slodsm

I'm consistently short if that helps you out. I hit 53.3% of my fairways, putt 36.9 times per round and have a 3.3% GIR. I will almost always be 1 stroke behind GIR and on long par 5's I'm usually 2 strokes behind. I've only been playing seriously for 5 months myself but once I started taking lessons, it straightened out my 3w-irons to where I have no slice, just the occasional push or pull that's easily recovered from. Now if I could just get some distance to go along with this, I might actually be able to play a decent round of golf within a year or two. I do have 26 weeks off each year and it's completely dedicated to tournament fishing and golf though so I've either got to improve or go insane.....

Truth! I have all the self control in the world when it comes to drugs, alcohol, and most other temptations but I'm a man loaded with testosterone and women have always and will always be my downfall. I'm thinking if I were in Tigers position, the list would have been even longer and there would be a lot of video proof. Does that make it right, nope. But it's just the way it is. I can admit my weakness and move on and because I know I have them myself, I don't judge others for their shortcomings.

Well I jumped the gun a bit on my iron search thanks to a broken 8i this morning. At some point I've struck something probably trying to get out of trouble and cracked the shaft right above the hosel and I didn't know until today. I was cleaning my irons prior to going to play and found it so I made a trip by Edwin Watts on the way to the course, traded them in for a decent amount considering the broken 8i and picked up a set of TM Burner 2.0's in 4-Aw with stiff steel shafts. I played a round with them, like the clubs a lot but I'm having to work on my distance more because I'm overshooting. I clubbed down 1 on the 3 par 3's for the course and usually ended up right on the fringe of the green requiring a little chip to get on. My wedge shots are absolutely beautiful (for me), long irons are nice compared to normal although I still don't have a huge amount of distance and I worked on consistency with the 7-9i after my game on the range. I have to say the stiffer shafts seemed to have helped because distance wise I have tight grouping, left to right not so much but that's me, not the club. I'm still shooting my average scores but I haven't picked up a driver since the lesson, 3w and down only he told me which kills my tee shots BUT keeps me in the fairway. All in all, I'm happy with the purchase and the lesson and can't wait for a follow up Friday. I find myself slipping back into trying to murder the ball with the wood or the long irons because it's in my muscle memory but my approach shots and wedge shots have improved drastically.

I've accomplished it several times, it was never intentional.....

Yep, a good teacher who can convey what he knows with some meaning behind it is worth his weight in gold. I have the majority of my issues from the tee and fairway, I avg 34 putts per round and I rarely ever three putt a hole, I just can never get the ball from the tee to the green in anything resembling an orderly fashion. The lessons are what I am hoping will steer me towards that goal and so far so good.

I agree with the DT SoLo, it's an excellent ball. I've played the SoLo most of the summer and it's a great ball off the tee and not bad at all around the greens. I like the Tour S a little better as I get a little better (maybe mental) because I think I do better with it on short approach shots and with the putter but if I had no choice but to play a SoLo for the rest of my life, I wouldn't gripe much at all.

Honestly no. The results were quite drastic but the changes were minute. The moved my left hand maybe 10 degrees around the grip, my right hand down maybe 1/2 an inch and the position of my thumb and index finger. He moved my position at address up closer to the ball which felt off when he did it, then he worked in the weight transfer from foot to foot which I thought I was doing already and in the end, his adjustments and explanations for WHY (the most important part to me) he made those adjustments were not huge but the results were immediate and impressive for someone of my skill level. On my own, I would have never even contemplated the things he changed because I honestly thought I was doing them right but my timing was wrong. By the time he was through with me I realized I couldn't have been more wrong unless I held the club backwards. I just didn't understand the physics behind properly striking the ball. Most sports I've learned on my own completely, MX when I was younger, I crashed until I got it right (my body pays for it now). Then on to softball, shotgun sports, IDPA/USPSA sanctioned pistol competitions etc. Aside from MX (I never got beyond a C class racer there) I made it to the top in my region in sanctioned competitions at least once. With golf, it's a whole different ball game (pun intended) and it's going to take me longer and probably a lot of lessons but I think the reward will be greater because it is in fact harder. Others may vary but I wouldn't have been able to correct these issues on my own.

