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Quest from 6 handicap to plus golf in a year


hosel4lunch
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Hi All,

Been promising myself I would have a year of taking golf really seriously and see if I could get down to plus figures for a while now. Start of June this year will mark the start of a 12-month stretch in which I get my act together and finally do it (though I'll be doing bits and pieces as usual before then). Bit of info about me. I'm in my early 20s and currently playing to about a 5 or 6 handicap (I do not have an official one at present). I used to be as low as 2/3 when I played really regularly a couple of years ago, but have neglected to get out on the course much since then and would probably now struggle to break 75. A 5 or a 6 handicap with the potential to go lower is probably about a good approximation for the state of my game at the minute and as good a starting point as any from which to kick off on my quest to get to plus. Historically, my ball-striking has been the biggest weak point in my game and it is this which I am going to be focussing my attention upon most to try and shave off those pesky half a dozen shots from my handicap. My short game and putting is pretty much scratch level already so it'll more just be a case of keeping that area of my game ticking over rather than working towards significant improvements. I'll keep you guys posted with any rounds and/or practice I get down between now and the June 2018 starting point. Once the Summer kicks in I will be hitting range balls everyday and playing at the weekends. My aim is to document every round and practice session which I do in this 1 year stretch, keeping anyone whose interested updated with my progress and - for all the numbers geeks out there - the full lowdown of my stats.

Wish me luck,

Hosel4lunch 

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Well good luck, and enjoy your adventure. Hope you arrive at your desired destination. :beer:

In My Bag:
A whole bunch of Tour Edge golf stuff...... :beer:

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30 minutes ago, hosel4lunch said:

Hi All,

Been promising myself I would have a year of taking golf really seriously and see if I could get down to plus figures for a while now. Start of June this year will mark the start of a 12-month stretch in which I get my act together and finally do it (though I'll be doing bits and pieces as usual before then). Bit of info about me. I'm in my early 20s and currently playing to about a 5 or 6 handicap (I do not have an official one at present). I used to be as low as 2/3 when I played really regularly a couple of years ago, but have neglected to get out on the course much since then and would probably now struggle to break 75. A 5 or a 6 handicap with the potential to go lower is probably about a good approximation for the state of my game at the minute and as good a starting point as any from which to kick off on my quest to get to plus. Historically, my ball-striking has been the biggest weak point in my game and it is this which I am going to be focussing my attention upon most to try and shave off those pesky half a dozen shots from my handicap. My short game and putting is pretty much scratch level already so it'll more just be a case of keeping that area of my game ticking over rather than working towards significant improvements. I'll keep you guys posted with any rounds and/or practice I get down between now and the June 2018 starting point. Once the Summer kicks in I will be hitting range balls everyday and playing at the weekends. My aim is to document every round and practice session which I do in this 1 year stretch, keeping anyone whose interested updated with my progress and - for all the numbers geeks out there - the full lowdown of my stats.

Wish me luck,

Hosel4lunch 

Dude we're in the same boat. I'll be happy with 4.x at the end of the year.

What's in Shane's Bag?     

Ball: 2022 :callaway: Chrome Soft Triple Track Driver: :callaway:Paradym Triple Diamond 8° MCA Kai’li 70s FW: :callaway:Paradym Triple Diamond  H: :callaway: Apex Pro 21 20°I (3-PW) :callaway: Apex 21 UST Recoil 95 (3), Recoil 110 (4-PW). Wedges: :callaway: Jaws Raw 50°, 54°, 60° UST Recoil 110 Putter: :odyssey: Tri-Hot 5K Triple Wide 35”

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Those last 6 are the toughest, by far. Definitely need to get that ball striking in order, that's where it's at. Also, might want to consider reading Lowest Score Wins written by the owner of the site. Good stuff that can help drop a stroke or two all by itself. 

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Danny    In my :ping: Hoofer Tour golf bag on my :clicgear: 8.0 Cart

Driver:   :pxg: 0311 Gen 5  X-Stiff.                        Irons:  :callaway: 4-PW APEX TCB Irons 
3 Wood: :callaway: Mavrik SZ Rogue X-Stiff                            Nippon Pro Modus 130 X-Stiff
3 Hybrid: :callaway: Mavrik Pro KBS Tour Proto X   Wedges: :vokey:  50°, 54°, 60° 
Putter: :odyssey:  2-Ball Ten Arm Lock        Ball: :titleist: ProV 1

 

 

 

 

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23 minutes ago, NM Golf said:

Those last 6 are the toughest, by far. Definitely need to get that ball striking in order, that's where it's at. Also, might want to consider reading Lowest Score Wins written by the owner of the site. Good stuff that can help drop a stroke or two all by itself. 

