gophinmedic

I agree, thats why im saying you have to take whats in front of you, try it out and see if it works. If it dosent, your out nothing but a little bit of time and no worse off than you were before. If you can afford lessons, by all means go for it, I think that its awesome that our sport has instructors to help everyday joes like us instead of having to be a high caliber athlete. And, I don't think you have to be a seasoned athlete to take the route of trial and error, just have to be willing to accept that some things wont work for you and be able to erase it from memory, which I am able to do. I hope that one day (when the FD starts paying a little better, lol) I'll be able to take formal lessons but for the right now, all I am able to see is "McLessons" and thats what I have to learn from.

Look. [quote name="nevets88" url="/t/72598/would-golf-instruction-be-better-if/30#post_953024"] And I had limited success listening to tour pros as instructors. I think more people have my experience than yours. Bill Gates needed both brilliance and luck to grow MSFT. Let's not forget he totally missed the Internet until enough people badgered him. [/quote] Look, my point is, not all of us are able to take lessons, get computerized feedback and create the perfect swing. We take what we can get. Shows like playing lessons, youtube videos from pros and articles from the pros have gone a long way into taking my game from a baseball swing and a 70 yard slice to a consistent swing that creates scrores in the low 80's, and on a lucky day, taps into the 70's. I compare it to EMS. Ive been told 10 different ways how to intubate someone, 30 different techniques to starting IV's and 1000's of treatment modalities based on where someone is from. Ive taken all this information, tried what seemed legeitimate to me, and figured out what worked best. I don't think golf should be any different. Case in point, Phil Mickelson pushes his hinge and hold, and although it works fabulously for him, I cant get it to work for me, so I throw it out. but Grahame McDowells tip of "feeling" like his right elbow is going into his right pocket on the downswing almost instantly cured my slice and added shaft lean. Some things work, some things don't and when your in a financially tight situation, you must wade these waters if you want improvement. Im not saying that this way is better than seeing a teaching pro and having a personalized lesson, Im saying if this is what your able to get, its better than swinging in the dark.

I vote no. Sometimes this I all the instruction you can get, I've never been able to afford or justify legitimate lessons. I've shaped my game around tour pro instruction and what many on here refer to as "Mclessons". Is it tailored to me? No. But I've tried what they have said and found out what works for me. I learned how pitch in baseball by watching baseball tonight, sports center and tips from the bigs. Ended up with a scholarship. These guys are the best in the world for a reason. If bill gates offered you business advice, would you turn it down?

The first driver I hit. Sliced about 70 yards, lol. Motivated me to work hard and fix it, after about 1.5 years, got a nice little draw going.

Haha. Point taken!

I lost about 20 yards this fall and realized fatter watching some video and looking at the club face that I was getting it off the heel. Some say that's the absolute worse place to miss hit the ball. Lined off on the toe and got my yards back.

This is what I was getting at. In my 30 hcp days I topped a lot of woods. Leaving myself another wood. Or mayber a longer iron. And where I play, the white tees have 4 par 5's, all of which stretch over 520 yards. Which mean maxing out a driver, then maxing out a 3 wood. I never liked those odds and much preferred to play my third shot from 50-100 yards in the fairway and not from 180, or from the woods, or in the ponds. I think the courses you play have a lot to do with it as well. My home course is called "The Woods", and for good reason. On just about every hole, you have about 10 yards of rough on both sides, then dense forest. Not high percentage to risk half of my shots ending up in that crap. If your on a course that dosent have trees, or water on every hole, then your percentage goes up. My bad for not adding that earlier, it definitely makes a difference. Nowadays, I go for it, because I have the confidence and skill to do so, but back then, I saved a lot of pointless shots playing this way.

I think its a cool idea, maybe not from a mechanical or instructional tool, but as a viewer and getting to see that many angles of a swing is pretty neat. I think they did it more as a novelty and a different way to look at the golf swing rather than trying to use it as an instructional tool.

I believe Walker has already had neck issues that kept him down for quite sometime. Apparently from the force created by him forcing his eyes to stay down after contact.

