Draftstone

Thanks a lot for that reply! Will start to work on that and will post another video during summer to show the progress of my swing and to see what I could try to improve next!

I've been Playing Golf for: 7 years (but the first 6 years, were only 3-4 rounds per year, started "seriously" last year My current handicap index or average score is: playing between 95 and 105 My typical ball flight is: fade (with the occasional slice, but quite rare) The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: I hit a lot of fat shots (maximum 100 yards carry with 6 iron when I usually carry it around 160-165 when hitting it clean) I've just finished taking lessons and here are the videos of the final lesson. Simply posting to get any comments (positive/negative, what I should continue to work on/improve, etc...) And don't tell me that I should fix the fact that I play left-handed ;) lol Videos:

I took lessons in the past month and for the adress position, the pro was simply telling me that once you put the clubhead behind the ball, if you let the shaft of the club come down and touch your leg that is forward (left for right handed golfer, right for left handed) while keeping the clubhead behind the ball, the tip of the shaft should touch just a couple of inches under the middle point between your hip and your knee (toward the knee). That way, it is pretty easy to find the correct position for every club no matter the shaft length (I have a lot more solid contacts since using this tip for setup).

Hi! I just realized I never did an introduction thread! So I am 28, from Quebec City, Canada. I am a video game network programmer. I started playing golf about 7 years ago, but only started playing regularly last summer. Before it was only 2-3 rounds per year, and I played something like 25 rounds last summer. I also play left handed, the only one I know in everyone I play golf with, so everytime I miss a shot, you can be sure I hear someone say: you should try playing the other way around! I am currently practicing at an indoor facility with simulators because it is totally impossible to play around here in winter. Courses should be playable in April (late March if we are really really lucky with the temperature). I am also taking some lessons this winter (still have a constant fade that switches into a slice every 4-5 shots) and I'd like to get rid of that. Last year, I was playing around 110-115 at the beginning of summer, and at the end, my last 3 rounds were under 100 (98-94-96). I hope to play under 90 this year! For my equipment, if anyone is interested Driver: Taylormade RBZ 3 wood: Taylormade RBZ 5 wood: Taylormade RBZ 4 hybrid: Macgregor tourney irons (5-6-7-8-9-P-G): Wilson Di11 (I also have a 4 iron, but I keep it out of bag for the hybrid, way easier to hit) 56 wedge and 60 wedge: Wilson Putter: Nancy Lopez putter (I am built quite short and like to lean a lot over the ball when putting, so a smaller putter made for a women really fits for me) So that is me. Feel free to ask anything, I don't bite!

Thanks for your feedback, and you are totally right. My post was aimed to people that are aiming to shoot lower scores and I wanted to provide an easy way to drop a high score by a couple of shots, forgot to mention that. Golf can be played for a lot of reasons, and I hope fun is one of them. If someone is having fun trying to replicate awesome shots they saw on tv, then they should play that way! So I would add to my previous post, if your goal (not what you say it is, but what you want, like festivus said in his post) is not to shoot lower scores, forgot what you just read and simply go out and have fun. And I hope I'll meet you on a course someday, there is nothing better that being grouped with someone that plays for the fun the game brings to him! :)

The 2 things I am working on right now that will help me lower my score a lot (still not to scratch level, but we have to start somewhere). - Inconsistent distance (far from perfect hits on the clubface). No matter the club, I can't have a consistent distance. Off the tee box it is not a really big problem unless I have to go over water or a bunker, but with short irons, I miss the green a lot too short or too far. (for example, with my 7 irons, I hit 50% of my shots at 135yds, 25% at 155 yds, 25% at 115 yards). - Still slice the ball about 25% of the time with driver + fairway woods + hybrid. My 5 iron usually only fades when it curves. So one hole out of four, I am usually looking for my ball out of fairway which costs me at least one stroke. The chipping an putting so far are looking good (this is what is "saving" me so far. I can do a lot of "one chip one putt") . Still a couple of errors, but usually, I chip and putt better than some lower handicaps I play with. So if I can start to keep the ball in the fairway and reduce my short iron distance gaps (I think that a 40 yard gap for my 7 iron is not acceptable to hit GIR) I should start to lower my scores by a good margin.

