The Best Tip You Have Had, but Not From a Pro

[Ernest Jones]

"Get over yourself" - my father. 

[DeadMan]

51 minutes ago, Ernest Jones said:

"Get over yourself" - my father. 

Are you ever going to try taking that advice?

 

Before getting too heavily invested in quick fix-type tips, I would recommend reading this blog post:

 

[Ernest Jones]

5 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

Are you ever going to try taking that advice?

 

Whatever do you mean?

[Patch]

Several years ago, a friend called me "Alice" as in "hit the ball Alice". I was leaving a lot of putts short that day. Ever since then, I have made it a point to putt the ball with enough force, that when I do miss anything inside 5 feet, I am looking at a 2-3 footer coming back. Another plus is, I make a lot more breaking putts, because my putted ball is moving to fast to accept the break. . 

[Shooting29]

Best advice I ever got was from my dad. When I was younger and would get mad about poor play or complain about a round,  he would say "you'll have days like that and then you'll have bad ones too." I never understood then what he meant but as I've aged and gained the experience of what a bad day really is, poor play doesn't qualify. If I woke up and can still feed myself and wipe my own hind end It's a pretty good day. I have had family die from old age and accidents had friends die in car wrecks and one died in a fire. A bad round pales in comparison to those bad days.

[iacas]

On May 31, 2016 at 1:27 PM, allenc said:

The best tip I ever got from a non pro was to "just work on your short game and putting.  Forget about all that other stuff."  It isn't good advice but all the other tips I've gotten were even worse.

That's funny.

[Lazarus]

In all honesty the best tip I've ever had was "keep your head down", from dozens of well-meaning people when I started out. A short trial and error and a bit of proper research showed me how wrong most "tips" are for one individual. It was then that I decided to listen to more helpful people, otherwise I'd still be trying to improve -tip of the month-style. 

[mcanadiens]

The advice that my buddies gave me when I first started proved to be so destructive that I will not take advice from anyone that I just meet on the golf course.

[bkuehn1952]

Hah!  I just remembered a very timely tip from my caddie at St. Andrews' Old Course just prior to hitting a sand shot into a 45 mph breeze: "hit it firmly and keep yer mouth shut".  

[Dinoma]

I was given the same advice by my dad when I started golf and when I first came a father

"Anyone giving unrequested advice probably isn't qualified to do so."

[goatbot]

Starting out I was still to break 100.  You see tips everywhere about hitting down with irons, hit up with driver, wrists movement, club path, and everything you can do to work on that stuff.

I explained a drill and swing thought I was trying out and my buddy told me to forget all that junk. The clubs make the ball go up.  Just hit the ball forward like a hammer on a nail.  If hit a nail you need to hit it on a straight path and don't worry about "up", the loft will do that. Hammer it straight and keep it straight after contact for as long as you can. 

Immediately stopped slicing (made a usuable baby fade), stopped hitting fat shots, even stopped over swinging.  Now, when I start doing poorly I still go back to thinking about hitting the ball straight where I want and it helps straighten things out.

 

[Shooting29]

On 6/1/2016 at 6:47 AM, Papa Steve 55 said:

Don't be afraid to miss the putt.

My game got better when I lost the aggressiveness on the tee and became more so on the green.

I have been struggling with my putting and I read this yesterday. When I played last night I chipped up to about 4' jabbed at it, missed and realized I had been missing putts because of my fear of missing. A light bulb came on and I stopped jabbing at it. Started making firm confident strokes and played my first round all year without a three putt. Thanks 

[Patch]

7 minutes ago, Shooting29 said:

I have been struggling with my putting and I read this yesterday. When I played last night I chipped up to about 4' jabbed at it, missed and realized I had been missing putts because of my fear of missing. A light bulb came on and I stopped jabbing at it. Started making firm confident strokes and played my first round all year without a three putt. Thanks 

I have always thought that the more fearless one was with their putter, the better they putted. I think it can be the same with all the clubs. 

[Max13]

On 5/31/2016 at 4:57 PM, Groucho Valentine said:

I got a tip from a player on the range at the NJ state open years ago about slighting rising my hand position at address. He advised me to get a little taller in the set up. The guy is technically a pro, but he's also a very fine player. He finished in the top 10 in the masters a couple times in the 80's. I missed the cut by a few strokes that year because i putted poorly, but man was i striping the ball. 

I typically don't think much about mechanics much, but that was a tip i still focus on to this day. When my hands fall too low my swing gets a bit narrow. 

I started doing that by accident a week or so ago. I changed the set up on my Driver and noticed it seemed to put me in a more upright position. I gave it a go and it worked really well.

[TourSpoon]

Yesterday after my second hook off the tee, my partner says, "I think you are getting a little quick and out of sync." So in essence the tip was not to swing like a maniac. That's about as good advice as any I have received from an amateur and it was spot on. 

[Esox]

Around 1980 I was a couple years into the game I frequently played with a very good player who is (was) 20 some years older than I. One day we were at his club (Oakland Hills) and he casually mentioned that I had been consistently under clubbing my approaches. He told me everyone does it, and we always think our pured, killed distance is the distance we should club for. I started adding one whatever club was my first instinct, and seldom went over greens, and sure didn't get into the worst trouble, which usually lies in front. To this day if I am not sure which club to hit, I'll go with the longer one.