pipergsm

I believe many golfers make golf more complicated than it is. I'm not saying golf is an easy game, on the contrary! However, many golfers have the wrong idea about what is needed to play good golf. Do you need 300 yards distance with the driver? NO Do you need to be perfect at chipping and putting? NO Do you need perfect control over all the clubs in your bag? NO So what do you need? Well, pure mathematically and theoretically, here's what you do need. 1) you need to be able to hit your driver and irons (6 through 9) straight, consistently. This might be a little more difficult for the driver, but not so much for the irons. Keep in mind that accuracy (direction) is more important than distance. Your practice should ALWAYS focus on accuracy, until your accuracy has reached +80% 2) you need to know the normal distance range for your clubs, and the possible deviation for your irons should not be more than about 10 yards (see required distances below) 3) Required clubs to play par on a medium distance course: Driver - irons (6-7-8-9) - SW - PW - putter Notice the absence of fairway woods. They are more difficult to master than irons and not necessary on medium distance courses. 4) required distances: Driver 240 yards I-9 110-125 yards I-8 125-135 yards I-7 140-150 yards I-6 155-165 yards PW 70-90 yards full swing SW 60 yards full swing Most male golfers (-60) should be able to reach these distances. If you're a little shorter, just add the 5-iron! Just do the math: on a medium distance course, the longest par 5 will be around 560 yards. if you're able to hit your driver and irons straight you need a 240 yards drive, 2 shots with your 6-iron (160+160) and you're on the green in 3. Any hole on this course could give you a birdie possibility. All you need is ACCURACY. 5) for PW and SW, you must be able to hit 3 different distances consistently: 20-30 yards, 40-50 yards and your full swing distance. when you master these 3 distances, any other required distance (10yds, 15 yds,...) is within your capability. Mastering these 3 distances is easier than it seems. It took me only 2 lessons and about 4 hours of practice! Here too, accuracy (direction) is of the highest priority off course. 6) For the putter, you should focus your practice on these distances: 3 feet, 6 feet, 9 feet, 12 feet. Once you're on the green and more than 6 feet from the hole, your primary goal is NOT to make the put, but to bring the ball as close as possible to the hole, at least within 6 feet, so you can 2-put. 3 feet: +85% should be made 6 feet: +70% should be made Always focus on 2-putting!!! If you focus your practice on acquiring these 6 abilities, you should be able to play par (or very near) on most medium distance courses. General strategy: avoid bunkers at all cost! when faced with a bunker in front of the green, you have 2 options: aim for the back of the green (know the distance for each club!!!), or put it just in front of the bunker and chip it as close as possible to the pin. You may loose 1 stroke, but ending up in the bunker will probably cost you 2 strokes or more!

Latest update: played 9 holes today, but was feeling very tired. Seemed like I had no strength at all in my hands and arms (the injuries?), so my driving was pretty horrible. Putting and chipping however was excellent! I sank 2 puts from about 30 feet (subsequent holes), downhill lie, turn left to right, 14 puts total over 9 holes! Hitting my irons didn't feel good either, but somehow I managed to produce very decent shots, ending up at my best result ever, 43 on a par 36!!! The positive trend seems very clear: 48 - 47 - 48 - 45 - 46 - 43 over the last 8 days. My mishits are finally fading away! Being 40 and not at all used to practicing so intensively (3-4 hours/day, 16 days non stop), I think my body urgently needs to rest now. I'll take a 4-day break and start again on June 7th. Hopefully I won't loose what I've gained so far.

I just had my first ever Trackman-analysis today. Not so easy when you live in Thailand. Many of the results confirmed what I already thought. I'm not giving the exact averages here, because they were strongly influenced by a lot of misses, due to following factors: wrist and shoulder injury, no warm-up, rubber-T too high, shaft too flexible and too much torque for my swing-speed,..... I hit 40 balls club-head speed : usually 95-100 mph attack angle: usually +1.5 to +5 (some extremes of +10 and +12) carry distance: 200-240 when no mishit total distance: 220-270 when no mishit club-face angle usually 1 to 5 degrees open, due to wrong shaft flex and torque. (is corrected when I close the club-face before back-swing) A few weeks ago I broke my driver shaft and made the mistake of replacing it with a Regular Flex shaft (medium torque). When swinging at higher speeds (95+), this will negatively influence the ball trajectory (slices, hooks) and also make you loose distance. I now face the choices of replacing my driver shaft again (and they're quite expensive here in Thailand), or slowing down my back-swing in order to be able to accelerate my down-swing more gradually, thus avoiding the club-face opening too much. This will also limit my maximum club-head speed off course.

