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Plans for the future in my golf career and would appreciate advice!


TripleEagle
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So for some back story I had played a little golf here and there up until januaty 2016, it was my junior years golf season start and I wanted to be good. I was a 100s golfer in 2015 and these were my 2016 results thus far 101, 98, 95, 93, 93, 90, 87, 91, 85 each new score is one week later and new tournament. I have started practicing everyday and now work at a golf course and have improved vastly (partly thanks to my swing coach Mark Gray I highly recommend his website www.theprozone.net) as of today my handicap calculated from April 25th to may 22nd is - 7.4, today I played 9 holes and was only 2 over. I plan to keep practicing every day this summer and am playing on the STPGA Junior Tour and the Beltway Jr Golf Tour, I will update yall with each tournament. I hope to earn a spot on a college team, scholarship or not, and eventually move up to a bigger school. I want to either be a tour pro/pro am player or a PGA caddie. I hit about 50% greens in regulation and 80% fairways and these numbers are growing higher every time I play. I can make all 10ft> putts basically and many 15ft and some 20ft. I have basically dropped 20+ strokes in 5 months and am only getting more into golf daily. Any advice, tips, recommendations, etc.  Are appreciated! PS I'm 17, going into my senior year, and live in the Austin Texas metropolitan (between Driftwood and westlake). 

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You will level off substantially.

Be ready for it.

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Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
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13 minutes ago, iacas said:

You will level off substantially.

Be ready for it.

Yea obviously, things that'll help my game will be much harder to fix. My coach says he can have me at scratch by September based on how good I am at practicing (he got a 15 year old girl from bogey to scratch in 8 months and has taken 10+ strokes off many peoples game in a matter of months) he outlined my lessons for me. He says my putting is where it needs to be and keep it there so practice it regularly, my greens in regulation is my BIGGEST flaw he thinks if I can work on aim and club selection over the next few months I can get up to 80% (personal summer goal) and that'll create a lot of birdies for me since I only average 1.3 birdies a round, my distance off the tee box can be improved with exercises (my coaches son/great friend,  d1 golf commit, and #2 golfer in Texas has given me workout plans) as its only 230yards max.... He said those two things can be helped immensely at my rate of practice over the summer and should be fixed quickly as he thinks they'll get me go scratch. Personally I know my rate of growth will not be as substantial but since I play 36 holes/day Tuesday-saturday and 9 holes/day Sunday-monday and some driving range and putting practice at my house mixed in there too Im confident I can reach my goal: - 2 handicap> by September 1st. 

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Nice job getting to where you are now.

However, getting to scratch in less than a year from shooting mid 80s would take Greg Norman like talent. That's pretty rare.

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1 minute ago, Lihu said:

Nice job getting to where you are now.

However, getting to scratch in less than a year from shooting mid 80s would take Greg Norman like talent. That's pretty rare.

Thanks for compliment! I dropped from about - 28 handicap to - 7.4 in 5 months now and am improving everytime I play. I'm a confident believer that practice>natural talent, Greg Norman is an incredible success story but rather than being a natural I think he was more so good at practicing and improving. As I said above my coach has dropped people to scratch from bogey golf in months if the person cooperates and keeps up their half of the deal. I think the points I have to work on are GIR and Distance, luckily I practice these a lot right now and today I hit 6/9 greens in regulation compared to my usual 4-5, tomorrow I'll update as to how I play on the front 9 of the course I played the back 9 of today. 

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Keep grinding! You are definitely a little late getting started as many professional golfers were winning significant junior tournaments and carrying a handicap well into the +'s by the time they were 17, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. listen to your coach, practice effectively, and (I cannot stress this enough) play in lots of tournaments. weekly match-plays, your junior club championships, regional events... anything. ben hogan once said "golf and tournament golf are about as different as baseball and hockey", so do anything you can to get "tournament tough". also, organize games with friends that are better golfers than you. scratch players if you can. watching them and learning from them can greatly elevate your game. also if you get the chance, go out and watch a PGA Tour event in person. watching those guys on tv is great, but not until you actually see them hit a ball, hear the sound of shots coming off their clubface and watch the way they make their way around a golf course can you truly appreciate what it takes to get there. so much can be learned from that! good luck on your journey my friend! if you want to accomplish your goals, its going to take thousands and thousands of hours of dedicated study and hard work... getting to a scratch handicap from a 10 handicap is far more daunting than getting from a 25 handicap to a 10. cheers!

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My advice is to go on with what you are doing and see if it works out this year. I would love to see your postings on rounds played and what you practice. Most important advice: have fun, getting better is sometimes frustrating and will be if the goal is scratch within a year.

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Hopefully you will continue to post here, as we'd love to see how you continue to improve. Here are my humble warnings for you:

  1. It's easy to post about how well things are doing. It's monumentally more difficult to post when the improvement stops, or even backslides (and it will backslide)
  2. There are many, many, many young players who have come here only to flame out. Their arrogance gets the best of them, typically, and they get in spats with people here who may just warn them not to get overconfident. Don't be one of them.
  3. Adding distance from 230yds is not a simple matter of plugging in a new tip for adding distance that your coach gives you. It may mean changing many mechanics you are doing that are hindering you from gaining distance. Not sure if you've ever had to totally undo a bad habit, but it can lead to a backslide in your score. That may be necessary.
  4. Being a "7" is nothing to get overconfident about, frankly. I know you've had some great improvement (far better than I've seen for myself), but you're still 10 over par frequently. You'll be competing with juniors who are far better than that, so get to work. We wish you luck.
  5. My final recommendation is more broad: enjoy golf. Don't just come here and post about YOU. If you love golf, post about golf. For the sake of golf. The world doesn't revolve around you and your game. There are lots of good people here, and we'll quickly get a sense if you are here to brag, or to get tips from us without giving back anything (other than your tales of glory). Be interested in others' progress. Learn from others. You'd be amazed at the wealth of experience and knowledge here. It will only help you, and many are here to help and bond with other golfers working on their games. If you are another in a long line of "me, me, me" starry-eyed dreamers who stays self-centered and only posts about his own stuff, that'll be sniffed out, and you will not do well here on this site.
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My guess is keep doing what you are doing. Do this until you feel you are not getting any better. When that happens, then fine tune the weaker areas of your game.

