x3nt0n

I only started playing golf mid season 2015 (August, I think). A co-worker got invited along to a game and got the bug, so we started going to our nearest 9 hole pitch and putt. I was hooked as well. I made some improvement and somehow ruined my swing trying to learn how to hit driver. I was only hitting irons and the putter for months, then we started playing some longer 9 holes. For some reason, not only could I not hit driver, I couldn't hit my irons for a while after trying. Practice yielded little improvement, but I still enjoyed trying. We'd always hit in the 60s at the 9 holes and 120s when we occasionally ventured onto an 18. I'd hit a few good shots per round, and that was enough to keep me interested and motivated. I've identified my fault and am now working on it. I can hit all my clubs straight and consistently. My swing speed has dropped off, as I'm still working on this very new swing, so my driver rarely gets above 150, but it's always straight and true. I'd sooner have this as a base to work from than the occasional big hit all over the place and not knowing why. It's going to take most of the tops that only go 20 yards out and the occasional 200+ that by some miracle finds the fairway, I'm better off over the course of 9 or 18 holes. I'm playing tomorrow, and I can't wait to try my more consistent swing on the course. I'm really looking forward to 2016 and will be taking some sensible aims into it. I simply want to have the desire to practice, for practice to improve me, and to enjoy the improvement. I don't know or mind how this translates in terms of scoring and handicap, I'm just aiming to have fun.

I was told by my friendly colleague and pro that I had no separation between my upper and lower body. He gave me a drill to try where I bend my knees more and squat, on my back swing feel like I'm squatting almost into a sitting position. This is effectively the opposite of standing up, as I was doing, so seemed like a reasonable drill. Here is my first attempt at a full swing after a warm up and a few pitch shots: Here is the last ball I hit, by this time the feeling was to push my backside out, then just soften my knees, no sitting down or squatting: Sorry for the grainy/flickering video. I was filming at 120fps, but the light wasn't up to the task. Swing still feels strange, but I've got much better posture and lower hip turn. Massive improvement. Some work just to get use to this swing before I think about tweaking anything else I think. Thanks for the help/advice guys, much appreciated.

Thanks very much for linking the centred hip turn, very helpful. I've been hitting the ball better, so thought I'd managed to stop bobbing up and down. Filmed myself at the range tonight, and sadly, not the case. I think I'm bobbing up and down less, and turning my hips more, but still moving up and down. Here is a side by side of a straight shot against a bad fade. The only difference I can see is my head doesn't rise quite as much on the straight shot and my takeaway looks more marginally more around my body. It also looks to me like my right arm is getting stuck under my chin, rather than passing in front of it and 'pulling' my head up. Is this the problem or merely a symptom of an issue I'm not seeing?

Try with all your might to get the new grips off. If they come off, remove the backing you left on the tape and reinstall. If you have none of that spray left, Just use white spirits. If you can't get the grips off, no problem, they're stuck on! Either way no problem!

I wouldn't go more than 40 minutes each way. I have the choice of a fair few courses within that radius though.

Ah that'll explain it then. Rooting isn't an option for me, as in still within warranty.

I've got a Sony Xperia Z5. Has your s3 been rooted at any point?

A friend and work colleague suggested keeping the head still was a bad swing thought. The idea that I pivot around my the centre of my chest was suggested as an alternative. Hit the range again tonight, and oh my goodness! I keep occasionally slipping into a slight bob and sometimes concentrate so hard on pivoting around the centre of my chest I take my eye off the ball. However, much improved. Also improved my tempo and clubhead speed through the ball. If I do my backswing too slowly it goes wrong, but too quick and it goes wrong. Today I started slowly and accelerated through my backswing and increased acceleration into my downswing. I used to think my backswing had to be a consistent speed, no idea why; What a difference. I'm not sure how accurate the distance markers are at my local range, and it was dark but I hit a few 6 irons past the 170 marker and a 4 iron just past the 200 yard marker. Then I got excited and started really trying to murder the ball, and it all went a bit wrong for a while. My SW just went much higher in the air but gave me my usual 70 yards, which makes me think I'm hitting it up too much. It will be interesting to see if I can replicate some of these distances, and get consistent contact, consistently. Will try and remember my camera next time.

Hey thanks for that, I'm installing the app now. Those NFC tags I linked to have been on my steel shafted irons and I can read them and write to them even with my phone in my pocket. You can probably find them more local to you. Hey, unfortunately same story with that app. It won't read an NFC tag while the screen is off. I've read up on it a bit. The phone actually turns off the NFC when the screen is locked, the only way around it is to root the phone .

I used these NFC tags: http://rapidnfc.com/item/404/on_metal_nfc_tags_19_x_19mm_micro_white_ntag213 They have a layer of shielding between the adhesive and the NFC and can be placed on metal and work without issue. It's interesting that you say "The NFC reading SW in Android play store does not require the screen to be on" What software is it that can use the NFC reader with the screen off (so I can try it). The developers of swing by swing informed me that it wasn't possible, but if another app can do it, they should be able to do it. Those 3d printed NFC tag holders look awesome, be sure to get some pics up once you've made one. If you can make them to screw into the end of the clubs they would be in demand as the closest you can by off the shelf is a plastic disc that is slightly too big, or self adhesive stickers.

Ops, I did a search before I made a new post, but now realise the date is if the first post, so I thought I'd be resurrecting an old post. I'll be sure to click through and check the latest post in future. Sorry about that.

