160 yards to break 90?!

[Jeremie Boop]

2 hours ago, Simanrules said:

The 240 par 4 l, is just one hole 9n my local course that i can garentee a par, just used it as an example.

Jeremie boop, completely agree, being a novice i have and had people all the time saying head down, blah blah blah and all the rest of it, and now ive ignored them for the last 6 months because your right they dont know better. 

The main point im trting to make is pra tise with your irons, get them down, absolutely nail them, just yourself to hit a straight shot and learn your distance, and then course management, ppay to your strengths dont leave yourself silly little chip shots if your not good at them, im not im terrible, from 20 yards to 70 from the green i suck, so i make sure my ball never lands in that range, i swear to god, if u can do that and uve practised enough so that every time u stand over the ball your confident in yourself, your scores will drop, for god sake ive been playing a year and im 12 hc. And just for a little more info, my bad shot is a thin, maybe 1/20 but it gets the ball down there and never happens with a wedge which is critical.

And 70'ssano i agree people 9n here are serious about golf hench being on here.. also a golf pro is not a doctor nor a surgeon, if u have injury of course its going to affect your swing. And in that case your be so hard on yourself for being a high scorer.

And jonma1, your game is bad by ur own admission, and ur telling a single handicapper they're wrong? Do you not see the flaw in your logic? A beginner guitarist does not tell brian may his technique or advice is wrong, simply because you think you know better, when quite clearly, you dont.

Yeah sorry should of add the one im talking about has a stream running across the front, and stream on the back

You aren't even really all the off on your advice generally speaking, because you are actually still advocating practicing full swings/long game in order to get better. This is actually correct, the main issue is people will almost always score better the closer they are to the green. So advising someone to hit 160 off the tee on a par 4, leaving themselves another 160-240ish on a second shot is actually making their job tougher. As @mcanadiens said, anyone who has 3 clubs they can reliably hit typically can already do well enough to break 90. I used to think that I was better off further out so I could take a full swing too, but looking at the numbers using game golf, that actually turned out to not be true. As for your comment to @JonMA1, being a "bad" golfer doesn't exclude them from actually being more informed about golf than a single handicapper. Especially when it comes to his own game, which he definitely knows better than someone who's never seen him play. I'm a bad golfer, but I know more about the golf swing than a good number of pro golfers I'd imagine, simply based on things they've said publicly.

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

Ladies tees? Not even, must be from the kiddie tees 😂

Plenty of courses that have limited space may have shorter par 4s with forced carries at a distance to discourage going for the green from the tee or a 90* turn that blocks off the green from the tee. It's not as uncommon as you would think.

[Shindig]

4 hours ago, Grizvok said:

Where do you play with 240 yard par 4's?

I once played a course (par-3s and short par-4s) with a par-4 under 100 yards.  It had a huge block of trees between the tee and the green, so you had to hit a 50 yard shot out and then pitch on.  I suppose the trees were there to discourage you from trying to drive the green with a lob wedge or something.  

[billchao]

17 hours ago, Simanrules said:

As a player whos only been playing 1 year managed to get down to 12 handicap, ill say a couple of things.

If you got down to a 12 after only playing for a year, your experiences don't reflect those of a typical golfer and I'm not certain your advice is necessarily helpful to them. You practiced once a week and played and improved significantly. Many people here have spent more than twice that amount of time on golf and struggle to improve just a little.

It is entirely possible that certain aspects of golf come naturally to you which explains your success in such a short period of time. The problem with that is you probably don't understand the difficulties others might have in learning things that either were easy for you or maybe you never had to deal with at all.

It's clear that you have good intentions in offering advice, but I just want to make sure you were aware that your situation is atypical and not something most golfers can relate to.

[70sSanO]

4 hours ago, Simanrules said:

And 70'ssano i agree people 9n here are serious about golf hench being on here.. also a golf pro is not a doctor nor a surgeon, if u have injury of course its going to affect your swing. And in that case your be so hard on yourself for being a high scorer.

I never broke 90 when my shoulder was good, so it's not like I went from a good golfer to bad because of it... lol.

There is an LA County course that has an 18 and a 9.  The 9 is a make you feel good about your game regardless of reality course.  Par 34; the only 5 is less than 500 yards and most of the 4's are around 350.  Flat, wide, and few hazards.  Shot a 37 there in mid '80's.  Just adding length and tougher greens would make it so much tougher, with a par of 35/36.

For me golf is tough because unlike a lot of other sports I do, where determination and hustle can beat an opponent.  It is so much about body control and even slight flaws and lapses can have a devastating effect on the outcome. It is not just athletic ability.