Hi! This thread is mostly towards high handicapper, but low handicappers, feel free to pitch in! And it is based solely on personal experience, so your expericen may vary, but I think this could really help a lot of high handicappers around. Some background. I live in Quebec, Canada and I've been playing golf seriously for only one year. This winter I decided to play at an indoor simulator facility at least once a week (impossible to play golf under 6 feet of snow hehe) to keep practicing (they use the same simulators as the one you can see on the golf channel on a lot of their shows). I currently carry a 22 handicap calculated only on real courses last summer, not the simulator ones. So far, I was playing around 100 (lowest was 96 and highest was 110) on the simulator, mostly playing at Pebble Beach white tees (I like that course). I play a lot like many of high handicapers I see on the course, that is if the pin is inside my 3 wood range, I'll try it. Always driver on the tee box. etc... 2 weeks ago, when I was playing, the guy that had booked the same simulator arrived earlier and we started to talk a little while I finished my round. While we were talking, he asked me if I wanted a simple advice from an ex-high handicaper that is now playing a 3 handicap. I said sure, go ahead. He simply replied: "I saw you play and simply try to play smart. I don't want to be rude, but at your skill level, you don't have what it takes to try to reach par 5s in two. You are not consistent enough to hit well protected greens from 150-160 yards out. I was once playing as you are, everyone does that, but play smart and you'll see your score drop". And I realized that it's true. Most people I play with have handicaps around mine and we all try to hit "THE SHOT" that will make us remember that round. When we hit "THE SHOT", god we feel great, but when we miss it 10 times on the next 10 holes, we feel like crap. So I booked another 18 holes a couple of days later and decided to try that. Took Pebble Beach once again. And I started to "analyse the holes" as being one stroke over par that they were to give me some room. Anyway, playing the course as if it was par 90, it is still lower than what I shoot. So I started taking my 3 wood or my irons on tee boxes of par 4. I started to aim the fairway in front on protected greens to leave me with a 40-50 yards shot to hit the green instead of aiming directly for the green. And you know what, I shot the best round of my life. I shot a 90. Even playing as par+1, I did 4 real pars on the course. I was so confident with my game, always hitting fairways (since I was hitting shorter clubs that are easier to hit), that some of my 30-50 yards shot were leaving me with a makeable putt that I was making. I never felt the "oh god" moment when you hit "THE SHOT", but I felt so great with my round overall. I now know that I have the capability to shoot lower scores if I simply play smart. And with more practice, I'll be even able to shoot even lower. Couple of days later, I played another 18 holes and played a 91. Having took no lessons in between, I went from playing around 100 to 2 rounds of 90 and 91. My dad (who never played under 115 on the simulator) tried that the same day I played my 91, he shot 101. 14 shots difference simply by stopping to try to aim for a number written on a scorecard. And he had a blast seeing his score lower than usual hole after hole. So my little advice to anyone that starts, don't try to shoot what is written on the scorecard, you won't be able to. Play the course as a par+1 (or even +2 if you still shoot over 110). Play the course according to your skill level. You will have a blast. Instead of searching for your ball in the woods and being pissed about losing another ball, you will practice you irons, hit fairways and have fun!

I already started to bring one of my friend in the world of golf..... I knew he was somewhat interested in the game since he was asking me what I played when he knew I was going to play golf last summer. Right after the holidays, I was booking some lessons for late january and I was able to convince him to come and take the same lessons. He found a used golf bag on internet (I am lefty so I can't lend him any clubs) and he signed up for lessons. He took one so far and loved it! We are going for the second one on Monday. So does that count since I started the process in 2014 or do I have to find another future golfer?

Quebec City here like Golden. We are quite lucky this year, only a couple of days under -30 celsius (that's -22 farenheit for those in the US) and about 6 feet of snowfall according the the weather service. If it continues like that, we should be able to golf in early April, temperatures are quite "hot" for February (-10C / 14F) and there is not much snowfall announced in the next 2 weeks, so with some luck, most snow will melt in late March. I hope so!

