Stevep21

" I play 18 about 2-3x a week, go to the driving range 2-3x a week, and hit into a net in my yard everyday " "and i suck very bad at putting (3 putts arent abnormal)" Who needs new clubs; Find some time to practice putting :)

"The funny thing is if I aim further left it goes further right." : Maybe try aiming further right then :) When I had a slice a few years ago, I could start it out on the left fairway of the adjacent hole, it would slice from the middle of that fairway all the way over the fairway im trying to hit and into the trees on the right of the fairway im trying to hit, I'm sure it used to go further right than it went forward when I tried to aim further left. The thing that stopped me slicing was an alignment change and the concious of thought of knowing what caused my slice. I had a lesson and this was one of my first lessons, he told me to have something down for alignment when I'm practicing and now I almost always do. So first make sure your aligning straight, feet mainly but also shoulders etc. everything should be square. Secondly he told me at impact to think that im going to push it to the right, what was causing my slice was coming across the ball so the further I wanted to go left the more I would cut across the ball. So he got my alignment straight and me thinking about pushing the ball to the right, feel like your clubhead is going to the right of the target at impact, It most likely won't its just a thought to stop you cutting across it. This basically cured my slice instantly and replaced it with a push to the right until I got used to it, which is much easier to handle than a slice but still frustrating so don't give up if something similar happens to you, or better yet wait for better advice off one of the experts :)

5 minutes a hole, you mustn't look for many balls :)

I disagree with playing off womens and not shooting lower, I can't remember the last time I missed a green with a wedge, or at least severly missed a green with a wedge, whereas my 3 iron, a bad shot I can probably miss the green by 40 yards, securing my bogey at best. I haven't tried it but I do imagine I could play to scratch off women's tees. I think it depends on the strengths of your game, the OP is struggling from 180+ so ofcourse having less distance in would mean more GIR for him and a better score which he would get off women's tees and from a longer drive. I consider the strengths of my game my Driver aslong as it isn't a dogleg right :) and my wedge play from 110-140, I haven't played against many people that I wouldn't play for money if we just went around and dropped the ball at 135 yards and see who scored the best, so I'm not so sure about your women's tees argument :) especially when applied to OP

Walk slower, there is nothing worse than getting to your ball, planning your shot, preparing for your pre-shot routine and you can't even hit it yet. When it is slow I start strolling so that I don't have to stew over my shots too long, I might have a chat with my playing partners or just have some practice swings if I am working on anything in particular, there is always something to do. But ye the best advice I can give when it is slow is to walk slower only because I personally can't stand waiting in the same spot for too long. You also really can drag out planning your shots when it is slow aswell, like counting paces from the yardarge markers, seeing where the pin is, working out the best shape shot to try and hit and seeing if your worst miss with that shot isn't too bad, then practice the swing your about to execute before settling down for the shot. All this can drag it out a bit but I know it can be slightly pointless when your playing the same course all the time like I do so I know all the yardages and know what shot is best, but its still good practice.

Whereabouts in UK are you located and play Chris? I'm from UK and may know a couple of people depending on whereabouts you are?

Work on that driver and turn those 180 yard approaches into less :)

He is correct that you start the downswing with the hips though, atleast thats what ive always been taught. Backswing goes: hands first then arms then shoulders then hips and downswing is reverse, hips first then shoulders then arms then hands. Saying that though it all happens so fast that it feels like everything moves together on the backswing but when your hips move first on the downswing it triggers everything else to move with them, your arms will drop automatically as you push your weight/hips forward.

Can you slide too much? This seemed to be my problem before I had my last lesson, My hips would just keep travelling forward without rotating much, creating a massive C shape with my body, making me flippy and also giving me lower back pain on the right hand side. Now my pro has got me rotating more than sliding, getting my left knee straight quicker when I want to rotate quicker which in turn makes it feel like I do everything on the downswing quicker. Is it not just the right hip that keeps going forward, on that video of luke donald, from the time his club shaft is perpendicular to the ground it looks like his hip slide has finished, they hardly travel forward at all, only rotation. Am I understanding it wrong what hip slide is?

