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United States24628 Posts
I'll give a bit of an update of how things have been going for me in golf... and ask for thoughts about one problem I'm having.
I finished my set of 5 lessons over the summer and played a few rounds in August... my last accomplishment I told TL about was when I made an eagle on a par 4. I played a few more sets of 9 holes on a couple of local courses and had some more pars and a birdie or two maybe.
Then September hit and I ran out of time and just stopped playing golf for one month. Suddenly I decided I need to get back into it and hit the range a couple of time and played a couple more 9 hole rounds (amazing how 1 month can make you suddenly suck again). I just signed up to do some more lessons with the same pro at a discount (some other pros told me that the one I'm with is very good).
I had my first lesson today where I compared notes with the pro on what my equipment is like now (real golf shoes, lightweight back with backpack straps, 3 hybrid to replace 3 iron, new sand wedge to replace shitty old one, new mallet putter, etc) and then he worked with me on my newer clubs. I was having some trouble with the 3 hybrid and driver.
Then he gave me some free balls and I went to practice with all my irons. I was doing beautifully with them and even my 4 iron off the mat was looking good. It's very rewarding when you can hit all of your irons with consistency (whenever I switched clubs it would take 1 or 2 balls to get a good shot, and then I would have it). I even practiced the 3 hybrid a bit more and was doing better (albeit not as good as the irons). Tried the 5 wood off the mat and was struggling so I decided to give it a rest for the time being.
But my hands were getting a bit torn up. On the bottom surface of my right ring finger and top surface of my left index finger (where they rub) I was getting some torn skin, etc. Next time I go to practice I'll put a bit of tape over the patches of skin to protect them from further wear, but I know what the problem is. I grip my club too tightly.
Originally, the pro told me I grip it too tight which explains why I sometimes get a certain problem with my ball path (especially my right hand). Today however I was getting very nice shots with my irons (never mind the woods/hybrid) so it didn't occur to me that I was holding the grip too tightly.
So I'm sorta faced with a tough decision. Right now my irons are beautiful (not that this can't change). As a result of how I'm holding the clubs I'm straining my fingers though. Over the summer whenever I tried loosening up my hands it would somehow destroy my golf swing and I guess I've just sorta learned to deal with it. Do I try to adjust the tightness of my grip and the expense of hitting good shots? Or, do I just keep doing what I'm doing and slowly toughen up my fingers a bit? I normally wear a glove on my left hand (which had a problem on the index finger today) and no glove on my right hand (which had the biggest of the problems today).
I think the reason why I clamp down on the club so hard is because I have a high swing speed. Right now it's looking like my 6 iron has a 85-90 mile/hour swing (according to a simulator) with 175 yards and my 5 iron gives me ~185 yards of carry judging from the last par 3 I played (ball landed ~185 yards away on the back of a green [not a downhill shot] and stopped within 2 feet, which surprised me quite a bit). I don't seem to be swinging too hard from a perspective of consistency on the range/course, but could I be overswinging my hands?
Next time I meet with the pro I will obviously discuss this with him but there was not a chance today.
edit: oh thedeadhaji thanks for all the help last time. My short game is getting much better which makes me really happy. Now I can actually pitch and chip half-way decently which makes a HUGE difference as you promised me. I no longer am using a blade putter and plan on improving my putting by getting used to this one.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
Sam Snead: “Grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird.”
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United States24628 Posts
On October 25 2009 07:10 thedeadhaji wrote:
Sam Snead: “Grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird.”
Yeah I've heard stuff like that before but if I do the club will go flying so I don't understand that advice.
I definitely can grip it less tightly than I currently am though. However, note my above problem with trying that.
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It sounds like sense you have a higher swing speed you are gonna need to grip the club a little tighter to make sure you hold on to it through impact. You don't wanna hold the club too tight that it feels like you are strangling it, but you do need to make sure you don't let go. Just keep practicing and find that comfort zone for you. It is all about preference. The more you play, the more callus will build up and your hands won't tear open. I play a lot of golf and have built up more hands enough to wear they don't feel bad. One problem might be your grips, I always change my grips after 6 months. Cleaning your grips could help out to make them last longer also.
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why not try an interlocking grip?
it pretty much makes it impossible to grip too tightly but you don't lose stability
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United States24628 Posts
On October 25 2009 09:27 benjammin wrote:why not try an interlocking grip? it pretty much makes it impossible to grip too tightly but you don't lose stability
That is the grip I use ._.
On October 25 2009 09:11 leftykill wrote:
It sounds like sense you have a higher swing speed you are gonna need to grip the club a little tighter to make sure you hold on to it through impact. You don't wanna hold the club too tight that it feels like you are strangling it, but you do need to make sure you don't let go. Just keep practicing and find that comfort zone for you. It is all about preference. The more you play, the more callus will build up and your hands won't tear open. I play a lot of golf and have built up more hands enough to wear they don't feel bad. One problem might be your grips, I always change my grips after 6 months. Cleaning your grips could help out to make them last longer also.
