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

[Lihu]

Some do, of course. But rarely with strangers, and those who often post scores substantially below their handicap soon find it pretty difficult to find any takers.

There are many golf courses, but I agree with you in principle. If anybody has any, they would not sandbag.

[Chanceman]

Are we going off topic? We Bogey golfers are on this thread because we want to leave it, right? We all want to be low handicappers. If some reptilian wants to play dumb to get an advantage he is probably not worth playing with, regularly at least. Anyway who cares, lets just get our scores down and let the morons play their silly games. Its only a game after all.

As for my angle on this I have become slightly more consistent by playing for Par when I start well on a hole, say with a good drive and iron, but reassessing if either goes astray and then maybe going for either the bogey or at worst a double. I have become adept at recovery shots from behind trees etc. Mother of Invention as they say. Cant avoid the occasional duff though.

My personal Achilles heel is that second shot which requires both accuracy and distance. When it comes off all is well with the world. If not, woe is me.

So far my best round is 82 on a good quality course (slope 126) but average is around 92/93. I still mark my sub-90 rounds in highlighter pen in my golf diary. Try to get one of them every 10 rounds if I can.

Fairways Hit are at 65% and average putts at 33 or so. I have to putt at about 28 to go sub-90.

[rcwkent]

I'm finally eligible to join this thread!!  I started last year when I retired. My first scores were in the 130s and 120s.

I got a GHIN last year and started at 31.6. Thies year my Index in March was 25 and I have worked really hard

to get it to 21.6.

Keys for me this year are 1) working consistently with a pro 2) Course management 3) short game (50 yards and in)

I only drive 200 and have gotten fairly consistent 62% fairways, with majority of misses in short rough. OB and LB

off tee are very rare now, My iron accuracy peaks at 140 yds....so unless its a short par 4, downhill, etc I will be

playing to get on in three.

At my home course (69.5/123) Ive gotten to know the green complexes very well...and know exactly where Id like my second shot

to be if I cant get on. Right now Im at 70% GIR+1...looking to improve there, and with putting.

This thread has been inspiring to me this year, and its nice to finally be eligible to post and proudly call myself a bogey golfer!

Dick

[Lihu]

I'm finally eligible to join this thread!!  I started last year when I retired. My first scores were in the 130s and 120s. I got a GHIN last year and started at 31.6. Thies year my Index in March was 25 and I have worked really hard to get it to 21.6. Keys for me this year are 1) working consistently with a pro 2) Course management 3) short game (50 yards and in) I only drive 200 and have gotten fairly consistent 62% fairways, with majority of misses in short rough. OB and LB off tee are very rare now, My iron accuracy peaks at 140 yds....so unless its a short par 4, downhill, etc I will be playing to get on in three. At my home course (69.5/123) Ive gotten to know the green complexes very well...and know exactly where Id like my second shot to be if I cant get on. Right now Im at 70% GIR+1...looking to improve there, and with putting. This thread has been inspiring to me this year, and its nice to finally be eligible to post and proudly call myself a bogey golfer! Dick

Welcome to the bogey club. :-) Great job getting you're handicap down so efficiently. If you write about all your experiences, I'm sure we can all learn from it.

[hallryu]

Happy to join. I've been practising for a few months and had my first full round last week. I shot a respectable 92. Last time I played was 22 years ago, I'm now 41 years old. Last time I played i was young, supple and THIN! Now I have an arthritic lower back, two flat feet and a well nourished body! I've been working with a pro for about a month. I've cured my slice, but now a few shots are going left. The best thing about curing the slice is the increase in distance I've got from all my clubs. I'm working on a consistent swing, keeping that slice at bay and hopefully getting in to the mid 80's.

[rkim291968]

I'm finally eligible to join this thread!!  I started last year when I retired. My first scores were in the 130s and 120s.

I got a GHIN last year and started at 31.6. Thies year my Index in March was 25 and I have worked really hard

to get it to 21.6.

Keys for me this year are 1) working consistently with a pro 2) Course management 3) short game (50 yards and in)

I only drive 200 and have gotten fairly consistent 62% fairways, with majority of misses in short rough. OB and LB

off tee are very rare now, My iron accuracy peaks at 140 yds....so unless its a short par 4, downhill, etc I will be

playing to get on in three.

At my home course (69.5/123) Ive gotten to know the green complexes very well...and know exactly where Id like my second shot

to be if I cant get on. Right now Im at 70% GIR+1...looking to improve there, and with putting.

This thread has been inspiring to me this year, and its nice to finally be eligible to post and proudly call myself a bogey golfer!

Dick

You could have posted earlier as the thread is equally about bogey golf than bogey golfers.

You have been in rapid HI descent path, not unusual for  beginners.   With time on your side, I wish you continue to improve your HI.  I can't wait until I retire so that I have time to take lessons and put more training/practice in.

I put my 3W back in my bag at the expense of a long iron.   I am beginning to hit solid again with it (not accurate, but solid enough to move the ball a longer distance than with 3H).    Time to improve my HI back under 20s.

