Roblar

Apologies in advance: this is an "I have no clue about this (the rules or rationale behind them), but it's the internet, so I'll type something anyway." post. Would the following analogy work for you? If you're taking a class, and the teacher says you can bring an index card with all the notes you want on it, you could prep, study, prioritize, and jot down what you think will help. In the test, you might still get a question that you didn't anticipate or prepare for. You don't get to go back to the books or google to solve it. ...you only have the prep-work you did and your index card (which, perhaps, you just copied from a classmate instead of prepping yourself). You are rewarded for your preparation, study, and anticipation of questions. And you are not allowed to fix your lack of prep by going to the books or outside sources during the test. ??? </"I have no clue about this (the rules or rationale behind them), but it's the internet, so I'll type something anyway.">

Bad round overall, but I got a birdie on 10. My best on 18 is still bogey, but... maybe I can fix that next week!

Really? ...I thought it was 5 minutes. <googles, reads, sighs> Shoot. I've learned something...

He's usually in the mid to high 70s. 🙂 (Better than I am!) I feel like, if you tee off before 8:00, you should be a quick player. At least at my home-course, the early morning regulars are all fairly quick (or, at least, not slow). I would go nuts if I had to wait on slow groups with a pre-8am tee-time! Yes. Yes it is. ...for me and for my home course anyway! For me, the courses really clear out during winter. From late Nov to late Feb, it can be cold and windy. I don't mind playing in the 30s as long as it's not too windy. And I love being able to walk to the ball, hit the ball, walk to the ball, hit the ball... My home course will start getting crowded soon. 😞 Back to slow play... it feels slow to me if I'm waiting on and watching the people in front of me play golf rather than playing golf myself.

Yes. Trying to be realistic - probably a bit more than 4 min looking for each ball. Very frustrating because it seemed like we should have found them, but they hit trees & could have gone any direction. ...And no one was immediately behind us. With a group behind us, I'm sure we would have glanced, dropped, and moved on. But with no one behind us, we spent an extra minute hoping to save a stroke...

I was reflecting on this thread today. Two factors that contribute to slow play within a group: Lost balls A drawn-out, complicated, pre-shot routine I hit trees twice and lost sight of where my ball went twice today. My partner had the same thing happen to him too. In three of the fours cases, the ball actually bounced through, farther than we though possible at first. In one case, we never found the ball. We lost 15+ minutes just to looking for lost shots. My playing partner has a long pre-shot routine. I think we lost about 20 minutes over the course of the round to his routine. We played as a two-some, and were fast enough to be let through by a foursome in carts and a threesome that was walking. However, it took about 2:50, and it felt slow.

84. 40+44. Back nine got me again. Very consistent front nine. Failed to take advantage of a strong south wind on 16 again. 😞 I hit 4 edges with my putts too. I could easily have been 2-3 shots better - was a decent round for me.

No birdies, but got hole #6, a long par-4, down to a par. (A strong south wind helped make the hole much more accessible...)

Patience. Golf helps me work on my flaws and weaknesses. My patience, like my swing, still needs work. As we head into warmer weather, I know I'll get the chance to work on it. 3 hours feels like a long round to me right now. I'm going to miss temps in the 30s and 40s that keep most people away! I walk, and my game is like this: Walk to the ball; hit the ball. Walk to the ball; hit the ball. ...when I have to stop and wait on someone, it breaks my rhythm and drives me nuts. (Patience!) Especially when people have long, complicated pre-shot routines (Patience!!), or they walk from cart to ball, measure the distance to the flag, and then walk back to the cart for a club... (Patience!!!) ...or they walk over to their partner's shot and watch them, and then walk to their shot to play their ball. (Patience!!!!) ...or they do all of the above and then s..l..o..w..l..y amble back to their bag and futz around with their clubs before moving on. (Oh. I'm so sorry. My 6-iron never goes more than 160 yards. I don't know what happened there.) Slow play vs. playing slow Slow play is when you slow the play of the people behind you. (It may not be your fault - there may be a slow group in front of you too. That's still slow play.) Playing slow, though, is when a player wastes time. (That's on the player.)

87. 40+47. Back 9 ate me up. Actually, it was really just 16 (carded a 9) that was terrible: tee shot into trees, had to hit it low... hit it too low into the edge of the cart path, ricocheted into water. Next shot... into the fairway. ...and then sliced into water. 😭 Consistency is still a ways away... Had a birdie on a short par-4 on the front 9. Hit a few good shots here and there. Average putting (for me - would be lousy for others!).

...I don't yell at the ball - I usually just mutter curses at myself...

Tried your tip out today, and it appears that my normal setup follows your guidance. That was comforting. ...my scoring, on the other hand...

