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

[No Mulligans]

For me putting vs. chipping off the green is very situational.  The quality of the grass is a big factor.  When I played at Cimarron in the Palm Springs area the fairways were nearly perfect and were fine for putting.  The courses I play in San Diego I'm often faced with Kikuya grass on the fairways and sometimes on the fringes.  That can be a bit uneven and hard to predict how a putt will roll.  Kikuya is good at grabbing a club also, even still I prefer to chip.

[iacas]

7 hours ago, 9wood said:

I'm sure 90% of the golfers, including the pros will disagree with you. Nevertheless, stick with what works for you.

I don't. Most people should putt.

[DrvFrShow]

When off the green, whenever possible putt. You won't skull it over the green. You won't duff it. It's low hanging fruit. Just what a pro told me.

[alleztom]

1 minute ago, DrvFrShow said:

When off the green, whenever possible putt. You won't skull it over the green. You won't duff it. It's low hanging fruit. Just what a pro told me.

I duffed a putt on the weekend - hitting up a 5' slope to an elevated green. Rolled back down #glaringweakness . Would do it again!

[Lihu]

5 hours ago, alleztom said:

I duffed a putt on the weekend - hitting up a 5' slope to an elevated green. Rolled back down #glaringweakness . Would do it again!

Those uphill chips are likely to be worse at least for me. . .

[Marty2019]

23 hours ago, iacas said:

The gap is not nearly as wide as you're making it out to be. Missing the green from 125 yards costs you strokes. It costs everyone strokes.

 

After a day's reflection, and playing another round yesterday, I am starting to think you are right.   I use a free GPS program (Freecaddie) on my cell phone to get my distances, and it tells me things like 110 yards to the front, 125 yards to the center, 140 yards to the back.   If I have 30 yards from front to back, and I assume about 30 yards across, from 125 yards, there is absolutely no excuse for missing that green.  In fact, it should be a lot easier to hit that green from 125 yards and 2 putt for par than to get up and down from 10 feet off the green.  

Yesterday's round is a perfect example.  We didn't finish 18 holes, but we did play the same 9 holes as the day before, and even though I took a double bogey on the first hole due to taking 5 shots to get up and down from about 25 yards off he green, after that I started hitting greens in regulation and wound up shooting 41.   Holes 5-9 went par, bogey, par, par, par.   I missed 3 birdie putts of 12 feet or less.   That was the easiest 41 I ever shot.  

So, now I'm thinking, the low hanging fruit in my case is not in the short game, but in hitting more greens in regulation.  So, I'm going to spend a little more time getting my irons dialed in.   That'll probably be a lot easier than learning to hit a 30 foot chip shot to 3 feet or less. 

[No Mulligans]

On 1/18/2016 at 4:13 PM, DrvFrShow said:

* if you can't hit the 3W off the deck don't bother with it. Most amateurs don't have the swing speed to hit one well.

I can't wrap my mind around that.  What does swing speed have to do with being able to hit a 3w?

I play with a 78 year old that takes half swings.  He hits a 3w well and doesn't have much swing speed.

[DrvFrShow]

1 hour ago, No Mulligans said:

I can't wrap my mind around that.  What does swing speed have to do with being able to hit a 3w?

I play with a 78 year old that takes half swings.  He hits a 3w well and doesn't have much swing speed.

78 year old may have been playing for decades, too. For many people it's not the case. Well it's the loft of the club. It's a difficult club to hit off the deck. It's easier for most people to get a 18.5*  5W in the air than a 14* 3W.

[SteveH]

I find it hard to believe that anyone would struggle hitting a 3w off the deck. Driver maybe but Isn't that what it is designed for ? Fairway wood ?

[uitar9]

Interesting thread-I heard one the golf radio pros answer a guy, who had a 25 HC, how to deal with control-the guy answered, you have no control.

He went on to say, you might want to think about fixing one thing at a time-what ever you think is your worst mistake-work on it until its no longer your worst mistake. Slice, putting, 3 wood off the deck, whatever it is.

Otherwise, he will continue to have no control

I like that. I'm gonna try that

[rkim291968]

33 minutes ago, SteveH said:

I find it hard to believe that anyone would struggle hitting a 3w off the deck. Driver maybe but Isn't that what it is designed for ? Fairway wood ?

