RyanG94

Yeah man I totally agree with what you are saying, as I’ve said, I have probably worded it poorly by saying I’m a “good” ball striker. I’m not offended by it, I mean I’m aware I’m by no means a solid player, and I’m also very aware that a new feel or something you do different might only last a couple days/rounds before it stops working/having a positive effect. Part of the frustrating of the game we all love. Maybe I should rephrase it to say, my ballstriking has improved from a level I previously felt “comfortable” with it overall, and it’s due to the “feeling” of keeping weight on me lead side throughout the swing and “feeling” like I’m rotating hard through my lead leg through impact. Maybe I’m stacking and tilting unintentionally - I’ve seen Tom Sagutos videos and while I like some of what he says, there’s also plenty of it I’m not doing - or doesn’t feel like I’m doing anyway so I’m not convinced I’m stack and tilt. But I was just quite shocked at how giving my dad this tip worked - note - I didn’t give. My dad this tip because I feel I’m in any position to offer guidance on anyone’s games, just became extremely obvious his weight transfer was all wrong and it was getting him down, given he doesnt hit the ball far anyway, if it made it more enjoyable to have solid contact and actually have some fun I thought it was worth offering him it and I was just quite surprised at how well it translated into my own game. Probably didn’t word that great as well, just find it interesting as I know it’s very unconventional and wondered what others thoughts are

Yeah fair point,as I said I know I probably “shouldn’t” be playing blades being off a 10. But my ballstriking is probably the most consistent and strongest part of my game. I’m a 10 largely due to not being arsed about practicing putting/chipping and that’s where I waste a lot of shots. I would probably be a couple lower if I played CB though, granted. Worded poorly on my part, it’s the strongest of a very average set of skills but it seems to have jumped a level. Maybe it’s the feel vs real scenario, who knows haha!

The par 3 3rd at my course in Scotland is 195-205 depending on tees being moved. Depending on wind I’ve hit everything from a 7 iron to a 2 iron into it. The 14th is a par 4 that’s 330 and really open and exposed to the elements, with the wind at your back and firm fairways it’s possible to green it, into the wind I’ve seen myself hit driver and a 5 iron into it

Hi all! Basically I play with my dad every week and he has a bad back and shoulder so he doesn’t have much rotation to his swing. His problem is he ends up keeping his weight on his back foot through impact and “helping” the ball up in the air. When we played last week he was really struggling and I suggested to keep the weight on his left, purely to help him with contact and it immediately helped. Just to give him an idea of what I meant I showed him and the contact was so pure it shocked me, I hit a 5 iron with a tight draw - just one of those shots that makes you want to come back and play again next week. For reference, I’m not amazing by any means, I play off 10, play blades even though I shouldn’t but I love the feel of them and have “good enough” ball striking - and have always transferred my weight traditionally and have never had a problem with my ball striking. I have played 18 and 9 since, and played keeping my weight on the lead side throughout the entire swing and rotating hard round my left leg at impact. I’ve had a 75 and a 37 over the 18 and 9 and I’ve never found the game so simple in my life. I haven’t lost difference either any of my clubs except my driver (only 10-15 yards shorter. The upside is I’m now able to hit my 2 and 3 iron consistently, all my irons have a more piercing trajectory and my wedges are far more accurate. The point of this post is basically - has anyone else been using this technique and how have you found it long term? I feel like if I keep playing this way I could get back below 7 (my lowest hcp ever) pretty quickly and I’m excited to see if it continues. cheers EDIT - just to clarify, I mentioned I play blades not cos I think that makes me cool or great etc, just incase it reads that way - but rather as a pointer that I generally have always had fairly solid ball contact and can play to a decent hcp with them. So was amazed at how much improvement I made even though I always “thought” anyway that I was putting a decent swing on it.

