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

[rkim291968]

  NJpatbee said:

As for my putting, I have to take time to practice on a green similar to the ones I play more than just before I tee off - most independent practice ranges have shaggy putting greens, so I have to go to the course.

One of the reasons why I said short game is easy to improve is, for example:

If you can find an even surface (carpet, kitchen floor), you can practice different aspects of putting easily.  For putting touch, I used kitchen floor as putting surface.  For lag putt, I use my hallway that's carpeted, and runs about 25 feet straight.

[chasm]

Still struggling with tempo. Hit some beautiful shots today, including one 275 yard drive bisectng the fairway. That's about as good as I can hit it. And the thing that distinguishes the good shots is that they are easy, completed swings. But I also hit some horrors, and they're all about snatching at the transition and hitting at, rather than through, the ball. And invariably they result in an incomplete follow-through. I know this stuff, why am I too stupid to learn from experience?

[Lihu]

  chasm said:

Still struggling with tempo. Hit some beautiful shots today, including one 275 yard drive bisectng the fairway. That's about as good as I can hit it. And the thing that distinguishes the good shots is that they are easy, completed swings.

But I also hit some horrors, and they're all about snatching at the transition and hitting at, rather than through, the ball. And invariably they result in an incomplete follow-through.

I know this stuff, why am I too stupid to learn from experience?

I might have heard this about 2 to 3 hundred times since taking up this sport 4 years ago, and even said it myself a hundred times or so.

[rkim291968]

  Lihu said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by chasm

Still struggling with tempo. Hit some beautiful shots today, including one 275 yard drive bisectng the fairway. That's about as good as I can hit it. And the thing that distinguishes the good shots is that they are easy, completed swings.

But I also hit some horrors, and they're all about snatching at the transition and hitting at, rather than through, the ball. And invariably they result in an incomplete follow-through.

I know this stuff, why am I too stupid to learn from experience?

I might have heard this about 2 to 3 hundred times since taking up this sport 4 years ago, and even said it myself a hundred times or so.

It's just damn hard to get into a habit of repeating good swing.   By now, I know what good swing is, what it feels like, and what it does.   Repeating it is another story.   But I see a light at the end of the tunnel for my driving.   After maintaining 45 - 52% FIR since I picked up golf about 5 years ago, my FIR has gone up to 65% and kept it for the last two months.     It's becoming a habit to me.

Too bad, I can't say the same about 3H & 3W.  In fact, I removed 3W from my bag for now.   After hitting 3W consistently for a few months, I lost it.

[Strandly]

Seems I have a bad habit of playing a decent round and then getting cocky and completely forgetting how to hit the ball which results in multiple atrocious rounds that crush my dreams.

My solution for the time being is extra trips to the driving range so I can relearn some things that I apparently took for granted.

[Strandly]

Went to the range a little bit ago and had a little bit of a breathrough on driving.  I kept seeing videos of people saying to be loose and relaxed.  I thought I was loose and relaxed... until today.

I got tired of seeing and reading about people even smaller than me smashing long drives so I figured I MUST be doing something wrong.  To test it I decided to just walk up and hammer the shit out of the ball just to see how far I could send it.. any direction, didn't matter.  I took a huge, what felt like a reckless cut, and smoked the ball 250 basically straight down my target line.  I couldn't believe it.

I hit another 8 or 10 balls like this and almost all of them had the penetrating rising ball flight and ended up in the 240-260 range.  Ran home and got a tee time in an hour to see if I can actually do this on a course.  haha  Excited to see how it goes, especially since I think I got my irons working properly again too.

[isukgolf]

Lets us know ... For me "loose" means swinging easier ... Meaning letting my arms follow my turn, rather trying to "swing hard" with my arms ...

[rkim291968]

  isukgolf said:

Lets us know ... For me "loose" means swinging easier ... Meaning letting my arms follow my turn, rather trying to "swing hard" with my arms ...

Ditto.

My brother had a trick to repeat his "range" swings in field.   He hits 240 yards straight at range but in field?  Well, not so much.   To help with this problem, he teed off of a rubber tee (same one used in range) if field.  He had some success with it.  I tried it myself but ended up hitting the rubber tee too far away from tee box and I had to stop.

[Lihu]

  rkim291968 said:

Ditto.

My brother had a trick to repeat his "range" swings in field.   He hits 240 yards straight at range but in field?  Well, not so much.   To help with this problem, he teed off of a rubber tee (same one used in range) if field.  He had some success with it.  I tried it myself but ended up hitting the rubber tee too far away from tee box  and I had to stop.

I've done this before when I ran out of tees. Unfortunate, that it is about 2" too high.

[Strandly]

  isukgolf said:

Lets us know ... For me "loose" means swinging easier ... Meaning letting my arms follow my turn, rather trying to "swing hard" with my arms ...

It seemed to pay off, I found myself inside the 150 stake where usually I'm outside of it.  I need to do some fine tuning still but I definitely think I'm on the right track.  I don't think I ever swung too hard with my arms, I think my whole body was just tense because I was so concerned about delivering the club down exactly the right path and that was costing me distance.

[meenman]

All i can say is long game gets better, short game goes to shit.

Scores do not change, but i guess the plus side is that i do not embarrass myself off of the tee.

[MissouriHack]

  meenman said:

All i can say is long game gets better, short game goes to shit. Scores do not change, but i guess the plus side is that i do not embarrass myself off of the tee.

