Progress since taking lessons

[jimnm]

After feeling like I plateaued with my golf game, I decided to take lessons at Golftec last May and so far have been pleased with the results. So far we have mostly worked on full swings with irons using a simulator/cameras with the exception of two playing lessons on an exec. course. One for short game and another for game management. In addition to the lessons, I'm practicing about 3-4 hours a week. 2hrs indoors at Golftec, 1-2hrs at the local practice range.

In an effort to gauge whether or not the lessons (and practice) are paying off, I ended up calculating my handicap index prior to my first lesson which was at 24.0. I basically gathered up my old scorecards from my previous 15 rounds for my baseline. Since then I've been keeping track of my index history and so far it seems to be dropping. I'm now at a 20.7. So it looks like the lessons/practice are working. I signed up for a 12 month plan. My goal by the end of the 12 month plan is to have an index of 15 or better.

I also bought game golf live (learned about it from TST) and have shared my rounds with my coach as he also happened to have game golf. And I also picked up a super speed kit (also thanks to the TST recommendation) and have added that to my workout routine. I hope that these tools will help supplement my lessons.

Overall I've been very happy with the results. I only wish I would have taken lessons sooner! For those on the fence about taking lessons, if you have the time and money, do it! I'll continue to post my progress every 2 months or so.

[dennyjones]

Congratulations.   It's always exciting to see improvement.   Keep us posted and add your Super Speed Kit progress to that thread. 

[jimnm]

Thanks! Yes I will need to track my super speed progress. I'll look for the thread. I also got the radar but it didn't seem too consistent compared to the GC2 simulator. I may return it to amazon. Or exchange it. Maybe I have a lemon?

[jimnm]

An update on my progress. I broke through to the teens! I'm now a 19.4. The GolfTec lessons are still paying off. My lesson plan and access to their facilities is good until March 2019. I'm still continuing to see improvements and it is showing in my overall scores. The main focus is still the full swing. Currently focusing on club path. But I do occasionally get lessons in both putting/short game. I hope to sign up for another lesson plan once my current plan runs out. I'll just have to wait and see if it's in the budget...

Cheers!

[Hacker James]

good deal.....I see you also played a round at Castle Creek.  I play there frequently. Its just up the road a piece from the house. I play, The Vineyard and Eagle Crest as well. Your spread sheet is similar to my Excel one. 

[jimnm]

1 hour ago, Hacker James said:

good deal.....I see you also played a round at Castle Creek.  I play there frequently. Its just up the road a piece from the house. I play, The Vineyard and Eagle Crest as well. Your spread sheet is similar to my Excel one. 

I like Castle Creek and the Vineyard. I think I have played Eagle Crest a few years back. We are lucky to have a lot of good options here in the San Diego area. That and the golfing is year round!

Yeah, I don't belong to any club to get an official GHIN. But it's easy enough to calculate using Excel. GameGolf is great for tracking all of the stats too. My GG Index shows 18.3. But I use my Excel workbook as my metric. As I only count my 18 hole rounds. My GG has a few rounds of exec courses where I was practicing and playing more than 1 ball on any given hole.

[Hacker James]

1 minute ago, jimnm said:

 

. But I use my Excel workbook as my metric. As I only count my 18 hole rounds. My GG has a few rounds of exec courses where I was practicing and playing more than 1 ball on any given hole.

Your spread sheet probably uses many of the same formulae as mine, I've got it so its mostly automatic, I only need fill in the raw scores and course HC and Slope for each course and everything is done for me. I still have to perform a custom "sort" but one day I may create a macro to do that for me as well.  

[jimnm]

Yes, mine is nearly auto calculating. When I add a new round, I just copy and paste all the existing data one row lower. Then I write over the top row of data with the score for each hole of my latest round (hidden in my snapshot I posted) along with the course slope and rating. I also keep track of the date and course names. It's quick and serves it's purpose.

Sum up the Out/In/Total (I just realized my labeling for In/Out is backwards). I have a simple equation in the differential column. And I basically use a sliding window of the last 20 differentials to calculate my index history. 

=AVERAGE(SMALL(AG8:AG27,1),SMALL(AG8:AG27,2),SMALL(AG8:AG27,3),SMALL(AG8:AG27,4),SMALL(AG8:AG27,5),SMALL(AG8:AG27,6),SMALL(AG8:AG27,7),SMALL(AG8:AG27,8),SMALL(AG8:AG27,9),SMALL(AG8:AG27,10))*0.96

Where "AG8:AG27" are the differentials for the previous 20 rounds of interest. And then I just have a scatter plot of date vs. index for an easy visual.