ChrisWev

Loads of threads and posts requesting Carts, Water Coolers, Club Washers, Buckets of water etc etc, come on, attach a club cleaning tool and towel to your bag and take a couple of bottles of water with you to the course, it's not hard. I would rather my course spent their time sorting out the course rather than stuff a golfer can easily sort themselves.

My pro had me do something similar to this a while back so I pulled my hands down and to stop me coming over the top, worked quite well.

To be honest the retailer could easy argue not to replace this(but I think they still will). Looking at the scuff marks on the LH side of the heel I would say this hasn't been treat well, the club just isn't designed to be used in that way. If you don't have much luck, clean up the club and have a whinge about it on Twitter, companies hate looking bad in public.

Congrats on the new site, it looks good :) Loving the drag and drop. One thing I've noticed on mobile devices is the page doesn't resize well, it looks like it's caused by the banners (one near the top (shown) and one half way/ near the bottom(not shown)).

I struggle with strike on my 5i and don't even carry my 4i. I've had plenty of rounds teeing off with my 3 hybrid and using that again or my 7i-Putter for the remainder of the hole. It's good for consistency but you get pretty much stuck at bogey golf doing this as it's hard to risk hitting greens second shot on par 4's with the longer clubs so you end up laying up a lot and then chip, putt, putt. It's a bit of a false economy really, your scores may look better, but it's going to hurt you long term, you have to be able to hit the longer clubs and keep them in play at least, or it's like playing one handed. A problem I have is nearly every time I practice full swing with my irons I'm using 7i and my pitching wedge, I need to change this up to 5i and 30-90 yard shots now, in order to progress. I'm also going to try a high lofted driver and go for fairways at 210 carry rather than trying to hit 250 and smashing a couple out of bounds each round.

Haha, yeah it's annoying when you loose your favorite tee, or smash it to pieces. I'm nowhere near as protective of my golf balls. There's not a chance in hell I would ever pay £300 for a driver, £150 max and it would need significant improvement over what I already have or whatever last years model you can get for half price. For my next set of irons (only switching as I want them fitted) I'm only going 5i-PW, so should only be about £400. Should leave some extra cash for a 4 hybrid which should be very handy for me. I've got the money but for me it's a bit of a false economy with new golf equipment as there's not an awful lot left for the manufacturers to change/ improve (and stay in the rules).

I think unless you're somebody who is going to be troubling the green in regulation often, a top spec ball just is not worth it unless you have more money than sense. The money saved on a dozen balls can pay for a lesson or towards club fitting/ more hybrids etc. Unless money is no object (obviously take HCP with a pinch of salt): 18 HCP+: Don't buy top market balls unless they're super cheap or a lake ball variant that's not deteriorated. It's likely the extra distance and cheap cost will help, should also leave extra cash for lessons which are likely way more valuable than a 28 capper playing with Pro V 1's. 9-18 HCP: A decent mid market ball that will hold the green "if" you hit it Pro-9 HCP: Decent balls If you're loosing balls often or playing a course with a ton of water I personally would stay well away from a top market ball then also. Personally I now play with a Srixon Z-Star or Project (a), but buy premium grade lakeballs. I get the spin, but don't get the cost and if I loose a ball I'm not bothered as it's only costing £1 ($1.50) instead of £3. If I couldn't get the lakeballs I would probably use a Bridgestone e5 or e6.

Had another 10 holes yesterday and the greens had been aeriated so were in horrendous condition, bobbling, bouncing, going left/ right, this is a massive shame as I was playing pretty well. Was 10 over and had four three puts (didn't even put bad, just the bobbling took most of the pace off on quite a few, not my fault really but suppose you gotta play the course). Missed every 5-10 footer too. The greens must have cost me 4-5 shots I think. With better greens this probably could have been my best round If I had the light left to finish, but saying that the SSS/CSS would have easily been late 70's then, for a Par 72 course (SSS is 72 I think, CSS usually higher).

That's a really good price and set-up. Cost is practically identical to my course and it sounds the same with the range and practice facilities other than we just don't have the big green (cut to same level of the course) that you can hit little chips/ pitches on to. They say they're going to do it (there's loads of room) but never do. There's another course a bit closer to my house that has the lot but it's £1,500 a year, £1,000 to join and quite snooty.

Looks like awesome facilities, wish my course had that, can't chip onto the practice green (which is about 1/4 the size off that one) at my course. What's the membership cost at that course?