I'm experiencing the same thing. I think its a pretty common theme at our skill level. Irons good tee shots bad. Tee shots good and the irons are all over the place. Hitting greens then three putting. I really don't know what to tell you. All I can say is I feel your pain. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do if it all comes together. Probably get struck buy lighting while standing over my birdie putt on the 18th green. Thats golf.

[chasm]

Here's a thought for my fellow bogey golfers. Now and again, play an easier course. I know the USGA handicapping system is supposed to take account if the severity of the test. We don't use it over here, so there's no semi-objective measure of how one course compares with another. However, my home course is generally regarded as one of the tougher in the area - lots of high-risk tee shots, generally a heavy price to pay for missing the fairways, all that. Today I and my usual playing partners went to play elsewhere for a change. Nice enough course, par 71, but just a bit more forgiving - one could get away with a few wayward drives without necessarily dropping shots. I had an 83 without feeling that I had played especially well. Back home I'd have been lucky to break 90. Now, I'm clearly no better a golfer than I was this time last week. But it's certainly good for the morale, and therefore the confidence, to get round without seeing the odd eight or nine on one's card. And the thing I'll take away is that I hit the ball better because I wasn't psyched out by the apparent difficulty of the shots I was facing. Relax, and play better. That's the plan, anyway...

[Lihu]

  chasm said:

Here's a thought for my fellow bogey golfers. Now and again, play an easier course. I know the USGA handicapping system is supposed to take account if the severity of the test. We don't use it over here, so there's no semi-objective measure of how one course compares with another. However, my home course is generally regarded as one of the tougher in the area - lots of high-risk tee shots, generally a heavy price to pay for missing the fairways, all that. Today I and my usual playing partners went to play elsewhere for a change. Nice enough course, par 71, but just a bit more forgiving - one could get away with a few wayward drives without necessarily dropping shots. I had an 83 without feeling that I had played especially well. Back home I'd have been lucky to break 90. Now, I'm clearly no better a golfer than I was this time last week. But it's certainly good for the morale, and therefore the confidence, to get round without seeing the odd eight or nine on one's card. And the thing I'll take away is that I hit the ball better because I wasn't psyched out by the apparent difficulty of the shots I was facing. Relax, and play better. That's the plan, anyway...

It's definitely a real ego booster. I really enjoyed playing Scholl Canyon with a 56 CR. I felt like a pro on a normal course. Lots of Par and a lot of missed birdie opportunities with one successful birdie. I'm going to Almansor ~65CR today with my son. We both hope to make a lot of par. It makes for a fun and relaxed day out.

[Strandly]

  chasm said:

Here's a thought for my fellow bogey golfers. Now and again, play an easier course.

I know the USGA handicapping system is supposed to take account if the severity of the test. We don't use it over here, so there's no semi-objective measure of how one course compares with another. However, my home course is generally regarded as one of the tougher in the area - lots of high-risk tee shots, generally a heavy price to pay for missing the fairways, all that.

Today I and my usual playing partners went to play elsewhere for a change. Nice enough course, par 71, but just a bit more forgiving - one could get away with a few wayward drives without necessarily dropping shots. I had an 83 without feeling that I had played especially well. Back home I'd have been lucky to break 90.

Now, I'm clearly no better a golfer than I was this time last week. But it's certainly good for the morale, and therefore the confidence, to get round without seeing the odd eight or nine on one's card. And the thing I'll take away is that I hit the ball better because I wasn't psyched out by the apparent difficulty of the shots I was facing. Relax, and play better.

That's the plan, anyway...

Yeah there's a couple executive courses in my area that I play from time to time because they're on the easier side and it's a great chance to use irons.

[teamroper60]

  chasm said:

Still struggling with tempo. Hit some beautiful shots today, including one 275 yard drive bisectng the fairway. That's about as good as I can hit it. And the thing that distinguishes the good shots is that they are easy, completed swings.

But I also hit some horrors, and they're all about snatching at the transition and hitting at, rather than through, the ball. And invariably they result in an incomplete follow-through.

I know this stuff, why am I too stupid to learn from experience?

I swear, I could have typed this whole statement................      It literally describes my current issue with my driver perfectly.......     What kills me is, on the range, I have a great tempo with my driver and can pipe drives 250+ down range one after the other but the minute I step onto a tee box, it all goes away.

[MissouriHack]

I need to get my distances again. I have been striking the ball better and have gained a few yards here and there. So I am guessing with my shots. I wont spend the money to go to a simulator to get my "gaps". So do any of you guys have a reliable method that establishes your club distances? I do not have a laser other wise I would use that. Any thoughts?

[Lihu]

  MissouriHack said:

I need to get my distances again. I have been striking the ball better and have gained a few yards here and there. So I am guessing with my shots. I wont spend the money to go to a simulator to get my "gaps". So do any of you guys have a reliable method that establishes your club distances? I do not have a laser other wise I would use that. Any thoughts?

Get on the course (when it is virtually empty) with a rangefinder, then hit towards the pin from different distances. Start at the 200 marker and work your way in with all your irons. Do it on various opposite facing fairways.

For your driver and woods you can just measure the center of you distribution back to the tee box.

Seemed to work pretty well for me about 6 months ago. As a courtesy, you might want to let the starter know what you plan, if they have a problem with it (fear of lots of divots), go to another course that does not really care that much. Alternatively, you can offer to pay extra for the round too.