GangGreen

I can only speak for myself, but depending on the situation, there are many times that I may putt out (or hit my approach shot) if I'm already on the green (at my ball) and a playing partner still isn't. I certainly wouldn't hold someone else up, though, if they were away and truly ready.

Yep, the starter at my home course will often let me go off on the 3rd hole (or back 9) if I show up as a single and there's a foursome ahead. I play there a fair amount though and he knows I'm not going to slow things down while I'm out there. I've also skipped holes mid-round if I'm a single and I hit slow group and there's no one in front of them. If I can double back and play those holes afterwards I do but if it's still backed up later I'll just skip them altogether.

I know right? I live just outside Philadelphia and the weather has been unreal for golf, mid-60s this weekend and I'm playing tomorrow (and maybe Sunday too). The best part, the courses are in great condition by us and we're in winter rate mode so I've been able to play some really nice courses for two-thirds of what it would cost me in the summer.

Not bad, 1) I started a work-out regiment that I've kept up with so far and has really helped, 2) I believe I took 6 lessons early in the season, 3) had my first sub-90 round on the home course on May 1st (88), 8 rounds below 90 for the season, and 4) ended the year with a HI of 16.6.

Not bad, 1) I started a work-out regiment that I've kept up with so far and has really helped, 2) I believe I took 6 lessons early in the season, 3) had my first sub-90 round on the home course on May 1st (88), 8 rounds below 90 for the season, and 4) ended the year with a HI of 16.6.

I've just upgraded my irons now after my third year of getting back into the game. My reason may (or may not) be a typical one. I needed a new set when I started playing again and went with the TM Rocketballz based on the suggestion from the Golfsmith sales guy. At the time, I wasn't sure if I was going to be really into golf the way I was when I was playing 15+ years ago so I went with a decent set that wouldn't break the bank. I still like them but never really loved them so decided to get fitted for a set of Ping G30's (now that I know I'm hooked). Have to wait until after Christmas to hit with them so won't know for awhile if it was the right decision.

Main goals is to get the HI down into the 12-13 range. To get there I plan on: 1. Stepping up the flexibility/strength training in the off-season. Started last off-season, really helped eliminate a lot of the nagging little injuries this year and I think gave me a few extra yards of distance. 2. Keeping up with the lessons. I've started each of the last 2 seasons with a handful of lessons from a great instructor, seems to get me headed in the right direction each year. Might add a mid-season lesson or two just to make sure I don't stray too far as the season progresses (I tend to hit a wall mid-August and usually start falling into some old bad habits). 3. Playing more courses. I tend to play 70% of my rounds on my home course. It's a good challenging shorter course but I tend to struggle when I play "away" especially on longer courses. I think my overall game (and scoring) will improve if I add a little more variety and challenge myself a little more regularly. Certainly other things I plan on doing, but those are the main ones.

Ended the season at a 16.6. On the plus side, I started the year at 21.8 so very happy to see the lessons and practice time starting to pay-off. Had a great stretch over the summer where I felt I was really hitting the ball well (for me) and the swing changes I've been working on for the last 2 years felt a little more ingrained. On the minus side, scoring was very inconsistent over the course of the season. Looking at the 10 worst of my last 20 recorded scores, my HI on those rounds were a 23.9 (a 7.3 stroke swing...yikes!!!). If I had to point at any one aspect of my game that seemed to fall apart more often then not, it was my driver for sure. I went through a really bad stretch with it toward the end of the season and only recently have gotten it back under control again (just in time to put the clubs away for the winter...haha!). The official season is over for us here (although I'll probably still get another round or two in before the cold weather really kicks in). Looking forward to continuing the progress next season...more lessons, new irons, play more courses, with a goal to get my HI down to the 12-13 range with a lot less round-to-round variance.

HAHAHA...so true! I tried out a few clubs and it came down to either the G30s, Mizuno JPX 850s, or Titleist AP1's. Practically speaking, any of the 3 sets were way more then I needed for my current level of play but heck there's nothing wrong with indulging yourself every now and again. For whatever reason, the Mizuno's just didn't agree with my swing. The G30's and the AP1's were comparable results wise for me, but the G30's were slightly less expensive. Also, I had purchased the G25 hybrids earlier in the season and REALLY REALLY loved playing with them so that ultimately helped tilt the decision toward the PING irons.

Will let you know after Xmas, I just got fitted for the G30 iron set and waiting for them to get here. Only downside, my wife's only stipulation was I had to wait to Xmas to open them so the next few weeks are going to be brutal (she doesn't even trust me to go pick them up when they get here, can't blame her for that though...haha).

My instructor had me put a head cover under my right armpit while I swing at 50% speed to help fix this. He's also had me use a towel under both to help me keep my arms/body more "connected" during the swing.

