Hello from North Carolina

[jkelley9]

Hi, I'm James. I just joined these forums after having played very very casually for the past 2 years or so. I love that there's tons of information on here with many active users. I only recently starting trying to really get better at golf and am now playing on average once per week.

A little bit about me: I'm a chemical and biomolecular process engineer for a smaller chemical company in North Carolina. Graduated in 2011 from Georgia Tech so I'm a young guy. I enjoy "working" on things eg. breaking things down and rebuilding, building ground up, tools, cars, construction etc. Very much have the tech bug, I have since I was 10 yrs old.

I have spent WAY TOO MUCH on golf stuff in the past month and because I'm a tech and MAJOR statistics junky (which has a lot to do with my field of work) I recently picked up the Game Golf gadget thing (along with a new r11 driver, rangefinder, LW, etc... ). It seems like something that will fit my personality and current goals in golf, despite what maybe some others on these boards may think about the device? Anyways, I'm excited to get started with it (I haven't yet).

Anyways, very glad to be a part of such a wide ranging community with tons of readily available information. In the next 6 months when my wife and I settle into a house I will be looking into nearby clubs in the area but first thing's first, I need to have play each of them.

My best round: 92

Avg round: 97

2015-end goal: 88? I think I could get there?

Cheers!

[iacas]

A little bit about me: I'm a chemical and biomolecular process engineer for a smaller chemical company in North Carolina. Graduated in 2011 from Georgia Tech so I'm a young guy. I enjoy "working" on things eg. breaking things down and rebuilding, building ground up, tools, cars, construction etc. Very much have the tech bug, I have since I was 10 yrs old.

As one geek to another, be careful doing this with your golf swing. It's only ever really detrimental to start over from the ground up, breaking things down too much, just to build them up again.

It's better to treat learning golf like you learned the sciences: start with math (basic fundamentals), add in some more science (physics, chemistry, more complex math), and then begin to fine-tune (organic chemistry, molecular physics, etc.).

I have spent WAY TOO MUCH on golf stuff in the past month  and because I'm a tech and MAJOR statistics junky (which has a lot to do with my field of work) I recently picked up the Game Golf gadget thing (along with a new r11 driver, rangefinder, LW, etc... ). It seems like something that will fit my personality and current goals in golf, despite what maybe some others on these boards may think about the device? Anyways, I'm excited to get started with it (I haven't yet).

Check out a few of these threads:

- Spoiler: we like it a lot! Follow me if you want at http://www.gamegolf.com/player/iacas .

(Buy it at http://lowestscorewins.com/).

Anyways, very glad to be a part of such a wide ranging community with tons of readily available information. In the next 6 months when my wife and I settle into a house I will be looking into nearby clubs in the area but first thing's first, I need to have play each of them.

My best round: 92

Avg round: 97

2015-end goal: 88? I think I could get there?

You could get there by the end of this year (bit of a stretch) if you spend your time and energy properly.

Welcome to the site.

[bste]

Welcome James, Instruction and playing tips here are first rate.

If you have any questions, check to see if there is a thread about it.

Looking forward to hearing about your golf journey, So jump in.

[jkelley9]

Thanks y'all

I definitely intend to approach my golf game in a healthy, objective way. I'm glad to hear that the GAME Golf is accepted on here (some other online reviews had me second-guessing at times) because I'm quite excited to use it sometime this week.

I will definitely check out those resources, iacas. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

I do believe I could achieve my goals by the end of the year possibly. I consider myself very level-headed, patient, and receptive while at the same time I know that I don't want to be "fixing my shot" after every single bad shot. From what I've been reading, that seems to be something that a lot of golfers do but I could be wrong about that

Thanks for the warm welcomes.

[davechen]

Welcome and yay North Carolina! Went to UNC for grad school so I love Chapel Hill.

[jkelley9]

It's been a while since posting, but I have been having a lot of success recently. About 2 months ago I starting taking lessons once per week, first at 30 minutes per, and now at 1 hour per. I've been very happy with the results:

Everything in my setup, grip, swing plane, body movement... just everything was wrong. I saw tremendous improvement in just one 30 minute lesson. I approached this instructor initially (and still currently) with the objective of our lessons being "to develop a comfortable, simple, dependable/consistent golf swing." Distance is NOT my goal. In the future it may be, but right now I want to enjoy golf with friends and family and keep it out of the woods (Spoiler alert, I hit no ball in the woods my most recent round, and only one in the water because the post said 185 to water and I can drive it ~220-240 pretty well and consistently now so I thought I had it; I didn't! lol, the sign lied. to clear the water was a solid 240).

