Chris Stewart

Big oof.

I'm curious what you all think about this. By this, I should find the Red tees quickly and stay there for awhile. 😅 And you know, I'm not even sure that's a bad idea. I think I'd enjoy it quite a bit. I replied via Twitter with my details and our tee box data, and I'm hoping he gives me insight into which tees he'd recommend I play from. For reference, my reply was: "25 hdcp, going up, tight course, avg 6 (!) penalties (tee shots). Plan to leave the 1W at home for awhile. Black - 72.6/137, 6695 Blue - 70.6/133, 6269 White - 69.1/130, 5957 Gold - 67.1/125, 5336 Red - 64.2/118, 4943" Lastly, if you're on Twitter and not following Lou, I would highly recommend giving him a follow. Regardless of how you feel about his takes, they're thought provoking and almost always backed by data.

Played 9 yesterday afternoon. I've effectively lost any hope of hitting a decently straight driver. I essentially blacked out on 18 and somehow put it in the fairway. 😅 Most of the others were a low hook. Normally I miss right with a high fade/slice, which you see on 13 and 17. On the positive, my irons felt good, even though I missed pretty hard on 13 and 14. One was alignment and the other was a toe shot that I pushed. Most felt good, which I attribute to my lesson. Grip and finding a better impact position (shaft lean/hands forward, hips forward, right knee bend toward my target). Yesterday I tried to focus on getting a more straight right leg on the backswing, which felt like it helped me get a better turn instead of a weight shift. Something I've noticed from the last video I was able to capture. One of the guys I was playing with reminded me we get a few "tune up" sessions as part of our membership. So I reached out after my round to get some assistance with the driver. That's scheduled for Tuesday. Today I thought I'd hit the range at a sister course in my membership and work on getting off the tee with a 3 or 5 wood. I actually haven't been to this course yet, which I may play after if I'm feeling good (hot today). Everyone I've talked to says it's significantly less punishing off the tee because of how open it is. I'm really curious how that would work out for me.

In my first (and only, so far) lesson, we primarily worked on grip and stance. It felt absolutely insane to me when he showed me what a strong grip was. I legitimately didn't think I could swing a club that way. It was hard to even position my hands in that way. It felt impossible. One suggestion he made that really helped was to pick up a club a dozen times throughout the day and grip the club with my new grip. Within weeks it became very normal to me. I need to go back to continue lessons, and I'm curious if he'll feel I've unintentionally gravitated back a bit to a weaker grip.

I would always putt while on the green. Shoot, I very often putt from a good bit off the green as well. I always look at a chip shot and think, "will a bad putt or a bad chip be worse?" It's almost always a better play for me to putt, obviously with exceptions to that based on what's between me and the target and the lie. Anyway, to directly answer the question, I would never chip on the green.

The first time I saw this, I didn't even realize it hit the ball. Unreal.

I haven't, no. It's been so long since I posted the previous videos and had this discussion. Last year, after a 6 year layoff, I really just played and didn't make a focused effort to improve but rather played to enjoy being outside. Especially given the circumstances of last year. This year, I kind of started the same way but I have that itch to improve to enjoy the game a little more. That's when I remembered this site and this thread. That's where I am now. About a month ago, I took my first ever lesson. The primary takeaways were grip and stance, although he tried to get me to shallow out my swing path and I just struggled to get the follow through low enough to hit the stick he planted. So we tried other things, but I just wasn't there. I intend to take another lesson in the near future. I'll get a FO video put together soon and post it. Appreciate the comment, I take it as encouragement.

I played 9 this evening. 54, 2/7 FIR, 0/9 GIR, 16 putts, 5 sand shots, 5 penalties. I saw a video recently (No Laying Up YouTube channel) about playing the most forward tees (red, in my case) and thought it was a great idea. Similar to Operation 36, I should probably do that until I can at least get 40ish every time. Anyway, that was my original plan until I got to the first hole and for whatever reason decided to play the white tees. I had been playing the white tees for the last year+ because my handicap is a 24 (higher really, but I still have scores from 2012-2014 on there), but the men's events require me to play from the blue tees so I've been playing those recently and really hating life as I have ~180-200 yard approaches into 4s consistently. I just play them as par 5s, so tee shot, ~6i, pitch/chip into the center of the green, 2 putt for a bogey (ideally...). Getting off the tee continues to be the primary struggle. Today my pitching was rough and contributed to poor play. It took me until the 18th tee box (our 9th) to realize my 10 yo daughter could get a video for me while swinging a meaningful shot for I believe the first time ever. She enjoys riding with me and being my caddie. 😀 Even a rough outing is great with her around. And of course the video she captures is the only straight tee shot I hit the entire time. I ended up just beside the bunker down the left side, with ~125 left, which I proceeded to drop into a green side bunker. 😆 Anyway, would love any feedback. My uneducated thought is I'm coming in a little steep and while hard to see from this angle, I believe I'm casting that club pretty hard as my initial motion on the down swing. Pretty great to be able to see a video from a meaningful shot, instead of a random swing in my basement or one of a million on the range without consequence.