I'm not an expert but I did have a similar problem, my right foot would slide sometimes when I used my driver, I didn't really consider it a problem since it didnt happen very much but since I have changed my swing due to another fault it has stopped. It is quite hard to see with that video because its so fast but I think you are sliding forward too much on your downswing, it looks like you release a little early too. From what I understand at the top of your backswing your body tranfers the weight from the right to left with the hip slide and then after that move its all hip rotation, no more sliding. Try straightening your left leg earlier at impact and feel like your left hip is coming backwards while your right hip is going forwards if that makes sense, those are my swing thoughts on the range at the moment anyway and I did have that problem to a lesser extent, hope this helps but I'm sure someone else on here can give you some better advice

Keep getting lessons and don't expect to get better every day, golf takes a lot of time, for a few months I was shooting regularly in the 70's and had my best round ever of 71 on a par 70 course a few weeks ago but on the range I just didn't know how I could improve I was still making the same mistakes so I've gone for a couple of lessons and I haven't broken 80 since! even though I am hitting it sweet as a nut when I feel like I'm getting my new swing right, problem is I have new distances so I am misclubbing, my short game is suffering because I am putting more time in on my swing and less on short game! I am sure you have probably heard the expression "one step back two step forward" applied to golf and it is very true, give the game time and the improvement will follow! And to reiterate with the other posts, don't get discouraged, looking at my scores people would say it was stupid to get a lesson and change my swing, but I felt like I had reached my swings limit so to speak, I couldn't shoot any lower! So carry on with your lessons, put the practice in and the scores will drop eventually :)

It is really easy to get into a rhythm when your on the range but its completely different when your on the course and you have one shot to find that rhythm. When I hit balls on the range, I hit them slow and if I do start beating balls, after about 20 I will have a 5 minute break or so just to break my rhythm, I will also never end on a bad shot, it's important to learn how to hit it when you only have one go at it, also get a pre-shot routine if you don't already have one, something you can repeat time and time again to get that rhythm repeating itself, make sure you do a pre-shot routine for every shot on the range, including starting the grip again and starting alignment again while your getting used to it! Good luck with the game :)

Your question of should you aim for the middle of the green all of the time, I would say yes until you are hitting it more consistently, if you are missing it often then why even look at the pin, the green is much bigger than a little hole. I score quite well but I know my limits, if I am more than 150-160 yards out I will rarely look at the pin, I will always be looking for my best shot for safety. For example if I am 175 yards from the middle of the green and there are bunkers at the front of the green I don't know whether to hit a 7 or a 6 iron, I will hit the 6 iron aiming at the centre of the green (basic course management) When you are aiming at the centre and pull/push it and it goes at the pin try not to think it was a good shot, try to be happier when you execute it perfectly and leave yourself the 20ft putt rather than being happy when you fluke one at the pin :) (when I start getting happy with my lucky shots I start hitting the bad ones because in my head I am wanting to miss my target and get it near the pin). Also if you do have a consistent shape play for it, I have a draw and with my longer irons I almost always aim at the right of the green, If I flush it I'm on the right of the green, If I draw it (my usual shot on the range) I'm in the middle of the green, If I overdo it, I am on the left of the green or in shit to the left of the green (my usual shot on the course) :) but I have cut out anything to the right of the green, I just don't have a slice in me.

Playing 8 months and those are your distances? your average distances? or your maximum downwind distances? I consider myself quite a big hitter compared to most of the people around my handicap that I play with and you basically have 2 clubs on me i.e your 9i is my 7i etc. but seriously forget trajectory for a bit and knock ten shots off your hcap with working on some short game, I've always felt anyone who can reach the hole in the correct amount of shots even if not a GIR should be a single figure handicap, I don't get why people don't work on what is imo the most important part of the game, short game! Stop worrying about traj and start logging where you're losing those 14 shots instead of worrying about having a pretty ballflight :)

When I want to hit a draw I put my left foot a bit forward and I try and swing faster with my arms, not sure if this is the right way to do it but it works for me, another way I do it is to concentrate on where I want the clubhead at the top of my backswing and I concentrate on getting it aiming right of the target, I don't like doing it that way though since I am not nearly as accurate and don't know where its gonna start, I just have that swing thought when I am behind a tree or something and I must draw it and am not too concerned about where it finishes aslong as it gets around the tree or whatever. And vice versa when I want to hit a fade I open my stance slightly and feel like I swing with my body faster than my arms, it's probably not a good way to shape the ball altering your rhythm so much but it works for me and they are just swing thoughts, so something for you to try if you still can't shape it :)