I shot a 101 most recently. I thought I had done so much better and was kind of disappointed, but then realized that my putting was what was really suffering (among some other natural things at my level) but all in all I felt it was a great round because I hit a lot of really solid shots and kept up with my father in law pretty well. We haven't covered any putting yet but I am now practicing putting so much more and I think my next round will be dramatically better in that area. So I'll try to get back out there soon. Unfortunately I'm in Japan for 2 weeks at a time for 3 trips over between June and September so my practice is suffering.

My old goal of 88 I believe I can accomplish from what I think I've been improving in from these 7-8 lessons. I'm hoping to have a low score of 85 in the next few months, maybe with an average in the 88-90 range? I'm looking to join a club near my house on a well rated public course that has some good membership benefits and to start tracking a handicap. I also plan on continuing the lessons since it seems to be continuing to help, and my goal is to be able to create a habitual swing and not lose it after a month of no lessons. It seems to be going well so far!

[boogielicious]

Hi, I'm James. I just joined these forums after having played very very casually for the past 2 years or so. I love that there's tons of information on here with many active users. I only recently starting trying to really get better at golf and am now playing on average once per week.

A little bit about me: I'm a chemical and biomolecular process engineer for a smaller chemical company in North Carolina. Graduated in 2011 from Georgia Tech so I'm a young guy. I enjoy "working" on things eg. breaking things down and rebuilding, building ground up, tools, cars, construction etc. Very much have the tech bug, I have since I was 10 yrs old.

I have spent WAY TOO MUCH on golf stuff in the past month  and because I'm a tech and MAJOR statistics junky (which has a lot to do with my field of work) I recently picked up the Game Golf gadget thing (along with a new r11 driver, rangefinder, LW, etc... ). It seems like something that will fit my personality and current goals in golf, despite what maybe some others on these boards may think about the device? Anyways, I'm excited to get started with it (I haven't yet).

Anyways, very glad to be a part of such a wide ranging community with tons of readily available information. In the next 6 months when my wife and I settle into a house I will be looking into nearby clubs in the area but first thing's first, I need to have play each of them.

My best round: 92

Avg round: 97

2015-end goal: 88? I think I could get there?

Cheers!

Yeah! We need more chemical engineers on this site!  I'm a Chem E from WPI but class of 1982, so I'm a bit older than you!

This site is awesome for helping you become a better golfer. In addition to what Erik posted, I would recommend this thread to help you learn how to practice. Too many people just hit balls mindlessly at the range.

In addition, there are a lot of helpful threads and videos in this link:

http://thesandtrap.com/a/helpful-instructional-threads-and-links

It is a lot of information. I recommend focusing on one major swing priority at a time. You can also work on the short game stuff, which will help. The Quickie Pitching Video is a great technique too.

I cannot say enough praise for the book Lowest Score Wins .  I love reading about golf and have read a ton of books. This one identifies what are the most important parts of your game to work on and helps you score better with the swing you have now.

Lastly, if you want second opinions about your swing, post a video in the Members Swings section. Many of us do that.

Most of all, have fun learning the game. Golf is hard. But if you approach it as a challenging game, you will have more fun.

[jkelley9]

My wife and I just got back from Jamaica. I read Lowest Score Wins cover to cover, and then went back and read the first hundred pages again with my highlighter in hand while on the plane trip back. What a GREAT book. Holy smokes. I've read a couple of other highly rated golf books, but they just weren't for me. This one was so easy to read, and I'm a statistician at heart so I really appreciated that aspect of it. It really helped me open my eyes at how this game works.

I had a fantastic couple of days at the range the days leading up to my trip (when I started the book) working on the first 2 keys. I had remarkable (small) successes. I really had to try hard to keep it slow and simple. But I was having much better contact on the ball than I have been. Hopefully this week and the weeks to come I will be able to make that a repeatable full swing motion.

I also can't wait to get out to the course (probably next weekend) to try some of the game planning. That section really opened my eyes as well.

And I will stop working on 20 ft putts, of course