[isukgolf]

Shot a 95 today ... Honestly I was happy with that ... 6400'ish yards ... Grizzly Ranch in Nor Cal ... Beautiful course

[RightEdge]

I think there are many of us here who have started golf late in life, and struggling to break away from playing bogey golf and join the golf elite.   I am starting a thread for bogey golfers to share their ideas and experience.   Tell us what you are going through, working on, any sob stories you like to share, ....

Are 25s not welcome here? lol

[Lihu]

Are 25s not welcome here? lol

I keep asking 14 to 25s use this thread. We can all help each other.

[chasm]

My scores seem to be improving. I haven't played much in competition for a while, so it hasn't yet had an impact on my handicap (generally speaking only competition scores count, here) but I've scored in the middle 80s a few times lately in social games. Three things I have changed, all inter-related. 1. When in trouble, play more conservatively and concentrate on avoiding turning bogey into double-bogey or worse. @iacas doesn't approve of this because he thinks it leads to being too conservative, but for me it seems to be helping. Previously when in trouble I'd go for the ambitious recovery shot if I had any chance of making it. Now I go for the best shot I have a high probability of making. It's limiting the damage. 2. Stop striving for distance and swing easily. I'm old, but I'm a big and still fairly muscular guy and this obvious truth has been very hard for me to assimilate - it seems natural to me to try to capitalise on my power. But if I just swing and let matters take their course, I make more consistent contact. I'm hitting my drives about 250 now with less perceived effort than it took to propel them 230 a couple of months ago. Less wayward, too. 3. Very closely related to 2, above. Concentrate on tempo. Lots of my problems seem to stem from quickening up. If I keep myself nice and slow and rhythmic in the backswing and in transition, other stuff comes right - I can keep a steady head, get my weight forward, all that stuff. As soon as I quicken up it all goes to hell. I've still got a long, long way to go, but it's encouraging. And there's a useful positive feedback loop. The more decent shots I hit while swinging easy, the less frustration leads me to try to thrash the cover off the ball, which was causing me to quicken up, and so on.

[rkim291968]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RightEdge

Are 25s not welcome here? lol

I keep asking 14 to 25s use this thread. We can all help each other.

Really.   Anyone can post here.  Internet is free, you know.

My last GHIN climbed up to 22 even.  Time to work hard to not get kicked out of this thread.

[rkim291968]

1. When in trouble, play more conservatively and concentrate on avoiding turning bogey into double-bogey or worse. @iacas doesn't approve of this because he thinks it leads to being too conservative, but for me it seems to be helping.

I opened this thread so that people going through similar experiences as bogey golfers can share their experiences. @iacas and other experts may be right on a lot of things but a few things may not apply to everyone.   I get mixed results when I lay up (or go for it).   In tournament situation, I lay up more often than going for it.  It has been successful.   But then again, it may be b/c I focus better in any tournament situation.

[divot dave]

Really.   Anyone can post here.  Internet is free, you know.

yeah right... tell that to my comcast bill

[iacas]

1. When in trouble, play more conservatively and concentrate on avoiding turning bogey into double-bogey or worse. @iacas doesn't approve of this because he thinks it leads to being too conservative, but for me it seems to be helping.

Feels a little like putting words in my mouth. Buy LSW and you'll know what I think, specifically, in some fair amount of detail.

FWIW, we don't recommend going for shots that you have a 5% chance of pulling off.

[rkim291968]

I found a major flaw in my swing.  My alignment was completely wrong.   For the last two rounds, after I addressed, I dropped my club across my feet.  The club was pointing decidedly to left of target on almost every shot.   I was aligning to hit a severe push or slice .  I was completely blinded by it.  I wonder when it all started.   This explains why I was hitting better at range, mat has alignment line on it.   Today, I made sure I was aligned on every shot.  It seemed to work as I had only one OB vs 2 - 4 per round I usually get.  It also reduced the number of "psycho" shots (ones that have mind of its own and goes severe right or left).   It led to 96 (missed three 3-footers which I normally make) today.

CHECK YOUR ALIGNMENT today!

[isukgolf]

Shot a 92 ... Glad to be back in the low 90's ... Played in Nor Cal and had a few rough days ... I will working with Brian at Evolvr on a few things, so I have high hopes!

[rkim291968]

Shot a 92 ... Glad to be back in the low 90's ...

91 for me.   Ever since I fixed my address/alignment problem, I have been playing much better and logged my first 91 in a long time.   It was 4th straight rounds in 90s, another sign that I am getting my game back.

[Strandly]

Missed greens in regulation is killing me.  I think I hit more than half of my fairways off the tee and can 2 putt fairly reliably but my second shot on par 4s and third shot on par 5s kill me.  I'll bounce it off the apron or simply miss left or right by less than 20 feet.  I'm still getting used to taking a full swing with my irons though so hopefully this is something that will simply get better with practice.

I'm horrible at hitting fairway woods off the ground and I need to watch some videos of this.  I hit grounders or low line drives like it's nobodies business and I'm not sure why.  Well actually I know why, it's because I never practiced these clubs off the ground while at the range... ever. But really, I hit a sweet 3 wood a couple weeks ago when I walked up to the ball and decided to try something different on a hunch.  I thought I swung a little steeper like I was using an iron but that hasn't worked for me in the handful of times I've tried it since so I'm still at a loss.