808hacker

- At this point, you still have a good chance to do just that with 5i I agree! - Even if you miss the green from 30-70 with your third shot, you are close and still have a chance to get up and down for bogey This is smart - Even if it takes you 4 to get on and you 2-putt, it isn't as bad as it sounds. You get bogey on most holes anyway, so getting double after a duffed tee shot is pretty much expected. Make up for it with a par on a hole where you hit a better tee shot This is even smarter thinking. BUT The problem is that after taking the 5i, you hit it fairly close, chip it too far or not enough, end up with double or triple and curse yourself that you didn't take 3w. Funny how you never think of the missed drive but rather focus on whether you should have used 3w.

Here's one. If you really want to have a good day - warm up before playing. There's nothing more frustrating than playing a municipal course with no range and having a difficult first hole. Nothing kills your day like a double or triple on the first hole due to not being warmed up. You can do all the aiming/"smooth swing" etc... on the first tee, but if you are not warmed up - who knows where the ball will go. Actually I do -- behind the same stupid tree!!!!!!! We should have a rule - if you didn't warm up, give yourself a bogey on the first hole max.

One thing that I have been doing is to take a few practice strokes before putting and making sure the putter swings as stable as possible on the line - then I putt the ball. I am a terrible putter but have been making a number of 1 putts simply by lining up the ball, taking a stance - get the putter swinging in as stable a stroke as I can then go and putt it through the line of the ball. Not a miracle answer by any means but it seems to be helping.

Here's my latest. Been dealing with very poor ball striking. My drives barely went 200 yards. Irons were getting shorter and I was bottoming behind the ball. I was trying everything that I had written down over the years. I played a scramble and realized how much worse I was getting - I only hit 1 par 3 green out of 4 when a few years back I hit every one. Golf was a chore - and "only for exercise". FRUSTRATING! Yesterday, while suffering again, I remembered a lesson I took where the instructor said "I wish you would stand a little taller when you address the ball". So I did and hit that ball flush. I continued to do this and had the best ball striking day. That, along with a stronger grip gave me back my distance on irons and driver. I was putting for birdies rather than struggling to get up and down. I haven't hit a 260+ yard drive in so long.... It felt so good to keep walking to find the ball! Who knows? Maybe it only worked yesterday but I can hope.

Just a quick post - still shooting bogey golf and actually ruined my swing by practicing something new. Anyway, here's a tip - there's an app called MapMyWalk. Turn it on before playing and afterwards you can see where you hit your ball since it logs your walk and there's a satellite view that shows the golf course underneath the walk lines. Wherever you milled about (waiting for someone to hit etc) you get a "dot" so you can see where you hit from. Anyway, good luck with golf!

Today, having a decent round - nothing spectacular - well maybe that PUTT from the sand trap into the hole, but doing OK. Driver is SOLID in terms of aim so I am using it in tight situations. Then I get to the 16th hole. All holes backed up and the guy in front asks me if I want to join. I do and immediately slice into another fairway, then hit a tree etc... In 3 holes I end up with two triple bogeys!!!!!!! So irritating and maddening! What the???? End up with 92 and feeling crappy.

Been scoring around 41,42 etc... so yesterday I go out and feel GREAT! I'm playing decently - slightly below my average bogey golf. I invite two people behind me to join me. We all make par on a par 3 (great!). Then wheels start coming off. The worst was when I go to the par 5 and realize I am always right of the fairway so I align left - tee up a brand new ball - proceed to hook it into a tree and the ball is then lost. End up scoring 2 over on a par 5. Then proceed to double bogey next hole. On one of the par 5, I hit a perfect drive, perfect 3 wood and then chunk the wedge. Then 2 putt for bogey. Terrible. There is another problem that sometimes happens. At first distance control is easy with putting then all of a sudden, it's bad - doesn't happen all the time, but it just pops out of nowhere.

Congratulations! I would write it down and look at it before you start the next round. That elbow close to body reminds me of the swing on "how short hitting bad golfers break 90 all the time" book. Sounds like you had a good time!

> I was rushing my swing Usually this is culprit. When warming up, really focus on sweeping the ground and try to keep your swing still as much as you can - make a smooth swing. Another culprit is making a too large backswing (so you sway backwards a little too much). Sometimes shortening the backswing will help. That pause can work for the driver as well. I tried it a few times and it really worked.

I rarely warm up since most of the munis here don't have driving ranges. One day I decided to warm up when I played a pretty hard course around here. I played very well that day so I decided that if the round was important to me, I would warm up. Seems to have helped. Played a local pro am and hit a couple close to the hole and made more putts than usual. Was able to smash the ball perfectly on the last hole! That was a nice way to end the day! They used my drive on that hole. I'm not a long hitter - was 345 to green and we had 70 in, so that was a great drive for me.

The notes will work better and better over time. I have some basic stuff like feeling like I am turning and feeling like the left arm is connected to the body - things like that. I can almost always play 90 or better - even more so when I warm up. The first triple usually gets to you if you don't warm up!!!! Hahaha

So much is mental. I was 2 up on the 8th hole (playing 9 holes). I hit a great drive and smashed a 3 wood to about 10 yards off the green. Then I realized I would shoot a great round if I just made a good score. Chipped it too short, then too far so I had a long downhill putt, and then proceeded to 3 putt. Triple-bogey! Luckily I made a par on the last hole for 5 over.... but.... Oh well. - oh and about bringing your swing back, long ago, I worked on the range and have a short list of things that will help stabilize my swing. When the wheels come off, I refer to the notes and one of them will get me through the round and hitting the ball pretty good again.