Thanks for the posts everyone, and thanks for the videos Mike, I tried those drills and it did feel better. After putting in a lot of work I just knew I wasn't getting it right, it felt too similar even though I started flushing it and I know from past changes that when it feels too normal too soon then it's not changing at all and after videoing myself it was obvious that I am still making the same mistakes. So anyway I had another lesson today with a former pro at my club who is a very good player, I didn't tell him I just had a lesson so recently or what I thought my problem was since I don't like telling someone who has more knowledge than me what I am doing wrong, I'd rather hear what they think and he basically reiterated what the other guy said but he said my hands were behind the ball because I was releasing early due to my leg movement. I basically have another problem where my right foot comes up too soon and he's basically just solved all my problems in what felt like a 2 minute lesson, he said the start of my downswing is good, I shift to the left but instead of "twisting" I just carry on moving left which causes my body to arc too much my hands are behind the ball, I'm flipping and my whole swing basically just relied on timing. Now because he explained it so much better and got me in the right position at impact it just feels like I have to straigten my left leg after impact instead of keep moving left, feels like im moving my hips out of the way and giving my arms soooo much more room to work instead of trying to thrust my hips forward giving me more distance (atleast I guess that's what I thought I was doing) but he also said the way I was hitting it I was turning my 7 iron into a 9 iron, and I gotta say when I get it right now it sounds like a bullet and I am atleast a club longer. Very happy with the change although I am spraying it everywhere at the moment while I get used to it, but it feels different and it feels right so that is the main thing :) Thanks again for the posts and any other advice is much appreciated :) Sorry for the late-ish reply

I am off 5 but my course is pretty easy, I struggle once I'm hitting my long irons into par 4's which is why I got a lesson. I want better ball striking, the only way I can hit my long irons consistently is to hit a low draw which I hate and can over-do sometimes but I wouldnt call it a hook. Once I start trying to hit them high, I push it, slice it, draw it, allsorts, no consistency. My hands are ahead already but he seems to think I should be doing it more for a more penetrating ballflight as he calls it. When I get it right I can feel that I've got it right because my arms release properly after impact, my left elbow doesnt fold in to my body too soon which is what usually happens but I'm finding it hard to do what I'm doing in the drill he has given me and then doing it in my real swing.

So I had a lesson with my local pro the other day and he says I am using my hands too much, "do you hook it?", "no", "you have well educated hands, your using your hands too much and you dont need too" blah blah blah. He showed me this video of Boo Weekley and I do absolutely love the impact position to be fair: is that how your impact position really should be like? He gave me a sort of drill but not really of just starting at the impact position, i.e. shaft leaning forward, weight on left side, hands pushing forward, and then swing without moving my weight and trying to recreate the intial position. Are there any better drills anyone has to start striking the ball like that, also don't you decrease the loft by striking it like this? Any advice on if my local pro is advising my correctly and on any drills are much appreciated!

Since trying to change it, it feels like I'm just dropping my arms into the ball and not turning my hips into the ball as much, it is actually really difficult to change haha, I think I've got it then I look on camera and it looks the same! I played 18 yesterday and had a 79, there was a 3 hole stretch where it felt like it clicked, should of been birdie birdie birdie but was birdie par bogey for some bad putting and a misclub on the 3rd of them, the strike sounded amazing and got more spin than usual, had about 6 foot of backspin with a 6 iron, don't think I've ever done that before. Getting there!

I have tried speeding up my arms but my draw turns into a hook, will try it again tomorrow with your other suggestions, I do overswing with my driver aswell because I turn my shoulders quite a lot, might try less shoulder turn on the backswing too.

Thanks for the response, will try flaring the right foot out tomorrow, when you say less shoulder rotation on downswing, how do i do that, rotate them more after impact?

Been working on 1) Better strike with my long irons, I have been fatting them, Ive changed my set-up so that my hands are slightly more forward and much higher but on video it looks completely normal even though it feels terrible. I'm getting a very straight ball-flight when I do this as opposed to my usual soft draw, so I'm also trying to incorporate this set up into my shorter irons aswell for consistency 2) Putting less with my hands, I struggle to get the distance right on long putts, so I'm working on keeping my arm and hand muscles from doing too much, concentrating on having hands positioned below my shoulders and just rocking my arms back and forth.

I used to have problems thinning and fatting my chips, things that I concentrate on to make better contact is, putting the shaft more forward at set up to get hands infront of the ball, open the stance slightly and make sure you turn your body through the ball at impact (probably the thing I don't do when I do get bad contact), and this one is just me but I used to have quite a steep backswing so sometimes I work on keeping the club close to the ground on the backswing for as long as I can, almost feel like I am dragging it along the ground.

Is there anything I can do to keep my right foot more grounded during the downswing through to impact. It is exaggerated the higher club I hit, with my driver my right foot comes up almost immediately on the start of my downswing and im on my toes at impact. Also feel like I might be swaying my hips a bit too much, any help or any drills/advice anyone can give me?