My home course is just under 6,000 yards and I love it. There are only a couple of par 4/5's that you really need driver. Although it's a shorter course, it's sneaky tough in that you don't have a lot of margin for error off the tee. A lot of well placed trees so even a shot that may be a little off line can leave you with no shot at the green. I play 75%-80% of my rounds there and the downside (for me at least) is I tend to struggle at longer courses (say 6,300-6,500) as a result.

Absolutely, I'm a huge believer in lessons (been taking them myself now for the past 2 years since I got back into the game). I guess the trick, for lack of a better term, is getting him interested enough in the game to take lessons. It was a no brainer for me, I fell in love with the game while I was in college many many moons ago, stopped playing for 15 years (kids, life, etc.) but made the I decision early on to get them when I started getting serious about playing again.

Cool, thanks.

Great, thanks for the suggestions. Did you spend much time on the basic rules of play, I don't anticipate we're going to keep score but figured it would make some sense to point them out as we we went along.

That's a great idea, I was a little worried that he might get a little frustrated at a real course (even an easier, wide open course) but a par 3 course would be a great intro.

So I finally convinced a good friend of mine to come out to the range with me this weekend. He really seemed to enjoy himself and I was quite surprised by how well he did seeing as this was his first time. For my part, I offered one or two simple suggestions every now and again (mainly related to grip, posture, alignment) as I didn't want to overwhelm him with too many swing thoughts. We stuck to the short-irons and kept all his swings at around 50% speed. We didn't do any specific drills but I'd like to get him out to the range again a couple of more times before taking him out to a course (late afternoon when no one is really around, forward tees, no score keeping, etc.). Any suggestions on things to do at the range and/or for his first time out would be appreciated.

Been playing lights out for me lately but came back down to reality this weekend shooting a 92 (+22) at the home course. Just couldn't put 2 decent shots in a row together all day. On vacation the week prior so didn't get to play/practice at all and it showed.

Down to 17.5, have had a good stretch of scoring. Index is down 4 strokes from where I started the year and 6 strokes from where I was this time last year. I've read on this forum that improvement will come in waves (in between plateaus) for higher handicappers like myself, I seem to be riding a bit of a wave lately and loving it.

Shot a +12 (82) on the home course yesterday. Extremely happy with my game these days, all the lessons and time on the range seem to be finally paying off. I broke 90 for the first time a few weeks back and seem to have had a mini break-through in my game since then. Index is trending down nicely too, one of my other goals this year was to get it down to an 18 and should be at 17.5 with the next revision. Only downside is I've been playing almost 90% of my rounds at my home course this year (it's just so convenient) so I'm guessing my scores are probably 5-6 shots better because of the familiarity, going to have to start playing some different courses more regularly to really see where my game is these days.

I carry a 5 wood (Callaway X2 Hot) to fill the gap between my 3 wood and 3 hybrid. I'm not a long hitter and, for me, it's my 200 yard club. I love it but my home course is fairly short and very tight so I get a fair amount of use out of it off the tee.

I used to use the Golfshot app for yardages and it was fine until I got a Garmin GPS watch for Christmas last year. I still use the phone app for keeping score/stats but the watch is just so much more convenient to use for yardages during the round. I've also played a couple of rounds with individuals who have range finders and it always seems like we get about the same distances give or take a yard or two.

+1, I've really found sticking to all my routines before each round has helped, even if it's abbreviated. Usually consists of 10-15 minutes putting, another 10-15 minutes chipping, then some warm-up swings on the range (although I've found that if I hit any more than 15-20 balls beforehand it becomes counter productive).

I just started breaking into the mid to high 80's so I'm hardly the best person to be giving advice (although my putting has always been pretty decent). My instructor and I were working on putting not too long ago and he gave me 2 great drills to help me with my speed. First one is real simple, next time you're on a practice green take 4 or 5 balls and line them up all on the same putting line but each one progressively longer then the next (I'd stagger them about 2-3 feet apart). Putt each one starting with the closest and progressively work back to the one farthest from the hole, great way to get a feel for the weight of each putt at a different distance. 2nd one was geared more for those (like me) who tend to leave everything short of the hole. Place a club or alignment stick 15-18 inches past the hole, putt like you normally would only you should focus on putting with enough weight that if you miss the ball stops somewhere between the hole and the club behind the hole. Drill seems to work best when you're around 8-10 feet away, putting on a relatively flat green. Good luck

Overall a good weekend of golf for me, played the front 9 of my home course twice on Friday, shot a 45 and a 43. Wasn't striking the ball particularly well but my putting was pretty solid and my misses were manageable for the most part. Played a different course in the area on Sunday and shot an 86, odd day hole-to-hole, carded more pars then I ever had before (9 for the round) but also had more flat out disaster holes then I've had in awhile as well. The extra work with the driver seems to really be paying off these last few rounds, the errant ones still cost me dearly on the scorecard but they're fewer of them and I've learned to just take my medicine when they occur and just get the ball back in play.