Looking for Some Tips to Average Under 80

[billchao]

4 minutes ago, Skruske said:

I have a hard time dialing down my swing if I am between clubs, for example lets say I have a 148yd par 3. My PW will go 155-160 on a full swing. My 52 I can string out to 135-140. I cant get a 52 to this and if I try to take something off my PW I will still go too long.

If your bag goes from PW to 52°, your gapping might be off. Unless you're playing with some older irons, your PW I would assume would be in the 44°-46° range.

10 minutes ago, Skruske said:

So I think the drill of hitting different clubs to different distances is just something I need to spend more time on.

Yea, I don't know. You just do it. Try it on the range. Swing a little softer, take a shorter backswing, swing short of full finish, choke down, or some combination of these. Lots of ways to hit less than full swings.

[Skruske]

Just as an update, I recorded a few swings last night and think I have figured out my pull hook miss, and its all in my grip. My top hand is way over the club to the point where you can see all of my knuckles. I hear you are only supposed to see 2. This is causing my clubface to point a little up at the top of my backswing and when I follow thru, the face closes with a little in to out swing. Both of these together would cause this issue if I am not mistaken. Going to try and adjust my grip tonight slightly and reassess 🙂

My good shots, still have the same grip problem, but I hit it just barely off center towards the tow, and I think paired with this grip actually causes the ball to fly straighter. I'm no pro and like I said really haven't had a true lesson, but after my own analysis I think grip is the easiest thing to fix and I believe I have identified a problem with it.

The quality of the video is extremely terrible so I have not posted the swing in the swing analysis forum yet. Hoping to do that soon with a better camera.

[xrayvizhen]

You're getting some good advise in this thread. I'll only state, based on my own experience, I find that when I break 80 my short game is good which helps my putting. And by "good" I mean my distance control from 100 yards in is spot on and my chips and pitch shots from just off the green get me fairly close to the pin as well. When I'm over 80 my short game has gone south and my putting & chipping along with it. They seem to go hand in hand.

Now having said all that, there are days when everything just sucks, but that's golf. When that happens I actually find that taking a week off helps meaning I don't even attempt to pick up a club. This is probably because whatever bad habit(s) I've gotten into seem to vaporize.

YMMV but that's the deal with me.

 

 

 

 

[Jay28]

On 5/30/2019 at 9:35 PM, Skruske said:

Great reply and tips! Really appreciate this. Starting with your last p.s I did not mean to come off as conceited with my iron distances, I just have been told I hit them too far, this could be completely false, and you are totally right it is the inconsistency that is the problem. But I wanted to address that first before I got into a reply. Your tips are great. I should try playing without a driver a few rounds and really force my irons to work for me. The 7 iron 100 yards is actually one of my favorite ideas yet, do a full swing and just try and slow my tempo, I dont think there is a single chance I could do that at the moment so I will for sure do this at the range tonight. And to be completely honest with chipping I almost feel like I should always chip with one hand LOL there are too many things running through my head when I am chipping and I need to find just one swing thought to focus on. A lot of people tell me chipping is the easiest thing to get good at, but man... I for the life of me cant figure it out. I mainly just use a 56 or 60 from around the greens and then a PW or 7 for bumps. Finally, I have never had my swing assessed with a launch monitor, it is definitely on my to do list! I think after even one session with one of those I could fix a lot of things. Thank you again, and best of luck to you as well 🙂

Just on the chipping point, I am not breaking 80 any time soon because of other areas of my game, but I am practicing chipping a lot - like 2hrs a day. I now feel like I can get the ball close every time I stand over a chip.  Doesn't always work, but I have made it a strength.  There is one thing that I changed that has helped enormously. I finally started using the bounce of the club, which means the leading edge doesn't make contact with the ground first (and actually feels like it never does make contact with the ground).  For some reason I used to put the ball back and try and nip the ball off the ground with the leading edge - I see a lot of people try and do this who end up duffing the shot and/or being really inconsistent with judging distance .  By using the bounce instead, I can even hit 2 inches behind the ball and as long as I am still accelerating through the shot, it doesn't matter much.  Still ends up good.  It's made chipping easy. Or at least much much easier.

 

Edited June 21, 2019 by Jay28

[DrvFrShow]

You could try a Cleveland smart sole C for chipping for added confidence to help you from not chunking those chip shots. For those of us who suck at chipping. 

Your other option is to leave yourself with an approach shot distance you're comfortable hitting. If you're not comfortable hitting 80 yd shots, don't leave yourself with 80 yd shots. Better to take a chance with a 120 yd shot than chunk an 80 yarder. So hit your club that leaves you a 120 yd approach if that works out better for you. 

You have to play the game you have while you work on your weaknesses.

[ncates00]

On 5/30/2019 at 2:06 PM, Skruske said:

Hello all! I am new to the forum and have been reading some threads today and wanted to start one myself to mainly introduce myself and hopefully get some advice/tips.

To start, I have been playing golf casually basically since I could walk, without any real instruction. I have accepted meritocracy for the better part of about 10 years and really havn't seen much improvement. I average in the low-mid 80s on my home course which has a slope of 133.