On this subject, I have got the SIM Max after a fitting, and I love it, even so I have been sticking with my new aim of not going to auto pilot and pulling driver on every opportunity. I hit the Driver on 3 holes today, 2 par 5s and one long par 4 into the wind, hit the Driving Iron off most par 4 tees and a 5 iron on 2 of them. I must admit if I can get my putting sorted a bit I would have easily shot 75, came in with a 78 with more than a few missed opportunities on the green. Scores haven’t suffered a hit and if anything the consistency of my scores has improved. Before I could go round in a 78 hitting driver all the time and play really well, and the next be 85-90 if my driving was off that day. Since employing a more conservative approach to using the driver I’ve played about 10 times and had scores all between 78-83. definitely a good choice getting the driver, so thanks to the good folks here who advised dropping it totally wasn’t a great idea, but also using it more sparingly or rather “when I need driver” has been a great strategy. On a side note anyone who thinks they may have a use for a Driving Iron, give the P790 UDI a go, that thing is an absolute rocket!

Been there my friend, I still do this every now and again just to keep a bit of a rhythm going, I find standing on the tee box for too long and I lose a bit of rhythm and momentum, would much rather hit a different club and play shorter but keeping the flow going is preferable. on the topic itself I must say although I now have my new driver and hit it well, I do find myself using it far more sparingly than I used to, unless it gives me a huge advantage on a big wide fairway or unless it’s a long par 4 or 5 I prefer hitting my driving iron or even a 5 iron a lot of the time. Scores haven’t suffered in the slightest, improved if anything, and I feel so confident I’ll stick it in the fairway hitting the irons off the tee!

It wasn’t so much that I’m not serious about my equipment, more a case of when I bought the set of clubs I bought in February when I took up golf again, I set about changing what’s in the bag to stuff that worked for me. I don’t have a collection of clubs I can swap in and out so when the M4 broke, the only replacement I had was the Nike Vapour. However I have gone for a fitting and the Sim seems to suit me best, probably the familiarity of playing TaylorMade drivers for so long (before my hiatus I played TM drivers).

Definitely will stick around TST, seems a good place here 🙂 played tonight with the new driving iron (driver arrives tomorrow), and absolutely loved it. Got it out to 230-240 a couple of times, and was great off the fairway as well on the par 5. Great to have a good option that still gets Me in the fairway far more consistently without sacrificing too much distance! Playing both days this weekend so looking forward to having multiple options off the tee that I’m comfortable with

Totally understand this mate, If my driver is off I go to a 5 iron rather than the 3 wood, I have the RBZ Stage 2 and that thing GOES. However, results aren’t consistent enough direction wise to trust it all the time, if my driver is off I’m going iron every day. I am more than comfortable hitting the RBZ off the deck, not so much a tee Following the advice of the good people here, and realising that relying on puring nearly every iron off the tee is probably a bad idea, I went for a driver fitting today. Tried the Sim Max, Mavrik, Cobra SZ and TS2 (I think, def a titleist anyway), and happy that I’ve come away with a new Sim. I did also get the P790 UDI2 Iron, plan on using that on my bad driver days, so I can have an iron off the tee that will allow me to have shorter shots into the green on the longer par 4s. Definitely plan on getting out the mindset of a driver off every par 4 purely because “just cause it’s a par 4” and using my irons more, opened my eyes the other day playing that round but a bit knee jerk to give up the big dog. Cheers guys 👍🏼

Yeah man I totally agree with you. As far as my game goes, my ball striking is by far the most consistent area of my game, and my go to shot is the 5 iron off the tee to get my game back on track. But I don’t want to become reliant on it too much, like you said I will have a day where it doesn’t go well and I don’t want to fall back to hitting short irons off the tee cos I’ve decided to take the driver out the bag. I think I’ll try taking the driving iron out for a trial, if I like it I’ll use the driver on the holes I need it, and if I’m hitting it well use it on a few of the holes it give me a big advantage, when it’s not going well falling back on the driving iron and failing that, the 5 iron. Gives me 3 options, one of which I feel robotic with (5i) everything seems automatic and completely repeatable. But yeah your right, I think ditching the driver altogether is maybe a bit of a knee jerk reaction, especially seeing as I was hitting my old one so well. Maybe mixing it up based on how my game is on the day, the weather and course conditions and what is needed in any given scenario (match play, need to win the hole for example on the par 5) is maybe the way to go at it. Just need to ensure I don’t just get to every par 4 and 5 and automatically think well it’s got to be a driver cause it’s not a par 3, bad habit that’s probably causing my game more harm than good at the moment. Thanks for the advice mate