Hopefully, before you get to the fine tuning part, you will have been charting some of your previous rounds' shots to see where you can save a few more strokes. Your current instructor can help you with this. 

When ever possible, add a new shot to your game. A shot you don't use most of the time, but one that can come in handy in the right situation during a round. Invent something. 

Finally don't let your golf journey get the best of you. Don't burn out from too much practice and play. Even the pros say spending sometime away from the game is a good thing. It kind of recharges the old golf batteries. 

Edited by Patch
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A whole bunch of Tour Edge golf stuff...... :beer:

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I wish you the best of luck and hope your golf coach is right.  On the off chance he's not, don't get discouraged, the goal he's set for you is a very tough one to achieve.

Others have given you some good advice but ultimately listen to your golf coach as he's the one that is working with you regularly and knows your strengths and weaknesses. 

Keep posting here and let us know how you're progressing.  

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Joe Paradiso

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6 hours ago, dove694 said:

Keep grinding! You are definitely a little late getting started as many professional golfers were winning significant junior tournaments and carrying a handicap well into the +'s by the time they were 17, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. listen to your coach, practice effectively, and (I cannot stress this enough) play in lots of tournaments. weekly match-plays, your junior club championships, regional events... anything. ben hogan once said "golf and tournament golf are about as different as baseball and hockey", so do anything you can to get "tournament tough". also, organize games with friends that are better golfers than you. scratch players if you can. watching them and learning from them can greatly elevate your game. also if you get the chance, go out and watch a PGA Tour event in person. watching those guys on tv is great, but not until you actually see them hit a ball, hear the sound of shots coming off their clubface and watch the way they make their way around a golf course can you truly appreciate what it takes to get there. so much can be learned from that! good luck on your journey my friend! if you want to accomplish your goals, its going to take thousands and thousands of hours of dedicated study and hard work... getting to a scratch handicap from a 10 handicap is far more daunting than getting from a 25 handicap to a 10. cheers!

Thanks for the tips! Yea i have 3 friends I play with a lot, they're all scratch golfer, 2 of them are D1 commits. I went to the World Golf Championship Dell Match Play, Valero Open, and Byron Nelson this year so far. I plan on playing 36 holes/day 5 days a week and 9 holes/day the other 2!

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52 minutes ago, KavanDuBois said:

Thanks for the tips! Yea i have 3 friends I play with a lot, they're all scratch golfer, 2 of them are D1 commits. I went to the World Golf Championship Dell Match Play, Valero Open, and Byron Nelson this year so far. I plan on playing 36 holes/day 5 days a week and 9 holes/day the other 2!

That sounds like a lot of golf.

And very little dedicated practice.

  • Upvote 1

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

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45 minutes ago, iacas said:

That sounds like a lot of golf.

And very little dedicated practice.

When I play alone I legit play 1 ball but practice several shots from the rough, sand, behind trees, far shots (hybrid to green), and many other shots. My play goes beyond casually walking 18 holes. Furthermore every night I hit about 50 balls at my personal range, putt and chip at my house (I have a big moss outdoor putting green) and usually hit balls in my garage for an hour or so. But all together I feel like with how I play I get more than ample practice in, but if you have another Idea for time management I'd love to hear it!

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22 minutes ago, KavanDuBois said:

When I play alone I legit play 1 ball but practice several shots from the rough, sand, behind trees, far shots (hybrid to green), and many other shots. My play goes beyond casually walking 18 holes. Furthermore every night I hit about 50 balls at my personal range, putt and chip at my house (I have a big moss outdoor putting green) and usually hit balls in my garage for an hour or so. But all together I feel like with how I play I get more than ample practice in, but if you have another Idea for time management I'd love to hear it!

Well, that's quite a busy summer! Have fun, I expect you to improve a lot.

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"I'm hitting the woods just great, but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them." ~Harry Toscano

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On 5/22/2016 at 11:47 PM, KavanDuBois said:

So for some back story I had played a little golf here and there up until januaty 2016, it was my junior years golf season start and I wanted to be good. I was a 100s golfer in 2015 and these were my 2016 results thus far 101, 98, 95, 93, 93, 90, 87, 91, 85 each new score is one week later and new tournament. I have started practicing everyday and now work at a golf course and have improved vastly (partly thanks to my swing coach Mark Gray I highly recommend his website www.theprozone.net) as of today my handicap calculated from April 25th to may 22nd is - 7.4

Those numbers don't add up.

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2 minutes ago, KavanDuBois said:

Care to elaborate? 

Kaven.Im  10 and my numbers are not that high.Your numbers equate to like a 13 or so just to guess.Still  i can see the vast improvement from 100 to 85.Keep it up.

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