Compare it with playing music. I've played music for over 25 years. Theoretically, any person can be taught to play an instrument, even a person with no talent for music. However, the speed at which they evolve and the final level they will reach (even with very hard work), will never be the same as that of someone who is naturally gifted for it! And the same counts for sports, including golf.

It all comes down to having the right mindset, when you talk about performing in professional competition. Look, theoretically, all PGA players have more or less the same skills. So how come that only a few of them manages to win on a regular base, or even shoot under par on a regular base? They are all able to shoot under par, or they wouldn't be in the PGA! It's all between the ears. Some people can deal with the stress of a tournament better than others. When it's about learning the game: off course talent plays a significant role. Someone who isn't gifted with a good hand-eye coordination will never excel in a sport like golf, no matter how many hours he or she practices. All I'm saying is this: if you do have the required physical abilities to be good at golf (hand-eye coordination, flexibility,...) and you have the right mindset and the right way of training, you can become a very good golfer (scratch or better) and it will not take you 10.000 hours to reach that level (provided you have the time to practice on a very regular base). Does that mean you will be successful in professional competition? That will depend on how you deal with the stress of such events! About my own improvements: I realize very well that, the closer I get to par, the more difficult it will be to get off these last few strokes. However, playing 41 on a par 36 is still far from par! My last 5 games were 48-47-48-45-46, and even the rounds where I scored 45-46 still had quite some stupid misses that I normally don't make while practicing. i.e : completely missing a 20-30 yards chip (2 times), 3 foot puts lipping out the hole (3 times), topping my drive causing the ball to drop dead at 90 yards (once), chunking my 7-iron resulting in a 90 yards shot instead of the usual 150 yards (2 times)......... Therefore I assume that, if I continue to focus on those few problem areas and obtain more stability, going from 45 to 41 will come more quickly than you think. Since I have 2 months of holiday at the moment, I have all the time I want to practice. I'm not saying I'm gonna hit 41 every single time I play within 2 weeks, but I'm quite sure I'll hit it at least once or twice.

It's a great experiment, though I personally believe that anyone with minimum physical abilities and coordination doesn't need that many hours to become really good at golf. As stated before, golf is a sport that does not require extraordinary physical abilities to become really good at. But apart from the minimum physical requirements, you also need to have the right mindset and the right way of training (not to mention a whole lot of time) As a beginning golfer, I just went from playing 9-holes in an average of 65 strokes, to an average of 47 strokes in just 2 weeks of intensive practice (3 hours a day), and the end of the accelerated progress is not yet in sight. I expect to go further down to under 41 in the next 14 days. That would mean a 1-digit handicap, coming from 58 handicap, in just 4 weeks! Why am I so sure about that and why am I improving so fast? Because I have a well organised and focused way of practicing. I don't waste a lot of time with things I know I'm sufficiently good at already, or that are not really important to lose strokes. Instead, I analyze my game to determine the exact problems that are keeping me from good scores, and focus on them during my practice. i.e: - you don't need 300 yard drives to have low scores, but you do need to hit the fairway consistently in order to prepare for pars and birdies. - if you're making 18 puts per round (9-holes), but are constantly shanking your irons, you should figure out why you are shanking and get rid of it, instead of spending 1 hour per day or more on putting or trying to drive it 300 yards! - make sure you have a standard shot for every club and know the corresponding distance for that shot. Only that way, you can make a decent approach shot to the green, instead of constantly coming short or shooting over, which will result in unnecessary extra strokes.

seems like you're doing fine! I don't even play my fairway woods, because I can't hit a decent ball with them! Don't understand why, but it's not a big problem at this moment. Just using driver and irons is enough to play par on my local course, it's only 2990 yards for 9 holes! my irons are going a little up and down when it comes to distance. Today's carry distances: I-7 145-160 I-9 120-130 I-10 110 I-11 90-100 No idea about the roll, difficult to see. Wonder how the hell I have a 10 and 11-iron? Funny story actually! Bought my first set second hand, and I discovered recently that they are over 40 years old. Now, 40 years ago, loft and shaft-length were not what they are today. All my irons are 1 inch shorter and have a loft which is 1-2 clubs higher than today's irons. Conclusion: my 7-iron is actually a 9-iron, and since I also have an 8 and 9-iron in that set, they would correspond to 10 and 11-iron! I currently rent a more recent 7-iron and that's how I have the distance for a real 7-iron. Some days I hit it around 170, but as I said, it goes up and down a little. As for your driver, take this advise: focus on straight shots and consistency first. Once you master that (with a slow swing), speed will increase automatically!

