Chasing_Bogeys

I hope you guys are all doing well. I played a TON of golf this year, but most of it has been midweek after work in Ventura county. I managed to get my handicap down to a 15.4 and continue to grind at getting better. I'll probably sneak a couple more rounds in before the end of the year, but I rarely plan more than a few hours ahead. Have a great end of the year and maybe we can catch up early next year. I'll drive down to OC to play with you guys if we can find a Saturday that works.

My June rounds.... 95 / 90 / 95 / 92 / 90 / 90 I got a new driver at the end of May and am driving it 20+ longer and significantly straighter. Iron play needs some serious work still, but getting better. Putting is meh. I am making more putts in the 5 - 8ft range than I used to, but I'm still 3-putting too much. Frustrated to hit 90 on the number 3 times and still not get through that barrier, but thrilled to be in the lower 90s. Highlite of the month was a front nine 42 at Goose Creek in Riverside, CA.

Absolutely that would be a "small number." 30 would be a bare minimum for shots of each ball. I probably shouldn't assume they did that. I would have loved for them to have hit 30 different balls 30 times each and provided data on variation in manufacturing/quality that way. Overall, I think the info is interesting and useful. And I appreciate that they didn't crown a "Most Wanted" in this test.

I haven't seen how many of each ball they hit either and it's been asked a few times. If it's a small # then yes, the study goes out the window. The question is "what is small?"

any concerns with the high STD for "offline" on the driver at 115? 21.5yds seems like a very big issue.

I hit 3 good shots that day. One of which was preceded by a 7 iron that was 75 yards off line. I think you are WAY overestimating my abilities. 🙂

I agree that getting tired would be a factor. Additionally, adding to the argument against me, over 6 hours the weather conditions could very easily change enough that the "pin in the same place make small adjustments to get to it" would be nullified. And if you go an hour on, 30 minutes off... to get the 500 balls... fine, 250 x 30 it is. Either way, I suck, I'm not taking the bet.

I watched this this morning. I think he did it on shot 260-ish, right? That info made me want to vote no. Because at 250 you're done for the day, new pin placement the next day. Slightly different yardage. I could be wrong here, but I "think" I'd be more likely to say yes if you gave me 500 shots per day for 15 days.

I picked scoring. But, I've never broken 90 so... I can't even imagine hitting every fairway / GIR. And I also can't imagine how frustrated I would be if I 3+ putted every hole and shot 92. More to the spirit of your question - Would I take my best ball striking round ever or my best scoring round ever? I'd still take scoring. I can't seem to bring myself to play without keeping score. I've played with a couple guys that do that, but I just can't. Unless I'm out more or less by myself in the evening and playing a couple balls and practicing. But even then, I'll often use two different brands of balls and measure how I score with each. Or I'll play different balls with different clubs off the tee and see how that turns out.

Caveat - take all this with a huge grain of salt (or many regular sized grains of salt), I suck and I'm fighting the same problem. What I have done to try and improve this: I'm breaking my practice up into different parts. A - Slowed down swing mechanics. B - Full speed swing mechanics. In both of these I'm using the same club repeatedly. C1 - Then I do either hole simulation as someone above noted - there are several gps apps that you can look at a hole layout and tap around the screen to see different yardages to give you scenarios and track progress on the hole - my "game" for this part is that I've been taking 20 balls and seeing how many holes I can get onto the green with. I include recovery shots, pitching, chipping in this. OR C2 - I start with my 54Wedge and see how many clubs in a row I can hit "well" (your skill level defines well). Can I hit a good shot going up the bag from 54W to D? My best so far is getting to 6I (I suck). Pick targets to hit at. Change your orientation on the mat. Go through Pre Shot Routine for all the "C" practice. I often do it for all the "B" practice as well. Play more as mentioned above. I've already played more rounds in '19 than in '18. I put together a really nice round 2 weeks ago with some really solid ball striking. I try to take some notes after each round on what I did well and what I need to work on. It has also pushed me to really work on distance control inside 100yds (I'm MUCH better than I was in January - the LSW guide for this is GREAT!). It has pushed me to work on recovery shots (I now practice low punches with several clubs on the range to mimic having to hit under trees back into the fairway). Lastly, be honest with yourself. I hit a ton of balls on Wednesday night. The one that I keep thinking about is the flushed 5I that started just barely right and had the babiest of baby draws to it and carried barely over the top of the yardage marker that I wanted to carry barely over. God it was sweet!!!!!! There were 20+ AWFUL 5I throughout the practice session. I need to make sure that when I play and hit a bad 5I (and I'm going to) that I don't think "but I crushed it on the range!" No, I didn't. I pured ONE on the range. Just one. My game from the range to the course is actually fairly consistent given all the other variables (mentioned above, especially imperfect lies). Anyhow... this is too long, and there are much better players with much better plans around these boards. But this is what I'm using to try and practice better, get better, and bring the better to the course. Cheers!

OK, but you have to decide where to spend that $300-ish on a wood. So you need SOMETHING to go by. Simulator data gives you something. It may not be perfect (and I agree that just throwing out the bad swings might not give you the best info), but it gives you something. Ideally you could find a demo day at a range with grass area to hit from. That would be more realistic and give you better data / feel. But using a simulator and comparing multiple options against each other and against your current club is a good way to go.

How does an average joe go about doing this? I'm not disagreeing at all. But I have a hard enough time finding a store with a bay that will let me test clubs for more than 10 minutes, let alone test something on the course. Any insights/hints/tips are appreciated.

104 on Saturday (4/13) - working on flattening out my driver club path to eliminate a slice. Not very consistent creating a really "entertaining" two way miss. Didn't hit irons well at all either. Shot 91 last Saturday (4/6). Irons were well above average, kept driver in play on all holes. Both days were mid 70s weather with a light breeze - SoCal Golf!!!

You're fine. It appears that there was certainly an opportunity to attempt to keep it from escalating. But, knowing what happened and what the pro said, it probably didn't matter what you did, you were going to get the same response from him. Did you enjoy the free bucket of range balls he left for you?

Politics is, IMHO, basically forbidden on a golf course. Especially with folks that you've just met.