I wasn't talking about the physical detriments to young athletes throwing a curve ball. I know that's a problem, im a product of coaches not knowing that years ago. I was getting at teaching a fundamental skill first, then moving and advancing toward more skilled attributes. I am not saying give up on long putts, but we need to know how to make these long putts before we can try. You don't just hand someone a driver and say stick it out there at 290 in the middle of the fairway. I am speaking from my own experience. When I started playing (unable to afford real lessons) I started putting trying to make everything and as a result focused no attention on building the skill to do such a thing. When I stopped, and worked solely on speed, irregardless of where the ball ended in proximity to a hole, just concentrating on getting speed and distance control down, my putting improved tremendously. I then made my target a large area around the hole. After a couple weeks, I could put 95% of my putts in that circle, then I took it down to a circle 50% smaller. After I was above 90% with that, I decreased the size again. I eventually worked my way down to the cup itself. Over time, this made me start reading break more and more. But at this point, I had my speed down which made the line easier to see.Over this course of time, about two months, my putting improved by a total of 8 putts a round, pretty damn big difference. Now I practice making putts, not to a circle, because I improved myself and got better. I learned the fundementals, I became skilled at the fundementals. I established a base and grew off of that. Like ive said, this is how I did it, how it worked for me and possibly how it could work for someone else. I want to put that out there and give someone the opportunity to try it if they want. This process isn't about giving out trophies for mediocrity, its about learning each individual aspect and then piecing them together correctly.

Wow. You took the baseball reference out of context so I'm not even going to touch that one. Secondly, I didn't say accept mediocrity. I'm suggesting establish a base and build off of it. Shoot to the center of the green when the best players flag hunt when appropriate. So by yiur "killer instinct" theory, all players should be shooting at the flag when appropriate. For the last time, my advice was to someone struggling, not a zen putting master like yourself. If you don't agree that's fine. Let's try and be constructive and not get into a pissing match. It's clear now though that the only opinion you find credible is your own. So I'm agreeing to disagree here. Hopefully you can do the same.

Am I going to teach a young pitcher how to throw a 12-6 curve or a slider? No, Im going to teach him a fastball, preferably 4 seam, its a high percentage pitch. When his arm developes and he can consistently throw strikes, im going to teach him a 2 seam fastball. Then a change-up, then a curveball. Im not going to teach him something he should do well in the future if he isn't doing the basics well. Its about honing skills. If someone is missing putts badly by being to fine, open the margin. When they can putt into the circle consistently, then the circle shrinks. When that's consistent, the circle shrinks again. I mean honestly, were talking about people trying to develop a consistent game and improve. If someone is starting out, are we going to push hitting draws and stingers in the first lesson because its what a good player does? I would hope not. I would hope we teach them grip, posture, proper rotation, proper transisition. After these things develop we get into the finer points. My point is for someone who is struggling, looking to improve, trying to lower their score. Also, I think confidence and attitude are greatly important. if I aim at a 4 inch circle and miss by three feet, I feel like I failed. If I aim at a three foot circle, and put it in that circle my confidence goes up. This is a snowball effect. Like I said, this isn't for everybody, just like a fade or a draw isn't or everybody. Aiming at the center of the green isn't for everybody. taking a wood instead of driver from the tee isn't for everybody. But it may help somebody and that is what this is all about.

The [quote name="RonTheSavage" url="/t/72459/favorite-tourney-to-watch#post_949851"]Major - Has to be the Masters Non-Major - AT&T; Pro Am @ Pebble. Not so much the celebrities but that course gets me everytime. I will definitely be in attendance when the US Open returns to Pebble in a few years.[/quote] The pro am reminds me my swing isn't that bad. Lol. And it's fun to see superstars in other sports struggle like the rest of us at golf. Lol

Sure, you aim at the middle of that drum, the key is a visualization thing, when high handicappers start to focus in on a tiny circle, 20,30,40 feet away, their mind wants to manipulate that putter to push it to that tiny circle. From playing with my buddies and watching other people, I constantly see this equaling a ball that runs 10 feet by, 10 feet short, or 10 feet left and right. When someone can feel free to putt the ball at a large target, their accuracy has a chance to increase. Ill say it again, this is ADVICE for a HIGH handicap player. Take it, try it out. If it works for you great, if it dosent, you find something else. That is the game.