I think the reason is quite simple. By the time most people (also professionals) hear about Moe's swing, they have already established their own swing and perfectioned it to such a level, they don't need another swing and they certainly don't want to spend time and energy on learning a whole new swing with the risk of ending up worse or not better at all. I believe Moe's swing is a fantastic tool for people who have only just started in golf, or people who don't succeed in creating a consistent swing and are still looking for a way to have consistent swing results. I can honestly say that, only a week ago, my swing (driver) was a mess. I constantly had to choose between a more or less straight hit, but very short (-200 yards), or a decent distance (220+) but having a huge slice in +80% of my drives. Since I re-started swinging like Moe 5 days ago (a swing I discovered myself by accident, while experimenting with different swing-positions), I've made unbelievable progress! Over 90% of my drives are now straight and usually end up around 230 yards or more when I don't mishit due to loss of balance, and I'm getting more and more drives that end up over 250. I even reached 300 a few times already, and I'm not even trying to swing fast! I'm 5 foot 8 and 146 lbs, so not exactly the athletic type! My only possible advantage is a high flexibility. I used to do gymnastics 25 years ago, but it's a natural flexibility (I'm 40 now). For all those who haven't established a consistent swing yet, I can definitely advise to try it out!

There are 2 par 3's, 158 and 170 yards. for the 170, I like to use my driver in order to practice my directional sense and power control. If you have problems with your driver (like I did only a short time ago), try this out. I j ust found a swing technique for the driver that seems to make it impossible to hit slices or hooks! - tee the ball relatively high - ball position just inside the left foot. Too much in or out will only cause the ball to go right or left from the target line, no slice or hook (or a very, very faint slice at the end of the trajectory) - feet not too wide - arms and wrists fully stretched, they must form a single line with the driver shaft, the driver head may even be a little under that line - knees and upper body slightly bent, as with the usual swing - horizontal rotation of the upper body must be limited to 50-70%, but the arms (still stretched) must go further - elevation angle of the arms during the back-swing: they should end up halfway between right shoulder and right ear. IMPORTANT: during the back-swing, you should focus solely on making a perfect rotation (no swaying) and keeping the arms and driver-shaft on 1 line (stretched) until they almost reach your neck. As they reach your neck, the driver-shaft will "automatically" come up (don't think or worry about that!) and reach a position that is more or less parallel to the ground. it doesn't really matter what the exact position is! During the down-swing, you should only think about the arm/driver line (stretched) and keep watching the ball off course! Even with a rather slow swing, I reach distances up to 250 yards, and they're all as straight as can be!

Point well taken, I understand better now. It's just that, in my inexperienced mind, a 10 yards difference is near to nothing, hardly worth talking about, but when I look at it from your point of view (the 290 yards up hill), I understand better. Maybe I am, as you suggest, a natural long hitter without realizing it. Yesterday morning, while practicing a few drives with my golf teacher, He claimed that 1 of my drives was about 300 yards, and a few others were not much shorter. I didn't believe him at first, but since I couldn't see where the ball landed,......

if I understand correctly, what you're saying is that I would need to check out both swings, execute them with the same level of perfection and swing speed, in order to know which one gives the most power, right? I agree with that off course, but I'm wondering. If I, a beginning golfer who's hardly trying to put any real power (speed) in his swing, can easily reach a speed which is high enough to hit it at about 300 yards, than it's only logical to assume that a more skilled golfer can reach much higher speeds (power) with the same swing, allowing him to reach distances far beyond 300 yards. If that is the case, I wonder how much more powerful any swing can be! If Hogan's swing (or any swing for that matter) is really more powerful, than those who (try to) use it would be hitting near 400 yards or more constantly, and I don't see any PGA player doing that!

No trackman. I trust my teacher and the indications on the driving range : they both said my ball reached 300 (or very,very close). during my 9-hole round, 265 and 285, paced it of myself and compared with the indications on the course and on the scorecard, all matched.

Oh, and by the way, for those who claim Moe Norman's swing lacks power: today I hit several shots, ranging from 260 to 300 yards, without even trying to swing it fast!

Thanks rustyredcab! And just as I expected, my 2 rounds today, morning and afternoon, ended in a 45 and 46! Still, I have the feeling I can do even better, since I'm still making stupid mishits I don't usually make during practice (lack of focus I guess) Up to break 40?!?

