Journey to 7.5 Index

[The Grinder]

Starting playing golf again last August after a 10 year layoff. I just turned 43 and have dedicated a significant amount of time to golf and getting as good as I can get. 10 years ago I got down to an 8.3 after playing 81 rounds in a year. I have taken golf seriously for 3 years total. All other years I would casually play and never focused on getting better. 

 

Anyways since last August (9 months ago) I’ve played over 100 rounds (12/13 rounds a month) and on average hit 40 balls a day on my SkyTrak (9181 shots from 9-2018). I also spend time practicing at my club short game mostly.

My handicap was 15.2 on 8/15/2018 and now it is a 7.5. Before 8/15/2019 my goal is to be a sub 5. My ultimate goal is to get to scratch but I’ll see how I feel once I achieve the sub 5 first. 

My big hurdles right now are getting off to a slow start and making course management errors that cost a few strokes. The slow start is me putting too much pressure on myself to play a good round. 

I practice 100 yards and in a lot. I have gapped my shots every 10 yards from 30 to 100 yards. I carry my drives 230-245 ish but have a love/hate relationship with my driver. A lot of times I’ll take it out of my bag and hit an 18 degree hybrid 220-230 down the fairway.

just wanted to share as I see a lot of posts on what you have to do to attain a certain level of golf. I have so much more I need to do and focus on but this is how I got to this point.

 

 

[David in FL]

Welcome to TST, and congratulations on your progress!   

[dennyjones]

Welcome to TST!  Congrats on your journey.   We look forward to hearing more.

[Vinsk]

Welcome to TST! I would suggest you get a good idea at where your true weaknesses are in your game. You might find that practicing from 100yds in is a quick way to save strokes but in the long run you’d come out better to work on your tee shots and approaches. Unless you have glaring weaknesses in your short game it’s the long game where most strokes are lost so improving that really improves your scoring in the long haul. Cheers!

[NM Golf]

Welcome to The Sand Trap. As @Vinsk mentioned you may want to adjust your practice schedule to include more full swing than short game. You and I are close in age so I would imagine in your life you have probably heard repeatedly that the short game is most important, well it's not. You have come to the right place to find good information about how to improve, look around and take it all in with an open mind.

[DaveP043]

Welcome to TheSand Trap!

I'll pile on with @Vinskand @NM Golf, you'll probably benefit from improvement to your full swing game.  In particular, if your driver is inconsistent, you're either giving away strokes by hitting it poorly, or giving up distance by using a shorter club.  Improve your driving, you'll probably improve your scoring.  

Hitting 40 balls a day is nice exercise, but if you're not working on a specific swing movement, you may simply be ingraining some poor mechanics.  I'd suggest getting some good instruction.  A good way to start is by posting your swing video in the Member Swing area of this site.  Be sure to read the hidden contents to understand how to best film your swing, and how to post the video.

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

Last, to help make better decisions on the course, I suggest you buy a copy of Lowest Score Wins.

 

Lowest Score Wins - Shoot Lower Scores on the Golf Course NOW

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Shoot lower scores on the golf course… NOW!

The book presents a very detailed explanation of on-course decision making, as well as lots of other important information.  

 

[Mr22putt]

21 hours ago, The Grinder said:

My ultimate goal is to get to scratch..........

 

 

So when you reach this milestone....will your next goal be to DOMINATE the Mackenzie Tour?....just asking for a friend.🤣

[The Grinder]

Zero aspirations of that. Just want to play good golf and I like challenging myself with something hard.

9 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

Welcome to TheSand Trap!

I'll pile on with @Vinskand @NM Golf, you'll probably benefit from improvement to your full swing game.  In particular, if your driver is inconsistent, you're either giving away strokes by hitting it poorly, or giving up distance by using a shorter club.  Improve your driving, you'll probably improve your scoring.  

Hitting 40 balls a day is nice exercise, but if you're not working on a specific swing movement, you may simply be ingraining some poor mechanics.  I'd suggest getting some good instruction.  A good way to start is by posting your swing video in the Member Swing area of this site.  Be sure to read the hidden contents to understand how to best film your swing, and how to post the video.

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

Last, to help make better decisions on the course, I suggest you buy a copy of Lowest Score Wins.

 

Lowest Score Wins - Shoot Lower Scores on the Golf Course NOW

---

Shoot lower scores on the golf course… NOW!

The book presents a very detailed explanation of on-course decision making, as well as lots of other important information.  

 

I don’t hit 40 balls a day that’s what the average is, only said for a for a reference point. 9181 over 9 months. Some days none other days 200. I work on all aspects and don’t hit balls to just hit balls. 

I feel like I can get to sub 5 with increased focus that is my main issue at the moment. It’s an issue because I play almost every day after spending time practicing. I think it’s just too much really. From 5 to below Is another story.

[The Grinder]

Today I practiced 25 and 50 yard shots on the skytrak then went to the course and did the same from different lies then worked on putting for a bit. I then played 36 holes so put in 10+ hours today. I’m typically spending at least 5 to 6 hours on my game a day between practice and playing. Most of the time is playing.

[DaveP043]

10 hours ago, The Grinder said:

Zero aspirations of that. Just want to play good golf and I like challenging myself with something hard.

I don’t hit 40 balls a day that’s what the average is, only said for a for a reference point. 9181 over 9 months. Some days none other days 200. I work on all aspects and don’t hit balls to just hit balls. 

I feel like I can get to sub 5 with increased focus that is my main issue at the moment. It’s an issue because I play almost every day after spending time practicing. I think it’s just too much really. From 5 to below Is another story.

So what ARE you working on, specifically?  What are you doing to improve focus?  What are you doing to improve your driver play?  You say you practice 100 yards and in a lot, do you think you can improve much more in that area?  If not, you may want to allocate some of that practice time to something else, something where you CAN make improvements.  An important part of improving is to evaluate your game, determine what your weaknesses are, and work on those areas.

How did your 36 holes go yesterday?  What did you do well, what did you do poorly? Did you take notes or statistics to help you evaluate your game?   Did you go back to the range after playing to try to improve the problem areas?  

[The Grinder]

14 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

So what ARE you working on, specifically?  What are you doing to improve focus?  What are you doing to improve your driver play?  You say you practice 100 yards and in a lot, do you think you can improve much more in that area?  If not, you may want to allocate some of that practice time to something else, something where you CAN make improvements.  An important part of improving is to evaluate your game, determine what your weaknesses are, and work on those areas.

How did your 36 holes go yesterday?  What did you do well, what did you do poorly? Did you take notes or statistics to help you evaluate your game?   Did you go back to the range after playing to try to improve the problem areas?  

So many questions, I decided to take up cross stitching instead.

[Vinsk]

46 minutes ago, The Grinder said:

So many questions, I decided to take up cross stitching instead.

You’ll want to make sure you’re using the proper needles. Good stainless steel ones. Start with simple pattens and work your way up. Be sure to post a pic of your first quilt! 😃