Breaking Bad Club - A Thread for Golfers Trying to Break 100

[Hiway1tele]

with No swing, its a + 30 game...with a consistant decent swing, its  +18 game...for me..No turn in my hips to the backside, yields never having an inside out swing..My shoulder turn is nearly 90 degrees, but without the bottom end, it just ends up being an outside in...and the big clubs slice and go right..or else pull left..some guys have it, some dont I guess...

[xcott]

Put up a 55/50 for a 105 yesterday. Putter was still off, adjusting to faster greens kills me. Keeping detailed stats shows me I'm making good progress even though the scores don't really seem like it. 

 

My avg round since I've been keeping track

 

.15 birdies per round

1.24 pars per round

4.9 bogeys per round

6.2 double bogeys per round

5.6 triples or worse per round

The triples have been going down, the  were 7 per round. So I've gut out about 1 triple or worse per round. 

 

about a year ago the averages were

0.0 birdie per round

1.0 par per round

4.0 bogey per round

6.5 double bogey per round

6.5 trip or worse per round

Progress, slow but steady. 

 

average score was at 109.6

now it is 107.1

 

 

[Hiway1tele]

Xscott,

Congrats on your progress...when I analyze my progress or lack of, I take my worse holes and look at it shot by shot..and try and figure out where my worse mistakes are...was it my long clubs, my approach's, or my short game...when I started doing it that way, I could see what shots were causing me the most trouble on hole...and fixed that shot..when you fix that issue, it fixes it for each of your categories and drops your score...for me, I chose to fix the short game and got one of the best teachers to show me how to chip and pitch better...when I fixed my short game, I dropped 10 shots per round..If you look at the pro's, they win or lose with the short game...most courses have 14 holes that are par-4/5..fix one part of your game to save one shot per hole, and you'll drop 10 shots on average....that approach worked for me..My short game got me from 110 to around 100..if I can get a consistant swing, I'll get to 88-90...

[pecos24]

1 hour ago, xcott said:

The triples have been going down, the  were 7 per round. So I've gut out about 1 triple or worse per round. 

My guess is this is one of the biggest problems of golfers in this thread, the dreaded blow up hole.  I don't know how many sub 100 rounds I would have had if not for this happening.  The million dollar question is how to prevent it from happening or at least limit the damage.  

[Hiway1tele]

In Xcotts example, its more than a blowup hole if he has nearly 5 triples a round..5 +3's and 6 +2's equals a +27 thru 11 holes...thats not a blowup hole for him..there is something he is consistantly doing wrong that causes an issue on almost every hole..if he just got the triples down to doubles, he would be 5 points better...perhaps a chip closer to the hole, or a 2 put instead of a 3 put..or hit shorter, straighter long shots instead of longer, errant clubs...I would pick the easiest shot to fix and get it consistant..and knock 5 points off the score..but then I practice my swing or my chips every day for an hour or so..without practice, you never get better than +30..

[Lihu]

2 hours ago, xcott said:

Put up a 55/50 for a 105 yesterday. Putter was still off, adjusting to faster greens kills me. Keeping detailed stats shows me I'm making good progress even though the scores don't really seem like it. 

 

My avg round since I've been keeping track

 

.15 birdies per round

1.24 pars per round

4.9 bogeys per round

6.2 double bogeys per round

5.6 triples or worse per round

The triples have been going down, the  were 7 per round. So I've gut out about 1 triple or worse per round. 

 

about a year ago the averages were

0.0 birdie per round

1.0 par per round

4.0 bogey per round

6.5 double bogey per round

6.5 trip or worse per round

Progress, slow but steady. 

 

average score was at 109.6

now it is 107.1

Pretty clear improvement. What kinds of things did you do to improve?

[mcanadiens]

47 minutes ago, pecos24 said:

My guess is this is one of the biggest problems of golfers in this thread, the dreaded blow up hole.  I don't know how many sub 100 rounds I would have had if not for this happening.  The million dollar question is how to prevent it from happening or at least limit the damage.  

Not that I always succeed in preventing the blow up, but slowing down gives me a good crack at it. You know you are in trouble when it gets to the point where you start grabbing for another ball the second after your shank or you walk after the putt that wasn't even close. When you are at that point, you aren't thinking clearly about what you are doing.

Do anything to break the pattern and slow down. Stop, get the water bottle out of the bag and take a drink. Re-tie your shoes. Walk over to a playing partner and ask him the time. Then give the next one your best shot.