As per thedeadhaji's suggestion, I cleaned my grips this past summer.
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United States24628 Posts
Crap I was just invited to play 9 holes tomorrow with someone and I really can't refuse. Gonna have to bandage up my hands lol... hope I don't hurt myself :[
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United States24628 Posts
On October 25 2009 14:31 nAi.PrOtOsS wrote:
suck it up?
Even if I overcome the pain of playing with the torn skin on the hands, I have to worry that the problem will get worse to the point of bleeding which I obviously should not suck up.
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I don't know if you ever solved your problem or not but as far as hands getting torn up from golf; it's something thats just gonna happen if you're new to the game and are suddenly hitting a decent number of balls or playing alot. I know each summer when I get back into hitting balls, it usually takes a week or two from them to re-callus. During that time I just take it easy, I might only hit a bucket or two instead of several hundred balls, and just go chip and putt more.
After a that though my hands pretty much callus up and I could probably hit 500 or more balls a day with no problem.
As far as the grip issue; having a firm grip isn't neccessarily a killer, but if you're grip is tight enough that your forearms are getting tense thats a no go. It will cause you to lose clubhead speed, and makes it really easy to lose shots the right. Additionally, it can cause you to start getting tight in the chest, especially under pressure, which is even worse because you stop turning, lose more distance, get way too steep, etc.
You're grip should be somewhere between hands gently resting on the club and firm. On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being a loose enough grip that the club would slide out of your hands from gravity, and 10 being a death grip, I'd say anywhere from 3-6, maybe 7 is okay. You said you felt like the club would fall out of your hands because of a light grip, but that's not the case, unless your not wearing a glove and sweating big time, a nice relaxed grip will hold the club just fine. My driver swing speed is around 120 mph and with a grip around a 3 or a 4 I've never even come close to feeling like the club was going to fly out of my grip.
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omg I need to golf more. I remember last summer I shot a sub 80 round at a local course in Connecticut. best round of my life, I literally played the front 9 at even par. Golf is awesome but expensive so I don't have too much of a chance to play as often as I would like.
Typically I shoot like 90 on 18 holes but that day was one of those crazy days where you sink every putt, have a chip in and cant hit a bad shot. I love those days sadly they only happen like once a year LOL.
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Nice round! Your round sounds like one of mine. A few years ago I hadn't even broken 90 and I go out and shoot 78, came out of nowhere but man was it ever fun. Golf is so much fun on those days where everything just clicks, you get good bounces, shaping shots into hole locations easily, putts are dropping; days like that just won't let you quit.
And yeah, the money is the worst part about it, each summer I end up easily spending well over a grand or more; several hundred for tournaments, a range pass, balls (seriously that like the most obnoxious thing ever, 3 or 4 dollars per ball to get something decent is so damn expensive), and occasional green fees thought I don't typically end up paying more than 15-25 dollars for a round.
I'm really excited for this season though, the State Amateur is at a course I really like, and the U.S. Amateur sectional qualifier is at the Broadmoor which will be a treat to get to play.
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United States24628 Posts
On April 20 2010 05:57 L_Master wrote:
I don't know if you ever solved your problem or not but as far as hands getting torn up from golf; it's something thats just gonna happen if you're new to the game and are suddenly hitting a decent number of balls or playing alot. I know each summer when I get back into hitting balls, it usually takes a week or two from them to re-callus. During that time I just take it easy, I might only hit a bucket or two instead of several hundred balls, and just go chip and putt more.
After a that though my hands pretty much callus up and I could probably hit 500 or more balls a day with no problem.
As far as the grip issue; having a firm grip isn't neccessarily a killer, but if you're grip is tight enough that your forearms are getting tense thats a no go. It will cause you to lose clubhead speed, and makes it really easy to lose shots the right. Additionally, it can cause you to start getting tight in the chest, especially under pressure, which is even worse because you stop turning, lose more distance, get way too steep, etc.
You're grip should be somewhere between hands gently resting on the club and firm. On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being a loose enough grip that the club would slide out of your hands from gravity, and 10 being a death grip, I'd say anywhere from 3-6, maybe 7 is okay. You said you felt like the club would fall out of your hands because of a light grip, but that's not the case, unless your not wearing a glove and sweating big time, a nice relaxed grip will hold the club just fine. My driver swing speed is around 120 mph and with a grip around a 3 or a 4 I've never even come close to feeling like the club was going to fly out of my grip.