Indeed. My ball-striking's been my Achilles heel since I first started playing. Problem is a loose, armsy swing with little body turn which essentially puts a lot of pressure on my hand-eye-coordination and timing to hit good shots. I'm also - again, very probably a direct result of the lack of body turn - pretty shot off the tee and with my irons. A good drive for me goes around 240 while my 7 iron is doing well to go 150yds. Most of the really good players I've played with are at least 15-20yds longer than me and on long par 4s and par 5s their extra distance is a sizeable advantage. I haven't measured it in a while, but I'd estimate my average GIRs per round is around 7 or 8 which again, from some first hand experience, is at least 4 or 5 below what a good scratch player must average. Scrambling greenside is just over 50% I'd guess and my putting is pretty solid too. But yeah, long story short, it is most definitely the long game that I need to work on.

Thanks for the book recommendation also - I'll be sure to give it a read :)  

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I got a lower goal for this year - from 31 to 15 or less. Went from 49 to 31 last year, but I'm on the european HCP system, so only tournament rounds count, and I don't get many of them in. 

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Glad to see you have a goal and a plan. I will be following you closely as I am about a 6 or so now but with limited practice capabilities (a wife and a kiddo) so I will interested to see if you are able to breakthrough to the plus side. 

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Michael

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Good luck, that is an ambitious goal you have set. When you plan your way to reach your goal, tell us all about it. Lots of people with good and solid advice.

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I made a similar journey on 2016. My improvements from 4 (march 16') to +1 (march 17') handicap. 

Distance: I used to hit a high slice, 240 carry, 250 total. Now i hit a baby draw 260 carry and 280 total. All the distance came from swing changes and a little bit of lifting weigth. As Brodie said, 30 yards longer will lower your scores 1,5 shots each round. 

Dispersion: After a lot of swing changes i came out to one where my dispersion fell down dramatically from shots outside 130 yards to Driver. (FullSwings). As an example, 90% of my shots where inside 40 yards to the target with driver. Now 90% of my shorts are inside 30 yards to the target. The same for irons giving me more FIRs and GIRs per round with less penalty strokes.  

Wedges: Tunned in my 80 to 120 wedges play. No pritty full swings here, just put it close to the hole the way you can and almost never miss the green. 

Putting: I was really bad in this area. Now i´m a decent short putter, and working on lag putts. 

Arround the green: I am a pretty good player. But a new wedge i bought make my sand shots easier, the rigth bounce help me a lot. 

Strategy: Aiming at the middle of the green, hitting the ball as long as i can while keeping it away from trouble.. etc. Read LSW

Good luck on your journey!!

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UPDATE: 26/3/2018

Hi all,

Since I last posted here I've played quite a lot of golf - not much practice, well, at least not much practice in which I have begun trying to implement any swing changes - and have got in a half a dozen rounds at a tough course in the UK (where I'm from) called Royal Porthcawl (https://www.royalporthcawl.com/)

Its a tricky little track. I played it off the Blue tees (for which the par is 72 and the standard scratch score 75) and, as you can imagine, really struggled to go really low on it. All things considered though, I was pleased with my scoring, especially considering that the last 2 of the rounds that I played were in a really very important tournament for which there was a formidable amount of pressure.

See below for a breakdown of my scores and basic stats as well as a few pithy comments on how I played.

ROUND 1:

Score - 81 (+9 to par, +6 to SSS)

Fairways - 8/14

GIRs - 6/18

Putts - 30

Three Putts - 3

Scrambles (from when 50 yards and in in regulation) - 7/8

Penalty Shots - 2

Hit the ball a bit scratchily with my irons, but drove the ball fairly well and more than made up for my duff ball-striking around the greens (as you can tell from the 7/8 scrambles rate). About half of those 7 scrambles came from bumping little PWs up to tap-in distance, but the rest were the result of good putts - you know, those 6 to 10 foot sliders that a good player just has to make. Indeed, from 6 foot and in, my putting was very good. Where I struggled was on distance control. Some of the blame for this can probably be shunted onto the nature of Porthcawl's greens. Not one of them is even anything like flat with most boasting several wickedly sloping tiers to them along with a lot of subtle breaks around the cups. Couple such difficult greens with some bad touch from me and I was struggling to get many of my lag putts inside of the 6 foot mark. The 2 penalty shots I had came from a lost ball on Porthcawl's 17th hole. Wind was hard into and off the right and I just overdid the draw with my driver - landed in a gorse pile left of the fairway and I never found it. I did birdie the whole with my provisional, however, but was still disappointed to lose the 2 shots. Overall though, it was a pretty solid first round on the course. My ball-striking was missing in action for most of the round and it was satisfying to be able to grind out some kind of score despite not getting on many of the greens in regulation.   

(got some work to do now, but will post details of the other 4 rounds I played in Wales later today)

 

 

 

 

 

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Good luck @hosel4lunchi hope you reach your goal. As others have said the lower you get the tougher the progress becomes but if you are dedicated enough i cant see why you couldnt make it. Keep us updated on your progress as its always nice to hear success stories.

