What One Thing Changed Your Game the Most?

[David in FL]

7 minutes ago, bwdial said:

Keep the clubface square throughout the swing.  Obvious to some, but lost on my until a recent lesson.

Square to what?  

[bwdial]

16 minutes ago, David in FL said:

Square to what?  

Let me clarify. 

On my backswing, I used to open the face, and then struggled with my timing to get it back to square.  I have changed how I hinge my trail wrist like this:

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by bwdial

[iSank]

Not because of leaving friends but from careers changes playing less with drinking buddies and more in competition with the wife. I started caring more about my shots, and enjoyed the game a lot more.

[David in FL]

For me, it was when I finally came to understand the true ball flight laws...

[Bucki1968]

Mine is just figuring out I'm not going to hit it the same way from one round to the next. Some days it is much easier than others. Once I figured out that I would need a better short game on those "off days", I started playing better and enjoying the ride much more. It is what it is. I guess learning to embrace the challenge. 

[gbogey]

I had several times in my progression when I "leaped ahead" and started playing better.  Unfortunately, most of these were after long periods of practicing / feeling like I was playing better but without results, and then one day it changed.  Why, I wish I knew and I would do it again.

The one I do understand was after I'd been playing about a year and was struggling to break 90.  I felt like I had a good short game, but then I somewhere read some short game stats "about players who break 90" and realized I wasn't as good as I thought.  Coincidentally I was going through a six week period where work was really busy so I didn't have time to play but I had time to go to the range 1-2 times per week.  So I would buy a bucket and do nothing but short game practice - all chipping, pitching, and wedge shots 100 yards and in.  My short game got much better faster, but even better it helped my full swing / overall game in knowing that if I mishit or had to punch out, the wedge would find the green and would be looking at par / bogey instead of worrying about double bogey. 

That was in October in NJ.  The season ended shortly after (I choked on the last round of the season and shot 90).  The following season I started breaking 90 regularly.

[billchao]

On 2/8/2020 at 3:57 PM, nevets88 said:

Watching swings of good golfers, a lot of them, all different, young, old, women, one armed, one legged, etc... I started to see patterns and matchups and was better able to break down my swing better.

Damn that sounds like a lot of work. If only somebody could have done this for you and broken down the commonalities to say, 5 Simple Keys. That probably would have saved you a lot of trouble 😜

[boogielicious]

11 hours ago, billchao said:

Damn that sounds like a lot of work. If only somebody could have done this for you and broken down the commonalities to say, 5 Simple Keys. That probably would have saved you a lot of trouble 😜

Where's the fun in that? It's like getting the answers to the test ahead of time!

[Cantankerish]

On 2/5/2020 at 4:24 PM, snapfade said:

What was your "a-ha" moment or whatever when something you struggled with just clicked? What about you guys? 

I will tell you if and when something like this happens.

[Rippy_72]

It was about 45 years ago, an older fellow recommended that I aim intently at the center of the green on par 3 holes and just two putt if outside 20 feet, never think about birdie, just two putt.  He then challenged me to just try to hit the center of all greens in my next game.  This thinking was a game changer for me.

[dlindfield02]

Keep the club directly in front of your body throughout the whole swing.  Then move the club essentially with your legs.  Most mediocre golfers -including myself- are very handsy even if they are trying to stay passive with the hands.  There is a need to place the club in certain positions during the swing.  When you just use your legs and hips for the rotational element of the swing, the hands fall into place.  This FINALLY took the flip out of my swing. 

 

It feels like you are point the club directly away from your chest (or the club is stuck in your chest, pointing directly perpendicular out of your sternum), and when you swing through, you feel like you hit the ball with that 90 degree angle in tact.  THE ONLY thing you do with your hands and arms is allow the forearms to rotate naturally with the momentum of the club.

Edited February 11, 2020 by dlindfield02

[cooke119]

learned to hit my 3W off the deck consistently. I'm 68 year old and have had three back surgeries so I only drive the ball ~200 yards, my 3W I can hit 180 yards so it gets me down there. Now I have to keep working on my short game which right now sucks.

[Nagah]

Right shot, right club at the right time. That’s my aha moment. Ego is a dirty word in golf. The games about scoring not how far you can hit an 9 iron. 

[Double_AA]

As a beginner I've had a recent "aha" moment. A sort of pre swing routine/ swing cue that has drastically improved my ball striking. I struggle with trying to absolutely murder the ball without really noticing it.

For me that leads to topped shots, fat shots, wide open face at impact, poor rotation, blocks etc etc etc.

(1) Stand behind my shot and pick a close spot in front of the ball to square my face to.

(2) Take my grip, square the face, square my body.

(3) Once I am over the ball I stop thinking and hit the ball within 5 seconds or so of getting fully set up.

(4) I say "Tick" when I take the club away and "Tock" somewhere around impact

The Tick Tock cue has smoothed out my rhythm helping me to swing smoothly. This in turn has cut down on bad contact, massive push slices, and all kinds of other bad things from happening... I continue to slow down the time between tick and tock until I am making center face contact. Then I go play 🙂

This may sound completely stupid to some but it has helped me out a lot here recently and my girlfriend has also had really good success with this. Once again take this all with a gran of salt I'm pretty new to the game but I thought I would share in case anyone else could benefit from the idea. It sounds simple but I just shot 90 for the second weekend in a row, and before doing this I was around 110 on a good day. 

[Vinsk]

TST.

[uitar9]

I think the most important AHA was learning about where my clubs bottom out depending on the lie I have.

[The Be Boy]

For me it was hitting my wedges. I read Dave pelz’s short game bilble and started practicing my 30-40 yard swing. Started connecting with it better but still a hacker. 
 

my most recent was from trt. If I feel like I’m keeping my left arm straight and stretching it out on the back swing I can make consistently good contact with the ball. During a round I’d be lucky to pure it once but now it’s every other ball on the range. Still can’t repeat it on the course but I’m so excited for when it does start to carry over. 

[BC-to-MI]

In terms of my swing, it was staying centered while shifting my weight in the backswing rather than swaying back and forth.

Overall, it was realizing how much hitting driver off the tee would improve my scores. Once I implemented the above swing change, I could keep my driver in play, meaning that playing it safe with an iron off the tee was costing me a bunch of strokes, even if I hit more fairways with it, because I was hitting my approach shots from 40+ yards further away.