Simple Changes You've Made That Turned Your Game Around

[Hugh Jars]

Hi all, thought Id like to share what has happened to me with my full swing. I've been playing for a bit over a year now, and struggling to be consistent. A year in and I was hitting worse than a couple of months in from when I started. I had a huge out to in swing, and was cutting across the ball, hitting a lot of slices, shanks, low powered and very high shots. My friends were hitting pitching wedges to greens where I had a 7 iron out. I had quite a few lessons with instructors and things never really improved. I actually gave up golf a couple of times, only to come back a few weeks later.

In a Hail Mary attempt to fix things I signed up to Evolvr analysis and in my first lesson my instructor told me to strengthen my grip. He also made it more identifiable to me what a neutral face looks like during the swing, compared to open. I also took some video analysis of a couple of friends swings, who's swings I admire, and noticed their clubface positions on the back and downswing and how it looked more closed and tried to replicate these positions.

So by strengthening my grip and having the sensation of trying to keep the club face closed on the backswing and downswing something has really clicked for me and turned everything around. I can hit the ball straighter and much further. Just making these simple changes I was immediately hooking the ball which I've never been able to do. My drives are now much more straighter and powerful too.

I still have a long, long way to go with my swing, but at least I can enjoy my golf now. I even had one previous instructor stand at the range watching me and remarking on how much Ive improved. I hope I can maintain this improvement..

What simple things have you changed to turn your game around?

Edited July 21, 2019 by Hugh Jars

[jms5180]

28 minutes ago, Hugh Jars said:

Hi all, thought Id like to share what has happened to me with my full swing. I've been playing for a bit over a year now, and struggling to be consistent. A year in and I was hitting worse than a couple of months in from when I started. I had a huge out to in swing, and was cutting across the ball, hitting a lot of slices, shanks, low powered and very high shots. My friends were hitting pitching wedges to greens where I had a 7 iron out. I had quite a few lessons with instructors and things never really improved. I actually gave up golf a couple of times, only to come back a few weeks later.

In a Hail Mary attempt to fix things I signed up to Evolvr analysis and in my first lesson my instructor told me to strengthen my grip. He also made it more identifiable to me what a neutral face looks like during the swing, compared to open. I also took some video analysis of a couple of friends swings, who's swings I admire, and noticed their clubface positions on the back and downswing and how it looked more closed and tried to replicate these positions.

So by strengthening my grip and having the sensation of trying to keep the club face closed on the backswing and downswing something has really clicked for me and turned everything around. I can hit the ball straighter and much further. Just making these simple changes I was immediately hooking the ball which I've never been able to do. My drives are now much more straighter and powerful too.

I still have a long, long way to go with my swing, but at least I can enjoy my golf now. I even had one previous instructor stand at the range watching me and remarking on how much Ive improved. I hope I can maintain this improvement..

What simple things have you changed to turn your game around?

I stopped thinking about anything but making solid contact when im playing. Swing tuning belongs on the range, the course is for playing golf

[David in FL]

When I finally learned and understood the true ball flight laws...

[Patch]

I changed the way I hit chip shots (shorter pitches too) by adopting Paul Runyon's chip/putt method. 

My chips became more accurate, which led to shorter first putts. The shorter first putts led to fewer putts per round. 

[Carl3]

Lots of practice chipping and pitching did several things for me:

1. Got me in the habit of making consistent contact between ball and clubface
2. Helped to quickly lower my scores and give me confidence in getting up and down from a near GIR
3. Most importantly helped me to swing to a target right in front of me. I reasoned if I can't consistently hit the ball to a line a yard or so off of a target 30 feet away, how could I ever consistently hit a green from 150 out or hit a 40 yard wide fairway with my drover off the see.

When waiting on a group in front of you have you ever taken your driver and tried hitting the ball to a tee marker 15 yards in front of you? If you don't hit the ball on a line within a foot either side of the marker, how can you hope to control the clubface to keep it in the fairway?

Now I always pick a target just in front of my ball for every shot whether it be a tee shot, approach shot.chip shot and even a putt. For tee shots I tee up my ball a yard or so behind a mark on the tee box that is in line with my target on the fairway or on the green of a par 3. On my downswing I make sure that my clubface feels square to deliver the ball on that path identified by the mark on the tee box. Out in the fairway the mark could be a leaf just in from of the ball or a discoloration in the grass.

Some of my worst shots especially on the tee are when I lose sight/focus on swinging to that target a yard or so out. Maybe I was thinking too much about my backswing or just lost my concentration.

[BC-to-MI]

On 7/21/2019 at 6:23 AM, Carl3 said:

Lots of practice chipping and pitching did several things for me:

1. Got me in the habit of making consistent contact between ball and clubface
2. Helped to quickly lower my scores and give me confidence in getting up and down from a near GIR
3. Most importantly helped me to swing to a target right in front of me. I reasoned if I can't consistently hit the ball to a line a yard or so off of a target 30 feet away, how could I ever consistently hit a green from 150 out or hit a 40 yard wide fairway with my drover off the see.