Randall, that all sounds very familiar ! I've not had a lesson for a while as been pretty difficult for me to book anything in with my schedule. I know there are about three things I need to sort out at the minute anyway, no matter what. Been concentrating on posture and trying not to stand up and flatten the shoulders and try and only swing back to what I feel like would be 75% (100% for a normal person). I'm overswinging massively which I'm almost certain is causing erratic iron strike. If I can iron out those and just keep putting the time in with putting and 100 yards and in for the end of winter I'll be happy. This should be a good building block to refine things the beginning of next year. Mike, I think my attitude is good and I put the time in but think I concentrate too much and get a bit tense, I can get locked over the ball a few times which is certainly problematic. One thing I've noticed is when I'm back at my course, on my walk back to the club house I walk past the range and just hit my 58 to hit errant balls back to the range. I just walk up, quick set up, don't think, 75% swing and aim for a flag. Pretty much every shot I hit doing this is to a standard that is higher than my handicap. It's weird, I've had a few guys walking past commenting how well I've been hitting them and they say "I wish I could do that", but I've seen them on course and they're much better players than me! The thing is I'm good at most sports, fit and pretty strong so would have expected this to be a bit easier, with less plateau's. I was wrong, it's the hardest sport I've played by miles.

Nah that's not since this July, one of the mods renamed the thread, now it no longer makes sense but I'm aiming to break 80 by the end of next summer. I started last year and got to about 18-20 ish by the end of summer then got injured and then started back again in spring (which was when I really started the challenge) didn't take long to get back to that 22. I had a couple of good rounds to get me to 15.4 at one point but I'm back at 16.4 now, basically I adjust for every round I play and play properly. I have to do it this way for a yard stick as I don't get much chance to play comps. I've probably had a full year at it in total but been changing quite a lot "for the greater good" so to speak which has had me stalled for the last few month. You sound very similar to me. My irons were the best part of my game but the swing was flawed so had to change (which I'm doing now, still no good), short game is good and putting is now ok (used to be horrendous), I've not been hitting driver much as had no time to practice that. One thing I've gained my not using my driver much is my hybrid play has come on a long long way. Hit a green at the back got it to stick on the fringe the from 210 today, wouldn't have even dreamed of that previously. With my irons in a year I've gone from slicing, to drawing, to hooking, to hitting it fat, to flipping to now hitting it thin haha!

Try a half swing wedge or 50, or a 3/4 52-56 rather than a full 60, it'll be much more consistent if you can estimate roll. Hitting a full 60 degree consistently isn't all that easy if you're just starting out.

Sorry if I go a bit OT: I did the same thing, in the end I gave up on feel with poker and just played the outs and studied bet sizing and percentages. A lot of things people don't realise with poker is that someones bet may look big, but when you compare it to the pot it's nothing, they're giving you crazy odds to go for it most of the time. Most people aren't good enough to slow play. I play half decent standard with 9 guys (three are profitable on pokerstars) and we chip £20 ($30) in each, winner £110, 2nd £60, 3rd £25 and 4th £5 (as a joke). I came 3rd- 7th about 10 times playing with a bit of knowledge. Now I play the outs it's far better, but I just mix it up every now and then playing a wider range to be less predictable. I've won the last two and was 2nd before that. Only time I really loose now is when I get rivered by one of the lads that's betting when he shouldn't be. Play more hands cheaply, the ones I stay in I play agressive and get out of the crap early. I don't really try and read an oppo (that's a standard above me), just play my hand, the board and the pot. Add up the pot as each guy bets, it helps massively. Sometimes you've just got to accept what you're doing isn't right and there's another (better) way, I'm stubborn so that's hard to do for me, seems this way too with Dan.

Played 8 holes yesterday and was 8 over (one par, one double), never hit one green and teed off on every par 4 and 5 with the hybrid and missed the green on par 3's with irons. Generally hitting it about 200 carry with about 10 roll, and all were fairway or first cut. They've changed the mowers on our course recently so the ball really sits into rough which makes it difficult to get a clean strike out, so I've been trying to avoid that at all costs. I've not been down the range with my driver in months so not worth risking at the minute. I've been striking my irons erratically as I've been changing a few things so effectively layed up about 10-20 yards short of each green to avoid bunkers and any trouble. Pitching, chipping and putting has been pretty good. Didn't really make many mistakes and was basically accepting a bogey each hole by laying up and hoping to get close with the pitching/chipping and get a 1 putt. Had about 3 x 6 footers and sunk one of them (would have hoped for two) but anything else I putted landed within 3 feet, no three putts. If I get these irons sorted and do a bit of work on my driver I'm feeling like I'm not far away. I've been hitting my hybrid and 3w off the deck very well, which will certainly save me some shots when I get my irons and driver back to average. Had one hybrid out of the first cut which went 240 yards! Going to try and get out of work early for 18 holes this afternoon.

