Jwat381

I flirted with a +3 nine holes this morning. It was wet, and I'm in between two putters right now, so I ended up missing a few inside 5ft. Not something I do too often, but overall I managed the course better than I ever had. Kept a steady head, which helped me strike all my balls relatively well. It felt good to get around a golf course without thinning a bunch of shots and losing balls out right. Confidence booster for sure, hopefully I can keep it up.

This happened to me with basketball. My freshman coach was a psycho who looked up to Bobby Knight, and would act like him. I quit that season, and I know quitting is frowned upon, but I don't regret it. We were losing, no one got along, and it wasn't fun.

I like Bradley and all, seems like a good kid, but the twitching fidgeting is unbearable.

Irons are pretty high, but usually somewhat consistent distance when hit properly. Still higher and loftier than I'd like. Wedges is ridiculous, My sand wedge max is like 85-90y, and woods is usually not too high when I hit them well, but I can't swing at them very hard in order to do that, so I don't get a ton of distance. Maybe 200-220y.

Yeah, I've been trying so incredibly hard to get my left wrist flat, and I'm making a lot of progress. This picture is fairly old. My ball flight is pretty high, I'm looking to get a more ascending flight that starts low and finishes high. Thanks for the input, everyone! I'm on a strict college budget, so hopefully someday I'll be able to get the right shaft for my swing.

DJ's 5i out of the bunker was ridiculous. It almost left orbit.

Once again, sorry about the 3 sideways videos. I tried. . haha

I gotta get them off my flip cam first. . . I'm not computer illiterate, I swear.

I hope it's ok that I use pictures for now. I have a few videos, but don't know how to get the damn things on here. Any and all advice is welcome. I see a lot wrong, but I don't think it looks to terrbile.

These are just some pics I have for now. They're from a while ago, and I've since eliminated the overswing (I think) and the hammer thumb (seen in the impact shot) any advice is welcome please. I know this doesn't exactly pertain to my original question, I just didn't want to start a new thread. Thanks

What should ball flight look like, and how is it attained? I'm talking about just in general, not how to keep it low or get it high. If I strike an iron, how should the ball fly? When I do see good players, their golfballs start low and fly upwards to the sky, reach their max, then drop. I want to be able to do that. I'd like to get a video of my swing up very soon.

Thank you for the reassurance haha

Hey there, I'm new too, so we can be noobs together and talk about new stuff (literally, in this case). I have never been able to hit driver, I've struggled with other clubs too, but made immense progress, except for the driver. All I did was manage are pretty large, grotesque slice. I'd call it a power fade and try to walk down the fairway with some false sense of confidence after getting this dirty banana slice to make it out to about 220y. Then on monday, I got my Nike SQ STR8-FIT Machspeed Black (yes, I used the entire name because I'm still excited about it) and it has made a world of difference. I hit straight, maybe even get a little draw going, and am carrying anywhere from 240-260. I haven't played a course in good condition yet, seeing as it's February, but I expect my roll to add a few yards. You might be thinking "Well what the heck kind of crap driver did you have before that would make such a difference? I had the standard driver that came in my Tommy Armour set, and it was very hard to hit. But I can't give every bit of my new driving success to the Nike because the day before I received it in the mail, I was watching the final round of the AT&T; pro-am, and they were doing the Swing-Vision breakdowns with the celebs, and afterwards Faldo gave a tip that would change my life. It was as simple as him suggesting that on your backswing, you make a move as if you were to shake hands with someone standing directly behind you. It made a huge impact for me, and while my old driver still fades, it was a much straighter fade. Nonetheless, I think the technology is obviously for real, it's just a matter of finding the right set up for you. With all this new technology, the market has become rather saturated, making it difficult to find the right piece for you game. I feel pretty lucky to have found the driver I did. Hitting from the fairway, closer to the hole, will be so much nicer than punching out from the trees. Also, sorry for the very long-winded response. I just like talkin' Golf.

