marshmellaw1982

Delorian with Flux Capacitor Option. Although, I'm looking into upgrading it by adding a Mr. Fusion and the hover feature. Because where we're going, we don't need roads.

Thanks again everyone. I didn't realize I was hurting myself more than helping. I stopped off at the library last night on my way home from work and picked up about 6 golf guides and a few videos. I'm gonna read through them over the next week or so and I'll update the thread with their putting practice suggestions.

I second Callaway Preowned. http://callawaygolfpreowned.com/putters.aspx Their shipping is a flat rate. They offer a money back guarantee with no questions asked for a certain period of time. They package very carefully. Their club grading system is very generous. ie, if they say the club's condition is good or average, etc., you can trust that it is. Their customer service is excellent. For example, I bought the Callaway X20 irons set 3-PW std steel. About 2-3 weeks later their website discounted this set, actually any X20 or 22 iron sets, by $75. (The timeframe for this fell within their money back time frame; I could've returned the set and repurchased at $75 less than I originally paid.) I called and explained that I had just bought the set but they discounted it shortly after. Without any hassle whatsoever, the customer service rep gave me a $75 store credit. I immediately used it towards a used Odyssey White Hot XG #1 35" right then and there. No questions, no hassle, easy peasy. I highly recommend them. (Wish I got paid for this plug.)

Thank you both for your tips. I'll give them both a shot next time I take a trip to the putting green. (I'd go today, but it looks like it's going to be raining today and tomorrow.) If anyone else has any other advice or methods, please let me know. I'm open to everything and anything that can help!!

Here's a little background to give an idea where I'm coming from. I'm fairly new to this game. I played baseball through high school and a little college ball. I held out with picking up golf until i realized it didn't matter if I ruined my baseball swing. This is my 2nd year and I play about 2-3 times per month. (Last year, it was more like once every 2 months though.) Initially I was using hand-me-down clubs from my father and some older ones I picked up at a yard sale until a friend of mine convinced me to spend some money on newer clubs to "grow with". So I scoured ebay and the Callaway Preowned website. I got a set of used X-20 irons 3-PW,SW,AW standard steel. Off ebay I picked up the Callaway FT-i 10° neutral driver with stiff flex and the Odyssey White Hot XG #1 putter. I wasn't thrilled about spending the money on all this, but got a bunch of good deals. Picked up all that for under ~$600 total for everything. (I won't be spending anymore money on clubs for hopefully 10+ years, now it all goes to lessons and greens fees.) I'm driving pretty consistently. Straight and far. If I'm not at 300, I'm pretty close. So I stopped focusing on driving at the range and focusing more on irons, especially the pitching wedge because I find myself pulling that out of the bag more than any other club. I still need a LOT of work on the 3, 4 and 5 irons. But the rest I'm striking fairly consistently. (It seems easier to strike the ball better when there's more loft to the club.) So now I'm trying to practice on putting and chipping because that's what some people and my instructor said I could save the most shots. (I typically 3-4 putt almost every hole.) SO...what are the best putting drills? Right now I head to the practice green, toss about 8 balls on the ground in the rough and practice chipping them as close as I can to the cup and then I go putt them in. I try to get the chip as close as possible to 1-put, but unfortunately that rarely happens. More often than not I'm still 2 or 3 putting. Do any of you have any suggestions on what I can do to practice? What do the rest of your do? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!!

Grass and a cup

Try Sea Oaks in Little Egg Harbor. Exit 58 on the parkway and then you could either continue down the parkway and take the ferry to get where you're going, or continue 20 miles down the parkway to the AC expressway West to meet up in the same point that 195 would take you. it's a fairly new course, I think only 5-6 years old. very well maintained. Around your price range.

So, is there a list somewhere of "good" instructors, VS "sub-par" or, if you will, "double bogey" instructors??

I'm also new at this, this is my 2nd season and I've got about 12 rounds in since I first started. I find that now I'm getting to the greens in the same amount as you, but the putting is killing me. I'm still at 3-5 putts unless I get lucky getting it close to the pin when i first land on the green, which isn't common. I'm gonna take your advice and practice at home and head to the green a little more often when I'm at the driving range. at this point I have no clue how to judge distance, even though my aim has been improving significantly. (i played the front 9 at sea oaks in NJ Sunday and had 7 just missed puts. Either they were too fast but in line and rolled over, or they were in line and swirled out.) I picked up the Odyssey White Hot #1 yesterday and started on the carpet at home for about 10 min yesterday. now I'm excited to try the practice green this evening. (Before picking that up I was using a super heavy, $10 mallet type putter that was just way too heavy and it kept dragging during my putts. This new blade putter feels much better. I'm excited to give it a good tryout!!!) Thanks for the tips, I'm definitely going to give them a go.

I would have to say I'm working on everything. When i'm at the driving range, I get 155 balls and hit 12 balls with each wedge and iron from 3 up to PW, AW and SW. Then whatever's leftover I finish with the driver. My maing goal is to consistently get the ball in the air and get a sense of how far I can hit each club. (This is my 2nd year playing.) My drives are pretty consistent, so i save that for last in practice. Plus, I only hit that once per hole, and it seems I spend most of my time using the pitching wedge. When i have the time I go down to the practice green and practice chipping onto the green from the rough. 8 balls chipped and then I put them in from wherever they landed. My goals there is to be able to chip in and put in with only 1 stroke a piece. (It would make my day to actually chip it in the cup, but i'm not even close at this point.) I just want to be able to chip it close enough to 1-put it into the cup. I do that til I get about 100 chips and X amount of puts. (Because I'm typically 2-putting them in at this point.)

This is my First post after reading the threads on here for the past few days. I've only been playing for the last 2 years since my parents moved into an "active adult", ahem, retirement community at Sea Oaks in NJ. I wanted to hold onto my baseball swing as long as possible, but now that I'm 27 I figured Joe Torre doesn't want me playing for him after all. :) My dad and I started playing when i visit him. Last year was chock full of 14s and 16s per hole. (Don't worry, we always make sure we're the last tee time on the course so we don't hold up any players, or we let people play through if there are other people behind us.) Well, I would say we have been getting a round in every month or 2. Took my first lesson last weekend. It went very well. This weekend we played the front 9 at Sea Oaks, I shot a 59 and, here's what I'm most impressed with myself about...the ball I started with was the ball I ended with! i didn't even lose 1 ball. (i average about 4-5 balls lost per round. haha, there's a statistic for ya.) Also, I got to the green on both par 3s off my first stroke. (Ended with a 5 and a 6, but I'm working on the putting. I'm just happy to be getting the balls in the air consistently. I only topped 2 of them the entire day.) The worst hole I had was an 8 on the 9th hole and most of them were between 5-7 shots. By the end of the year I hope to have my first par!!!