Seems like "Pro" just means you get that feature if you pay for the pro version.

I got out for 9 this afternoon before what's left of the hurricane passes through tomorrow afternoon. I continue to struggle getting off the tee. My normal miss is hard right, but that hasn't been as present lately. The right misses were all just off the fairway and perfectly playable. The left misses were penalties (including #11). #15 was playing 175+ today, almost all of which is a forced carry. Just a non-starter for me, leading to another penalty. Getting off the tee well would make a world of difference for me. I really need to figure it out.

This thread has been quite the trip down memory lane. I haven't posted a swing video in 9 years. I did end up playing a bit in 2013, a good amount in 2014, and effectively didn't play again until mid 2020. I took my first lesson ever a few weeks ago, where we mostly focused on grip (stronger left hand) and stance (I was too wide, ball not in the middle for 7i). I thought I'd take a quick video to document where I currently am. It's really interesting to go back and watch the videos from 2012. I play a more difficult course these days and now that I'm playing again regularly, I'm starting to work on my swing again. My immediate goal is to break 100. Well, really 50, since I most often play 9 holes after work. I did accomplish that feat on Saturday with a 49, but I'll feel more accomplished after it's the norm instead of the exception. I followed that 49 up with a 102 on Sunday. Scoring goal: break 50 for 9 (100 for 18) consistently Swing goal: better ball striking (far fewer fat shots in a round), better of the tee (tight course, struggle to get off the tee)

100 (69.1 / 130). I couldn't believe I was 1 shot away from an immediate goal. I had no idea until it was over. I came up inches short on 4-5 putts today. Mix in a few 3-putts, a penalty stroke (major improvement), a handful of fat shots, and that's a 100. I'm really close to getting into the 90s. Major takeaway today was an alignment tip from a friend. Normally I play with my 12 yo, or solo, but today I took two friends out. One was able to help me understand the drama I've been having off the tee. I've been hitting straight shots about 40 yards to the right from where I was aiming. I thought it was something in my hands, but it turns out I was simply aiming that direction. Thankfully it was the simplest fix of what it could have been. I started lining up differently and hitting fairways. Lead to a 48 on the back 9. I drove with my 5w all day. With this new knowledge, I'm going to hit the range with my 1w and see if that's in a better place now.

102 (69.1 / 130) at my new club. I hit my irons really well today which helped me get 5 pars. Getting off the tee continues to be my primary issue. I've not taken my driver out the last few times, and rely on the 3w off the tee. I only hit 3 fairways and the green on 3 of the 4 par 3s. Poor driving lead to 5 penalities. Couple that with 4 3-putts, a few poor random shots, and you find a 102. I'm encouraged, considering how long it's been since I've played regularly. I think I'll get back to the 90s soon and if I can figure out how to hit the 3w/1w off the tee, I may start to make real progress. For now I'll continue to work at it and work on my short game.

I tried 18birdies yesterday and it's also good. A little busy in the menus if you're just interested in scoring a round of golf, but it's good. The one issue I had with it was getting quick GPS updates as I walked up to the tee box from the cart. It seemed to stick at the cart instead of updating where I was as I neared the tee box. I looked all over for a setting to be more aggressive on GPS updates, but I found none. I'm curious if any of you have noticed that?

Years ago I used Golfshot. I liked it quite a bit then. Now that I'm playing again, I defaulted to it but looked to see what else is available now. I tried 18birdies yesterday and it's also good. A little busy in the menus if you're just interested in scoring a round of golf, but it's good. The one issue I had with it was getting quick GPS updates as I walked up to the tee box from the cart. It seemed to stick at the cart instead of updating where I was as I neared the tee box. I looked all over for a setting to be more aggressive on GPS updates, but I found none.