envoy98

mike e - Just curious how many lessons you took? Also, how many lessons did you take with the same instructor? I definitely got worse before I started getting better but I played as well on Saturday as I've played in a LONG time. I'm 5 lessons, a groupon session and a swing eval in so far and definitely seeing improvement. It is a big expense but you get out what you put in. I've spent a lot on range balls and getting out to play to work on what I'm trying to reteach myself. I think everyone's mileage will vary with any instructor but it's too bad to hear you didn't like either instructor and lost 6 strokes. That would be very frustrating, I know...I've been there.

Just wondering if you ever got in for the fitting? I am currently taking lessons at GolfTEC and I've been thinking about doing the fitting towards the end of my lessons.

I guess I got lucky, it seems like a lot of you got the hard sell right away, I didn't. In fact, I had to email after my Groupon session to get a price quote. It is disappointing they don't put any pricing on the website but they do run 10-15% off sales pretty regularly. I tried Golf Galaxy for a lesson and I had a local instructor. I stopped using Golf Galaxy because all they wanted to do was change my grip. My swing had plenty of problems but this guy hated my grip so much that was all he focused on. I couldn't hit a ball for almost 2 months after that. I never went back. My local coach was a nice guy but used no high tech gizmos. I was shanking the ball terribly and he never mentioned my wicked over the top move or my flipping wrists. He just had me sitting on an uphill lie trying to hit draws. After 3 or 4 lessons I stopped going to see him too. He was very helpful with my wedges inside 50 yards however. I have my first night of my first ever golf league tonight. I sure hope I can hit an iron. My scramble tourney and my exec 9 in the last few days were not promising... I'll have to see if I can grab a few stills to show the masses my before and current downswing and impact positions. It is quite a dramatic change. Now it's keeping it consistent. Edited to say: What I mean by "high tech gizmos" is that I had no access to video tape my swing and no launch monitors. It is tremendously helpful to see your swing on video, however if you don't know what you're looking at or looking for, what's the point? That is where the help of a coach, whomever that might be, is worth every penny.

I've been taking lessons at GolfTEC for a little over a month. I purchased the 15 lesson pack this spring. I too did the Groupon thing back in September or October. My wife got it for me as an early xmas gift. I saw the director of instruction and got a pretty good bead on my swing flaws in the 30 minutes. I was probably in there closer to 45 minutes and he gave me a couple of "tips" and stored my analysis on the site for me to review. I went back around February this year and did the 90 minute swing evaluation and based on that lesson I decided to sign up for the 15 lesson package. I've had 5 lessons now and I feel like I'm making progress. I had a terrible over the top move and I flipped my wrists really bad. That is slowly improving. I didn't expect that it would be a quick fix and I'm happy with the progress I'm making. So far my clubhead speed is up 10-15 mph, my swing path is outside 4 degrees with the occasional inside path vs. my original outside 12 degree swing. My clubface is now averaging open 1-2 degrees vs. 11-15 degrees. I can totally relate to the "contradictory" lesson structure however I believe it's to get you exaggerating a particular thought, so much so that as you progress you start to do a less exaggerated move without thinking about it. I had the same deal with keeping the club face closed and outside on the way back as well as the bowing left wrist. We even did the book drill, what I found was that I started doing those exaggerated moves in a more practical way without even thinking about them. My cupped left wrist at the top of my back swing was now flat, thing is, I wasn't thinking about it anymore and it's actually in a good spot now. Needless to say, I'm happy so far and I'm planning to continue with my 15 lesson program. I did not purchase the practice time and I don't know what I'll do at the end of my 15 lesson plan. To answer some others questions, I did not have a big sales pitch at my 30 minute lesson from Groupon, or at my 90 minute swing eval. Pricing varies from state to state. My 15 lesson program included a free 90 minute swing eval and was $850 during the sale in March. Here was my breakdown: Lessons – 10% off: - 10 Lessons: $611 - 15 Lessons: $850 - 25 Lessons: $1259 Your pricing and mileage may vary, so far my experience has been good. I'll update in a couple months if I'm better or worse than I was last year.

