BadGolfer

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I am going to just buy a driver for now and hold off on irons. My golf season is coming to an end soon (the semester is starting soon) so I think I will buy a used/cheaper driver and practice a bit, then maybe get lessons next summer.

I have no clue what my handicap is, I just threw a number on there because it said I had to. I understand they are offering me advice to take the lesson but that doesn't change the fact that it is my money and I am unsure of whether it would work. I'm not ruling anything out, I am just struggling to decide because it is a big decision. My driver right now is almost unusable because it basically imploded over the past year from a dent in the top (due to an improper swing when I just started, fixed that now). I switched to my woods for driving but I have such cheap clubs that both of them actually broke on me. A new driver is not a frivolous purchase.

But at the end, if it doesn't cure my slice I still have a new driver.... wheras if lessons don't work I'm left with nothing. I'm just afraid of shelling out $50 and not getting anything out of it. Believe me, I want to cure my slice more than anything. My irons are really fine, it's just my drives that slice. I'm just REALLY skeptical of a half hour lesson actually working. It seems like they would be the kind of business to want to work slowly and keep you coming back for more. And suddenly you have dropped $300 on lessons. EDIT: Ok, I'm pretty convinced I won't buy a draw version since if I do cure my slice I would not want to be held back by my driver design.

I would but I'm afraid to pay fifty freaking dollars for only half an hour and have it not work. If I knew I could take a couple lessons and my slice would go away, I would do it. There is no guarantee it would actually work though, and then I would be out a lot of money (for me). Lessons are soooo expensive.

I'm looking to buy some golf clubs, but honestly I have gone to the store and tested drivers but I can't really tell any difference between them. I tested three different $150 drivers, Taylormade Burner, Nike Something and Cleveland Monster. I hit more than 10 balls with each, and I could not really say that I prefer any of them. Irons are all similar too, though I haven't tested them yet. Are there any tips on what brands I should look for as somewhat of a beginner? Like do Ping clubs always have a certain feature compared to Taylormade, or are they all pretty similar? I would like to get a well known brand like Callaway, Taylormade, Nike or Ping for $600 or less. Ping seem to be the most affordable, but does that mean they are worse clubs? Obviously I will go test before I buy, but I have little hope that hitting a couple balls will magically reveal which clubs would be best for me, so it would be nice to figure out beforehand which clubs SHOULD be better for me. One last thing, I was thinking about buying a used Burner 07 because it came in a draw version and I have a terrible slice. Does that sound like a good purchase?

Really? Where can you get one for cheaper? They seemed like pretty standard prices to me.

I have played with the same starter set for 4 years, and the other day the head of my driver actually snapped off. So I am going to buy my first single club ever. I have narrowed it down to three drivers, each $150 each. http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...092529.1306959 http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...451887.1982616 http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...454089.1454090 I went and tested all three... and honestly I couldn't really feel a big difference. They all felt comfortable. I am not experienced in evaluating how a club feels. So, if anyone knows if any of these are clearly better than another, or has another suggestion in the same price range, I would be open to that advice. For the record, I have trouble with my slice, and I am not a really hard hitter. If they are all the same I will probably just get the Taylormade since I like how it looks the best, and the burner golf balls are on sale

At the target but then very quickly curve over. A LOT. I guess when I say my shoulders were behind I'm saying that I kind of dipped my back shoulder which would turn my left palm up (im a lefty). Its like I was leaning backwards away from the ball when I hit it.

I have struggled my entire gold career with a slice. I would go entire outings without hitting one tee shot into the fairway. Well, after suffering through this torment all summer, I have made huge progress in fixing my swing. For me, the problem was all in my shoulders. I was coming down to fast with my arms and trying to power the ball with my arms, and my shoulders were lagging behind, not to mention that instead of a smooth pivot I was dipping my back shoulder down. This made the club face open up on impact, since when my arms were out front, my palms were facing more up and down than perpendicular with the ground. By REALLY concentrating on swinging my shoulders faster and precisely with my arms, I can stop the club face from opening and hit it 100% straight. It certainly feels a lot different than my old swing, and now my power comes from my torso, which is how I believe it should be. It is easier to keep my wrists locked this way also. I still struggle a bit with my slice, but it is only when I forget to strictly apply my new swing. Just thought I would share-- it took a lot of terrible shots for me to finally realize the problem and address it.