Getting better fast now! Today I played 2 rounds of 9 holes, morning and afternoon (bloody hot here in Thailand!) 45 and 46! And still I felt like playing bad, because I made numerous ridiculous mishits that I normally don't make while practicing. Even had some very nice drives (265 and 285) without even trying to hit it hard! Might 40 be coming within reach already? It surely feels like it! If I can double that (18 holes), that means I'd be playing around 80, while I was still playing over 100 (+50 for 9-holes) 10 days ago! Let's keep on practicing and hope for the best!

About that lack of power in 'Moe Norman's swing": today I shot 265, 285 (both during my 9-hole round) and 300 (driving range) without even trying to hit it hard! I've only been using this swing for 4--5 days and I'm an absolute beginner in golf, with only about 80 hours of practice over the last year (from which 10-15 hours with the driver).

Finally coming close to the level I know I'm able to play, after 2 weeks of intensive practice. Played 2 times 9-holes today, 45 in the morning, 46 in the afternoon (bloody hot here in Thailand). A good improvement compared to my usual rounds being around 53 on average, and I'm still making ridiculous misses which should slowly disappear in the following days and weeks. For those who say "Moe Norman's swing" lacks power, I've only just started using it 4 days ago, and I shot 265 and 285 today, without even trying to hit it hard! By the way, I'm only 5 foot 8, weigh 146 lbs and am not at all athletic!

I don't have an official handicap yet, and I've only been practicing this swing for a few days, needing to adjust foot-position etc. However, I usually score around 52-54 for the local 9-hole course, and my last 3 rounds were 48-47-48. I only use this swing for my driver and I made the last fine-tuning today during practice. I'm almost sure my next round will be around 45, maybe even better (also made some improvements on my irons today).

it's quite simple actually. Moe's swing is easier to execute and easier to repeat accurately, than the modern golf swing. This allows you to play with much less "mishits". The basic drive-swing also makes it much more difficult to hit slices and hooks, which is what many amateurs struggle with. In short: the basic Moe Norman swing is easy to master and will give you, almost overnight, a much higher accuracy, usually resulting in clearly lower scores. Not even aware of his existence, I recently started to use his swing for my driver (I was experimenting to get rid of my slices) The result? After hitting a few dozen balls and adjusting my feet-positioning, I now hit shot after shot as straight as can be, and while my back-swing currently takes about 1.5 seconds (very slow!), my shots reach over 230 yards carry (250-260 total), when hit more or less center. With practice, I'm sure this will increase to 270 carry or more. I'd like to add that I'm under 5 foot 8 tall, weigh about 147 lbs and am not at all athletic.

I disagree about the lack of power. I'm 172 cm (just under 5 foot 8) and not at all athletic. My only advantage is a high flexibility. If I can reach +250 yards with a slow swing, after just a few dozen balls of practice, than I can only imagine how far a more skilled, more trained golfer can hit it with this swing, especially if he is somewhat athletic. I'm convinced that with some more training and a higher rotation speed (my back-swing currently takes almost 2 seconds!). I'll be able to hit it well over 280 yards with this swing.

Just found a swing technique for the driver that seems to make it impossible to hit slices or hooks! - tee the ball relatively high - ball position just inside the left foot. Too much in or out will only cause the ball to go right or left from the target line, no slice or hook (or a very, very faint slice at the end of the trajectory) - feet not too wide - arms and wrists fully stretched, they must form a single line with the driver shaft, the driver head may even be a little under that line - knees and upper body slightly bent, as with the usual swing - horizontal rotation of the upper body must be limited to 50-70%, but the arms (still stretched) must go further - elevation angle of the arms during the back-swing: they should end up halfway between right shoulder and right ear. IMPORTANT: during the back-swing, you should focus solely on making a perfect rotation (no swaying) and keeping the arms and driver-shaft on 1 line (stretched) until they almost reach your neck. As they reach your neck, the driver-shaft will "automatically" come up (don't think or worry about that!) and reach a position that is more or less parallel to the ground. it doesn't really matter what the exact position is! During the down-swing, you should only think about the arm/driver line (stretched) and keep watching the ball off course! I believe it is the combination of stretched arms and limited rotation that prevents hooks and slices from happening. Even with a rather slow swing, I reach distances up to 250 yards, and they're all as straight as can be! I hope this helps for those who have a slice or hook problem!