Got my impact tape but ran out of time to hit the range. Have to travel to Iowa tomorrow so won't be able to go until Monday over lunch or Tuesday after work now. Grr. On a side note, I did try the loose grip with half swing that another poster suggested. I grabbed a select few irons from the demo rack at golfsmith and gave it a try. For some reason, the clubs that had the big white stickers on them allowed me to see the face a little better as I was practicing. It appeared (though at very high speed) that the club was coming from way outside but that seems counter-intuitive to a center of the face shankapotomous shot. I did hit a few crisp shots with the ball slightly back in my stance. I bet I hit 100 balls in the practice range with various clubs today. Almost like a free driving range. I should do that more often. :) I have to say too, I hit the tour Burner TM irons and I really liked the feel and the sound. Also got a grin from the X-22 Callaways. They didn't have the XForged out or the new Mizunos so i couldn't try them. I did try the Nike CCI's too, not a fan. Too bad too since they were on closeout for $349.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that he could do that. Merely that it got to be such a running joke that when he was a ridiculous distance away we'd ask him if he was going to hit his 56. He can spank the ball on occasion, but he does deloft the club quite a bit, especially with his wedges. To the other poster who told me I need a new group of friends since they (this one) ridicules me for lack of distance....I kicked his arse by 5 shots yesterday. All the payback I need. Oh, and he had to buy the beers at the 19th hole.. :) I shot a 93 (about average for me, but I've never played the course and I can't hit an iron) but theres a whole 'nother thread on that. So I was pretty (very) happy.

Heading to Golfsmith to see if they have impact tape.

I will give this a try. In some cases, yes, I can absolutely feel the club twisting in my hand. In fact, I made a comment to my buddy yesterday that I could almost feel it before I made impact. I can tell something is wrong with the swing, I just don't know what exactly. Appreciate the tips and I'll give them a try tonight.

I can see exactly on the face where it is impacting and it's in the middle. Seems obvious the clubface must be wide open but all of my "tricks" to close it seem to only make it worse. The swing feels good but I'm wondering if I'm not getting that wrist-roll from softball that is causing it. The more I turn my left wrist to try and force the clubface closed, the worse it gets. I could try a stronger grip and see if that will help. I'm trying to make a point to feel my wrists rolling over through the ball after impact as opposed to that left hand on top feeling you have with a bat. I will be hitting the range tonight with a video camera to see what I can discern. It is just very odd to me that my wedges have been fantastic for me and my irons are in the tank. I've never been a great iron player but my distances were always consistent and I rarely top or hit the ball fat. Now I make contact and anyone within 45* of my stance is in danger of losing an eye. Edited to say, I should probably video tape my swing with wedges first, just in case I fix the iron problem and it breaks my ability to hit my wedges. :)

I was reading the other thread but my problem seems to be a bit different, albeit the same end result. Hit my driver fine. My 52 and 60 wedges have been about as good as ever. I grab a 6, 7 8 or 9i and I hit the center of the face but the ball goes about 5 feet off the ground, flies 20-50 yards and makes a hard down and to the right motion into the dirt. Looks like a Johan curveball. When I do hit it well enough to not completely ruin it, I lose 40-50% of my distance. This started about 3 weeks ago. I was going to the range 3x a week and working on my divots and straightening out the irons. I finally accepted that I was willing to hit a 7i 140 and dead straight instead of 160 with the high fade I've always had. That worked great for one round and all of a sudden, I can't hit an iron. I went to hitting a choked up or half-swing hybrid for my >150yd shots and I'll hit a PW and take a chip from anything short of that. I'm not hitting it off the hosel, I can see on the face exactly where the ball is hitting and it is in the middle, or very close. Maybe softball ruined my golf swing? Like I said though, driver, hybrid and wedges are all being great to me. What's wrong? I need help! (next week I'm going to see the pro at my local course) I was hoping to try and get the distance back once I fixed my high fade on my own. Now I'll be spending time trying to fix this instead. What a humbling (see: frustrating) game. :)

I have a buddy who shoots about the same as I do. He can bomb his drives past me most of the time, although prior to my 460cc head, I could poke one 300 a couple times a round. He is one to always make a point of asking the distance and then telling you what club he's going to hit. "let's see, 110...56*" The other guys and I get a great kick out of it. I now crack them up by saying "Hey, you've got 205 to the center. 56 degree?" In an effort to control my shots and straighten everything out (and my increasing age and decreasing flexibility) I've gone to taking an extra, sometimes two extra clubs for the shot. I get laughed at but then I make par or bogey and they end up making bogey, double or worse... I used to agree with the OP but do exactly the opposite. Now I agree and follow my own theory. I still think I could drop 10 strokes if I just used a 7 iron all day. That was, until the dreaded sh...I won't even say it.

