picrig

I'm just beginning my S&T; journey. I could go on about why I've decided to make the change, but that's for another day. I've been to the range a couple of times to work on things. Overall, I'm pleased. Saturday was a good session, I thought. What I liked the most was that I was hitting the ball flush 90%+ of the time and only hit a couple of fat shots (something I had struggled with lately). In general, my ball flight was a slight push (maybe 10 yard push with a 6I) with a baby draw. I assume that this generally would indicate that I"m still not hitting far enough back on the circle to create the draw I need and/or my clubface is a little too open at impact? My woods/driver are completely different. I've had no luck with them. Instead of the straight push or push/baby draw, I'm hitting a straight to slight push with a huge slice. This seems to tell me that I'm hitting the ball on the front half of the circle and not getting my hips far enough forward. With the driver, how do you work on really pushing your hips forward? How much wider is your stance w/a driver than with irons? What are some good sensations that y'all have for pushing the hips forward, but keeping the head centered on the downswing?

I've been in an awful slump that's lasted a couple of months. I had lowered my HC from about 21 to 15 since last summer, and then early this spring got the shanks. Still haven't recovered. Can't hit my drive over 200 anymore unless I've got some wind to help me out. Irons have come back some. Doesn't help that I just moved and haven't gotten out much lately. I have a lesson w/a pro in the area on Friday...hopefully that'll help things.

I think this is a little uncalled for. I don't think the OP is "pilfering chips and putts." As far as I know, getting in some short game practice is typically free of charge at most public courses. The OP didn't say he was heading out to the course in the evenings to "sneak in a few holes for free." Way to encourage golfers who are trying to do their part in the upkeep of their local course. It's something most golfers today should strive to do a little more.

Well, they also have tees at 6200, 6700, and 7300, so it's not as if there aren't options out there for the rest of us. But seriously, I couldn't realistically play that course as a par 72 from the tips. More like a par 82 for me

Definitely wanting to try out the short courses. There's the one at Oxmoor and Hampton Cove has a full 18 hole short course. I'm expecting my iron game to improve a lot. We'll see.

I'm moving to Huntsville, AL in about a month and plan on getting an annual resident's pass to the robert trent jones trail (unlimited greens fees at 9 of 11 sites, 4 of which are w/in an hour of Huntsville). I've yet to squeeze in a round at the Huntsville site (Hampton Cove), although I'm going to try to get in a round when I'm up there looking at houses. Has anyone played at Hampton Cover or any of the other northern trail sites (Silver Lakes, The Shoals, Oxmoor Valley)? How are they?

http://www.rtjgolf.com/rossbridge/scorecard/ Each 9 is over 4000 yards from the tips. There is another course on the RTJ trail (The Shoals) that is over 8000 yards. Don't think I'll ever be playing from the tips at either place. When the shortest par 4 on the course is 454 yards, you know it's for big hitters only.

I just started working at the course where I take lessons (private club in town) and during some down time, the pro and I went out to the range and put my swing on video really quickly. I had developed a bad case of the shanks over the previous couple of days. It's amazing how bad your swing looks on video when you see it. We only reviewed it quickly since I was on the clock and will go over it a little more tomorrow when I have a lesson (I'd post it here, but it's still just on his computer), but here are the main things we saw. My backswing and position at the top look pretty good (in fact, my instructor even said Hogan-esque...haha). I'm a tad below plane on the backswing, but nothing unreasonable with a slightly open clubface. Here's where the problems begin. On the downswing, my lower body gets out in front of my arms (unlike good players where the arms are almost constantly in front of their chest) and my arms end up trapped a little behind my body, I end up pushing my hands out (causing the shank) and having to flip A LOT to get the club to the ball. Then, through impact and the follow through, my left shoulder works up instead of around my body. I know it's a lot w/o video and I'll try to get video up tomorrow after work, but does anyone have and drills to work on for those particular problems?

As a career as in a touring professional? Odds are no, although I won't say never. Some other sort of career in the golf profession (sales rep, club pro, course general manager, etc), by all means. I've dropped my handicap about 9 strokes over the last year and am keeping that downward trend going and am shooting to pass my PAT in a couple years and try to make it as a club pro or teaching pro. To make it as a touring pro you would have to have sponsors/funding that would allow you to make golf your profession right now. Practice every day, all day, get the best instruction, and you could get yourself to scratch potentially. I'd recommend picking up a copy of Paper Tiger by Tom Coyne just to give you an idea of what you're up against. He went on a 16 month quest, spent in excess of $100k, went from a 14 to a +1, and still could barely break 80 in qualifying schools because of the mental part of the game. I think we as amateurs underestimate just how hard it is to play in a real tournament environment where your livelihood is on the line. Not to be discouraging, though! If you set your mind to it and work at it, I say go for it. If I had started playing seriously at 19 instead of 23, I might be thinking the same things as you. Instead, I've relegated myself to trying to make it as a club pro and maybe playing some mini-tour events down the road for fun. Good luck!

Glebert, glad I could explain it. I used the "one wedge" chipping system for a while until my pro taught me the rule of 12. My chipping has been much more consistent since.

For true chip shots (shots where there is no forced carry over a bunker, water, etc, and where you can have more roll than carry), I like to use the Rule of 12 . Basically it says that for any given club in your bag, (say a 9I in this example), you can determine the carry/roll ratio by subtracting the club number from 12 (12-9=3). So in the case of the 9I, it will carry 1/3 of the way and roll 2/3. A 5I would be 12-5=7, so it would carry 1/7 and roll 6/7. When chipping, I simply count off the number of steps to the edge of the green and the number of total steps to the hole. Say it's 5 to the edge of the green and 20 steps to the hold. I know I need to carry it 5/20 or 1/4 of the way to get it on the green, and then let it roll, so I would use an 8I. Of course you can adjust for slope or the speed of the green that day. It sounds complicated, but it simplifies chipping and makes it ridiculously easy. For pitching, a lot of my play at this point is dictated first by the lie. After I evaluate what I can do from any particular lie, then I look at my shot options. While using one wedge is great, it limits versatility in the long run.

Just thought I'd look for more opinions on this because, hey, as golfers, we want as many thoughts going through our head as possible. I just got back from a lesson w/my pro. We've been working together for a couple months and have made good progress on my swing to the point where if you saw me on video, you'd at least say, "Yeah, pretty good swing." Problems still to be ironed out, but making progress. Here's my recent (and extended) problem. Inconsistent face contact. Occasionally, my pro will watch my swing and ignore ball flight and ask me where the ball went. He can say, "everything looks the same," but the ball flight on one swing (if I'm hitting a 7I like at today's lesson), will be a a nice, 155 yard baby draw, then the next swing will be an almost shank, with the ball shooting off low and to the right. We're putting the swing on video Tuesday to try to see if there's something at impact or something that I'm doing w/my hands that can't be seen at regular speed, but does anybody have any ideas why I might be getting such inconsistent face contact even though the overall mechanics of my swing are consistent from swing to swing?

26 putts two times. Admittedly, I only hit 4 and 2 GIR in those rounds. I have several other rounds at 27 or 28, but haven't been able to get to 25 yet. I'd gladly trade some putts for some more GIR, though.

A 195 yard 3H into a 20 mph headwind. Nice little 3-4 yard draw to 10 feet. I proceeded to burn the edge with my birdie putt, but man the shot onto the green felt good.

I'll be playing Panther Lake and Crooked Cat at Orange County National in June. Not top of the line, but a whole lot better than what I'm playing right now!