John

[Lihu]

6 hours ago, Shindig said:

I once played a course (par-3s and short par-4s) with a par-4 under 100 yards.  It had a huge block of trees between the tee and the green, so you had to hit a 50 yard shot out and then pitch on.  I suppose the trees were there to discourage you from trying to drive the green with a lob wedge or something.  

50 yards out with what must be really tall trees?  What kind of trees? Sequoia? 😂

I’ve got to play that one sometime! Which course?

[Piz]

90 yards to break 160 sounds more reasonable.

[Shindig]

13 minutes ago, Lihu said:

50 yards out with what must be really tall trees?  What kind of trees? Sequoia? 😂

I’ve got to play that one sometime! Which course?

It was in or near Corvallis Oregon, so... quite a drive for such a course.  In any case, I think it was Golf City Par-3 in or near there.

[Moxley]

As already stated, I think there are few golfers with a game good enough inside 160 yards, and poor enough over 160 for this system to work. It's a small niche.

On a standard length course, this is going to mean having to go for GIR+1 on probably ~12 holes. So a round played to regulation with 2 putts, would be 82 on a par 70. That only allows for 7 errors, meaning good ball striking will be needed. 

If the system was geared around finding a slightly longer but controllable tee club, say in the ~190 range, which would allow for a few more errors, then I think it could work in a lot more cases. 

edit : on a re-read, I may have misread that the system does allow for 160 'or more' from the tee, so that's fair enough.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Moxley
addition

[Bonvivant]

Backstory: I grew up playing once a week with my father from age 8-14 during the summers. He cut down a set of Sam Snead Blue Ridges for me every couple of years as I grew, and that's all I have really ever played with. Never shot under 110 for an 18 hole round in my youth. As I grew up, I played less and less, eventually getting down to a round or two per year by 21, and no golf at all by age 23-24. Until this year I had played maybe 3 rounds in the last 5 years.

About a month ago, I decided I was going to get back into the lovely game, and got out my father's set of Blue Ridges. I hit the range, focusing on driver and long irons as those have always been weakest for me and why not improve the weak parts, right? I also spend time putting afterwards, but I have always been good on the dancefloor (blue ridge putter as well). Feeling ok, I made a tee time (3 Sundays ago) with a friend with no real expectations.

I had seen Golf Sidekick's videos, and liked the idea of stress free easy golf, but I forgot all of that when my playing partner ripped the first drive. I shot 111 and was disappointed. I was trying to muscle most shots, and the blade irons weren't forgiving of course. 4 OB shots off of tee box on a course that is fairly wide open, and an abysmal chipping game (sometimes taking 3 chips for under 50 yards) were the big things I noticed. The only reason that I wasn't in the 125 range was my putting. 3 holed from over 20ft and only one 3-putt on the round.

Even though I was a bit discouraged, I went to the driving range again this Saturday passed, but with a completely different game plan. Taking GS's advice, I worked on shorter irons (6 and under) and spent quite a bit of time chipping with my sand wedge, using GS's fool proof chipping method. 80% weight on front foot, hands in front of ball, ball just inside of rear foot. After 50+ chips, I was confident that I could get it on the green and not flub it completely. Success! I checked tee times for Sunday and found a 1 man opening for just before 8 and snagged it.

Now this course is the same length and not as wide open, but this time I was going to stick to my plan. 5 HY or 6 iron off the tees. Hit the 5 HY like junk the first nine, and put it back in the bag. 6 iron or shorter from there on out. Stress free, easy swing, just make good contact and avoid hazards. I shot a 98 (my best round of my life), with 50 year old blades, hitting about five 5-HY and the rest of my shots 6 iron or shorter, after not playing for years.

I am convinced this method is one of the best out there, for improving short game, and breaking through a score goal. In his videos he says chipping and putting are the places we can be just as good as the pros. I was lucky enough to be gifted with putting, and with 45 minutes of practice, I was chipping on every time I had the shot. I still made mistakes galore (3 3-putts, a couple of flubbed shots, 2 or 3 judgment errors), but I am convinced I will shoot under 90 before the end of this season.

 

TLDR: Scrub player that hasn't played in years, uses this method and blade irons to break 100 for the first time. If you are hitting your irons poorly enough to not go 150 straight-ish, go to the range, relax, and find a rhythm that works for you and focus only on good contact. After that is sorted, try this out and you will be pleasantly surprised. Strokes gained is for the pros, the way of the playa is for your everyday man.