Total beginner advice wanted

[weetikveel]

Hi all, noob here. I've played a few times 7 years back then quit and decided to pick it up again.

I can only play on my local course where the 'pro' is a 20 year old with a handicap you wouldn't call inpressive enough to taje advice seriously from for €90 an hour. Sooo I decided to take the free advice from anonimous internet users. And there we are.

 

I've played for 2-3 weeks now and found myself to have a stable iron swing. I tee off mostly with my iron 3, about 170-180 meters. Hardly impressive, but 90% of the fairways are hit. It's that I have to 3-putt a lot that makes me score a lot of double bogeys. Onto the problem. 

 

The only way I seem to be pretty stable with the (longer) irons is when the ball is positioned a little bit in front of my back foot. 

Is this at all acceptable? I NEVER see somebody doing this, but it seems to work for mr pretty well.

 

Go with what works? Or quit this while it still isnt in my system that much?

 

Thanks in advance.

[dennyjones]

First,  Welcome to TST.   We're glad you found out "slice" of heaven.   Read the "How to" section and post a swing video.   You'll get free exceptional help that will get you on your way to a better golf game.   The instructional videos that are posted here are priceless.   Check them all out and ask questions.   You'll usually get prompt responses and very help information.

Again,  welcome.

[No Mulligans]

57 minutes ago, weetikveel said:

Hi all, noob here. I've played a few times 7 years back then quit and decided to pick it up again.

I can only play on my local course where the 'pro' is a 20 year old with a handicap you wouldn't call inpressive enough to taje advice seriously from for €90 an hour. Sooo I decided to take the free advice from anonimous internet users. And there we are.

 

I've played for 2-3 weeks now and found myself to have a stable iron swing. I tee off mostly with my iron 3, about 170-180 meters. Hardly impressive, but 90% of the fairways are hit. It's that I have to 3-putt a lot that makes me score a lot of double bogeys. Onto the problem. 

 

The only way I seem to be pretty stable with the (longer) irons is when the ball is positioned a little bit in front of my back foot. 

Is this at all acceptable? I NEVER see somebody doing this, but it seems to work for mr pretty well.

 

Go with what works? Or quit this while it still isnt in my system that much?

 

Thanks in advance.

I'm thinking 90% fairways hit is better than most pros.  http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.213.html

A great way to get advice is to post a video of your swing in the Member Swings section of the forum.  Check out the advice on how to record a video there as well.

Ball position by the back foot?  That's probably a problem, actually probably a symptom of a swing problem.  Hard to say what the problem is without a swing video.

Edited July 19, 2017 by No Mulligans

[JetFan1983]

1 hour ago, weetikveel said:

The only way I seem to be pretty stable with the (longer) irons is when the ball is positioned a little bit in front of my back foot. 

Is this at all acceptable? I NEVER see somebody doing this, but it seems to work for mr pretty well.

 

Go with what works? Or quit this while it still isnt in my system that much?

 

Thanks in advance.

There's only one decent player I've known who does that and he plays huge push-draws as a result, but it works for him. 

Otherwise though, it's 99% likely it's a logical compensation you've made to account for having your swing's low point being well back of where a good player would have it, which is closer to middle, or ahead of middle. 

It's likely the back ball position is working due to a combination of flipping and not transferring enough weight forward in the downswing. Of course, I've never seen your swing, but probability dictates this is what is happening here. 

Now, you could simply move the ball more forward, where the good players place it, but you'll probably start hitting fat shots, and then thin shots, and then you'll start to realize why you were playing it back in the first place. So that begs the realization as to whether you want to start working on your golf swing itself in order to move its low point more forward. That will take some time, effort, and practice on your part with a qualified instructor. And good luck finding a qualified instructor without much knowledge to draw from in terms of being able to vet a pro (most of them stink). Such is the catch-22 of being a newb golfer. 

Look at the member swing forum here and think about starting a thread for yourself. Film your swing from DTL and FO and let the regulars and pros here take a look at it. In the meantime, welcome aboard, and feel free to contribute to threads that don't have to do with your golf game hehe. It earns you brownie points within the community when it's not all about you 

If you're serious about improving your swing though, unfortunately you'll have to read a little bit about the commonalities of the golf swing in good and bad players, if for no other reason than to be able to tell the difference between good and bad advice, so you can protect yourself somewhat as you navigate yourself through this crazy journey called being an avid golfer. 

Edited July 19, 2017 by JetFan1983

[saevel25]

30 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

Now, you could simply move the ball more forward, where the good players place it, but you'll probably start hitting fat shots, and then thin shots, and then you'll start to realize why you were playing it back in the first place.

If a person has halfway decent ability to find the ball then moving it forward can help them with hitting fat and thin shots. 

 

[JetFan1983]

Just now, saevel25 said:

If a person has halfway decent ability to find the ball then moving it forward can help them with hitting fat and thin shots. 

 

True, but he says he's a newb, so that's what I'm working with here. I know from my own experience of both doing it in my early days to also seeing a lot of bad players playing it back in their stance, that people do it because of flipping/leaving their weight back. 

Moving it more forward though will start to change some dynamics of the swing, probably for the better in the long run. But at the same time, I understand why golfers make the compensations that they make in order to play better golf in the present. 

So to me, there's logic in why people make the compensations that they make in order to have a more functional swing in the now. If you remove those compensations without the proper guidance, the golfer will most likely be worse. Certainly though, it could be for the better if a more conventional ball position positively encourages certain swing changes to occur. And it definitely would be better if the appropriate guidance from an instructor was there to assist in that change as well. 

[Piz]

There is a big difference between idiosyncratic and just plain wrong.  As a friend of mine once said...I can throw a brick through a plate glass window, a come up with a musical notation; but it doesn't make the act itself musical.  

[Moxley]

I'm nowhere near qualified enough to give technical swing advice , but my normal advice to absolute beginners is to find a way to reliably get the shot airborne (few fat/thin shots) , and then improve everything gradually from there. If you can't reliably connect, the experience is miserable, especially in winter where thin shots travel about 30 yards!

Sounds like you are already past this point and are hitting fairly decent shots. Even still, I'd recommend working on the swing at the range until you're comfortable enough to use it at the course.