Well that's not what was lead to be believed by his blog, or looks like on any climate data? The only reason I looked previous was because he mentioned rain, soggy, frost, wind, ice and crap weather so much, it was depressing. The average minimum temperature hovers around 2 degrees for about 5 months, yet only 1 week is icy/ frosty/ snowy etc? I find that very hard to believe. Also it rains about 60% of the days and is cloudy almost every day for 5 months. This does not sound like good golfing weather, in fact it sounds like quite a miserable place and even a lot worse than the UK (which is pretty crap). Practicing on a covered range (assuming artificial) will only get you so far, assuming all the other grassed amenities and bunkers are in the open air? I imagine anywhere with this all grassed and covered would cost a fortune to play. I've not checked California but having been there quite a lot and never seen it rain (obviously been a lot of droughts recently), I'm assuming it's ok. Miami rains more than Portland but I'm guessing is short sharp showers and then the sun is back out and it's dry again within an hour, which is pretty much what happens at any tour event anyway. Ask 10 people where they would rather play and what would help them learn more, 9/10 say Florida or California. So out of that 6,000 hours where he wasted the first 1,500 putting, and then in the next 1,000 hours he got to single figure HCP even with bad conditions and poor coaching. That is good going for anyone. I'm far from saying he's gone the right way about it or that he has excuses for it all but if he or almost anyone spends 10,000 hours, regularly seeing a good pro in a good area and with more money to pay for it he would probably be better than almost anyone on this forum. His way is flawed but I think 10,000 hours would get you close in the right circumstances.

I'm not sure what I want more, that swing studio setup or to be able to get in Sam or Brians back swing position and just stop there.

To be fair he did break par, that's a big achievement in itself.

Pete, I don't have a problem with Dan at all either, just a problem with the 10,000 hour test, as it's not really been 10,000 hours and he's not had the best chance at it. Some would say he's not give it a good go, but he's not got much at his disposal to help himself. I didn't realise he had a flightscope, did it have the club head numbers too, or just ball data? GC2 HMT would have helped him a great deal over winter with the full swing (if he knew what he was doing with it). My point was the weather isn't that much of an impact on a 10-20 year old kid doing his PGA and playing every weekend etc in England, as they've got all the time in the world. Dan didn't, he was 30 and had 10,000 hours and he's wasted more than half of them on putting and messing about playing on a frozen course. I think the weather in Portland seems to be similar to the UK as far as temperature goes (but with much greater extremes) but it rains an awful lot more than over here in winter. I imagine the courses go from soggy to frozen to soggy? If he had the money to spend each winter in a swing studio with Mark Crossfield or another pro(or be alongside a pro) who can put the data to good effect then he would have come on leaps and bounds with the full swing. It wouldn't have helped him so much with chipping, pitching, bunkers or changing lies though. I think this is where your plan has a big advantage, you've got the swing studio and it's pretty dry and mild in Lincolnshire. You should hire a digger and build yourself a varying grade pitching area ;) I think his plateau was because he got to the point where golf gets much hard(er) and he needed some decent instruction, he obviously didn't have the money for that and was then at the point where reading on the internet and trying to teach yourself will no longer be as effective. Totally agree that he used his time wrong, especially for the conditions.For his situation the best chance he would have had: That first summer he should have got a pro recommended, had 5 lessons and then just hit the course and had a lesson every few weeks after that. For me personally I wouldn't have even bothered putting or chipping for more than 10 minutes before each round as he would naturally get better at this over time. Putting is the one thing about golf where it's not meant to be difficult to get to pro level quickly, the rest of his game would always hinder him more than putting would as far as strokes gained and lost go. He could have been the best putter in the world but if you take an extra 0.5 shots to get to the green your chance has already gone. If he didn't fancy tackling the long game first he could have just practiced 100 yards and in with three clubs. I've no statistics to back this up but I imagine the best way to get to pro level is to try and catch them up in the hardest area first, ie this order (ie the opposite to drive for show, putt for dough) Driving (need to hit 250-280 carry, and if it's on the low side he needs to hit A LOT of fairways) Long clubs, Hybrid,4/5i etc (just need to keep these on the fairway/ green) Mid/ short Irons (needs good/ tight dispersion numbers, like what you work on a lot) Pitching (100 yard and in can never be more than 3 shots) Chipping (I wouldn't have bothered practicing this as he can learn enough on course, in the early days) Putting (I wouldn't have bothered practicing this as he can learn enough on course, in the early days) Once his long game and pitching got him to low single figures standard he could have put some hours in to refine the chipping and putting.

