Intro to me

[lungbuster]

Figured I'd make an intro thread since I've already made a few posts.  I've lurked here for a while, just to get a grasp on the feel of the site.  I like the environment here much better than some other golf forums on the webs.  Anyhow, I'm from the upstate of South Carolina, recently got back into golfing after going many years where I may only place once or twice a year.  I had been heavily involved in target archery since 2005, competing in national 3D circuits.  But, that chapter in life had slowly been coming to a close and ended for me last year.  I still enjoy the outdoors, mainly predator hunting and enough deer hunting to fill my freezer.

Anyhow, got back into golf this year.  My handicap had dropped to a 13.1 over the past few years, but getting back in the game this year I've got it back down to an 8.1 currently.  I'm a decent ball striker, but currently focusing on improving my "feel" game around the greens and putting.  As I mentioned in one thread earlier, I put a lot of time with practice while on the course rather than the range.  It's something that I'm fortunate with because my oldest daughter likes to get 9 in after her First Tee class on Monday evenings.  But, I'm happy to be here look forward to reading and learning more on how I can continue improving my game.

[Shindig]

Welcome to TST.  Hopefully we'll be better able to help you improve your game.  What sort of things are you doing for your feel game around the greens? 

[mdl]

This video honestly changed my whole short game, from mediocre into (often, when I've practiced AT ALL) a big strength.  For me, the "float load" phrase was the key.  Floating back, letting it load softly into the back hand, then brushing/sweeping it through, making sure to use the bounce and not attack steep down.

There's another good one from @mvmac on hitting high, medium, and low pitches that I've used ideas from as well that I can't find right now.  If anyone can find that, post it!

[mdl]

Totally get taking advantage of the fortune of getting practice on the course playing with your daugher (that's my dream!), and most of your off course practice time probably coming in warmups with short game.  But just in case you've never seen the numbers, this thread is a good one to reference how you can most efficiently spend your practice time in terms of lowering your scores.  The basic idea is that the research both on the pros and on amateurs shows that everyone gains/loses way more strokes on full shots than they do around/on the green.  So getting 10% better at ball striking will lower your scores significantly more than getting 10% better at green side pitch shots, unless you're way worse than the average 8 around the green.

Of course, getting fun golf time with your daughter is surely a bigger priority, and affords enough on course practice, so take it for what it's worth.

[lungbuster]

10 hours ago, Shindig said:

Welcome to TST.  Hopefully we'll be better able to help you improve your game.  What sort of things are you doing for your feel game around the greens? 

Thanks - I've really been working on controlling distances with different trajectories.  I've always been pretty solid with a low, bump/run technique, but sometimes that is not a good option.  When I've had to fly it closer to the hole, it's always been hit or miss with distance control.  Not really doing any drills, just lots of practice.  

9 hours ago, mdl said:

This video honestly changed my whole short game, from mediocre into (often, when I've practiced AT ALL) a big strength.  For me, the "float load" phrase was the key.  Floating back, letting it load softly into the back hand, then brushing/sweeping it through, making sure to use the bounce and not attack steep down.

There's another good one from @mvmac on hitting high, medium, and low pitches that I've used ideas from as well that I can't find right now.  If anyone can find that, post it!

Thanks for that video, I've bookmarked it and will give it a watch later.  And yes, I'm enjoying my practice time two-fold.  It's nice having something to do that my daughter actually enjoys.

2 hours ago, Andree said:

Welcome to TST.  Your avatar so sad. Have dog to die yet ? . huhu

That's no dog, that's a coyote.  They are the apex predator in my area and they really put a hurting on other animals as they have no natural predators to hunt them down.  It's rare I see rabbits in the wild anymore and our deer fawn mortality rate has increased tremendously.  There are only two things I enjoy more than golf, one involves my wife and the other is killing coyotes.

[Lihu]

Welcome here!

I also did archery, but mostly FITA and have placed nationally. Tried 3D a few times in recurve division. Won every one because my son and I were the only ones left in that division most of the time 😂.

I’m also a shooter, but mostly 3 gun. Haven’t even gotten good enough to compete yet in that. My pistol is the strongest followed by AR. My shotgun reloading skills suck. I end up loading one shot at a time and it kills my times...

[lungbuster]

I've never played the FITA game with Olympic recurve but did dabble in it with my compounds.  I always preferred shooting field archery, we just don't have a big following of support for it here.  To me, shooting 112 arrows in a 4.5-5 hour span was much more fun than shooting 25 arrows in that same time span.  But everybody here likes shooting rubber deer so that's what I did too.

I've never shot a 3 gun match, but have run drills with all three on my range.  I just prefer laying on the ground and making tiny groups.

[Lihu]

5 hours ago, lungbuster said:

I've never played the FITA game with Olympic recurve but did dabble in it with my compounds.  I always preferred shooting field archery, we just don't have a big following of support for it here.  To me, shooting 112 arrows in a 4.5-5 hour span was much more fun than shooting 25 arrows in that same time span.  But everybody here likes shooting rubber deer so that's what I did too.

I've never shot a 3 gun match, but have run drills with all three on my range.  I just prefer laying on the ground and making tiny groups.

The extent of my prone shooting is a Savage 112 338 Lapua Magnum Vortex PST 6-24x50 and finally hit my first 1000 yard target about 6 months ago. You can barely hear it hit steel, but it's nice! I'm going to try for 1 mile this winter at the desert range. 98.0gr loads / 300gr SMK boat tails tuned for my barrel. Have not learned to reload myself, but there's a gunsmith near me who reloads them for me for less than $3 a round when I bring the materials. Costs about $100 per 20 rounds. New is like $110 including shipping from Lucky Gunner but they're not precision loads. I only use those for sighting in at short range, then bring the shells to the gunsmith to reload. Don't shoot that one too much. It's too much of a hassle setting up the shooting charts and such. I leech beta off people shooting near me and use their readings and use the charts the gunsmith gives to me. I'm too lazy to be a long range shooter for real. 😁

My Remington 700 ADL 7mm Rem Mag that came with a scope is my only "hunting rifle" and I'm lucky to hit steel at 600 yards, but it's fun to shoot. It's so light that my shoulder feels a little sore after a couple boxes of ammo. It gets the rounds out there pretty fast though.

The SKS in my profile picture is pretty cool too. Lucky to hit steel at 300 yards, but is really fun to shoot when I go out to the high desert. Wolf steel 7.62x39 ammo costs something like $4 per pack of 20.

Everything else, I use the standard pin sights. 100 yards and in type of thing. Thinking of getting a red dot for my AR.

Edited July 12, 2018 by Lihu

[Vinsk]

Sooo...about your golf game..lol. There’s tons of great info here. Welcome to the site!

[Lihu]

Oops, got carried away with my new favorite hobby and forgot which forum I was typing in 😂, @lungbuster, just like @Vinsk said. Tons of stuff on GOLF here.

[Lihu]

3 hours ago, Andree said:

ah. sorry i've seen it the same a dog. 

A lot of people think of them as dogs as well, and don’t like the idea of people killing them.

Quite a few others around here don’t like coyotes because they kill their pets and livestock.