xbdi

I started golfing last summer also and this sounds exactly like me (except my handicap is higher). Went from shooting high 80s to high 90s and 100s mostly because of bad tee shots and lost balls. Like you, I used to hit my driver perfectly straight at one time, and consistently. Unfortunately I live in such a rural place that I'd have to travel 15+ hours or more to get quality lessons, so I rely on message boards like these instead and whatever videos and advice I can find online. You said you weren't turning your hips fast enough... what kind of drills are you doing to work on this? I feel like I'm all arms with my driver and that's causing my slices and blocking also. I feel like I'm having a hard time getting my lower body engaged in my shots, and when I consciously try to get them engaged I end up hitting the ground before the ball and bending my knees on my downswing. I've tried hovering lately and it has definitely helped me but some of my fundamentals are still not good enough to hit the ball consistently off the tee.

Hate to double post but I forgot something I wanted to ask and can't figure out if I can edit my last post to add it in. When you hover are you supposed to tee up higher? The guy I saw doing it at our course was doing so. But I just looked at the slideshow of Bubba Watson's swing and he seems to tee it fairly low, unless maybe it just looks that way from the angle. What do you guys do?

Wow guys, I wasn't expecting so many people to chime in, so that deserves a big thanks! I tried this today at the range to get a feel for it and then went and played 9 holes. Needless to say I had a much happier round and found the fairway consistently. One thing I noticed about this is that I'm much more confident when getting ready to hit the ball, and the ball seems to make good solid impact with my clubhead which I only felt every now and then when I grounded my club. I know this was only one day of trying this out but it feels pretty good so far so I hope this keeps working for me. I've been getting a fairly low trajectory, but I haven't been slicing it and have been getting good enough distance that I was satisfied with. It was nice to play up the fairway on most holes today and be confident and relaxed. Hopefully this will start bringing some better consistency from my driver! And I'm glad to see that this thread is helping others try something different also!

Hey guys, had some good help on this forum before with picking out some wedges and now I'm looking for some good help again but in another area. I started golfing last year during mid summer but have only been golfing regularly since about 2.5 months ago. I didn't care about getting better last year at all but my competitiveness has started showing this year and it's been frustrating to play consistently, especially being in an area where there aren't any pros and it's hard to get quality help. I had 5 or 6 rounds where I shot in the high 80s and low 90s and I was satisfied with that. However lately my scores are more around 100+. I kept track today and noticed that I would have par'ed or bogey'ed most holes if I could have kept my driver in play, but instead ended up with a lot of doubles and a couple of triples. A couple of days ago I got paired up with a guy who hovered his driver at address and hit every single fairway despite usually shooting in the mid 90s, while I tried doing various different things (closing my stance, changing my swing, swinging easier, tilting toward my back leg, etc.) and managed to slice 90% of the time, either ending up in the rough or out of play completely. I'm wondering how many of you hover your driver and if there is any added benefit to doing so. I read a couple of old threads on here but they are a couple of years old, and I noticed that most people who responded that they hovered were high handicappers and didn't see much response from lower handicappers. Do the guys on tour hover? I never really thought about this before until I saw that guy at our course doing it consistently. I've been hitting my irons well and my short game has been decent so I'm just looking to keep the ball in play more as I'd have much more fun and do much better. Obviously my swing has some issues which I'm not trying to cover up, because I shouldn't hit slices 90% of the time. I also hit a low drive with a lot of top spin, is this indicative of a swing that is too shallow? Thanks in advance guys for the responses and happy golfing to you all

Thanks for the help guys! I have the 56 now so looking to get a 60. I checked out the classifieds, nice wedge set there but unfortunately I'm lefty. I'll definitely take a look at the posts in that thread you pasted though.

Thanks a bunch for the replies guys. There are not many options here to choose from in terms of sports stores, but I did manage to try out a few wedges on a simulator today and picked up a 56* so far. MIght try to add another through Ebay to get something cheaper. Thanks for the input!!! Appreciate it!!

Hey everyone, I started golfing last summer and bought a complete TaylorMade Burner set but am needing some wedges. I shoot in the 90's if that helps any, and find that my short game costs me a lot of shots. The set came with an A wedge (50 degrees I think) and P wedge (45 degrees?) and that's really all I have besides an old sand wedge that is giving out on me. I'm usually good from 100 yards out with my A wedge but am not very comfortable using it around the green and don't make the best chips with it, sometimes skulling it or just misjudging the weight a lot. I'm looking for advice on what kind of wedge I should get so that I can hit bunker shots as well as make better chips around the green and to fill that void from 100 yards in. I can't afford to get 2 or 3 wedges right now so I'm hoping there is something I can get to fill the void for now by just getting 1 wedge. If you guys don't think that's possible I'd like to hear that too. My buddy who is a 4 handicap suggested that I get a 58 but I just wanted to get a few more opinions from here as I'm heading out of town to hopefully get one tomorrow. Thanks in advance all.