Bogey Golfers Only (Index 16-22) / Breaking 90 Topic

[DoubleEagle]

1.  I do not carry a driver...use 3W

2,  Difficulty adjusting putting to different courses/greens.  Counting putts, last three rounds have been 36, 34, 38--I am working on putting skills (of which I now have minimal if any)

3.  Short game not that bad, just tend to hit some balls short for some reason....cannot make myself consistent--working on short irons, especially within 50 yds of green

Score last 3 rounds:  94, 92, 97

[Lihu]

[quote name="MissouriHack" url="/t/70872/bogey-golfer-only-thread-handicap-index-from-16-22-what-are-you-going-through-working-on-sob-stories/510#post_933210"]Already going crazy. Winter sucks.

Agreed. I'm trying to live vicariously through the SoCal guys here. Actually, I'm going through a major swing overhaul and it's probably to my benefit that I can't play at all. I can seriously devote myself to the new movements without worrying about what the ball is doing.[/quote] Unfortunately, this SoCal. member was away for a couple days to find a Christmassy atmosphere. We found it, but on the trip an ominous looking cloud in the shape of a golf club reached out at me like the one warning Scrooge. :-O I promise to get back to the nice 80F weather here and start playing some rounds every day to report my rounds to you. ;-)

[billchao]

I promise to get back to the nice 80F weather here and start playing some rounds every day to report my rounds to you. ;-)

Hey now, no need to rub it in :-D

[rkim291968]

Score last 3 rounds:  94, 92, 97

You are my scoring twin.  I've posted 91, 97 and 94 in the last 3 rounds.   Big numbers continue to hurt my score. 8 & 9 on two holes pushed my score over 90 today.  I did ok on all other holes.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoubleEagle

Score last 3 rounds:  94, 92, 97

You are my scoring twin.  I've posted 91, 97 and 94 in the last 3 rounds.   Big numbers continue to hurt my score. 8 & 9 on two holes pushed my score over 90 today.  I did ok on all other holes.

What was difficult about these two holes?

[rkim291968]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkim291968

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoubleEagle

Score last 3 rounds:  94, 92, 97

You are my scoring twin.  I've posted 91, 97 and 94 in the last 3 rounds.   Big numbers continue to hurt my score. 8 & 9 on two holes pushed my score over 90 today.  I did ok on all other holes.

What was difficult about these two holes?

Will show you when you come up here .

#6 is a short par 4, all up hill, has narrow and small fairway protected by cliff on one side & hill on the other.  Green has false front, is long and narrow, and well protected.   It's a dreaded (oft hated) hole for bogey (or worse) golfers.

The other one is a par 5 hole, #12.  I think it is just a longer (twice more) version of #6.  It is well protected from tee box to green.  Probably not a hard hole for good players but for me, it takes a bit of luck to get a bogey.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkim291968

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoubleEagle

Score last 3 rounds:  94, 92, 97

You are my scoring twin.  I've posted 91, 97 and 94 in the last 3 rounds.   Big numbers continue to hurt my score. 8 & 9 on two holes pushed my score over 90 today.  I did ok on all other holes.

What was difficult about these two holes?

Will show you when you come up here .

#6 is a short par 4, all up hill, has narrow and small fairway protected by cliff on one side & hill on the other.  Green has false front, is long and narrow, and well protected.   It's a dreaded (oft hated) hole for bogey (or worse) golfers.

The other one is a par 5 hole, #12.  I think it is just a longer (twice more) version of #6.  It is well protected from tee box to green.  Probably not a hard hole for good players but for me, it takes a bit of luck to get a bogey.

Sure, sometime spring would be good.

[MissouriHack]

Unfortunately, this SoCal. member was away for a couple days to find a Christmassy atmosphere. We found it, but on the trip an ominous looking cloud in the shape of a golf club reached out at me like the one warning Scrooge. :-O I promise to get back to the nice 80F weather here and start playing some rounds every day to report my rounds to you. ;-)

Looking forward to hearing about it. I went to the driving range today and was really surprised at how well I was striking the ball through out my entire bag. My driver was especially tame witch was a surprise. I enjoyed just swinging the club nice and easy. The lazy feeling is something that I am going to hang onto throughout this next season. 84 here I come! :-P

[Lihu]

[quote name="Lihu" url="/t/70872/bogey-golfer-only-thread-handicap-index-from-16-22-what-are-you-going-through-working-on-sob-stories/540#post_933247"] Unfortunately, this SoCal. member was away for a couple days to find a Christmassy atmosphere. We found it, but on the trip an ominous looking cloud in the shape of a golf club reached out at me like the one warning Scrooge. :-O I promise to get back to the nice 80F weather here and start playing some rounds every day to report my rounds to you. ;-)