Also, scorecard functionality, SBS enable me to score everyone else who is playing as well as score and track myself. I am correct in thinking GG doesn't have this feature?

I would have never considered it prior to reading his thread. However, there's evidence to suggest (from the thread about trolleys on greens in Austriallia) that it is done and it doesn't cause damage. I just wondered if the rules were based on old more damaging equipment.

I started using swing by swing quiet soon after I started playing golf, free GPS distances and course layouts, it was a no brainer. Now I'm wanting to track shots and it's not cutting it. You can pull your phone out of your pocket and tell it that you're hitting club x, but this is too much faffing. You can use a smart watch, but the smart watch app doesn't remain full screen, so the process becomes: tap watch to activate screen --> dismiss any notifications by swiping each one away --> Get to the main screen--> tap on the swing by swing notification --> tap to continue round-->tap to track a shot---> scroll down to club and select. Takes too long, if it had an option to keep the app full screen on the watch, this would be much better (such an option works well for Google maps navigation). Then there was the option of NFC tags, which at first seemed promising, but ultimately doesn't work well enough. tags are cheap at about 60p each. However the phones screen has to be on for the phone to read an NFC tag (essential security feature) but the app is devoid of ability to keep the screen on. This means you have to use a third party app to keep the screen on. Also if you accidentally move off the main SBS screen scanning an NFC tag does nothing. The sensible behaviour would be to switch back to the correct screen and start tracking a shot. Also no way to edit shots after entering them. You can view them all, but you can't edit. I know some have found the Game Golf editing tedious, but it's better than not being able to edit at all. So I'm probably leaning towards game golf. I am right in thinking the live version will function as the classic when not connected to a smartphone, and therefore still allowed in competition? Can the game golf android app give me distance to the green on my android wear watch? Is there a subscription in addition to purchasing the device? Thanks for your help.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Seems to be working for you, so I'd stick with it.

I have been somewhat confused by the difference in courses attitudes towards the use of trolleys in the winter/in wet conditions. I assumed that at some point in history all trolleys had really thin wheels and were extremely heavy, 'digging' into all but the driest and hardest of surfaces. I thought some clubs had realised golf trolleys were lighter and less damaging, whilst some saw no reason to change hundred year old rules. I liken it to the ban on braided fishing line, still in force on many UK waters. Very old braided line was dangerous. Modern braid is very soft and safer than it's mono filament equivalent, however, people are hesitant to change rules to reflect modern times and equipment. I wonder if there's a certain element of that with trolleys on greens?

I was married a few years before I was introduced to golf. My wife is happy to stay home with our daughter while I go off and play/practice. In a few years when my daughter is old enough to swing a club, I will encourage my wife to pick up a club as well, her putting should be amazing, she still thrashes me at crazy golf!

Around where I am - East Midlands, UK, most public courses generally have no dress code. A lot of the 9 hole courses have a relaxed or no dress code, pitch and putt courses usually have no dress code, whereas the 18 hole courses usually do. Some clubs have 9 and 18 hole courses, the 9 hole is usually more relaxed. There is a course that has 18, 9 and a pitch and putt. Only the 18 holes has a dress code. However, a few weeks ago, I was playing the pitch and putt, and was asked if I had anything to 'cover up' my t-shirt. Being the laid back, amenable sort of chap I am I said I'd slip a golf polo over it. Different member of staff was on when I returned to the club house for a coffee, and I asked when the dress code was extended all the way down to the pitch and putt. They said it hadn't been and were utterly perplexed when I recanted my story to them. No matter where I'm playing I always have a spare golf polo in the car just in case someone changes the dress code on me, am in trousers anyway, and the weather here makes golf shoes a necessity anyway.

Thinks that's a great idea.

I think the use of drone collected images is a wonderful idea. The standard seems to be satellite imagery, and in some areas it's years out of date. Big problem for newer courses and recent layout changes.

Well I was obviously overcomplicating things. I hit the range today with the sole swing thought of keeping my head still. I found less knee bend helped with keeping my head still. I only had bad contact on 5 shots out of 120, and on all of them I let my head move slightly, and I knew that's what I'd done. So massive thanks to you. Was hitting some slight fades, but only about 5-10 yards and they were all coming back onto target. Think I'll try to ingrain the still head a bit more then work on zeroing my swing out. Whilst a small fade isn't necessarily a bad shot to have, my long term goal is to be able to shape the ball, and I feel this would be easier from a neutral, straight shot.

I've been Playing Golf for: 5 months My current handicap index or average score is: 32.5 My typical ball flight is: fade The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: bad/inconsistent contact Videos: This is what I was doing when I first started golfing, inconsistent contact, lack of power and fading everything. I improved this at the end of the summer just by trying to swing more around my body. I could hit a fade or a draw just by changing my swing path, it was great. Now it's back. It looks to me like I need to turn my left shoulder down under my chin not just straight around, that should help me get some hip turn and then not have to lift my arms to finish the backswing. Just wondering what you guys thought?

Do not learn to hit balls off a mat. I'm sure there are people who find practice from a mat useful, but for a beginner do not learn this way.

I think basic rules and etiquette would be good. As for some kind of practical to check your ability, it's not needed if you actually demonstrate the correct etiquette. If you're going slow, you let people play through. If you are spending all your time letting people play through, it's back to a shorter/easier course or the practice area/range.