artfulgolfer

Just pick out a set of your Dad's clubs that look and feel good to you and go out and play with your friends, and your Dad. You'll figure it out without lessons and fitting and pre-shot routines for now. There will be time for all that later. Just pick a precise target, visualize the clubhead moving through the ball towards the target, know that you can make that shot, then let go and let 'er rip. I started playing golf after my kids started college, in my late 40's. Got down to a 4 in 2 years and a 2 in 4 years, playing twice a week and mostly just practicing chipping and putting. I found a book early on, Extraordinary Golf by Fred Shoemaker, that really helped me gain perspective and learn how to think on the course. All that matters in golf is this shot, right now... forget your score, forget your last shot, forget your last hole, forget what you might shoot if you hit this shot or par this hole... just believe you can hit that little ball exactly where you want to. Focus only on your target and creating your desired shot. Don't try too hard. Let it happen naturally. Mostly, have fun!

I added Shaun to my list of "artful" golfers at artfulgolfer.com about a year ago, I recently added a couple others worth checking out: Cameron Strachan - promotes playing the game "automatically" Mike Maves - youtube video links available at the most popular thread ever at golfwrx http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index....owtopic=175341

I've always struggled with short putts too... I posted an entry on my blog a while back asking for help and received a lot of good feedback, similar to the replies on this thread: The Art of Sinking Short Putts I had my first sub-70 round recently, thanks mostly to making short putts. I started placing a lot more weight on my front foot, make sure to follow through down my target line -- then try really hard not to watch the ball go to the hole.

I started playing nearly 4 years ago. Got down from 16 to 8 my first year and broke 80, down to 4 my second year and shot par, and down to 3 my third. My 2008 goals were to get down to 2 and break 70. I just shot 68 last weekend for my first sub-70 round ever, but haven't gotten below 2.4 yet. It took 2 years to get from 16 to 4, but after 2 more years, I still haven't gotten from 4 to 2! I can chalk that up to my shaky putting.

I'm now up to 4... 18* (2), 21* (3), 24* (4), and for my upcoming 50th birthday, a 27* (5). I'll get a 30* (6) when I turn 60 ;). I carry GW, SW, and LW too, so I'm playing now w/o a fairway wood. 18* hybrid goes pretty far.

good advice by mrsandman! and in response to your comment: "I sometimes wonder if it's less interesting/fun once you are shooting about +7 or so everytime...." 1) it never gets less interesting/fun... there's neverending room for improvement. 2) when you do get down to shooting about +7, you never shoot it EVERYTIME ;). In fact, once you start shooting lower scores, you're much more likely to shoot 11 OVER your handicap!

Dent is right, even at +4 you might be living out of your car driving from mini-tour even to mini-tour event scraping out a living. Scratch is only good enough to win a Club Championship perhaps. To answer your question about how hard it is to keep getting lower, I think it's just as hard to get from 16 to 8 as it is from 8 to 4, 4 to 2, 2 to 1, 1 to scratch. I got to 8 my first year, 4 my second, and it's now taken a little over another year to get to 2.5. For me, it's been really hard to keep improving from here. I still have tons of room for improvement -- putting and accuracy from 100 yards in -- just takes more time than I have available for practice. Maybe when I retire in a few years.

You post your "combined" score from your last 2 nines. If they happen to be a front nine and back nine score, simply add the scores to get your "combined" score. Even if you play the same nine holes or 9 holes from 2 different courses, you can still combine your score to make an 18 hole score, but you'll have to find out what the course rating and slope are for each of the nine holes (available from the course pro - both nines usually have a different rating and slope). Then add the 2 ratings together to get an 18 hole rating and average the 2 slopes. The SCGA allows you to post 9 hole scores and it combines them automatically when calculating 18 hole indexes each month. p.s. I went to H.S. in Palatine (Fremd) and caddied at Inverness GC in 8th grade.

Started 3 years ago at 46... Down to 3.2 index, playing 2-3 times/week. Caddied when I was 12 or 13 and played weekly that summer. Never broke 100.

Ditto on everything Ryan said... why limit your reading to just 1 book on that list ;)

There are some great responses in this thread on how to deal with anger and keep things in perspective. Like mikelz, I've also been told I'm not good enough to get that mad. When I was an 8 handicapper, a fellow player told me after I made a bad shot that those are the kind of shots to expect when you're only an 8 handicapper. I've learned not to expect perfection! I've even learned to embrace imperfection and be happy about the results of a bad shot. Cool, now I get some practice from a bunker. Cool, I get to see if I can hit a ball that's half submerged on the edge of a lake. Cool, I get to see if I can hit a ball between this long row of trees. Cool, I get to see if I can save bogie with this 6 foot comeback putt. Regarding slow play, I had a slow round about 2 years ago that drove me absolutely nuts. I shot 92. I decided after that round to NEVER let the behavior of others or any other factor that's out of my control ruin my round. I haven't shot a round in the 90's since. I don't like it when it's slow, but I've learn to distract myself from getting frustrated - almost. If you let it, golf can be a great teacher, showing you what you need to work on to grow in character and humility. This attitude in golf has helped me so much I've even been able to go back to playing hockey without loosing my temper! Veins are no longer popping out of my forehead when a referee makes a stupid call ;).

Easy ... Fred Shoemaker's Extraordinary Golf. As I've shared before, I broke 80 the day after I read this book (after 6 months of play) and broke par 1 year later. Read this book!

Gotta ask... how does a 20+ handicapper shoot a 75? And why doesn't a non-tournament round NOT affect your handicap? I'm a 4 and rarely shoot a 75!

Do what mikelz suggests and you'll do just fine... especially his last suggestion. If you get off to a bad start or your opponent gets off to a great start, don't get frustrated, just be patient and keep playing your own game. Your opponent will eventually play to his/her handicap and mess up a hole or two and your game may pick up. Stay positive and enjoy yourself. If you opponent has a career day and beats you, they deserve the win. In my last season of 9-hole match play, I went 13-4-3.

I think your club fitting session may prove that this is a good shaft. It's low kick point and high torque might be perfect for your average speed and low ball flight. But like other's have shared, a greater loft may be better solution. In my experience, this shaft was too whippy and I couldn't hit it straight unless I slowed down my swing. I changed to their ProLaunch Red Stiff and absolutely love it!