Apparently the admins here know something about this site. No matter how I type the name it gets obfuscated. The interesting thing is the "hot" items are cheap compared to other vendors but the stuff you wouldn't otherwise look for is priced normally or even high. ie. R9 Driver - $189, (399 just about everywhere else) Callaway X-Forged Irons $329. I think they're 6-800 anywhere else. But then some old Titleist irons (my 755's for example) are $465. Vokey wedges are $110. They seem to be advertising the current specials that the manufacturers are offering as well. I did learn something tonight though. I had heard Rule 34 before, though not for quite some time. I had never heard of Rick Roll'd though. Interesting. :) If it were me, I would send people to the David Hasselhoff "Jump in my car" video instead. WAY more annoying than Rick Astley. lol

I actually went and was browsing their site. They have a logo that they are an ebay power seller yet the image isn't a link. So I poked around a little further and found some comments from what appeared to be ebay users. So I went to ebay and looked up the users and happened to find the username of the person they left the comment for xmas-dvd is the ebay user. I looked them up and saw this: Positive feedback: 50.0%|Feedback score: 1322 Yowza. That tells me all I need to know. Shindig - being a web admin, I am very familiar with INTERNIC and the WHOIS registry. I don't make it a practice to do a WHOIS lookup on every website I visit. My first inclination was to post here on the chance that maybe someone had used them. The broken english and acceptance of Western Union were the first reasons I hesitated and came looking for opinions. I do appreciate your reply though. I think I'll pass on this site unless someone posts they've had a number of successful transactions with them but I'm thinking the odds are pretty slim on that. :)

edit: Hmm ok. It blanked out my url. Looking for opinions on golf bargain offers dot com They have some amazing prices so I'm wondering if it's too good to be true. Anybody used them or know someone who has?

I've used a couple of techniques for hitting high draws or fades out of trouble, I even do this with my driver off the tee. Depending on your normal swing, hold the club straight out and see how many knuckles you see on your left (top) hand. Add a knuckle to draw it, remove a knuckle to fade it. That is, turn your top hand until you see another knuckle or lose a knuckle in your view. I got that from a golf magazine several years back and just saw it again a couple months ago. It reminded me to try it. With my driver, (I'm right handed) I've moved my left foot about 2-3 inches forward. That is, instead of having my feet perfectly parallel to my target line, I push my left foot forward. (not making my stance wider) if you were to draw a line from my right foot to my left foot, you'd be parallel normally. In this case, my toes on my left foot would be just over that same line. If that helps you visualize. It's worked for me in the past and might be worth a try.

I know exactly what you are talking about. I had one of those days a week or two ago. PLayed twilight and the course was pretty well closed up. We had another 30 minutes of light left and my buddy and I hit the 165 yd par 3. I pulled out my 6 iron and practiced. We each hit 40 or so balls and I could not, for the life of me, hit one in the air and straight. I finally did the up, turn, hit method and was hitting balls about 50%. Hit probably 10 or 15 like that and then was able to hit straight again. I felt like I was taking the perfect backswing and had great wrist cock and the toe was up...but getting back to the ball was just not working. This helped. Unfortunately, I can't hit 15 balls off a tee in the middle of a round if I've got the shanks/yips or whatever.

Take out the last 4 rounds and see what it rates. Or, take out just the rounds of 84 and 42.

I'm confused. I get the 73.4 rating being a scratch "par for the course" but with a slope of 133, that would be 60 strokes worse. I'm pretty much a bogey golfer and I couldn't have shot 133 on that course the first year I played. (well maybe the first year) :) Am I missing something?

94. Driver was good, pitching was good, chipping terrible and just about every approach into the green >100 yds was short. These new irons average a club short from my last ones.