Hi everybody, I'm a 40 year old male that picked up the game of golf at 37. I decided I wanted to learn the game all by myself, doing a lot of research on the internet (instructional videos, studying golf mechanics, etc.) However, after a few months at the driving range, hitting about 1.000 balls (25 boxes) spread over 8 months, personal circumstances made it impossible to even touch a golf club for the next 17 months. I picked up again in may 2012. Still trying to learn by myself, I had a lot of up and downs, especially because of my job (tour guide, living in Thailand) which often blocks my training sessions for several months. In may 2012, I was hitting the 7-iron great: 175 to 200+ yards! It was the only club I was really practicing (apart from the putter), and these results were attained with a rented graphite 7-iron. Unfortunately, immediately after these great results, my job blocked my training sessions for 3 straight months! Not realizing how I actually reached these great results, I lost everything in these 3 months and had to start all over again. In the following 8 months, my training sessions were regularly interrupted for 4-8 weeks. Slowly however, I started to rediscover the basics of my long lost swing,this time more aware of what it was exactly that I needed to do to get a decent shot. I tried playing the local 9-hole course many times, but for some reason, the results were nothing less than disastrous. While on the driving range, my iron shots and pitching were reasonably good,once I entered the course, I couldn't hit a single ball decently: shanking, topping, hitting every single tree or branch that was even remotely in my neighbourhood,..... I did manage however to bring my scores a little bit down, from my very first 89 (9-hole!) to the more recent 50-55 (with the help of some cheating). I was only by the end of 2012 that I bought my first driver and started to practice it, together with 7-iron, 9-iron, putter and Sand/Pitching wedge. I had all the irons (second hand set), but wasn't ready yet for the others. In 2013, I discovered that my irons were approximately 45 years old, and therefore completely different from modern days irons. All irons appeared to be not only 1 inch shorter than their modern days equivalent, but had also more loft (1-2 clubs difference!). This explained off course the enormous difference in distance I experienced after using the rented, graphite 7-iron. May 2013: finally I have a 2 month period of free time and I decided to go for it 100%, practicing every day I possibly could, for as long as I humanly could! I also started having some lessons with a Thai professional who speaks decent English. Combined with a recent break-through, this allowed me to improve my formerly lowest score of 50, to 47. Here are some of my current statistics on the local 9-hole course and driving range: Total amount of practice (driving range) since I started in 2010: about 100 hours - puts per round: 18-20 - avg fairways per round: 7 out of 9 - usual Driving distance: 200-240 yards slow swing - 7-iron 155-170 yards slow swing - SW 70-90 yards slow swing Main current problems: - distance control in the approach shots (up to 100 yards) and chipping/bunker shots (just started learning it with my trainer) - bad foot-ball position with the driver, often resulting in pulling, pushing or slicing. However, I feel I'm close to finding the answer to this problem. Predictions: I feel confident that I will very soon be able to break 45 on the local 9-hole course and hope to reach par by the end of this year. I'd like to hear the evolutionary stories of other golfers and their statistics. Good golfing to all of you!

today and yesterday, first scores under 50 on the local 9-holes course: 47 (today) and 48 (yesterday) Off course that includes some cheating: no penalties (water, ob, lost ball), counting only 1 stroke to get out of the bunkers, even when I need 4 tries, (from the same position off course). Since I haven't had much bunker practice yet (but taking lessons right now), I assume I'll soon reach the point where I only need 1 attempt, so why discouriging myself by counting all these strokes?

Finally getting the stability and distance I was looking for. after being out for 4 days due to a wrist injury, I just played 2 rounds of 9 holes. wrote down 48 and 47, my first scores sub 50! In the next few days and weeks, this should drop further to sub 45, considering the ridiculous misses I'm still making. Finally found the right swing and posture, resulting in much more stability and thus having the same results on the course as I had on the range. Using a slow swing and a rented graphite iron (as mentioned before), I'm now hitting this 7-iron 160-175 yards. My swing speed is still much lower than it was 1 year ago (easily 10 mph), so I'm quite sure I'll be able to add 20 yards or more once I increase my swing speed. Driver is improving as well, usually reaching 200-240 yards, but using a really low swing speed. finally found a good teacher that speaks sufficient English (living in Thailand!) and started a 10h cours yesterday. I already felt the result in my chipping and bunker shots today!

My goals for 2013 learning it all by myself and having practiced between 70 and 100 hours (spread over 3 years!), I usually finish my 9-hole rounds on the local 9-hole course between 50 and 55, making a lot of horrible shots (shanking, topping). putting average 2.0 - 2.2 finally having 2 months free time to do some real and consistent practicing (meaning 6 - 7 days a week, 3 - 6 hours/day) Short term goal: by july 15th, 2013, I want to break 45 (9-hole) more often than not. Mid term goal: by the end of 2013, I want to break 40 on a regular base Long term goal: by the end of 2014, I want to be able to play my local course under par on a regular base.