quite tough to predict where they'll roll to - particularly with driver. I could drive the green, and have done so once, but I'm not convinced it's the play over 3 wood... Thoughts?

Hope you don't mind me doing this - even typing it up and thinking about it is quite useful :)

Question about the member access on the LSW site: is the password found somewhere in the book? I purchased it back in the fall, but I'm not sure if I need to register on the site, or if I already unknowingly have the access password. Thanks.

This is quite a nemesis hole. I like the narration in the flyover regarding the "lots of heather in ruddy spots".

If you use your 3W off the tee from the 424 yard tees, I'm guessing you could end up in the heather at the end of your shot zone with "summer roll". So, I would opt for the hybrid for your first shot, and a hybrid or 3i for your second shot. The sunken green looks pretty bad, so you might even want to come up short with a 5i or less to get to near the end of the second fairway and do a high spinning chip to the left part of the green (assuming the arrows point in the break direction).

Good prediction! I actually rolled through the fairway today on a good hit (not even going for the 3W it went 269 yards...), so I think the hybrid or the 3i is the play off the tee. However, a good second shot meant that I managed to rescue a par thanks to an nGIR and a decent putt - could certainly have made it easier for myself by hitting the left side of the green though...

I actually did manage to break 80 on my course with a 78 (+8) thanks to a really good back nine. The front 9 was good, too, apart from one awful hole with the 2nd where I paid the price for an awful drive and then had the ball above my feet twice, both of which I mishit. I'm still going to keep going for this though as I think I can score better still. Generally really pleased though - 44% GIR is really good, whilst 54% fairways helped, too. The driving could have been better, but both of the holes I analysed beforehand went well

Round details here: http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/229048