This year I am deciding to take things more seriously and really put some time in. I am getting out 3+ times per week, getting some practice time in and then playing a round. I have been averaging the same since I was a sophomore in High School and cannot seem to get past this plateau. To be fair after high school I really didn't put much time in. College and work seemed to force me to put golf on the backburner, even tho I wanted to pursue PGM after high school, my family wasn't in huge support of that and I felt almost forced into business school. Regardless, I have now been out of college for a few years and working the stereotypical 8-5 in IT. I have more time to dial in some practice to game I truly have a passion for.

My current situation is the following. My driver is the only club I am extremely consistent with and can really bomb a ball. I average close to 300 yards off the tee with a subtle draw, longest drive being 354, so this is definitely not the problem, and for someone that is able to get off the tee as well as I am, everyone I play with is absolutely shocked with how bad it is outside of that.

My Irons are sub par but go a LONG ways. I have tried to look up resources for what to do if your irons are going too far, but it seems no one else has this problem.. I have tried the 3/4 swing but still accelerate through the ball almost the same and generate just way too much club head speed on everything. For example, a full swing PW goes 160.. 7 iron goes 200.. etc. with this club head speed comes inaccuracies, with my main miss being a pull hook. For irons I am looking for some control drills or games I can do on the range to try and decrease my club head speed and get my yardages down to where a PW is a comfortable 140, but I cannot seem to do this. So this is my first cry for help!

Next are my wedges. I have worked insanely hard from 120 in, as these are all feel shots for me with my best distance being 86 yards where I can stick it to give myself at least a look from 15' and in. However, once we get within 50 yards I turn into what looks like someone who just picked up a golf club for the first time. Chunks, thin, pulls, push, anything and everything is possible. This includes chipping from right around the green as well. I will maybe get up and down once in an entire round... So if I am not hitting GIR's I am most likely taking a bogey. As an example, yesterday I had a 320 yard drive on the hardest handicap hole on the course, center of the fairway leaving me about 100 to the green. Hit it a little firm and was on the back side of the green in the rough. Chunked a chip, thinned the next one and two putted for a double! So my next cry for help is with my short game any fun drills that can help build my confidence around the green? I have tried many things but never can seem to stand over my shot with confidence once I am on the course.

Finally, my putting is decent and something I am not too worried about as I think I need to focus more time elsewhere with my main goal being getting under 80 consistently. 3 putts are almost never an issue, and can convert on 15' more than the average I would say.

This turned into a novel, but thank you ahead of time if you took the time to read, and hope to hear some tips and advice 🙂

Get a copy of LSW.  The key to long term success will always be ballstriking.  Greens In Regulation (or NearGIR) and also what I like to call Clear Approach After Drive.  If what you say is true as to your distance, then you're pretty much there because strokes gained data heavily favors driver distance over accuracy.  However, you must have a clear shot at the green after your drive or you are wasting your driving ability.  See DJ v. Phil (DJ is a bit longer but not much more accurate and gains a lot more strokes off the tee than Phil). 

Further, make sure you know your carry numbers with every club.  I would use a good reasonable number, not your hero, perfect struck shot.  You want to get pin high and the only way to do it time and time again is to base your yardages off a reasonably good hit, not perfect, not bad, but reasonable.  You don't want to have to go around a round of golf relying on every shot requiring you to flush every time; you ain't good enough to do that.  You'll hear pros all the time shout "DOWN!  I flushed it; it's gotta get down" or something to that effect quite often.  Now, they do that because out of the rough they may have caught a flyer or something, but you'll hear that out of the fairway and stuff too, and they're more exacting than we are.  We should aim for a good reasonable shot in calculating our carry numbers.  You can always keep a "max" carry number in the back of your notes for those days you're ripping it.

Again, grab a copy of LSW and/or data about strokes gained and critically look at your own game.  It does you no favors to overestimate your own abilities; take a good look in the mirror and analyze your game truthfully.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 5/30/2019 at 4:21 PM, Skruske said:

 

 

Thanks for this reply! I would say the variance with my full pitching wedge swing is +/- 3-5 yards so it is relatively consistent. Good point as I may not need to shorten my irons as long as distances are consistent. I just feel like being so long off the tee, I run out of clubs really fast. 

I think this is it in a nutshell. If you are getting too close to the green to where your approach shot feels uncomfortable, maybe you need to throttle back. Tee off with the 3 wood, 5 wood, long iron, whatever gives you a comfortable distance to the green. This could be nothing more than an exercise in course strategy. 

I saw lots of guys teeing off at Pebble Beach with less than a Driver! Just because you're on the tee of a par 4 or 5, doesn't mean you have to haul the Driver out of the bag! 

And may I say that I wish that I had your problems! 😁

[The Recreational Golfer]

Late to the party. You have distance to burn, so the real question is, do you hit the ball straight? Does it go where you want it to go? You have to  play well up to the green to give yourself a chance to shoot a low score. To break 80, you need to take no more than 38 strokes getting the ball up to the green (on it or beside it) from the tee and fairway.

Once you're up to the green, can you get the ball in the hole? It's not about the 15-footers you say you make, but the putts from five feet and in, and from 30 feet and out. It's about giving yourself a decent chance to get down in two when you miss the green, from WHEREVER you miss it.

Drills? Don't bother. Just take a ball to the practice green, drop it greenside and practice getting up and down from all over. And do that A LOT. The only way you get confidence in doing ANYTHING is if you have done it and succeeded so often that confidence is no longer an issue.