Golfer6969

Dear Haters, For those of you wondering how my club championship went, round 1 I shot my life time best of -4. Unfortunately the pressure completely got to me on the second round and I ended up carding +8 in a round full of uncommitted swings and jittery putting. That being said, I didn’t really care too much about the bottle because you got to get there, mess it up, and learn for next time. The reason I haven’t been active lately is that rather than squabble with the doubters and the haters on here, I thought I’d do what a professional would do and focus all my efforts on continuing to approve. I have a packed competition schedule coming up both at my home course and also at a couple of away courses in my area - hoping to get into some pressure situations again, but this time handle them better!

I have my club championship tomorrow, 18 holes and then 36 places and ties through to the second 18 the next day. It feels good that I feel I can actually compete properly this year in a gross scoring competition rather than just handicap! I’ve been taking on board the comments from everyone about manipulating the course yardages, all tips are good tips! - I’ve been playing the par 5s as long par 4s off the ladies tees, and adding 20 yards where I can on other tee boxes - makes for some very different holes and club selections! I will let you all know how I get on tomorrow morning, hoping to do the simple things right, play stress free golf and go low!

Just at my home course which isn’t particularly long, about 6400 yards off the back tees, but its tight with thick rough and a lot of hazards/OB/bunkers which compensate somewhat for the lack of lengeth. My last three rounds have been 71, 74, 68 and 76 (par 70) the 74 was most frustrating as I had two doubles and a triple - all caused by wayward iron shots which is my next area of focus. My aim is to get to a standard where I feel comfortable entering opens at away courses by next summer. That being said I’ve played lots of friendly golf at away courses, including wentworth (the course the pros play) where I hit +3 off the furthest back tees. I was -2 with 5 to play, playing very well but I think it went to my head in the last 5! The thing is with a course like that, if you’re a good putter (which I like to think I am) then getting on greens like those actually makes golf easier 🤷🏻‍♂️

UPDATE: For anyone who cares 🤷🏻‍♂️ 2.5 months into my journey and I’m still grinding - I’m down to a handicap of 2.8 but am playing to more like a 1-2 handicap at this stage. My putting is what I’ve worked on hardest and is by far and away the best part of my game, I would go as far as to say it’s better than scratch standard and regularly have mid 20 putts. Granted this includes a lot of up and downs, but inside 15 foot I give myself the expectation of holing it every time. Obviously this doesn’t happen, but I expect it to, as is the level of confidence I have managed to instil in my stroke. Iron game needs some major work as I think this is still lagging well behind at a 4/5 handicapper level. Any thoughts, opinions or pointers would be appreciated 💪🏼

I’ll post updates for anyone who is ready to listen! Am about a fortnight in now and have been working hard for 6-7 hours every day and have seen some marked improvements and made some pretty significant swing changes. Main changes are driving accuracy and distance, as well as chilling proximity to the hole decreasing hugely due to a change in technique. I played 18 holes this morning at a course called Richings near Slough. It’s relatively tight in places, but measures only about 5.7k off the yellow tees (which I played as was with two high handicapper friends). The average par 4 was probably about 330-340 yards long, so Driver wedge. Off a 5 handicap I made 7 birdies and an eagle - my previous best birdies in a round was 5 and no eagles. I shot -3 with 3 lost balls off the tee (one of which I then birdied off the tee to make bogey). Whilst I appreciate its a short course, that’s a drastic improvement in a fortnight, and has given me huge motivation. I also played 9 holes later in the day at my home course which is about 6.3k yards and shot -2 through 9 holes. Maybe it was a freak day but I think it was a result of the hard grind at the start of my process. It’s a billion miles from tour standard, but it’s a big leap in two weeks... I’m 22 🤷🏻‍♂️

Very interesting reading all the different takes, I have to say I got the responses I expected... and in a way that is what I waned. Nothing motivates me more than someone saying something is never gonna happen or is one in a million 🤷🏻‍♂️ At the bare minimum my journey should be able to take me to becoming a club professional - a job I’d absolutely love, and at the maximum could prove you all wrong... anyone interested in having progress updates? I think I may surprise a few of you...

Hi all, I have played golf on and off since I was 16 (am now 22) without ever putting in much practice other than playing rounds. In 2018 I decided I wanted to pursue some sort of career in golf (most likely as a club professional) and so started putting in some hard hours. I spent March - May of 2018 practicing a lot (5-6 hours a day) and cut my handicap more than in half, from 11 to 5 in a 2 month period after playing about 5 or 6 qualifying rounds at my home course (the best of which being +1). I could play to probably a 2-3 handicap after this practice period but there just simply wasn’t enough tournaments at that time of year to get the handicap down any faster. I then barely touched a golf club for about 8/9 months due to work commitments. In March of this year I played a couple rounds, and really enjoyed myself, so put in some light practice in the following couple weeks and played in my first qualifier in ages last weekend, shooting +4. My short game was rubbish, but my ball striking was surprisingly good. I know this is information overload but I am trying to get across the time frames in which I was able to achieve things previously and with what length of practice etc... My question is, based on previous practice results, if I wanted to aim for a handicap of say +3 or +4 how long do you reckon this would take and is achieving tour pro status ever going to be realistic? I find myself in a situation where if I wanted to I could practice 6-7 hours a day, with access to very good quality tuition - I understand this would be a multi year project, but even with all this in mind, am I living in fantasy land?