Your Golf Game - The Uplifting Topic

[Papa Steve 55]

Out with a couple friends in a casual round today. One was taking his new F8 driver out for the first time. He has always been a spray and pray driver of the ball, in spite of many thousands of dollars spent on clubs and 'fix your swing' gadgets. On the first tee he hits his traditional pull hook, way left, into the trees swing. But instead of hooking into the trees, it pretty much held the line and ended up in the rough. Next hole was bombed down the middle on a frozen rope, I don't think I moved a foot off line. A few holes later he bails out of a swing and we are all looking well right for the big, high slice. But again, the ball started right but pretty much stayed on line, no huge slice. He is raving about how forgiving the club is on miss hits and I'm pretty impressed also. He stayed in between the tree line for the first time...well....ever. On the 17th tee, I noticed what I thought was a bit of leaf or a blade of grass on his club face and pointed it out. He looks, and swears, a lot. Seems he left the protective plastic film on the face of the driver, so no grooves ever touched his ball.

[The Hook Meister]

What got me pumped is the time I eagled a hole that used to drive me nuts! The hole is into the wind and the tee shot is no problem its a rare thing when I am not in the fairway. The problem is the second shot with the wind in your face trying to figure out what to hit is a real challenge. Out of frustration I hit an eight iron it hit the green and landed on a acorn went ninety degrees to the right and in the hole. I had finally beat that hole, okay maybe i got a little bit lucky. but I am not proud I will take it.

[amished]

Second round out, on a tough downhill par 3 I ended up landing my tee shot about 3 inches in front of the hole.  I don't get a lot of spin on my shots generally, so it rolled out to 15 feet or so and managed to three-putt and ruin the hole but I was proud of my initial shot!

[Dresilved]

22 hours ago, amished said:

Second round out, on a tough downhill par 3 I ended up landing my tee shot about 3 inches in front of the hole.  I don't get a lot of spin on my shots generally, so it rolled out to 15 feet or so and managed to three-putt and ruin the hole but I was proud of my initial shot!

How on earth did you manage to miss a 3 inch putt? 

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by Dresilved

[amished]

On 5/8/2018 at 12:51 PM, Dresilved said:

How on earth did you manage to miss a 3 inch putt? 

 

The ball landed 3 inches from the hole, not stopped...  The shot rolled out ten to fifteen feet past the hole and that's where I three-putted from.

[tehuti]

I had my best round of the year today. Even though I still had 3 or 4 blowup holes I also had 7 pars, including 17 and 18. That is a first for me. After several weeks of chunking my fairway shots around the course since I started taking lessons today I hit some really good shots.

[MarvChamp]

Thank you @tehuti ! I once had 5 pars. Your post gives me hope while I chunk it around, trying to get back. Any special mental aspects of the round? -Marv

[tehuti]

2 hours ago, MarvChamp said:

Thank you @tehuti ! I once had 5 pars. Your post gives me hope while I chunk it around, trying to get back. Any special mental aspects of the round? -Marv

 

@MarvChamp that’s just it. It didn’t FEEL like I was doing anything different. It’s just that my shots decided to start going where I wanted them to. If anything, all I did different was to not overthink every shot.

[amished]

With a double bogey on a nemesis hole of mine, shot net even par on our 9 hole men's league night (5 over for 9 holes).  No birdies, but 5 pars which I think either tied or broke a 9 hole record for me on my home course.

Mostly drove well, my double bogey was a bad drive.  Made some poor first putts but had some really good second putts to keep my "expected" score where I want it to be at the moment.  Another bogey was a poor iron tee shot, so most of my bad scores started off the tee and rapidly is becoming a focus.

[scarlethorn]

Good score. I know I started playing better when I asked myself one question, "do I have this shot in my bag?". 

After that, I still got bogies but not as many doubles or triples.

[tehuti]

Yesterday may have been the best day I have ever had on the range. Since starting lessons this year I have struggled with consistency due to a change to my mechanics. Yesterday I hit every club well, including my problematic hybrids off the deck.

It feels like I have finally discovered my repeatable swing. 