Russ, from "sunny" Yorkshire = :-( 

In the bag: Driver: Ping G5 , Woods:Dunlop NZ9, 4 Hybrid: Tayormade Burner, 4-SW: Hippo Beast Bi-Metal , Wedges: Wilson 1200, Putter: Cleveland Smartsquare Blade, Ball: AD333

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ROUND 2:

Score - 76 (+4 to par, +1 to SSS)

Fairways - 10/14

GIRs - 8/18

Putts - 30

Three Putts - 0

Scrambles - 4/8

Penalty Shots - 0

A much more solid ball-striking round than my first one which, to be completely honest, was not fully reflected in the number of greens that I hit in regulation. Unlike in the 81 round, where the majority of my misses were a good 20-30 yards left, right or short of the dancefloor, perhaps around half of the 10 greens I missed during this round saw me only miss the putting surface by a handful of yards. As with the round before, my driving was also very solid - little trap draw of every tee shot bouncing straight down the middle of the fairway - and my putting was very strong. Having had some time to work out the slopes of the greens made a big difference to my ability to get close on lag putts and the result was my first 18 holes in a while without a 3-stab. Scrambling was also fairly competent - if not quite spectacular, especially given that many of my up and downs were actually a lot simpler than the ones I was faced with the day before. All in all though, a very tidy round and suggests that the 5 handicap or so that I assumed that I was playing to was probably a little too high. I've just crunched the numbers from my last dozen of rounds and actually my index comes closer to 3 or 4, so yes, as far as the quest to get to plus goes, my starting point is slightly better than what I originally estimated it to be.

ROUND 3:

Score - 83 (+11 to par, +8 to SSS)

Fairways - 9/14

GIRs - 8/18

Putts - 36

Three Putts - 4

Scrambles - 2/9

Penalty Shots - 0

The stats say it all really. Hit the ball solidly again this round but just didn't have the sureness of touch around the greens that I'd exhibited the day before with the 76. My lag putting was absolutely atrocious - honestly, at least half of my efforts would have been struggling to get inside of a 6ft by 6ft dustbin lid - and the pokey little bump-and-run with a pitching wedge that had been serving me so well just ceased to perform. Part of the difficulty with the play was that I short sided myself a lot during this round, leaving me navigating tricky little pitches over bunkers to tight pins, flop shots down slopes etc. Realistically, the chaser with a PW just wasn't the shot for most of those situations, but I'd been iffy with my lob wedge of late and just didn't want to risk trying to nip in a really delicate one off a tight lie. The 2/9 scrambles stat is frankly quite flattering as a result. My short game was in reality far more clunking than even that really very pedestrian up and down ration would tend to suggest.

ROUND 4:

Score - 77 (+ 5 to par, +2 to SSS)

Fairways - 10/14

GIRs - 10/18

Putts - 32

Three Putts - 2

Scrambles - 4/8

Penalty Shots - 0

A really good bounce back from the disappointing 83 the day before. Hit the ball really very solidly in this round and made a good number of birdies as a result. My driving continued to be strong (as, to be honest, it had been all week), but again, the weak link was the putter. Considering that all of the 4 out of 8 up and downs that I made - as well as the two 1 putts I holed to make birdies - were inside of 5 feet, my putting was actually much worse than the 32 putts per round stat makes it look like it was. The 2 three putts were both stinkers - I was only 20-25 away from the hole on both of them - and I missed dozens of 3-12 footers throughout the round that could have turned a solid score into something incredible. Nevertheless, I was happy with how I played in this round. My ball-striking (not just in terms of GIRs but also in terms of my proximity to the hole) was the strongest its been in a good while and while I should have been a good few shots lower, a 77 on a very difficult golf course is always a number to be proud of.

(I'm not going to type up my 5th round because I did not actually complete the 18 holes - I was 8 or 9 over through 12 holes before my match ended and I was bound to walk in)  

I've got a lot of other commitments on at the moment so am unlikely to be able to get out for much practice for the next couple of months (my quest does after all, begin in June proper after all). What I have managed to do, however, is to locate a pro's swing I'm going to model my new movement on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G62hGzrBi4I

What do we think? My reasons for picking Rock as a model is that we're about the same body type (in height and build) and exactly the kind of big-muscle based, short-arm-big-turn swing that I'm trying to groove. Its also an attractive swing to look at.    

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On 3/27/2018 at 1:10 PM, hosel4lunch said:

.....my quest does after all, begin in June proper after all). What I have managed to do, however, is to locate a pro's swing I'm going to model my new movement on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G62hGzrBi4I

What do we think? My reasons for picking Rock as a model is that we're about the same body type (in height and build) and exactly the kind of big-muscle based, short-arm-big-turn swing that I'm trying to groove. Its also an attractive swing to look at.    

Allmost the end of june now, how did you fare so far?

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Note: This thread is 2102 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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