I am a lot more accurate with driver than 3w (off tee or deck) so much so that, in today's round, I didn't use 3w once.  There were occasion to use it 5 - 6 times.  Instead, I used 3h or driver.   In my case, I think it is lack of practice & confidence. 

 

My game has been pretty consistent, scoring in very narrow range.   Although my differential average score is the best in the last 3 years, it hasn't translated into the best HI b/c of the narrow scoring range.   My latest HI is trending to 17.8 but I had better HI before in the last 3 years.   The good news is, I have only 1.8 more points to go to escape being a bogey golfer ...

[No Mulligans]

6 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

78 year old may have been playing for decades, too. For many people it's not the case. Well it's the loft of the club. It's a difficult club to hit off the deck. It's easier for most people to get a 18.5*  5W in the air than a 14* 3W.

So not swing speed then.

Here's what I think, for me anyways:  

A 3w is the longest shafted club and the least loft of any club I try to hit off the deck.  The longer the shaft the harder is is too control which for me increases the chance of hitting it fat, hitting it thin, hitting it off the toe, hitting it towards the heal, and not getting the club square at impact.  I can hit a 3w, I'm just very inconsistent with it off the deck. 

A 3w is also the least lofted club I try to hit off the deck.  If I deloft it at all by getting my hands a bit forward, it's not going to go very far.

[iacas]

14 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

So, now I'm thinking, the low hanging fruit in my case is not in the short game, but in hitting more greens in regulation.  So, I'm going to spend a little more time getting my irons dialed in.   That'll probably be a lot easier than learning to hit a 30 foot chip shot to 3 feet or less. 

No, I think until your short game gets really good, short game and putting are always the low hanging fruit. They're just easy skills at which to get good pretty quickly.

[rkim291968]

3 hours ago, No Mulligans said:

So not swing speed then.

Here's what I think, for me anyways:  

A 3w is the longest shafted club and the least loft of any club I try to hit off the deck.  The longer the shaft the harder is is too control which for me increases the chance of hitting it fat, hitting it thin, hitting it off the toe, hitting it towards the heal, and not getting the club square at impact.  I can hit a 3w, I'm just very inconsistent with it off the deck. 

A 3w is also the least lofted club I try to hit off the deck.  If I deloft it at all by getting my hands a bit forward, it's not going to go very far.

My thinking, too.   I have no problem getting the ball up in the air whenever I make a solid contact.  I.e, 3w loft (15 degree for me) is not an issue.  It's the longer shaft length which is giving me the fits.  If I can hit it, I think I can shave off another fraction from my HI. 

[Lihu]

On January 22, 2016 at 10:26 AM, uitar9 said:

Interesting thread-I heard one the golf radio pros answer a guy, who had a 25 HC, how to deal with control-the guy answered, you have no control.

He went on to say, you might want to think about fixing one thing at a time-what ever you think is your worst mistake-work on it until its no longer your worst mistake. Slice, putting, 3 wood off the deck, whatever it is.

Otherwise, he will continue to have no control

I like that. I'm gonna try that

On this site, that'd be called working on your "priority piece".

[DrvFrShow]

I think my problem with it is that the loft on mine is only 13.5*, more like a mini-driver or a 2W. So if I try to hit it off the deck and deloft it just a little it isn't going very far. At least not in the air. On a hard dry fairway in the middle of August (last summer's conditions) if I don't top the ball it could fly about 150 in the air and roll another 70 yds.

My 5W on the other hand is set at 18.5* and I don't have any problem with it. 

[rkim291968]

I had focused ranges sessions on 3W, and worked out some kinks.  It paid dividend today.   I hit some solid 3W shots, including a 200+ yarder that got me a GIR on a long par 4 hole.   Things are looking up on this.

I continue to score in very narrow range.   Despite playing my best (lowest differential average) golf in the last 2 years, my HI is not the lowest in the same two years.  I need to score a few exceptional scores or I will never break out of being a bogey golfer.   HI is trending 17.7.  Geesh.    Patience, my grasshopper, patience.

[dkolo]

I haven't hit a single shot well in over a month. The changes I've been making to my swing paid off spectacularly for a week or so, culminating in one great round but I've been chasing that feeling since then. I'm just in the place where swinging a golf club doesn't make sense when I'm standing over the ball and its shank city. I'm just going to keep working on my pivot from what was told to me in my swing thread and practice chipping / pitching until the snow goes. Hopefully some time off will do my mind good.