 

 

[amished]

7 hours ago, scarlethorn said:

Good score. I know I started playing better when I asked myself one question, "do I have this shot in my bag?". 

After that, I still got bogies but not as many doubles or triples.

What really seemed to help my mindset was that I was talking to a professional golfer (not PGA level, but does compete and get paid to play) friend of mine and just telling myself that a full shot isn't the right shot to play.  I've been playing much more flighted, 3/4 swing shots over the past week that has really helped me get some GIR that I normally don't get. 

After working out the pull-draw that I started with when trying to execute these shots, my accuracy with my irons has gone way up and I no longer think that the only way to keep a ball on the green is to drop it on there from as high as possible...  This also might be a side effect of recently switching to non-SGI irons that I didn't think I could effectively flight.  I probably could have, but I have much more confidence in controlling the up and down shape of the shot as well as the left and right shape of the shot.

[cooke119]

Before I retired, and I had money, I was a bit of a club hound, (I had five sets of irons in the garage). I have a friend who is also retired and we play in a league together. He was really in need of a new set of irons so I had him try a set I had, (Callaway XRs, like new), and he hit them really well, so I sold him the set for a really good price which made his day. I was happy to do it, it made me feel good as well.

[Shindig]

I like this thread.  I figure the following are good things about my game:  

 

* When I practice and play regularly, I do well.   (Unfortunately, I tend to have long gaps from playing)

* When I return to playing, I seem to find myself back quickly.  I barely practiced outside, I didn't even get the net I needed for my golf room (that reminds me...), so my practice indoors the past five months didn't involve hitting a ball.  Still, I came back and still had driving/approach better than my handicap and broke 90 all three rounds so far this year.  

* When I practice well, I improve solidly.  I'm sad it took me so long to learn how to practice well. 

[Patch]

Out of the blue this morning I was asked by my 19 year old Granddaughter if I could give her some pointers on playing golf. She is home from Hastings College. It seems a young man she met there is a golfer of some talent, and she wants to surprise him. 

As far as I know, she has no experience in golf, but she is athletic. She did quite well in highscool in track, softball, and soccer. She is also a very intelligent girl. 

I told her no problem, that we could make her presentable, that the only problem I forsee is her finding time. She will be working this summer in a hospital, and starting in September enrolling in UNLV for the start of her medical school journey. 

I happen to have a set of Topflite clubs that fit her pretty well, and a bag. Also a 2 ball mallet putter. This will suffice until she decides what she wants to do with her golf game. 

She has things that she needs to take care of the rest of this week, and then we will what her schedule is. 

I can teach  her the basics pretty easily. Have her breaking 100 consistently, maybe even into the 90s by the end of the summer. After that, we have a decent pro at the course, who if she wants, will cost me an arm and a leg for further instructions. 

Should be an interesting summer. 

[MGN]

Started keeping a GHIN handicap after many years of golf.  Shot an 84 this weekend with a birdie, par, par on 16-17-18 to make a 42 on the back 9.  Was very uplifting to finish well.

On another note though, do others who maintain a GHIN handicap also see their handicap as a whole number only?  I thought it would be a 9.x after posting about 8 rounds and even after the latest revision of handicap scores, it still shows 9.0.  Just curious.

[DaveP043]

1 hour ago, MGN said:

Started keeping a GHIN handicap after many years of golf.  Shot an 84 this weekend with a birdie, par, par on 16-17-18 to make a 42 on the back 9.  Was very uplifting to finish well.

On another note though, do others who maintain a GHIN handicap also see their handicap as a whole number only?  I thought it would be a 9.x after posting about 8 rounds and even after the latest revision of handicap scores, it still shows 9.0.  Just curious.

Its quite possible that your USGA handicap index would calculate to to be an even number.  About a 10% chance .   Congratulations on starting to keep a handicap, for me that was a first step towards playing competitive golf, and I love competitions to this day.

[scarlethorn]

It's an index so it could be a whole number. 3 good holes in a row? I'm usually happy if I par the last hole on our course. It's a par 4 that Lee Trevino said was an easy par 5 but a tough par 4.