rkim291968

About 2.5 months ago, I fell down and ended up with what my doctor said was a "bruised nerve." He said it will take about 5 weeks to heal. Well, it took 10 weeks b/c I kept doing things that delayed the recovery. For those 10 weeks, the only golf stuff I could do was putting off green (which I never was good at, I always chipped even from 1st cut), or making short chips. I did that for about 2 months on the course. And the result was significant. My short game improved. For the 1st 3 rounds off of the injury, I averaged 30 putts per round, 2+ improvement. OTOH, my swing form didn't suffer much. I lost 20 yards on average but managing to keep the ball in play more. With the aforementioned improvement, I am playing at the similar level before the injury. So, what's the morale of the story? If you are injured and is limited to do only specific things (like putting), you can still keep in reasonable golf "shape" so to speak.

I gripped down on driver in yesterday's round. Drives were shorter but more accurate. Ball trajectories were lower. I have gripped down before but only when an occasion called for. I think I will give a more serious thought on gripping down as norm. What's working: bunker shots (for a change), chipping & putting What's not working: can't find my golf balls in deep rough. AKA, my ball striking is bad.

I gripped down on driver today. Ball trajectory was lower, distance shorter, and accuracy better. I am going to tried this more to see what happens.

@Strat-Pack Rick, no problem with being on a mission as long as you have fun in playing & improving . Knock yourself out, buddy . I am giving myself a temp relief from being on a mission. I think of it as recharging myself before a run at 14 HI in 2017.

Bring on the new year! Good luck & best wishes to everyone. I graduated, barely, ending with 15.8 HI on 12/31/16. For most of the year, my HI was in 14.5 - 15.5 range. What's working now: ball striking accuracy, relaxing & having fun instead of being a golfer on a mission. Less playing and more practice. What's not working: short game, ball striking distance

Happy holidays to all the bogey golfers out there! What's working these days: chipping, putting What's improving: green side bunker shots What's getting worse: pitching What's not working: balls striking (it comes and goes), distance I am going to end the year with 15.9 HI, 0.1 below my 2016 goal.

Does the lesson include video analysis of your swing? The lessons I took kept my video swing analysis on line. The instructor went over the video in slow-mo. I found it very helpful.

1. Get to HI in 12s at least once in 2017. 2. Finish 2017 with HI in 14s. My "do not" goals for 2017: Do not swear at other golfers. Do not hit into front group. Do not cry after scoring a 10 on a hole. Do not break any golf clubs. Do not buy another golf set (see above bullet). Do not buy another golf practice gadget. Do not blame others for my golf shot. Do not generate lame excuse for my golf shot. Do not play during pouring rain.

My HI is down to 15.9 as of 12/18/16. With a few more rounds before 12/31 & mostly bottom 10 scores to come off the handicap system queue, my 12/31 HI will only go down from 15.9. So, I achieved 50% of my 2016 golf goals. I am getting up to grab a beer ... ---> Now what do I do for 2017?

I agree. The only reason I play the tournament tee on my course is to get ready for tournaments. My club uses only one tee for tournament play.

Today, I focused on keeping shots in play. I club'd up and hit soft on many shots. I used drivers less, opting for hybrid on shorter par 4s. The effort paid off as I had no OB, ball in hazard, ball lost and hit 80% of the fairways. Some drives were embarrassingly short who cares. I had one of my better rounds in recent months.

Breaking 80 can happen any time. Shorter tee will make it happen much easier. The confidence you'd gain from breaking 80 will be huge (it was for me). You will break 80 before too long. Consistently repeating will be harder.

Yeah, moving up a tee can be fun. Recently, I moved up a tee (to a non tournament tee) to gain some confidence. It did me some good and I moved back to a tournament tee. Self analysis - rain/soft turf and cold winter air reduced my drive distance by 20 - 30 yards. Instead of living with shorter drive distance, I tried to swing "harder" and it backfired. Going back to shorter tee compensated for the lost drive distance and my game settled down to shooting below 90s.

What does this even mean? Was he routinely hitting 75 before he took a lesson? Hey, I have an unicorn I want to sell.

You just wait. You will see me in the Masters some 20 years from now. I will have mother of all "Dan's plan" and eat away at my current HI.