Darkfrog - congrats on breaking 80! ...you know, when I broke 80 the first time, I went out and treated myself to a new set of irons... just saying! My round was 91. A weird round because I felt like I was playing well in many respects, but my putts wouldn't fall, if I hit a fairway I seemed to always find a divot, I lost 5 balls total (😭 5 penalty strokes -- though two of those should have been findable - they hit tree branches and I never found the ball), and I hit it over two greens with clubs that should have landed on the front edge. Still, had two birdies, and I managed to get on a par-5 in two. Missed the 15' putt though.

Two birdies today! ✌️ 😃 Both on holes I've already birdied... 😭 (12 and 16, both par-5s) Otherwise, a lousy scoring round for me (91; five lost balls!), but still a fun day out.

The longest club I feel confident swinging in this scenario would be my 8 iron. I want to feel that way about my 7 and 6 irons, but the truth is I'm most likely to miss the green with one of those clubs. ...The longest club I'd want is my PW though... 🙂

Thanks Boogielicious. I'm going to try that out asap!

Thanks for the video Adam - really neat to see. Can I ask TST hive mind a few honest, but basic, naïve, and ignorant questions... When it comes to lie angle, how much does how you set-up to the ball change things? For a given club, wouldn't the lie angles change as you get closer to your body or farther from the body? (And those changes might change how tall/bent you stand at address too?) When a skilled golfer grabs someone else's clubs and hits them well, the lie angle might be off, but are they intuitively (or explicitly) able to adjust via the set up? How much should we adjust our set-up to our clubs? How much should we adjust our clubs to our set up? (Apologies if these Qs have been addressed elsewhere! I'm curious because I suspect that some of my inconsistency comes from an inconsistent set up. ...and I've never done an iron fitting / looked at lie angle before, but I have played around with setting up closer to / farther from the ball.)

Added two new birdie holes with today's round; holes 4 and 5! 😁 ...and back-to-back birdies are a first for me as well! 🎉 It was windy, so there was lots of second-guessing clubs. 4 was a par-3 with a crosswind and I hit it to inside 10 ft and made the putt. 5 was a par-5 with a tailwind, and I was hole-high after two shots.

82. Westwood is a wide-open par-70. So... Still, I was pleased with the round. (Also, the wind was a solid two-clubs most of the day.) I doubled the first hole and it could have gone south immediately. Instead, I managed two birdies, back-to-back, on holes 4 and 5. The rest of the day was a steady mix of bogeys and pars.

Practice? Sure - practice everything! But when you play... ...a while back, I was really struggling to hit my 58. So I decided to commit to it for a year whenever I played. Unless a shot absolutely required something different, I just hit 58 whenever I got close to the green. Ugly at first, but now I'm a lot more comfortable with the 58. Not saying it's a good plan, but it helped me learn to hit a club that I had been avoiding, and it helped me learn to hit it a variety of situations. I did the same thing with my 52 and 54 (not for a full year though). Recently, I've been trying to work with clubs up through my 7-iron near the green. But I haven't fully committed to that yet. That said, I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn - you'd be much better off listening to someone who knows what they're talking about!

I usually get a lifeguard-style hat. I'll use a baseball-style hat on windy days.

It's what passes for exercise for me. Used to be soccer and surfing. I don't live near the ocean now, and my ankle and knee won't let me play soccer, but golf let's me get out and chase a ball around a field. It's a great technical challenge, and since it's difficult (for me!) it leaves constant room for improvement. It's nice to feel like I'm getting better. And even if it's rare for me, it's fantastic to imagine a shot and then pull it off. It's nice to feel optimistic every time I head to the course. And when it goes south, it's still a great technical challenge! If you take it shot-by-shot, you get to achieve perfection 18 times per round. The object is to get the ball in the hole - so each time the ball drops in, that shot was perfect. Those shots that came before... well, okay. But 18 strokes per round are guaranteed to be perfect! And that sound, when the ball rattles around the cup - that's the sound of perfection! (And why you should always putt out!) It helps me work on my personality flaws. I'm impatient. Golf helps me practice patience, especially on slow days. I'm too critical. Golf helps me practice letting go of failures and focusing on what's in front of me. Competition. I don't play tournaments much, but when I do, the competition has been really enjoyable (even better when I've done well). I think that's a start for me.

disastrous round today - three-way miss (left, right, and ...fat) and no confidence. But I birdied 12! ...and it was this challenge that kept my head in the game for the final three holes... (So, thanks to @Iacas for the challenge!)

My home course is a short par-70 that is just over 6000 from the tips. I don't drive the ball that far, and by the end of the round, I've usually needed to use almost every club except my 4-iron. That seems good to me. When I go to a new course, especially the first time, I try to play just over 6000yds (a bit longer if it is a par-72 course). That's what I'm used to.

I'd be a 10' guy. Given 18 10' putts, I might make one, maybe even two, but I'd definitely 3-putt at least once!