Wow, just went to the driving range. You are totally right, I am opening the club face. If I start my club position by closing the club face like 40 degrees then I can hit it straight. But as much as I try, I can't hit it straight without this compensation. When I test swing really slowly to see what it is doing, it seems pretty straight. But then when I test it really slowly with the closed face it also comes down in the right position... which is terribly confusing.

I know how to compensate for this, but not how to fix it. It pretty much happens when I am driving. I end up hitting the ball with the far tip of the club head and it just shoots off to the left (I'm a lefty). To compensate I have been standing slightly towards the right side of the fairway and starting with the club head further ahead of the ball (so that the ball is sitting about in line with the shaft rather than on the middle of the club face). This works for the most part, but I think the pulling back motion is what is putting a slice on my ball. This is not really a problem with my irons, I think because they are shorter and are held closer to my body, meaning I do not pull them toward me when I swing. The club head comes down pretty much where I started it, and the ball goes straight. So, my question is, should I try to hold the driver closer to me to start? How much should my arms be bent when I am holding a driver? And lastly, are there any drills I should try?

I think I have already been doing this to SOME extent when I swing, but I can't wait to get out to the driving range now that I consciously know what to do. Kind of a weird parallel, but when I was teaching myself a certain juggling trick, I couldn't get it for weeks. Then I watched a video that put the arm motions in a whole new light and I realized how to do it, even though I had technically been just about doing it all along.

No wonder my back swing is so bad and, quite honestly, painful to do. I've been trying to make my arms swing back most of the way, but is it really true that they just hinge upwards like that? Or is he exaggerating in the video?

I won't be able to get out again for a few days but when I do I will try to do this.

So I just got back from the driving range. For the first 15 or so balls I could hit about 1/3 of them straight and far. Then for the rest of the bucket I couldn't hit one ball that didn't hit the ground 20 feet in front of me and roll for 50 yards. I want to take lessons, but I've already spent so much money on this sport with nothing to show for it, and I'm afraid that just because I'm paying for lessons doesn't mean I can actually learn how to golf.

Ok here's my story. I started golfing a few years ago when I was 15. When I started I could drive the ball pretty well, and hit the ball pretty fairly with my irons. I somehow got progressively worse until I could barely hit the ball. I stopped golfing for a couple years out of frustration, and I am now 19 and I want to get back into it. I went golfing today and, surprise surprise, I am still absolutely horrible. I am embarrassed whenever I try to hit the ball around people because of how bad I am. Taking 8 strokes on a par 4 is not fun. I think my problem is in not hitting the ball squarely, and this is somehow due to a bad swing. When I swing back to wind up, I'm pretty sure the club face is rotating so that when I come down it is not hitting the ball straight on. I try to lock my wrists but then I can't fully swing back all the way... my arms don't work like that!!! Should I be locking my wrists and letting the head rotate, then relying on my wrists being back in the same position when I come back down? Or should I absolutely try to keep it straight throughout the full swing? Again, my arms just don't seem to work that way... my swing and connecting with the ball seems to be my biggest problem. I also have trouble getting under the ball. Most of the time my drives hit the ground ten feet in front of me then skip along the ground for a while. I think this is because I am pulling up when I swing, but no matter how much I scream at myself in my head "STAY DOWN"while swinging I can't get under it. I don't want to be a great golfer. I just want to be able to play. I'm normally very good at sports, I just can't seem to figure out golf, which is a shame because I feel like I would really love it if I was good.

I almost hit the ball more than 100 yards today. I'm the worst golfer ever.

Around 70 on 9 holes. I'm the worst golfer ever.

college student