What's your biggest problem in golf?

[Yukari]

On 6/19/2018 at 11:07 AM, windlaker said:

Inconsistency.

Shot a 90 this past Saturday.  16 putts on the front, 20 on the back, included a 3 putt and a 4 putt.

Front 9 57% GIR, Back 9 86% GIR.

I'd love to be able to putt together a good round of ALL 18 holes.

 

That's 13 out of 18 GIR (57% GIR for 9 = 5, 86%, I presume you meant 89%? = 8 GIR), and yet you shot a 90???  Certainly it's not the putting that caused your high score as you averaged 2 putts per green.  Within the 5 holes that you did not hit the GIR, you must have had some serious blow-ups.  That's like hitting 18 over for 5 holes.

Generally, if I hit more than 8 GIR's, I am usually in the 70's or low 80's at worst.

[ScouseJohnny]

My job.

[altos]

talent

[windlaker]

20 hours ago, Yukari said:

That's 13 out of 18 GIR (57% GIR for 9 = 5, 86%, I presume you meant 89%? = 8 GIR), and yet you shot a 90???  Certainly it's not the putting that caused your high score as you averaged 2 putts per green.  Within the 5 holes that you did not hit the GIR, you must have had some serious blow-ups.  That's like hitting 18 over for 5 holes.

Generally, if I hit more than 8 GIR's, I am usually in the 70's or low 80's at worst.

Yakuri,

I just took those numbers off the Grint...I didn't do the percentages myself.

4 Double Bogies, 1 Triple Bogie (with the 4 putts), 5 Pars, the rest Bogies.

In the past, my short game kept me in rounds.  This year, my driver is the best part of my game.

[allenc]

Driver.  I’m around a 10 index but if Corey Pavin hit all my drives for me I think I’d be a 2.  I often hit them crooked.  Then, when it gets too much in my head how crooked I’m hitting them I start to get tight and not swing aggressively enough and just start hitting them really bad.  The other day I hit 6 tops — only on holes with a forced water carry, water left, and danger right.  There were three holes like that.

[Dakota Atkinson]

When I am playing my best, driver is my best club, but yesterday I hit it out of bounds twice. That really hurt. Which brings in the mental aspect - I usually have a pretty positive mindset but it is extremely hard for me to 'put it past me' and stay positive after sending a drive OB. Also, I'm lucky to make anything beyond 3 feet in an 18 hole round lately, and have a lot of 3 putts. So you could say everything is pretty terrible. LOL

[mdl]

At this stage in my life, mostly time.  I used to play 18 at least once a week and get to the range up to 3x/week, almost always at least 1x/week.  Now I'm lucky to get in more than my 9 hole league night 3x/month May-August, plus maybe 5 or 6 other rounds, plus practice time (not including dry swings/mirror stuff at home) maybe 1-2x/month.

In terms of my game.  Same as it ever was.  Dispersion cone is just too damn big through the bag.  In terms of one specific thing that could probably save me the most strokes most quickly, it's probably putting.  I'm aware that's not a high strokes gained stat.  But I've played with lots of other 80s players, and for my overall skill level I'm at worst average around the green, I'd guess above average – as in, my problem isn't that I always leave my pitches from nGIR at 20+ feet – and I average almost exactly 36 putts per round.  I feel like I hit a bad pitch unless I put it inside 2-3', cause I know I'm almost surely 2-putting from 8 feet, and missing more often than not from 5 feet.

[easyjay39402]

On 6/17/2018 at 8:15 AM, MarvChamp said:

Yeah, age, injuries, old bones have cost me distance, though I am good about keeping it in the fairway.. So I work on driver, long second shots (have 3,4,5 DIR hybrids) and approach shots with irons. Chipping and putting are pretty good. LSW helps me develop an effective practice routine using what I have. Good topic. Thanks, -Marv

And the problem isn’t just with the driver. Hitting the ball close with a 6 iron from 150 is a lot harder than with an 8 iron. Lose swing speed and you lose spin ... 