Looking forward to hearing about it. I went to the driving range today and was really surprised at how well I was striking the ball through out my entire bag. My driver was especially tame witch was a surprise. I enjoyed just swinging the club nice and easy. The lazy feeling is something that I am going to hang onto throughout this next season. 84 here I come! :-P[/quote] That's the best way I know to describe the feeling. It's amazing how far and straight you can hit when you let the club do the work. I'm sure the experts and pros are laughing at these posts, and have a more appropriate name for this feeling. Cool that you got it. I'm still working on keeping that feeling on the course, where the conditions are not ideal. You might be able to simulate bad lies by stepping on a board with one foot or something like that at the range. Keep that feeling, and we might need to get Rkim to start a new thread.:-)

[MissouriHack]

So instead of complaining about how cold it was and not playing golf until the spring. I pulled up my boot straps and went out for my final round of 2013 with no time to spare. It was 34 degrees when I got to the course and it was same when I left. Needless to say the ground was frozen. It was a pain getting my tees in to the turf. Most of the greens were the same. I didn't see another soul on the course until the 7th hole. I had a bast. The fairways were so hard that the ball would run and run. I had a three drives with the wind in my back that I will never see again. Im not even going to mention the distance in fear of the trolls paying me a visit. I kept the "lazy" feeling that lihu and I were talking about and it worked out great. So I will hang my hat on a frigid 91 and look forward to another great year of golf in 2014. Everyone be safe and Happy New Year.

[Lihu]

So instead of complaining about how cold it was and not playing golf until the spring. I pulled up my boot straps and went out for my final round of 2013 with no time to spare. It was 34 degrees when I got to the course and it was same when I left. Needless to say the ground was frozen. It was a pain getting my tees in to the turf. Most of the greens were the same. I didn't see another soul on the course until the 7th hole. I had a bast. The fairways were so hard that the ball would run and run. I had a three drives with the wind in my back that I will never see again. Im not even going to mention the distance in fear of the trolls paying me a visit. I kept the "lazy" feeling that lihu and I were talking about and it worked out great. So I will hang my hat on a frigid 91 and look forward to another great year of golf in 2014. Everyone be safe and Happy New Year.

That's dedication. Happy New Year.

[Fairway_CY]

I've spent the better part of a few hours reading this thread.  I love it.

For me, I'm not 'new' to golf.  At all.  I've been playing since I was 13 years old.  I've never played more than 25 times in a season, and... living in New Jersey my whole life has made the seasons short.  Now, I am living in Charlotte, North Carolina and I finally have an opportunity to have an extended season... bordering on year-round.

I've kept my stats for years.  Before I started using Scorecard to track... I kept Excel spreadsheets that tracked the exact same things.  I started that back in 2004 and I've tracked every round I've played between 2004 and now.  I know where my weaknesses are, and I know where I perceive my strengths to be.

Strengths

Distance - I'm not a long hitter, by any means... but considering that I play a lot of courses between 6,000 and 6,500 yards... the majority of my approach shots are from 130 and under.  Unfortunately, accuracy does not fall into the strength category for me, which means that any 'advantage' I have over some opponents with distance is typically wiped away.

50 Yards and In - I'm very comfortable being able to get the ball within 20 feet from anywhere inside 50 yards.  I do have an occasional hiccup, but more times than not, I'm able to recover from a poor approach or something and give myself at least a reasonable chance at par or bogey.

... and that's where my strengths pretty much cease to exist.

Weaknesses

Putting - I'm admittedly a horrible, horrible putter.  Getting myself to within 20 feet means nothing when I'm almost guaranteed to need 2 putts (oftentimes 3 putts) to get the ball in the hole.  Over the course of the last 4 years... I make approximately 8% of putts from 16-20 feet... and it's not much better until I get to the 4-6 foot range when I make around 66% of my putts.  So... yeah, I'm pretty much a horrible putter.  With the move to Charlotte, I'm hoping to be able to practice my putting much more frequently.  It's something that I never really got a chance to practice on a real green here except before a round.

Accuracy - I hit somewhere around 1/3 of fairways.  My scoring improves drastically when I play from the fairway... so, it's something I've TRIED to take a more conservative approach on from the tee... but, I still manage to miss with hybrids and even long irons.  If I could hit 50% of fairways, I'd probably drop 3-5 strokes from my average score.  Especially if those fairways hit were with my driver.

Iron Play From More Than 160 Yards - I like to think that if I can hit my tee shot in the fairway somewhere between the 100 yard marker and the 150 yard marker, I'm going to leave myself a fair shot at making a par.  Once I'm outside of that range, my ball is guaranteed to go somewhere... just not always where I'm aiming.  Sometimes I'll wildly slice a ball 40 yards to the right of the green.  Other times, I'll pull one 30 yards to the left of the green.  It's just not consistent enough where I'm comfortable over the ball.  When I'm in competitions, I find myself playing wedge - wedge from 170 just so I don't shoot myself in the foot.  It's not a way to score.