[xcott]

" Pretty clear improvement. What kinds of things did you do to improve? "

 

Mostly just playing more to be honest. I haven't taken any lessons, but I've just done more playing and reading and watching the game.

Loose arms and muscles really helped me hit the longer clubs.

going with the pitch over the chip has helped my short game. 

I've gotten better about managing the course and not just trying to hit every shot as far as possible. Going with some smaller clubs to get in a good position. Like yesterday I went Driver, 7I, wedge into a Par 5. Whereas in the past I would'v went Driver, hybrid or driver 4 iron to get that second shot as long as possible. But I'm not going to be on in 2, might as well get closer with more comfortable clubs.

 

 

Keeping the detailed stats really helps, because it doesn't look too much from raw scores that I'm improving a lot, but the trend lines are all in the right direction, even when I have a bad round. 

[EMC2144]

I found that I can allow myself a blow up hole once or twice a round by being smarter everywhere. For instance, tried a new couse on the shorter side (5500) but I played well because I was smart. Only hit my driver twice, and once was a super downhill 300 yarder because I was bored. Chipped and putt for birdie. But played a 3wood on most holes over 350ish and an iron. First hole is 260ish, and I striped a 7i right to the dogleg about 75 out. Then proceeded to forget how to play and shot a 7, but sometimes playing a course dif fervently than normal is helpful for your game. Who cares if you can cut the dogleg with your driver, try setting yourself up differently, maybe it'll help. 

[Hiway1tele]

2 minutes ago, EMC2144 said:

I found that I can allow myself a blow up hole once or twice a round by being smarter everywhere.

Thats how I try and play it...play consistant 90% of my holes, and if I take +4 on 1 hole out of 18, and par a couple of par-3's, I still have a decent round ....

[EMC2144]

My blow up holes are normally par 3s. I'm no longer in this club but I shot an 8 on a par 3 once  (bunker hopped back and forth over the green) and still played bogey golf on the front 9.

[Hiway1tele]

The course I play has a tuff 18th, water to the left and a 75 yard wide water runoff ditch 100 yds in front of the green approach..with a raised green..thats usually the hole I will trash if I am going to trash one..I dont have a very long distance on the big swings, so I try to play smart with smaller, straighter shots, but it doesnt always work for me..plenty times I have taken a +3 at that hole...on good days I play the rest at +1 and par 1 or 2 Par-3's..on bad days, its probably a 50-50 mix of single's and doubles..hopefully it will soon be better, finally starting to get a swing in order, after 6 month's with a golftec coach's help..

[xcott]

I've actually been burned some recently by hitting my clubs longer. I'm hitting the ball so much better that I'm not a club longer in nearly every situation. I hit probably 4-5 perfect shots yesterday. Completely flush and straight but they went way over. In two cases the balls were lost in deep, deep rough. Couldn't get mad as I hit the ball exactly as I wanted, I just had the wrong club.

I also think the course I play is kind of difficult. It's narrow, old and in some cases very long. It's challenging. 

[Hiway1tele]

Went to Golfsmith while ago..had a 7i regripped and bought a new Calloway x2 Lob wedge to replace my Ping G3 that I left apparently Lying on a green  somewhere...I used a Golf Sim at Golf-Smith with my 7I and after about 20 shots, my avg off-line from center was -8 or 8 yards left of center for a 110 yard 7-iron shot..so I guess its starting to come around..

[uitar9]

Played a local muni for the first time this year. Shot a 44+50. Best score there. Last year best was a 97. Had a blow up par four , ball went for a swim for an 8 and had an argument with a tree for a par four 6.

[Lihu]

Yesterday evening, one golfer who I see at the range and takes bi weekly lessons with the top pro at our club, possibly shot 25 over for 9 or maybe even more? He developed a really fast tempo during the round, swung as hard as he could and used big clubs for his chips and approaches. Not sure why? His swing was consistent, and he definitely has the strength and flexibility. He just shot terrible and tried to swing too hard off the tee. When he was more relaxed he hit nice high arching drives that landed 180-200 yards away. For some reason, he decided halfway through the round to start really going after it.

[Hiway1tele]

26 minutes ago, Lihu said:

big clubs for his chips and approaches....

There is a saying : Use the right tool for the right job...

[xcott]

ugh, another bad round, too many 8s. I felt like I was hitting the ball well. The guy I paired up with was surprised when I told him I was a 26 handicap.

 

Putting was better. Just put up some bad scores. found the water and the woods a bit too much.