[Killa]

Not being able to reproduce my practice swing. 

Reverting back to old habits on the second nine holes when I get more tired (almost no weight forward on impact)  

Not using a driver off the tee. I can hit a 3 wood pretty consistently somewhere in the 190-210y range but on longer courses that’s not nearly enough. Today I played a course with several 400-430 yard par 4s. Not fun hitting a decent 3 wood from the fairway and still not being really near the green. 

[J M Brown]

9 minutes ago, Killa said:

 

Not being able to reproduce my practice swing.

 

I’ve got the same problem. I can make an excellent practice swing and address the ball and it falls apart. I can’t seem to bring the same swing to the course from the range either. 

[The Hook Meister]

For me its taking my brain out of the equation. Don't look at the score card and think about the next four holes because you are thinking about your final score instead of the shot right in front of you. Don't over think your shot you will talk yourself onto the absolute wrong shot every time, unless you get very lucky. Yep the six inches between my ears thats the problem area.

[RWC]

My biggest challenge seems to be my approach shots (100-175 yds). My drives are short ~ 190 yds and my short game is better than my handicap (based on statistics). The approach shots are all over the map - normally bad. I've picked up a couple of used hybrids (19* and 22*) to see if they help give me a more consistent strike. Fingers crossed!

[amished]

Driver, partial wedges (getting better), and green reading.

I can hit my driver plenty far enough to be a scratch golfer.  When I hit it even moderately well for distance on a long par 5 at my home course, I can easily get GIR/nGIR.  Even with a slight mishit, I'm generally okay to get nGIR.  However, in the last two weeks I've had two OB drives, a lost ball, and three in a water hazard.  That's more penalties than I've had in the month previous so hopefully a tweak will get me back to avoiding penalties...

I recently got a new wedge, and dialing in the distances on partial wedge shots especially with a swing change has been rough.  I've been hitting the ball cleaner than I have in the past so adjusting to better contact has made me go beyond many greens by either bouncing near the back of the green and continuing on or flying them altogether.  I think this is just an adjustment process as I'm slowly being more accurate with distance with practice.

For green reading, I rarely misread the direction of the break, but the amount of break as well as trusting my read of the speed has historically been bad.  I routinely hit/get acceptably close to my intended start line but the greens I play on are generally pretty slow but relatively sloped so I struggle to adjust and trust my speed on longer putts with slope and everything.  Going to an AimPoint express class is on my short list of things to do for my game, and I'm lucky that I have a level 3 instructor in my state that I worked with before to get my Edel putter.  Hopefully it's something that I'll do next year as my big golf purchase has already been used up this year...

[nevets88]

I wish the instructors I liked were closer to me. Current pro is 2 hours away. Hate driving there. 

[Patch]

I suppose I need to add seeing where the ball went on my drives. It seems now, that if the sun is at the wrong angle, I don't see the ball flight off the tee. Hopefully my next eye doctor visit will help with this issue. 

[amished]

3 hours ago, nevets88 said:

I wish the instructors I liked were closer to me. Current pro is 2 hours away. Hate driving there. 

I feel ya, and that's one of my biggest frustrations as well.  The AimPoint/Edel fitter I went to is about 2.5 hours away, the teaching professional I'd most want to go to to take lessons from is either 1.5 hours away or 3 hours away (both 5SK trained)...

[nevets88]

Oh duh. Even worse. I suck at tracking the ball. Sucked at it when my eyesight was decent. Now losing more balls that land in front of me. I also hate not finding findable balls. 

[Moxley]

Probably what I call the 'red zone' for approach shots, although my personal 'red zone' is 150-200. At 150 (6 iron) i'm fairly confident on approach , but this rapidly tails off after this point. If I have 170+ to the green and there's a lot of trouble , I'll often lay up short of the bunkers and wedge on for GIR+1.