When waiting on a group in front of you have you ever taken your driver and tried hitting the ball to a tee marker 15 yards in front of you? If you don't hit the ball on a line within a foot either side of the marker, how can you hope to control the clubface to keep it in the fairway?

Now I always pick a target just in front of my ball for every shot whether it be a tee shot, approach shot.chip shot and even a putt. For tee shots I tee up my ball a yard or so behind a mark on the tee box that is in line with my target on the fairway or on the green of a par 3. On my downswing I make sure that my clubface feels square to deliver the ball on that path identified by the mark on the tee box. Out in the fairway the mark could be a leaf just in from of the ball or a discoloration in the grass.

Some of my worst shots especially on the tee are when I lose sight/focus on swinging to that target a yard or so out. Maybe I was thinking too much about my backswing or just lost my concentration.

This was the biggest thing for me, but in regard to my alignment. I used to get so frustrated when it felt like I made a great swing and had good contact with the ball only to watch it fly 20 yards to the left or right of my intended target, but in a straight line. I realized that I was terrible at aligning myself from the side of the ball, so I started picking a spot on my target line a few inches in front of my ball, lining up my clubface to that small, close target, and then aligning my body with the club face. There's a huge confidence boost when you can rely on a good swing generally producing a good result.

[klineka]

One of the simplest but most effective changes I have made was narrowing my stance width (heels are only about an inch apart) and standing closer to the ball with a more vertical shaft has drastically improved my chipping/pitching.

[pganapathy]

Played smart golf.  The days where I treat the course as a bogey round (treat every hole at par+1 as the par, I then wind up swinging better because I am not stressing myself to get on the green in regulation and actually swinging better.  Unfortunately it is very rare 😢

[ShawnSum]

Before I stopped playing 8-10 years ago I took a few lessons to figure out why I was slicing the ball. Recently started playing again and was able to remember what I was taught..swing inside/out instead of outside/in, so for me I always remind myself to swing out to 1-2 o'clock and the other thing is to release the club.

So you can imagine how my slices looked while coming over the top and not releasing the club. LOL

Edit: Forgot about this part! I was so use to coming over the top on everything that this was even happening with my putting stroke. So even though these are very simple things..the improvement to my game was pretty significant!

Edited July 22, 2019 by ShawnSum

[Patch]

Another thing I have done to score better is that I practice actual golf shots when ever possible. 

In addition to normal range work on level turf,  I will practice from thin lies, uneven lies, rough lies, balls in divots, and from sand. 

On the range I will intentionally practice hitting hard fades, and draws. 

My home course offers a pretty decent short game practice area where I can hit approach shots up to 100 yards. I will hit lobs, punches, and full swing wedges. 

These are all easy practice regimines that keep me from being surprised when playing for a score. Essentially I could say I practice recovery shots to use as needed. 

[Bonvivant]

Taking mid-short irons off the tee and just focusing on contact. 5I or shorter I can hit fairly straight with good contact. Hitting the fairway 2 times in a row on a par 4 is (and feels) much better than hitting the rough (maybe up to 30 yards wide of fairway) off the tee and playing army golf trying to get to the green. I'm a hacker, but plan to change that with this method.

[Hugh Jars]

15 minutes ago, Bonvivant said:

Taking mid-short irons off the tee and just focusing on contact. 5I or shorter I can hit fairly straight with good contact. Hitting the fairway 2 times in a row on a par 4 is (and feels) much better than hitting the rough (maybe up to 30 yards wide of fairway) off the tee and playing army golf trying to get to the green. I'm a hacker, but plan to change that with this method.

I can relate. Making changes in grip and technique recently, hitting off short tees have helped getting these changes down. But Ive realised that hitting with a tee has masked my tendency to hit the ground before the ball a tad. I've realized Ive got to learn to hit without using them off any lie, so I've been practicing a lot focusing on clean contact and hitting ball then ground. Confidence has taken a bit of a hit as I chunk up some, but feel like Im improving still.

[saevel25]

Listening to my golf instructor 😉

[Piz]

Cheap, plastic, pencil sharpeners.  They enabled me to become more aware of my surroundings.

[RWC]

I have found that I putting more effort into playing smarter made a difference. Dropped my handicap from 16 to 12 over past 2 years. I have re-read LSW several times and have worked to eliminate several "dumb" mistakes that plagued me: chipping - always get the chip onto the green - better to have 20' putt attempt than 2 chips. Same with sand shot - get it on the green! Lastly, putt better and avoid the 30" 3-putt scenario. These 3 things have helped me cut down on the doubles and my scores reflect it.