Thanks for the tips gents. I caught myself on two holes this afternoon (the two doubles of course) doing one of my most blatantly wrong motions which cost me a stroke both times. I had been told when you reach the bottom of your swing you should push through with the right hand to increase club head speed at the moment of impact and increase distance. I have practiced that sooooooooo many times over the last 6 months or so that it was very hard to remove that movement from my swing but out of 45 swings I only let it creep back in twice. I'll eventually get this down. When I learned to shoot trap and sporting clays, I just spent a ridiculous amount of money on shells and range time and learned it on my own until I was able to take home quite a few trophies with just some tips from other older experienced shooters here and there. I thought I could do the same with golf but today has shown me otherwise and before I spent another 2 years ingraining this mess into my muscle memory so deep I couldn't get it out.

I wasn't sure when would be an "appropriate" time to actually start paying someone to fix everything wrong with me but I have to say, this was the best money I've spent since I picked up a club. My grip I picked up from other people who told me everything I was doing wrong. My stance, I picked up the same way along with a few magazine articles. My swing, I got from a mixture of baseball and possible birth defects. Within 10 minutes, he had corrected all of them to a more appropriate form and I was actually hitting a ball straight and in the general direction of where I wanted it to go. Within an hour, I no longer felt like a moron because it started to feel natural to me now and I was no longer stressing about "is this going to go over the top of the ball or drive into the ground before I even reach the ball". I went immediately after the lesson to a local course and played the front 9 finishing 10 over with 2 doubles and 1 par. Nothing spectacular BUT I can see a serious improvement in confidence because my misses were all long (I was actually making good contact with the ball most of the time) instead of all right. It's a beautiful thing to pick up a 3w and know it's going to be somewhere in the fairway when you're done. His parting words were to get ready to buy new clubs because I would need stiff shafts by the end of the year. I based all my previous purchases off of the distance I was getting per club and thinking I had an incredibly slow swing speed. Apparently my swing speed is actually rather fast, I just didn't hit the ball well at all (obviously). For the other hacks like me who are actually wanting to get serious about becoming a better golfer, all the equipment in the world won't make up for someone who actually know how to convey information combined with an explanation to make it stick and then walk you through the steps over and over until you get it right. I'm playing 18 the next 4 days and then going for a follow up Friday and very optimistic that I may actually be able to consistently play an enjoyable round of golf by next year without the frustration of 1 good swing out of every 10 bad ones.

Entered, thanks a lot for the service I always get from you guys when I order as well. Pretty much my only place to buy clubs lately and I've been trying a lot of different hybrids and drivers out. Quick shipping and good service.

Entered, fingers crossed.

Still haven't pulled it off. Only played seriously for 6 months, played off and on for fun for a while but never really put any effort into it until this year. It will come, I can consistently par 2-3 holes per 9 right now and then have some normal blow up holes associated with a noob but I'll get there.

My main course is kept in excellent condition but there are a few spots where there is bare dirt and club destroying terrain once you leave the fairway, then the rough, and then into the edge of the woods and I do manage to find it from time to time. If it is possible to take a lateral with a PW and not damage the club I'll play it where it is but if not, I'll use the foot wedge to move it off the rocks/roots and get back to it. Not worth it to me either to damage a club. I never do it just to get a better lie though.

My wedges, they almost always go where I want them. My driver and I have a love hate relationship, when I'm hitting it well it makes my game so much easier but when I'm not and I have to bring out the long irons for the second shot, I'm less than pleased. Not the drivers fault, my fault but my wedges almost always do what I need.

My main problem is consistency with long irons and golf in general. Some days I can play bogey golf (within a stroke at least) and others I absolutely destroy the game and should probably be banned from the course because I'm a disgrace to the game. I play a 4 and 5 hybrid because I flat out can't hit those irons 9 out of 10 times. I won't always get the exact shot I want with the hybrid clubs but I can advance the ball far enough to get to the green with a wedge and save a little pride.

I have managed to break 300 two times playing off and on for close to ten years (much more off than on for the first 9, just got serious this year and play probably 8-10 rounds a month). I could routinely hit 250 with a slice which could have gone further had I had a clue how to hit the ball BUT, I broke my right index finger last month, hit the ball straight as an arrow now 90% of the time but lost my distance somehow in the process and I hit it about 220 now with the occasional lucky shot breaking 250. It's easier to hit follow up shots from the fairway though so I guess I'll take it.

At the local course I play at I am in the minority being 34. Most members are in their late 60's and on with a decent amount in their late teens/early 20's. Most people my age are too busy chasing the dollar to have time to play golf. I lucked into a dream job which only requires 6 months of my time a year and the other 6 I get to fish and play golf to my hearts content and the best part, it pays more than enough that I can afford to play and fish those 6 months off.

