Goat Green

Some would argue that muscle memory is based on rest as well as repetition. Or, to put it another way, he may be doing 1000 reps a day of something, that the learning benefit peaked out for him at 200, for example. When someone is new to golf, and they practice chipping for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, will they be better than the same person who practices chipping 3 hours a day, 5 days a week? I say "no."

Wow. There certainly are a lot of people in this thread, washing down their Hater Tots with some Hater-ade.

Life is short. And you can't take it with you. A close friend of mine was set to retire at 65, but then the recession hit and he was advised to wait another 2 years before retiring. He was dead in 2 years from cancer. My advice is if you want to play Pebble Beach badly enough, you should find a way. And if you don't... don't.

Yes I do because it was only 2 months ago. I shot a 52 on a par 3. 2 months, 3 lessons, and a lot of practice later.... I scored 38 twice last night playing two par 3's back to back. Progress.

I picked up a good one from my lesson yesterday. On the range, place a ball slightly behind the ball you are about to strike. On your backswing, slide the rear ball back with the club until rolls to the rear edge of the mat, then follow through with the swing. This drill and the toe-up drill seems to get me back on track when I feel lost again, which is very often, haha. Hope this helps!

Well this thread has motivated me to change my diet. Breakfast: Oatmeal and fresh fruit with a bit of jam mixed in (MWF) OR Granola and milk with fresh blueberries (T-TH) Lunch: Homemade Kidney Beans, Quinoa, Homegrown Tomatoes, Salad, Brussel Sprouts Dinner: Chicken and Broccoli, Tilapia and Green Beans, etc along these lines Snacks: Raw Carrots, Granny Smith Apples Would anyone make any additions/subtractions to this, and if so, what and why? Thanks for the motivation, everyone!!!

So how long have you worked for Nike?

About 2 months ago, I decided I wanted to start playing golf. Just like the OP, I took a lesson from a Pro before doing anything else, "so that I would be a clean slate." Here are two big mistakes I made: 1. Practicing too often. Once I get into a groove, then I probably can't practice too much. But when starting out, I hit enough fat shots that my left wrist started to really hurt. So I took a few days off, and now I only allow myself to go to the range every other day. I work on putting and play the par-3s on days I am not at the range. Point being, bad technique can result in injury, and starting out, I have a LOT of bad technique. So it is best to "walk before I run" so to speak. 2. Too much information. I asked my instructor for a good practice routine. He said "for now, I just want you working on the toe-up to toe-up drill." But did I listen? noooooooooo. I had to try to learn pitching,chipping, bump and run, etc etc etc all at the same time, and it was all too much to keep straight. So I dialed it down a bit, and now I just do toe-up and full swings at the range, and play par 3s for fun on alternating days. When I started, I would hit maybe one good ball for every 20 bad. I would miss completely, skull it, hit it fat, slice, draw, you name it. But after only 2 short months of practicing or playing at least an hour almost every day, I know that I am making progress. The golf swing is REALLY HARD to learn how to execute properly and consistently. But we are better off because there aren't old bad habits that need to be undone. Just put the time in and you'll see results. Hope this helped a little bit and good luck.

I looked on the main site and googled it, but no luck. I am looking for archives of the Opens for the past few years. Anyone know any sites that offer this?

A few primers here: 1. I have a 1 hour time window, 5 days a week, and a 3 hour time window 1 day a week. 2. I just picked the game up about 2 months ago. 3. I started by going to a Golf Pro at a local course, told him I was starting from scratch (a blank slate, basically), and wanted his help to mold my habits into good ones, before I had a chance to develop bad ones. He started me off by building my swing. First with the toe-up to toe-up drill, using the 8 iron. So I started out probably too aggressively. I am in my mid 30s, so I am young, but not exactly a teenager. I was going to the range every day, hitting 4 or 5 toe-toe, and then trying one full shot. Eventually my wrist started to hurt from too many mis-hits into the ground. So I took it easy for a few days, then started going to the range again, this time every other day. I was improving for a while, just by going to the range M-W-F, working on pitching/chipping/putting on the practice green, and squeezing in a Par-3 Course or two when I could. I took 2 days off, to rest the back and wrists, and went to the range today. It's like I have regressed back to a month ago. No big deal there I guess... I'll schedule some time with the Pro giving me lessons. But my question is, what is a good weekly practice routine for a beginner who can devote an hour a day to practice, and maybe one or two 3 hour blocks per week as well?

I play Golf to escape from the stress and frustrations of life. I get mad for a few seconds when I hit a bad shot, but then I look forward to getting to try a more challenging shot, because of my bad shot. The hard part for me is getting the stress of regular life out of my head, so that I can loosen up and take a good, relaxed swing.

Thank you all for the input, it has been very helpful. I am going to go back to what was working for me, pitch-wise. It was the Pelz reference that was throwing me off. One thing that every method has in common I notice, is keeping the hands "dead" and ahead of the club. If I can do that, and keep my right wrist cock/hinge consistent, then I think I have something positive and repeatable I can practice. I think.

Interesting... especially the video. Tiger's method really is a mini version of the full swing. And a stark contrast to Pelz's and Mickleson's method.

Pitch shots in general. The reason I think it is a different shot, is because of the right wrist hold through the shot, and the upper body rotation without help from the lower body.

Seems to me that the putt, pitch, and regular swing, are dramatically different swings. I was just curious if anyone had any success pitching with their right wrist cocked up, as Pelz descibes, as opposed to hinged right. Because when I cock the wrist up, it has been nothing but skulls and fat hits, but when I hinge my right wrist I seem to get much better results.

Now I am really confused. I thought I read that: If you put your right hand out in front of you, thumb pointed to the sky, and move your wrist left to right, that is hinging. But if you move your wrist up, then that is cocking the wrist. I was having fairly good results pitching, by hinging my right wrist per the above definition. Then I read Pelz's Short Game Bible, and he was very clear, with pictures even, that the right wrist needs to be cocked (up) not hinged(left-right). But as far as I can tell, Phil's Hinge and Hold for a righty, has him hinging the right wrist to the right on the backswing and holding it. So are these just two different methods, or am I misunderstanding one or both of them?

The reason I ask is, in Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible, he talks about the importance of cocking the right wrist (for a right-hander) as opposed to hinging it. But then there is Phil Mickleson's "Hinge and Hold," which seems to say the complete opposite. Then, I have also noticed that some people use the words "hinging" and "cocking" interchangeably, even though they mean two very different things. So I am confused. I felt like I was starting to get a pretty good feel, using the hinge and hold. But with the cocking of the right wrist instead of hinging it, all I do is skull it. Which maybe mental on my part... So are these just different methods, or have I misunderstood one of them? I searched here, and on google of course, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer.