curious about my talent level.

[Lihu]

You'd better let this major winner know

He spends most of his time inside 120 because he (like all Touring professionals) already has a good/great long game.

[iacas]

Been playing golf for about 4 years now. Only serious about a year. Recently joined a country club. 31 years old. I am just curious about how good I can get. I only ask this because I believe( as well as most golfers) I can be really good. I dont really have a handicap. But the reason I think I can be really good is the fact that I drive the ball consistently 290-325 and straight. I out drive everyone I know. And most have been playing most of their life. Thinking about getting in amateur tourneys. Scores range from 80 to 95. Few pars and a birdie in every round. I am kind of just now getting obsessed.

How about we stick to the topic, @Robster 7 and @Ernest Jones ?

To the OP, if you can hit it reasonably straight, work on your irons and your short game and putting. Evaluate where you lose your strokes. For all we know, it could be your driving ACCURACY stinks, so your long game actually needs work.

[Pretzel]

Evaluate where you lose your strokes.

This is a huge thing. I plateaued for a while at around a 12 handicap with no clue as to why I was there. At that time I had spent a majority of practice time near the short game area, and it reflected itself in my statistics. I found that my scrambling from within 20 feet of the green was above 50%, meaning I really wasn't likely to get more than another stroke or two a round even if I mastered to short game to a tour level. What was killing me is the fact that I had only been hitting 2-4 greens a round, putting undue pressure on my short game. Practicing ballstriking and iron accuracy has gotten me to my current position, and I plan on improving my driving accuracy next (~5 fairways a round is abysmal).

For me at least it has worked to improve my game in sections, starting with the short game and working my way back to the tee eventually. For other it could be the opposite, where their tee shots are great but they need to work on the short game. Keep track of your greens hit/missed, fairways hit/missed, and your scrambling percentage (as well as distances for your misses and scrambling attempts) and you will find out what you need to work on. I like to keep a little "journal" in my back left pocket during a round that I can pull out to write down all this info while walking between holes or waiting to hit a shot. It's only 5" x 3.5" so it fits fairly easily and doesn't get in my way, but it's big enough that I can fit a whole round with cumulative statistics onto one or two pages depending on the size of my handwriting that day.

[matthewg1982]

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KDqzxeMRuM[/VIDEO] Alright. Got two swings. Gimmie ur best.

[iacas]

Alright. Got two swings. Gimmie ur best.

Video is private.

Also, please embed videos.

[matthewg1982]

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fc7NQKNEOE[/VIDEO]

[Pretzel]

The thing that stands out to me in that video is that you finished on your back foot in both swings. Are you trying to excessively "swing up" into the ball? I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that the concept of transitioning your weight to the forward foot into and beyond the downswing is Key #2.

That being said, it does appear that your swing is repeatable and that's a start. I didn't see any large differences between the swings, which gives you at least some solid footing to start upon in that you're doing relatively the same thing each time already. It makes it easier to change your swing as a whole when your swing isn't too different from shot to shot.

Edit: One thing to think about is starting a "My Swing" thread in the labeled section. Perhaps go out and film some shots from behind you as well as attempt to edit your videos to add one swing of slo-mo to each angle (just insert it into Windows Movie Maker and slide the little speed dial down, pick whatever swing you liked best) to allow some people to get easier frame-by-frame information from the videos.

[Lihu]

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fc7NQKNEOE[/VIDEO]

Crushed!:-)

[mvmac]

Here's what I see.  Flare both feet out so the knees aren't pinched in and the hips can turn and stay centered.  Hips swaying back makes solid contact more difficult.

Hips will feel like this on the backswing, like the left hips goes a bit forward as you turn and the left knee flexes just over the left foot.  Note Zach Johnson's left knee is below.  The left knee does rotate inward a bit, you just need less of it so it will feel like it flexes more in front of you.  This will really clean up the structure.

[matthewg1982]

I see what you are talking about. Thanks alot. Never realized videoing my swing would help so much. Gonna work that this afternoon

[BuckeyeNut]

That's a good looking swing for a beginner with a HC in the 20s...... nice and athletic.  Once you learn to keep the ball in play and sharpen the short game, you'll be just fine.   Your driver swing looks better than many single digit players I know.....

[Maddog10]

It may make sense to take that approach with an absolute beginner to perhaps build a little confidence but I would think that the pro should move very quickly to the full swing.

Important to be clear that the long game isn't just bombing drives, it's every swing that uses full swing mechanics. When I'm 80 yards out I'll take a full swing with my 60*, in this definition that is long game***. I think some of the push back around this concept is the misunderstanding as to what qualifies as the long game, this becomes evident when people comment that hitting great drives only accounts for 14 strokes. The long game that Erik is referring to includes pretty much EVERY shot that isn't a chip, pitch, bunkershot or putt.

***Ironically if my long game didn't suck so much I wouldn't be hitting so many shots from 80 yards out.

I disagree that an 80 yard full swing wedge is "long game." To me that falls in line with iron play. "Long game" to me is driver and fairway woods. I'm not saying my interpretation is right, it's just the way I look at it. It's also not what I consider "short game" either though which is is your chips, pitches, and putts. Without getting into a detailed breakdown, I split it into 3 major categories.

Long game- Driver & FW woods

Iron play- Obviously all irons, and wedge shots that aren't you're typical pitch, chip, flop, etc...

Short game- Shots around the green and putting.

Obviously those can be broken down into tons of subcategories, but that's how I look at the 3 big ones.

[mvmac]

I disagree that an 80 yard full swing wedge is "long game." To me that falls in line with iron play. "Long game" to me is driver and fairway woods. I'm not saying my interpretation is right, it's just the way I look at it. It's also not what I consider "short game" either though which is is your chips, pitches, and putts. Without getting into a detailed breakdown, I split it into 3 major categories.

Long game- Driver & FW woods

Iron play- Obviously all irons, and wedge shots that aren't you're typical pitch, chip, flop, etc...

Short game- Shots around the green and putting.

Obviously those can be broken down into tons of subcategories, but that's how I look at the 3 big ones.

Just to clarify where the "long game" talk is coming from.  We have a couple threads that have been popular lately where we define long game as a shot longer than 100 yards.  You can define it however you want but wanted to let you know where it was coming from.

[Maddog10]

Just to clarify where the "long game" talk is coming from.  We have a couple threads that have been popular lately where we define long game as a shot longer than 100 yards.  You can define it however you want but wanted to let you know where it was coming from.

Ahh gotcha... I was unaware of those. I'll check them out.

[Ernest Jones]

Just to clarify where the "long game" talk is coming from.  We have a couple threads that have been popular lately where we define long game as a shot longer than 100 yards.  You can define it however you want but wanted to let you know where it was coming from.

I actually prefer the definition that long game is anything that uses full swing mechanics. My example above is an 80 yard shot that I might choose to hit a full swing 60*. I hit my 60* the same way I hit my 9i or my 3i. If I play that exact same yardage with a pitch shot instead it would be short game technique.

[mvmac]

Ahh gotcha... I was unaware of those. I'll check them out.

Good place to start

http://thesandtrap.com/t/14930/is-the-long-game-more-important-than-short-game/72#post_914422

[iacas]

I actually prefer the definition that long game is anything that uses full swing mechanics.

I prefer that one too, and that's the definition I use in this thread: . Since this thread ( ) is about research by Broadie (et al), we use his 100-yard delineation point in that thread.