I clean after every shot, then when it's time to go back to work for my two weeks on I'll sit down the night before and polish every club head and wipe them down so they shine before I leave.

I think you're in a "funk" so to speak and need to step away for a while and try something else. I'm new to golf but nowhere near to competitive outdoors sports. I pick them up, practice them and let the eat me alive until I've reached my personal best that I can do and then I move on to something else. I get my enjoyment from taking something I know relatively nothing about and working at it to accomplish something. I've been through motocross when I was younger until I beat my body up so bad the reward was no longer worth the investment, then I moved to drag racing and race all over the east coast, then to bike racing, competitive shooting, etc. I was able to become "good" at those sports in a relatively short period of time because a lot of the requirements were the ability to overcome fear and the money needed to properly fund yourself one of which I had and the other of which I was more than willing to work 80+ hours a week to earn. I picked up tournament fishing 2 years ago and golf this year for one reason, BOTH of them require lots of time, commitment, and work to be good at. Neither of these will be something I can pick up, practice constantly for a year and then get bored and quite. When tournament fishing, you're not only competing against a LOT of other anglers, you're also competing against weather, water conditions, and a little green fish with a brain the size of my finger nail that seems to outsmart me a lot. With Golf, it's just seemingly impossible and I play 8+ rounds a month and start taking lessons next month. They will both provide me with years of enjoyment as I strive to improve at both of them but when I've reached that point where I no longer enjoy them or cease to improve, I'll probably drop both of them and move on to yet another hobby, sell my monstrous pickup and over priced glitter rocket of a bass boat and I'll buy another Lexus and enjoy something new. I think you're at that point to where you think you've accomplished all you want to or feel you're just tired of it and it's time to step back and try something else. If you have sporting clays clubs nearby, I'd suggest trying it out, it's like golf with a shotgun and takes a ridiculous amount of effort and hand/eye coordination to be good at but it very rewarding.

I wear Kohls OUT on the sales they have. The will knock down Fila golf shorts to around 21.99 a pair and I put them on my store card when they have the 30% off for card holders sale and then pay the card back off at the counter before I even leave the store. They usually have a pretty good selection of shorts and shirts at my local store. I've also bought numerous Nike Golf shirts at either Ross or Marshalls for anywhere from 14.99 to 21.99. My personal favorite shirts are Adidas Climalite though and I can usually only find them on sale at Edwin Watts. Seems to be a different color every month so I just pick one a month of for 30 bucks or so. I have enough polo's in my closet to outfit an entire amateur event hahaha.

Happened to me 4 times Sunday morning because I'm hard headed. Broken index finger has completely changed my swing, I haven't even pulled my driver/3w out of the bag the last two rounds, I've played my hybrid 4 from the tee because it's the most distance I can hit straight right now. Every day has been a "bad day" recently but it's better than not being out at all.

Scorecard. I like Golflogix but my Evo has a garbage battery and seldom lasts an entire round anymore. I enter the scores into the app after I'm through so I can keep track of scores, GIR's, putts etc (I make notations on the score card for each hole so I can completely fill out the app when I finish the round).

Shot the worst 9 in a long long time. 53 on a par 35. I was on my way to an average round with a mix of par, bogey, and a double and then on my last hole which is usually one of my best for a pretty par, my rock steady slice that I've always worked with went the way of the dodo bird. I put 5 balls into the trees (not in the edge, as in GONE and no chance of even looking for them) and I should have stopped at the second but I went all tin cup on it and kept putting another ball on the tee. The good news, some minor tweak I have done over time fixed my slice. The bad news, it cost me a lot of penalty strokes, 5 good balls, and now I have to learn how to aim when a ball goes straight off the driver and wonder when the slice will come back. Oh well, try again tomorrow morning.

I create a new string of filthy words ran together in a sequence that would make sense only to a sailor and then I move on. I pay entirely too much money for gear and green fees to let a bad shot ruin my day. I try to take the same mentality whether golfing, trap shooting, tournament fishing or whatever. I get less heart burn and enjoy what I'm doing more.

For me, it's the TM Burner I have right now. I've never been very consistent with a 3w until I bought this one. It's the only one I've ever had I could hit both off the fairway and the tee with semi predictable results. I think I hit it 5 times today during my round and every shot was "good enough". With others I've had I'm all over the place from the fairway to the point I never hit them. I tried this one because I got a great deal on it as a mint used model from EW and it just fits me.