This is a frustrating topic for me because it rains here so much from October to June. Sure, there's plenty of patches of nice whether, but the point is that I have few options of hitting off grass on any given day, and having it be at least somewhat dry. Is it worse for me to hit off mats, or just not practice at all unless I can hit off natural turf? I feel like swinging a club is better than not swinging one at all, but I'd be lying if I said the golf course didn't feel a little foreign the first hole or two, even after a solid year of golfing.

My only thought to add to this conversation is that progress is subtle. I get upset about my swing sometimes, like any aspiring golfer, but then I think back to a time (not too long ago) when I first started, and remember the frustration of hitting every shot thin and off the top. No matter how hard I tried, I hit every single ball off the very top. My hands would be more sore than when I raced dirtbikes. Now, I'm able to manage a golf course in some sense of the phrase, and shoot scores that actually reflect skill and progress. The number of thin topped shots I hit is very low or none, and I can actually enjoy the game. That's not to say I'm complacent with where I'm at, but looking back and acknowledging the progress I have made, rather than faltering at how much progress I have yet to make, really helps put things in perspective for me.

I found a Titleist forged 6i in the used bin at my local pro shop for $5. I hit it pretty well, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a full set of forged blades. I know I'm not the best golfer yet, but I do feel like I swing and hit them better, though. My biggest obstacle is money; can anyone recommend a more inexpensive route to fair quality blade irons? Whether it be used, or new.

I read this topic, and really began to think about my hybrid play. There's no real question that they're easier to hit than long irons. I can hit them off a mat well, but whoop-de-doo. I can use them off a tee on a long par 3 or for a more conservative start to a par 4 or 5, if needed. They are night and day easier and better out of the rough. All sounds good, right? The one place I almost always struggle to him them is off the fairway. A lot of the fairways I play here in Eugene are soft and a little muddy feeling for a good chunk of the year, and I think that's my problem. Because when I have a solid surface to hit off, I can hit them high and relatively straight. I have certainly experienced the balooning effect and the amplification of mis-hits though. As far as my stroke with the hybrid, I swing it like a hybrid between an iron and a wood. A little bit more vertical plane with a little bit more of a sweeping motion. Biggest key for me is making sure to swing paralell or down at the ground, as coming up at all will lead to nothing more than a 10 yard roller with a big hole in the ground right in front of my feet.

Goals for 2012: Scoring Goal: Break 90 consistently, with a few 80's thrown in on good days. Swing Goal: Minimizing head movement, eliminating thin sliced shots, and gaining a little distance with my irons. I also have a practice goal to make sure I work on my putting at least a few days a week. EDIT: Had to thow this in: Make sure to have fun, and take in the sights smells and sounds of a golf course everytime I play. I will always shoot lower when I do thi.

Sounds great, I'm going to keep these 5 keys in mind, and hopefully meet up with an instructor sometime soon.

Just because he's not young, doesn't mean I can't pick Fred Couples, right?

My first entry in this thread. I played Emerald Valley in Creswell last Thursday and, after my tee shot found the right side rough, I had about 175-180 to the flag, but had a good amount of trees in my line. I chose to be ballsy and lined up a shot I thought I could hit, just so long as I kept it straight on a line where the trees were a little lower. I must have been more focused on my line and shot, rather than my swing, because I pured it right over the trees onto the green. My game is still developing, so to hit a more difficult shot of greater distance like this was, for me, a big step in my golf career.

Hey, new here, first post. Looks like anything and everything I would have to offer to this topic has been covered, but I will say from personal experience that green quality means a lot (I can say this because I am a budget golfer and play on "less than par" greens more often than the more upscale greens). My other biggest issue is starting line. Could be my putter, as it's not the most balanced bat I've ever held, but I have noticed my number of putts has dropped since I switched to a cross handed grip, which has straightened out my starting line by what feels like miles.