Hello from North Carolina

[Scott in NC]

Hello everyone.  I just started playing seriously a little less than a year ago.  I found a heavily used set of cheap clubs at a yard sale well over a decade ago, and occasionally would putter around the local par 3 course with them (really no more than 2-3 times a year), but never started playing real courses regularly until fall 2016.  My main motivation was that my teenage son plays on his school golf team, and I saw this as a sport that I've always enjoyed but never took seriously until recently, and I decided it would be worth it to develop my skills in a sport that the two of us could do together on weekends.  So far we're both having a blast.  My son has really outpaced me over the past year.  Part of the reason is that he's grown considerably over the past year, but all the lessons that he's had have really helped him as well.  So I decided that it was finally time for me to take some lessons as well, and I took my first lesson this past Friday.  As I said, I'm really enjoying the game, but I have a long way to go.  I keep score every round, and use my score as a way to judge my improvement.  But so far I still score so poorly that I don't qualify for an official handicap.  Don't laugh, but I play to a maximum of double-par on each hole before quitting (so as to not slow the game down too much), and I'm lucky if I don't max out on 1/3 of the holes during a typical round.  But I'm really inconsistent.  A few weekends ago I actually achieved a birdie on a short par 5 hole.  Now if I could do that even half the time, I'd be set.  I don't have very lofty goals at present, but I'd be happy if I could break 100 by next summer.  I'll keep up the lessons and keep working at it!

[iacas]

Congratulations, and welcome to the site and to the game of golf.

[dennyjones]

Welcome from Michigan.

[Scott in NC]

Thanks, guys.  Now I just need to come up with a good avatar picture.  Unfortunately, while I have plenty of pics related to other hobbies of mine, I've yet to take any good golf-related pics.

[Scott in NC]

Okay, I found an avatar pic--that of my favorite putter.  Now I'll go back to lurking mode so that I can learn from all the valuable wisdom that you veteran golfers have to share.  Thanks again for letting me join this great forum!

[dennyjones]

9 hours ago, Scott in NC said:

Okay, I found an avatar pic--that of my favorite putter.  Now I'll go back to lurking mode so that I can learn from all the valuable wisdom that you veteran golfers have to share.  Thanks again for letting me join this great forum!

Don't just be a lurker...We appreciate active members.

[Scott in NC]

Thanks, Denny.  I'll try to be as active as I can, but I'll need to get better before I'll have a whole lot that's useful to contribute.  Plus right now I spend about 90% of my online time serving as an administrator for a forum related to my other big hobby, astronomy.  Fortunately I know a bit more about that than I do about golf, lol.

[jkelley9]

Welcome. I'm also in NC and we have similar tastes in putters :) I use a SC X7M. Although I could use my $15 Yes! center shaft mallet putter and probably putt JUST the same, to be honest.

A good place to start is the "Breaking 100 Club" thread. It's either in the general Golf Talk section, or in the instruction section (I think It's in Golf Talk, though). There's a lot of good key pointers on what needs to really happen in order to start breaking a score of 100 without a lot of mechanical instruction.

Then you move on to "Breaking 90," "Breaking 80," and so forth. They're good reads and have helped me. I'm on the cusp of breaking 80, myself.

Do yourself a favor and don't worry about equipment. It doesn't contribute to SCORE nearly as much as people say it does. A bad swing needs practice work, not new equipment.

Lastly, I wouldn't go with the "double-par" way of keeping pace. Go with "max # of strokes," regardless of the length of the hole - or something. Taking 10 strokes on a par 5 will drive some players behind you bananas! Keep a 2 hr 10 min pace though and you shouldn't have trouble (on average). USGA handicapping systems (for non-tournament play) don't even record holes above a certain threshold, based on your handicap index. It's called "Equitable Stroke Control," or "ESC" for short. Look it up. It's kind of weird in that for me now, I don't take anything higher than 7 strokes... so it won't even count the last stroke if I triple bogey on a par 5! (Although you do RECORD it on the score card - it just doesn't get counted against your handicap index)

Good luck.

[Antneye]

Welcome! (From Charlotte)

[Scott in NC]

Thanks!  I'll definitely check out the "breaking 100 club" thread.

[JonMA1]

Hi @Scott in NC. Welcome to the site. I lived in Hendersonville for a very short time when I was a child. NC is a beautiful state.

I became involved with golf under similar circumstances as you've described. My son played HS golf and eventually talked me into playing a round. That was 6 years ago and I've yet to forgive him for it .

Even though improvement can be challenging for some of us, golf is a great game and one we can enjoy playing with our kids for many years.

[iacas]

On 9/18/2017 at 10:49 AM, Scott in NC said:

Thanks, Denny.  I'll try to be as active as I can, but I'll need to get better before I'll have a whole lot that's useful to contribute.

You're a golfer. You have a bunch of your own experiences and opinions to contribute.

Nobody says you have to give awesome swing advice from day 1.

[Scott in NC]

Thanks, iacas.  I just posted in the "Breaking 100" thread.  Can't wait until the day when I finally do break 100! :)