But your quoting pga tour statistics, not mid and high handicap statistics. of course a PGA tour pro can get up and down from a bunker 50-70% of the time, but for a 20 handicap, that percentage goes down considerably. Up and down from the rough off the green for a touring pro is 60-70%, a 20 handicap is going to duff and sting that percentage. For a lower-mid handicap, abosolutely, go in two, but high handicap players don't practice short game near enough, hence the high handicap. But I bet they are better from 50-100 yards in the fairway because they hit more of these shots at the range. Now if a 20 or 30 handicap has spent a lot of time in the short game area, sure, they could probabaly get up and down 40-50% of the time, but if their still a high handicap then they probably aren't driving very accurately and their probably struggling with irons and especially woods. My point is, if you have to pull out that 3 wood that you aren't very comfortable hitting, your more times than not going to playing from the woods on the right and left or dunking it in the water. If instead you can pull out the utility club or a 6 iron and give yourself a shot from the fairway, you should probably be doing this. As far as aiming small and missing small, when I have my .308 in my hands, that probably a good choice. But from a long distance on the putting green, its easier to putt comfortably to a larger target. This frees up the arms and hands, lets the shoulders rock, and gives people the ability to let it roll. I look at putting like shooting a bow, not a gun. With my bow, I allow the sight to figure 8 over the target an let it release when im comfortable. If I could put my putter in a bipod and put a laser on the front, I could aim small and miss small. But Im holding a putter in my two arms, that aren't pieces of machinery, that are going to have some sway and give. Trying to be too fine puts too much stress on the fingers and hands and dosent allow the body to control the stroke. Please consider that the OP is talking about advice for mid and high handicap players who could lower their scores by changing a few course management ideas. Not overall advice for the avid, low handicap golfer.

Also note though that Jimmy Walker keeps his head over the ball much longer than most touring pros. A little head movement is ok in his swing because his eyes are staying fixated on his target which allows his hand-eye coordination to compensate better than you or I moving our head that much. His head stays even more down over the ball now than in these videos. In the slow mo from pebble beach, the ball had left the screen before his head moved up towards the target area.

Just curious, and I'm sure there's an older thread but maybe your view has changed. So what's your favorite major and non major to watch, on any tour. As far as majors, I lean towards the US Open. There's just something about watching the best gets their arse kicked by a course that makes me feel good. Lol. It's nice to know they are human. Non majors, I like the national pro am and the Accenture match play. With this being the last year at dove mountain, hopefully it will move to a course that more of the pros like and get the bigger names involved. I just like seeing the different formats in the lime light.

I've heard Ian Poulter and Jason Day both say they tell the amatuers their playing with to take one more club than they normally would for each shot. When your still and mid to high handicap, even if you have the power, play every par 5 as a three shot hole. Being on in 2 some of the time Dosent matter when your in a bunker or the trees most of the time. I think going 3 wood, hybrid, wedge is a much higher percentage than driver, 3 wood, sand wedge, three putt. Zach Johnson makes a lot of money playing this way. I also like Paul Azinger on putting. When your putting from outside about 20 feet, putt to a 55 gallon drum, not to a solo cup.

I'll be heading there in September. Are there any courses that are on the ocean??

If your concerned about being handsy, you could try one of the oversize putter grips. I'm thinking about switching to one. Seem to have a lot of great feedback.

If your looking to uprgrade everything but the driver, start with the irons. You will make more shots every round with your irons than any other club. A 3 wood or whatever wood you wants and hybrids are nice but they are once in a while clubs. I think if you want to see tangible change and improvement you should start with your irons. Tons of good deals to be had out there, from last year or two years agos clubs, to gigagolf as mentioned above, to ebay and used clubs on TM preowned, Callaway preowned etc. You can be in a new set of quality irons for less than $300. Once your comfortable with those, move on to replacing something else. Trying to replace the whole bag at once can get to be a pain in the arse not to mention crazy expensive. I agree with the above again with the TM burners, Wilson C11, and gigagolf. Great clubs for the money.

The nickents from Dicks sporting goods in the 7DT model now are pretty cheap new, and good solid clubs. You can pick up adams that are a couple years old or used on Rockbottomgolf.com and you can check out Taylormade preowned website. ebays a good place to look. Like I said, check out the nickents, adams and TM, some of the better hybrids that fit a lot of people.

I play the 2.0's from TM. Hit the RBZ and they felt pretty much the same, the 2.0's were cheaper, lol. They are soft and forgiving and pack a nice punch. I agree with above, just hit each one you find and see what feels good. Dosent matter what the name on the back is.

Absolutely. I just went looking for a new 3 wood. Hit a callaway, Adams, TM, Nike and nickent. The nickent ended up being the one that felt right, had the right launch angek for me and just happens to be the cheapest.

trying to resurrect here. I just picked up the 52, 56, 60 in these. For the money I don't think they can be beat. Unfortunately its called as the ice witch here and I haven't been able to play them yet. Just wondering if anyone else who has them has any more input on them. I think im talking about the same one, Top Flite Tour Wedges, black head, black grip, white letters.