Bowling is so much easier to calculate. :) I always told people I was a 20+ (I shoot in the 90's). I just went and calculated it on that link provided earlier and I'm a 17.2. Dang it. I guess the course is more difficult than average. (73.4/133) I never knew what slope meant, never really cared. But now I'm glad I do! BTW, I LOVE the comeback. Priceless. Nice job shooting an 84 too. I remember my 82. Ah, that was the day... lol

you could try some nail polish. (Yes, seriously) You might look funny walking around the drug store trying to color match though. :) There was another thread on here about guys using nail polish, which they said held up the best, to paint the numbers on their irons. Might be worth a shot.

Yes, I did switch. It was only because I got such a good deal on the irons. I figured I'd play with them as they were and see if I liked them before spending the money to change out the shafts. I think 12-15 yds is the high end. Better than half are in that half to full club (6-12 yds) range. I will admit, I haven't had my swing speed tested in the last few years so perhaps some of it is my age and inflexibility. However, in one season (I can't play from Nov-Mar here in MN) I lost that distance. I only played about 4 rounds with the clubs last fall and finally committed to them this spring. I was switching back and forth late last summer. I forget what shafts are on these. Tri-Spec maybe? I'd have to go look. I seem to be able to control them just fine and as I said in my original post, I lost that high fade that was pretty consistent in my last two iron sets. Maybe I just slowed my swing down and that is the culprit. I'm not good enough to know if I should change shafts or not so I wanted to check with the experts to see if anyone had thoughts on either the heads as the first poster did or maybe the shafts. Of course, it could just be me I suppose, but I'd rather blame the clubs.

I have a buddy that conveniently forgets to count strokes too. And somehow, his ball always goes OB or lost about 40 yards further than where I remember seeing it exit the field of play...but I digress. Your driver, if it sounds different, may have a crack somewhere. Another buddy (not the same stroke-shaver as above) had one of those Snake Eyes from Golfsmith. The crown actually cracked and you could tell immediately that something was wrong. It went from sounding like a bb in a shooting gallery to a pop can getting stomped. I would check for any small cracks in the crown or the face. However, if you don't find any obvious physical flaws, the answer could be as simple as pointed out earlier. Age, flexibility and time off from playing.

I suppose that could be true. I had thought that maybe forged just didn't give me the same "pop" as the cavity backed irons did. Did your dad sell his set on ebay by chance? The guy I bought them from used them 3x and said he hated the ball flight. I like it so far, it's just the distance I'm whining about. :) Maybe Titleist irons are just shorter? I've heard the Ping and Taylor Made irons are a little bit longer. The Callaway x-18's I played with in February were consistent with my 822's.

So I bought a set of these based on reviews and I got them for a song off eBay. Paid $228 dlvd for a 3-PW set and I couldn't pass it up. I was playing with fitted Titleist 822os. 1* up and 1/2" short. (I'm 5'10) with the dynamic gold stiff shaft. My question is, I had lost about 5-8 yds / club going from my old TM LCG irons to my 822's. I associated that with the loss of 1/2" of shaft length and maybe some minor change in loft plus the stiff shaft over regular. IIRC, my 5 iron was around 92mph. Now going to the 755's, I lost another 6-12 yds / club. I know the 755's are anywhere from 1-2* more lofted which could explain about half of the distance loss but going back to a regular flex and "standard" length shaft, I thought that would negate the loft. Plus I figured my 5 iron would now land like a 6 iron. That has to be good right? :) So the question is, do you think I should just play with the clubs as they are and just get used to taking an extra club or should I look at changing shafts? Maybe something else? The local golf shop guru suggested I try putting my old DG Stiff shafts in a couple of the irons to see if I noticed any change but I haven't done that yet. I did have them tape the 6 iron and the lie was well within spec so they suggested I not modify these. Whether or not that is true for all of the irons is a mystery atm. I will say, I lost my high fade I had with the old clubs and I hit the ball much straighter with these. (I cant for the life of me figure out why, but I'm not going to complain) So to reiterate: 822 os - 1/2" short, 1* upright avg 1-3* less loft than 755, stiff DG shaft 755 - std lie, 1-3* more lofted for same club in 822 set. reg flex To give you an idea on club distances. I don't bother with my 3i. My 5 iron was my 180 club, now it's 165-170 carry. 7 iron went from 155 to low 140's. 9 was 130 now 125. PW was 120 now 110. I don't have any appreciable gaps in distance and I love the ball flight. So it's really just an ego thing I think.