Come on guys I'm obviously not saying weather is the only factor but buy god it would have been much easier for him in California or Florida etc. There's a few reasons why that's pretty much why a lot of tour pro's base themselves there, weather is near the top of the list along with good courses, events and instructors. If Dan was 10 or 20 years old and taking up the game in Portland or Miami it's probably not going to make as much difference, but he's 30 odd, this is where it has mattered. A 10 year old can play as often as they want with little cost and responsibility and any one playing 10 years is way past that 5000 hour mark. What I'm saying is a lot of his practice and hours were used up where in crap conditions with rock hard greens and crappy rain, there's not much you can learn in those scenarios and I've never seen an event at Augusta or Pebble Beach frozen over. If he had 5,000 hours in Florida he would have got better instructors who probably wouldn't have made him putt for a year. He basically wasted 1,000 hours and 8 months putting, then the next 4 month was crap weather and he only had about one round before he got to 1,500 hours. Within a 1,000 hours of doing that he was in single figures which is good going! If you discount that first 1,500 hours (which was a waste), then if he had his next 1,000 hours doing what he did and then he had the money to move somewhere with good weather and coaching he could have had 9,000 hours to get from single figures to scratch, which I think he (or anyone) could have done easily. He didn't/ couldn't so it doesn't really prove if his "plan" has worked or not. 9,000 hours with Butch or another recognised instructor based somewhere favourable with his own swing room and a personal trainer and it might have been a fair fight to test the theory. He's tried to do it with his hands tied behind his broken old back (knowingly/ unknowingly).

Yeah I've done the same too (among other things). Thinking was if it's further back then won't get chance to square the club face as much? It's good that you can spend time with guys of a very good level, excellent live comparison so to speak. Cracking insight to what is needed and what to practice too. Weather is crap up here too, Cold, Wet and Windy, looks like the UK "summer" is definitely over. Going to have to keep an eye on the weather more now, to get out on the grass when I can.

Yeah I wasn't even thinking about the differing systems, now that would make it pretty much impossible here. The main thing over here is the weather, it's just not warm enough here and we just don't get enough daylight to be able to play on grass enough to improve that quick. Where I live it's 20 degrees C on a good day for the three "summer" months of the year and the courses are good and you can play till about 9pm. We're at the end of that now, so my only chance of getting on the grass is maybe for an hour a couple of nights a week (for the next month anyway) if it's not raining, and now the courses are starting to get soft already. Going to have to do a lot of long swing work over winter and just hope the chipping doesn't falter that much. Anyway, I played 10 holes last Thursday (+11 after 10) and since my recent work my putting was A LOT better than previous, I went for 1.7 per hole (instead of the usual 2+) and could have even been less in all honesty. Didn't use my driver at all, teed off with 3 hybrid on most holes and missed every single green (first time this has ever happened, although I expected this). I've been messing a lot with my full swing so I was quite happy with the scores I made in the end, especially as I hit a few fairway bunkers. The short game was working really well and was good to have a bit of practice off the tee with the 3hy. Just probably need to go down the range with the driver and have a few more weeks working on long game and low 80's should be in touching distance for the first time. Felt a bit rushed for most of the round as playing with another guy I didn't know and there was a lad behind, I really need to learn to switch off to what is going on around and concentrate on what I'm doing.

Yeah I kind of went from what was/ felt natural (but was starting left and going further left), to altering something to hit centre and stay centre and then just do that over and over to make that natural . I quite like a few things Mark Crossfield has been mentioning in recent videos, which is a bit like what you're saying, play naturally and know your miss, then over time your body can learn to correct this subconciously or you can do that with set up. Quite a lot to do with don't analyse body movements/ swing planes and positions too much (not saying, not at all) as everyone is different. What works for Donald, Furyk, Rory, Spieth and Bubba are all very different.

This a bit of a silly blanket statement, basically you can try cover anyone with that "he failed, oh yeah it's because he had no natural ability". Timing can be learnt the same as muscles can be grown and you learn from experience or good teachers. No cricketer just wakes up and times the ball like Brian Lara or runs like Usain Bolt. It's harder for older people to start anything as they generally have less time to practice, a family to support, don't recover quick enough and don't have the funds or support to do it. With golf it's probably one of the very few sports where it would by physically possible as it's not a game that is particularly hard on the body like Football, American Football, Tennis etc. Someone with enough money could pay the best coach, dietician, personal trainer, get a good assistant and enter every tourney under the sun. Dan has based himself in the wrong place with the wrong weather and doesn't have enough money to get the support/ club and coach he needed to do it. I would bet he would likely be scratch/ +HCP by now if he had that.