Thanks man, yeah I’m torn at the moment, for the course I play, i reckon if I get a driving iron and can hit it consistently well I could get round my course just fine without driver. I’m thinking about the new TaylorMade P790 UDI 2 Iron. I do know that the two par 5s and the one really long par 4 at our course is the only time I might “need” a driver, figured that much out after the last round. but yeah your right, I can see myself getting down a few more strokes in my hcp by improving my putting a bit, but I feel your right and it will plateau if I’m not giving myself the opportunity to hit driver on some of the holes. Maybe it’s a case of gettingA new driver /keeping the driver I have and improving with it, and then using it sparingly on holes where it’s likely to be more of a benefit going an extra 80 yards and potentially being in the rough, or being shorter in the fairway, thinking risk vs reward. I dunno, maybe it was just the sheer enjoyment of hitting every fairway and playing every club in the bag, was the most satisfying round I’ve had for a while. Maybe getting a driver I can hit consistently then using it only where I need it is the way forward for long term scoring goals

Well I wish we knew that at the time, it was only a social round, but he was pretty apologetic, not that it was his fault. At least I’ll know for future, cheers 😁

A good number of years ago I played a PW on a short par 3 downhill, landed it about 5-6 feet from the hole and stopped it quick. My playing partner then hit a great shot, must have landed right on the front of my ball and mine squirted out off the green into the rough at the back where’s I had a horrible shot, the wall at the back of the rough restricted my swing to a foot at most.... whereas his ball, after landing on mine, bounced back a couple of foot and rolled to rest about 3-4 feet from the hole. Couldn’t believe it, went from a decent birdie chance to scrambling to try save par, ended up with a 4 after duffing the chip and two putting.

Hi mate, first of all, good work on improving your ball striking. Makes a big difference having that great feeling of flushing an iron multiple times during a round. On the putting, and specifically judging the distance, I had the exact same problem when I first started playing again back in feb. I found the best advice I had was focus on how you would “roll” the ball to the hole with your hand, and try to recreate that roll with the putter. I found this helped immediately and while I still blaze one past or baby one and leave it way short on occasion, the majority of my putts are a lot better when it comes to pace. Im not a great putter by any means, but I found this has really helped me big time 🙂 best of luck! edit - just noticed your post was some time ago, apologies. If it’s still relevant then might be worth a try, if not then hope you found a way 🙂

Back in February I took the game back up after 4 years out completely although probably 6 years since playing regularly (weekly) I got a second hand set of decent clubs and headed to the range on the Saturday, hit 100 balls, got a bit of a feel back after thinning/topping the first 10 shots at the range. Went out on the Sunday morning with my mates and shot an 86, I was a 17 handicap before who didn’t practice much so it wasn’t too much to rediscover, I keep myself fairly fit etc and still have “some” youthful athleticism being 26. So I basically slotted straight back into my old game which was surprising. Since then I have had a few lessons, and piece by piece put together the bag that I want, and playing twice a week since lockdown eased has seen my handicap drop to 12.5 i found that, like others, dedicating time to the range then playing the course often, along with lessons has made playing golf so easy to get back into and play m playing better than I ever have. Amazing what a bit of dedication and goal structured practise can do. range sessions years ago was essentially just smash 50-100 balls with no thought process or analysis, now it’s a measured approach, based on what I’m trying to improve. Glad your enjoying being back out there 🙂