I just tought it could be easier to always do a full swing that goes farther than the pin and roll it back afterward, but maybe I am wrong. Anyway, since I can't put any backspin on any shot yet, I simply try to judge the correct swing speed for the distance left if it less than 60 yards.

My 60 degree wedge, with a full swing goes about 55-60 yards of carry and usually stops dead inside 1 feet (I still can't put backspin on it for it to roll backward after it lands). So usually, when I seem to be halfway between green center and the 100 yard marker, I take my wedge and simply grip it like 1 inch shorter. It makes my swing a little slower since I have to lean a little more over the ball and it goes around 50 yards (give or take 2-3 yards, still not that consistent, but I am usually able to hit the green inside 100 yards. All this might not be the correct technique, but it works for me right now, so that's what I am using :)

Video game network programmer for Ubisoft!

I'd like if it was only in the thirties around here. My local golf course is under 3 feet of snow right now! Wintry mix announced for Sunday is around 6-7 inches of snow and some freezing rain thrown in there! I'll keep putting in my basement! Tonight Dec 19 19 °F Observed High 2:05 pm 7 °F Mostly Cloudy CHANCE OF SNOW: 20% WIND: NW at 8 mph Fri Dec 20 17 ° 8 ° Snow CHANCE OF SNOW: 80% WIND: NE at 15 mph SNOWFALL 2-4 in Sat Dec 21 20 ° 9 ° Snow Shower CHANCE OF SNOW: 60% WIND: ENE at 14 mph Sun Dec 22 20 ° 19 ° Wintry Mix CHANCE OF PRECIP: 80% WIND: ENE at 19 mph Mon Dec 23 24 ° 1 ° Cloudy CHANCE OF SNOW: 10% WIND: WSW at 16 mph

Hi! I've been reading this forum for quite some time (found a lot of valuable informations) and decided today to jump in and ask for some advices since there seems to be a lot of people ready to help here. So basic story of me as a golfer. I bought some cheap clubs about 7 years ago (bought bags and clubs except driver, all new for 69$, real cheap clubs haha) and a cheap driver for 50$ (intech MDT). This year I started to play a lot more and decided that I would improve on my game. I played at least once a week. I went from playing over 130 in may to playing around 110-115 around july. The only thing that was good was my putts. My driving and my iron play sucked a lot. I decided to buy some good irons and bought the wilson Di11 set (vendor told me they were suposed to help a beginner's game). Just by changing the clubs the game improved directly the next day I tried them. I shot an 98 (first time under 100 in my life). Since then, my only game over 100 is a 102 on a golf course that was said to be harder than the one I play usually on. So now my next step is trying to improve my drive. But here is my problem, I have a huge slice. I play left handed so I usually try to aim about 30-40 degrees right of the fairway and usually I can get on it, but most time than not, I simply go at the far left and end up in the rough. On right dogleg hole, I don't even think about using my driver. I tried a lot of things in the driving range to try to fix it. Tried to change the grip (firmer vs loose), ball position, weight transfer earlier/later, etc... but the only thing that seemed to improve was trying to hit the ball as hard as I could. When I was trying to hit hard, the ball would slice a lot less, I would say between a push and a fade. But when I try to hit hard, I get a lot of mishits too, so simply swinging harder is only fixing the slice problem, not the driving problem. If I try to hit real slow (like a 100-125 yard drive) it still slices a lot. With my 3-wood and long irons, I only slice a small percentage of my swings and usually I feel that my swing was incorrect or that I made a "weird" contact with the ball. So it looks like my swing is not so bad ( I usually hit around 200 yards with my 3-wood with the ball landing ~5 yards left (I am left handed) of where I was aiming either on tee or directly on the fairway). So I am wondering if the club might be a part of the problem. The loft on the club is 10 degrees and the shaft is tagged as intermediate flex. Also, when I bought the club, under it toward the end, it looked like there were 2 little weights there that I noticed were missing after a couple of weeks (probably fell off without me noticing). So, do you think buying a good driver (I was looking at the TaylorMade R1 wich is on sale at a local golf shop) might improve my game more than trying to change my swing (I plan on taking a class next spring before the season starts) or I should be able to hit my current driver correctly? Thanks for your help!