HR Golf

This question occurred to me today while I was walking 9 at the local muni course. I'm by no means a great golfer but I'm improving quickly and finally broke the 90's last week. I notice when I play I'll concentrate too much on one aspect of my swing, such as swinging under the ball on the downswing; but then I'll forgot about other important aspects of swinging. For example today I had all my thoughts on choking up on the driver, shifting my weight forward on the downswing and getting under the ball, all of this but I kept whiffing. Why? I forgot to drop my right shoulder and was really tensed up. After 2 or 3 holes of whiffs I realized my problem and dropped the shoulder and my swing was back to normal. I sometimes can just block out all my thoughts, clear my head, swing, and be in the clear; however, I feel as if I don't constantly think about how to swing I'll mess up. Does anyone else ever have too many swing thoughts at once? What do you do to make your swing easier and more natural?

I definitely agree with that. Yesterday was pretty windy but I shot my lowest score yet. Must be something about the cold that keeps me on my toes.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I walked 9 yesterday at the local muni after reading these and sunk almost every single (save 1 or 2) short putts. The main key for me that I never noticed I did, was keeping my head in one spot even after I hit the ball. I'd always put my head up too early to follow the ball and mess up my line. It feels odd not watching the ball but it helps, and it's always awesome to hear it drop into the hole without seeing it.

Thanks, I bet that is part of my problem. The hole seems so close I don't want to overdo it so I probably don't follow through as I would with a longer putt.

I golfed everyday last week, playing 9 or 18 holes depending on the time, and I never noticed myself doing this constantly but now it seems like a big problem I have. If I have a putt from 10 feet out I can generally either sink it or get it pretty damn close to the hole for a 'gimme' putt. Yet, when I'm at least 1 foot out, sometimes even less I can't seem to get my aim or speed down. Does anyone know what kind of drills I could do to fix this type of thing? I'm not sure what I'm doing, maybe it's more mental than anything else.

Oh yeah, lower temperatures just mean I walk 9 or 18 instead of going to the range. I'm actually going today in about 3 hours, the high today is 35 degrees with a chance of snow, but I've got to get some golf in before it snows and the course is closed.

I'm 16 (17 on Dec.25th) so the age isn't a factor in walking for me but I still prefer it. The major thing for me is I feel more in sync with my golf game when I walk and have time to think about my next shot or the mechanics of my swing. I use a cart sometimes, especially if I'm playing with my dad or if it's just entirely too hot outside, but I feel like I play worse when I use a cart. My shots don't seem linear when I'm in a cart, the whole game is broken up getting in and out of the cart and I don't have time to think about my shots or really get a feel of the course. Plus, I always feel physically better when I walk as opposed to riding.

Haha I know what you mean. My brother has an awful swing (to me at least), it just doesn't look right and he doesn't bend his right arm in, it just annoys me. I've tried to correct him but he gets mad at me about it. He hits straight most of the time and sometimes outdrives me so it seems to work for him, but man his swing really gets to me. But I guess that stems from the fact that when I started playing golf our dad signed me up for a million professional lessons and when my brother started playing he kind of picked it up on his own and opted out of lessons.

Golf makes me happy. Even if I'm not having such a great round I still love it and try not to let a few bad holes or maybe even a whole bad round ruin my time. With school I only have time to play maybe once or twice a week, usually driving range. But I always think about golfing, and when I finally go I love it. i just take my time and relax, I like seeing how I make improvements on my swing at the driving range and then transferring it to the course. That's by far my favorite part of golf, improving my game all on my own.

I definitely agree with you on this one. I finally seem to be getting my swing worked out after a rough summer/fall. My swing was ok before, but not very consistent. I worked on it a lot and listened to a few tips and found something that worked for me 95% of the time. Then as I played with my new swing I decided I could make it better and hit further and maybe a little more accurately. Wrong. I started taking too much advice in and trying to correct everything about my swing and like you said, I just lost my swing. So now I've gotten back to the basics of my own personal swing. It's good to take some major advice for the basics of the golf swing (keep your eye on the ball, swing all the way through, push your weight forward), but you can't expect to mimic Tiger's swing and then hit like Tiger.

What I do when I play in tournaments is pretend as if I'm playing a regular round with my friends. Also, if I do get nervous and whiff a shot I just keep in mind that as long as it it is in bounds I'll be able to play it better the next time. Just find something to think about walking to your ball, whether it be something that motivates you or just trying not to think at all.

I started when I was 4 or 5 because my dad plays and he took me with him. However I didn't start enjoying golf until my freshmen year of high school when my dad made me sign up for the schools golf team. I'm glad he did now though because I play almost 4 or 5 times a week.

I putt conventionally. In one of my tournaments I saw another player putting kak-handed so I gave it a try the next day when I was practicing. It seems to give me more of the extra push I need to get my ball to the hole (I always putt a little too lightly) but my aim wasn't as good. I think it all comes down to the fact that I've always putted conventionally and when I tried to switch it up I couldn't putt as well. Of course that goes for all golf techniques, I'm sure if I putted kak-handed all the time I'd get used to it and maybe even putt better.