So... that's the 'major' weaknesses I have.  I have plenty of others I could post about, but those are the ones that plague me the most often.

I plan to play 40 - 50 times in 2014... providing everything goes smoothly.  The majority of those will be in competition rounds of some sort.  Hopefully I'll be able to find a nice, local practice area which will allow me time to work on things like my putting and my mid-to-long irons.  But... I'll be checking in here with you all to let you know how it's going.

My first planned round of 2014 is a week from today... providing the weather holds out.

Until then...

CY

[Chuckles76]

Getting back! I had the best round of my life and shot an 86, then my wheels fell off completely. The next several rounds have all been over 100. I'm so inconsistent, especially since i'm not playing much as of lately due to unusually cold weather in southeast texas. We don't normally see temperatures in the 30's until February.

I do love to hit my driver but i'm all over the place with it. It has a regular flex shaft so I'm probably going to buy another club with a stiff flex. The better players that I play say that I'm flexing the hell out of the shaft.

I just ordered some new irons that fit my size better. I haven't had my current set checked since I bought them, so I don't know what the loft and lie is like on them.

I rarely practice,so I'm working on hitting the range and buying a practice net for the back yard.

My putting isn't terrible but definitely needs some work.

I guess you could say that I'm planning to work on everything and have another lesson with the local PGA pro planned shortly.

[rkim291968]

Read from a golf instruction book that there are two types of bogey golfers.  One who played for some time & has good swing, but lacks practice or motivation to get to single digit HI.   If they apply themselves, they can quickly get out of being bogey golfers.  Then there are the rest who are on a relatively new journey to a better golf.   Most of us here fall into the latter, IMO.  2014 is the year that I am promising myself to shed bogey golfer label for good (instead of going in and out of 16 - 22 HI range).

[billchao]

Read from a golf instruction book that there are two types of bogey golfers.  One who played for some time & has good swing, but lacks practice or motivation to get to single digit HI.   If they apply themselves, they can quickly get out of being bogey golfers.  Then there are the rest who are on a relatively new journey to a better golf.

I agree. I highlighted what I feel is the most important part of your statement. I was in the first category for a while, but sometime last year, I decided that if I wasn't going to play more golf then I would at least dedicate myself towards improvement. Now I'm in the latter category.

2014 is the year that I am promising myself to shed bogey golfer label for good (instead of going in and out of 16 - 22 HI range).

Me, too. I worked pretty hard on a new swing that I'm really proud of, so my plan is to play more this year and hopefully knock the high differential rounds from my handicap.

[Lihu]

Me, too. I worked pretty hard on a new swing that I'm really proud of, so my plan is to play more this year and hopefully knock the high differential rounds from my handicap.

I am also hoping to have this settled soon. I was getting to a decent swing with the MP-32 up through the 3i. Well, I decided to use heavier woods to improve my driving and long distance accuracy with the woods and hybrids. As I got used to the he added weight of the woods, it made the effective weight of my irons much lighter. This in turn made me swing these clubs too fast, and broke down a lot of things I worked hard to get.

Now it's time to work on tempo and a decent pre-shot routine, and possibly to fit my ping I20s to the same swing weight as my "new" woods. Or to add lead weight to the MP-32 clubs.

It seems like longer straighter drives have had a cost.

[billchao]

I decided to use heavier woods to improve my driving and long distance accuracy with the woods and hybrids. As I got used to the he added weight of the woods, it made the effective weight of my irons much lighter.

You put heavier shafts in, right? Why didn't you putt heavier shafts in the irons, too? I don't know a lot about equipment, so I never really played around with mine (not to mention the cost), but if heavier shafts make you more accurate, that's something I should look into, myself. Personally, I've been considering a Harrison Shotmaker for a while, I might just pull the trigger on it this year.

[MS256]

I am also hoping to have this settled soon. I was getting to a decent swing with the MP-32 up through the 3i. Well, I decided to use heavier woods to improve my driving and long distance accuracy with the woods and hybrids. As I got used to the he added weight of the woods, it made the effective weight of my irons much lighter. This in turn made me swing these clubs too fast, and broke down a lot of things I worked hard to get.

Now it's time to work on tempo and a decent pre-shot routine, and possibly to fit my ping I20s to the same swing weight as my "new" woods. Or to add lead weight to the MP-32 clubs.

It seems like longer straighter drives have had a cost.

If you have access to somebody that does MOI matching it might help. I don't live close to anybody that does that so I've been tinkering around by feel with lead tape in a homemade attempt at MOI matching.

Basically instead of the same swing weight the clubs have progressively more swing weight as they get shorter to make them all swing with the same amount of effort.

Funny thing is that I think I've got them just about right but can't play because of this damned weather. They feel very good out in the yard though.