3 of the top 5 players on my son's public high school team have taken from Kelvin. Of the 3, two have won the state title against the ILH (Private schools with all the $). These 3 players are very, very good. They all have the same things in common - they hit long and can produce under pressure. My son and I have tried our best to get a more "stable" swing. He's 6'2" and has a lot of movement. Kelvin has him much more stable and I can really see the difference so far. Can't wait for more. One of the players was worse than my son - in one year he won some very important tournaments. The good players (and parents) have told us to take from Kelvin but it's hard when you are already taking from someone else.

IMO here's what I saw: 1: Those cameras he uses are very clear and you can see everything. 2: He has definite ideas on what is good vs bad and can spot it right away. 3: I agree with everything he said. 4: When I asked questions, I got definite answers. Look, I'm not saying he's correct (because I am never sure) - but I agree with what he says. He gives real answers - not vague answers like many other teachers and he shows you examples of what other really good players are doing to back up his answers. Lets put it this way, I am really happy I took my son to him. I'm glad he's here.

>He just says "these guys do this" without actually conveying a way to do it My son took a lesson and he did convey ways to do it. He seems to be an excellent teacher with so much knowledge. Pretty refreshing actually.

Good luck Bryan! Just wanted to say that although I don't practice anymore, there was a period where all I did was try and understand my swing. Although my swing is so bad it makes me and others laugh, it is repeatable. So I can go long periods and come right back and the swing is back where it was. Short game suffers a lot without practice, but multiple days of playing seems to fix that right up. A while back I wrote down all the "fixes" to my swing, so if I am really in trouble for some reason, the fix for that is in the book. hahahaha or so I think! Good luck everyone!

That's the key - will we ever really be happy for an extended length? I went down to a 15, not really trying, but in reality my handicap is truly around 18. It's because I hardly ever practice. So the lowest I can score now is around 84 and the highest - well is I seem to never hit 100. So 84-99 is a really wide gap, so I strive for 90. If I go about 3-4 weeks without touching the club, I will typically shoot around 90-93. With no practice, short game suffers a lot for me. The key for me is I don't practice. When I did, I wanted to score better and I got very frustrated because I rarely did better on a consistent basis.

>If you compare directly with the same shaft (which I did), I figured that someone on this thread would have done this. The reason I ask is that I always hear people saying "I tried ____ driver and hit it way longer etc... or that it was really forgiving" but I have never heard anyone say - "I tried the new _____ driver with the same type of shaft I have". I don't know of many casual players that maintain the same shaft between driver changes. Also, just because a shaft is "stiff" and around the same weight and "kick point"/bend doesn't mean it feels the same. In fact, I don't think I ever met someone that bought a new driver that maintained the same shaft - "someone" being a casual weekend player. Honestly, how many of you have heard your friends say they got 10 yards more per driver upgrade, yet when you play with them, they still hit it the same distance. 3 driver upgrades and they should be 30 yards longer. >There's only so much you can do with the shaft Wait, are you saying if I know I use a stiff shaft, 70g, mid-flex point, the brand or cost doesn't matter? Why are there huge differences in the prices of shafts? I was under the impression that the shafts do matter a lot and even with similar "specs" still vary widely when tested? Or are you saying once a shaft has been tested and spec'ed, then it doesn't matter what brand you use or how much you pay, as long as the new shaft "tests" close? The key being that you test/spec the shaft rather than just go by printed specs alone. Thanks!

How do you know that the driver technology is making the difference unless you hit with the same shaft? Or are we really talking driver+shaft = driver technology? Every time I hear people talk about a new driver being awesome, it always involves a new shaft. I know this might not apply to the people on this forum who are generally much more knowledgeable and have access to much more testing equipment.

Started off with a 9 on a par five due to non warmup. Not worried. Finished with 45 for 9 holes. Would have been 44 if not for the bad break on last hole. Hit driver perfect, yet the slope carried to to 1 foot from a tree so had to punch out and a missed putt ruined par.

I agree. I should have clarified - when I am close the the green and screwing up. Usually this is when I am trying to get cute and get it close to the hole and making mistakes.

When things go wrong, I completely concentrate on getting the ball on the green at all costs - even if it is farther from the hole then I want. Just get it on there and putt.

Thanks Lihu! My son is a .2 handicap and I guess I needed to hear it even though I am telling him how to do things all the time. At least the curse is off for one week.

Oh, here's something to make you guys feel a little better. There's a course here where I always have a problem on the 4th hole. I mean, you name it... it happened. OOB right slicing for years. Then I would try driver, wood, hybrid, iron off the tee - desperate to get anything going on this hole. Finally when I got a good draw going, I would hook it OOB. If I got a good drive going, I would miss my second shot. If I hit that good, I would go into a bunker or too far and 3 putt etc... I typically score anything from 6 to ???? on this par 4 hole. I would be very happy with bogey. This went on for 9 years!!!!!!!!!! It happened last week. I lined up, relaxed, hit my driver and hooked it OOB!!!!! AGAIN! Double bogey again. Well I couldn't take it. I went back yesterday, hit my driver straight down the middle. I immediately grabbed my 3 wood and my son said "since you are trying to make a bogey, why don't you hit your hybrid, pitch on and 2 putt for bogey". After a bit of thinking, I agreed. I hit my hybrid perfectly. Pitched on the green and then my son said "you could make that putt". I told myself that my putting was getting a heck of lot better and I only "thought of good things". Well I hit the putt and it went in. Finally got a par on this hole. So.... you can do it. Even if it takes 9 years!!!! hahahahaha

I played a round recently with a couple of strangers. I was amazed at how many out of bounds were because of poor alignment. One of the guys hit a fade and was aiming right so many times. The other guy hit into the same tree twice because of bad alignment.