Just started getting back into it a few weeks ago. Took one lesson and sorta figured it out... my hands were tight BECAUSE my wrists were tight (I think). If you keep your arms rigid it's easy to lose your grip on the club so obviously you will tighten up your fingers... focusing on waggles etc has allowed me to grip it less tightly. Jury is still out on whether or not I'm gonna be tearing the right side of my right ring finger at the second knuckle...
On April 20 2010 06:05 LuckyFool wrote:
omg I need to golf more. I remember last summer I shot a sub 80 round at a local course in Connecticut. best round of my life, I literally played the front 9 at even par. Golf is awesome but expensive so I don't have too much of a chance to play as often as I would like.
Typically I shoot like 90 on 18 holes but that day was one of those crazy days where you sink every putt, have a chip in and cant hit a bad shot. I love those days sadly they only happen like once a year LOL.
Wow cool... yeah golf is SO AWESOME when you are doing well :D
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Just started getting back into it a few weeks ago. Took one lesson and sorta figured it out... my hands were tight BECAUSE my wrists were tight (I think). If you keep your arms rigid it's easy to lose your grip on the club so obviously you will tighten up your fingers... focusing on waggles etc has allowed me to grip it less tightly. Jury is still out on whether or not I'm gonna be tearing the right side of my right ring finger at the second knuckle...
Yah, no doubt tension of the forearms could could your fingers to tense up and grip down harder. Basically you want your grip to be comfortable but tension free, anytime things get tight its bad news for the swing. I'm not sure what you mean by rigid arms making you lose hold on the club....after all your arms don't hold the club.
Damn, this makes me wish more people from TeamLiquid lived around here so we could get together for a round, that'd be a blast.
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Hijack: I have been getting back into golf lately (i played for like 6 years and took a 2 year break) and i have not been able to consistently (or really at all) been able to hit a ball straight. They mostly curve to the right but sometimes to the left. HELP!
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Really the best thing you can do is go get yourself a some lessons from a reputable teaching pro.
In general though, if you are typically hitting a slice you either have an open clubface at impact, are swinging outside in, or a combination of both. The tricky part is diagnosing the cause of problem, if you could get a video of your swing then the advice could be much more specific.
In general, the most common way that amateurs slice if to come across the ball from outside in, what this means is that as the club is coming into impact, instead of moving straight towards the target, or a little from the inside (closer to the golfer), it is instead moving from the outside. Because the club travels to the left to hit the ball, the ball starts to the left. What this means is that even if your clubface is reasonably square at impact, the ball will still cut a little (or alot if your swing is exceptionally inside out). Up to a point, the ball tends to start out where the club is traveling, and finish where the face was looking at impact. The basic fix then, is to get the club to travel from inside the target line as it approaches the ball
The problem is that there are alot of things that can cause the swing to be too much outside in. For instance, if you take the club too much to the inside going back, you are then forced to compenstate by being steeper coming down, and as a result will tend to swing somewhat outside in; another example is that many people tend to initiate the downsing with their arms or shoulders, which invariably forces the club to the outside, whereas in proper sequencing the weight shifts and the hips begin to turn, which enables the arms to drop gently to the inside onto the proper swingpath. Without being able to see the actual cause, we can only talk in generalaties.
Over the Top Swing Example: Notice how his club is inside the line of his feet when it is parellel to the ground, as a result this forces him to steepen coming down which he does by initiating the downswing with his arms and shoulders.
Over The Top Swing
Now to the other part of what typically causes someone to slice. With most people who are new to the game, they don't know how to release the club right, and usually just leave the face wide open at impact, and the balls takes off right. If lots of you're shots end up way right of target, you are probably leaving the face open as well. Assuming your in a decent position at the top what you probably do is instead of swinging down and through the ball, try to throw the club into the ball to get it up. What needs to happen is you need to swing down and through the ball, and the forearms need to rotate through the shot, by the time your midway into your follow through your right forearm should have rotated over your left. To get a feel for this take a club and hinge it up to hip high (club parellel to ground). The face should be pointing straight up and down. Now, slowly work the club over to your left side and ensure that when the club is hip high the face is again pointing straight up and down. When you get comfortable with how that feels, you can do it a bit faster and you'll begin to get an idea of what a good release should feel like.
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I should probably just send this in a pm to micro, but I think it is interesting enough to share with the class.
Through a series of semi-unfortunate events I have very quickly climbed the ranks at my golf course due to a vacuum above me created by firings. Long story short, I may now hold the world record for highest handicapped assistant pro ever. 
Oh god I can just see it now when people ask me for tips and I am like 10x worse than they are.
I'm not giving lessons or anything though, so I think I am more of just a guy that works in the pro shop, but I will be running the entire course 2 or 3 days a week...I'm kinda scared.
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United States24628 Posts
On April 20 2010 08:21 Lemonwalrus wrote:I should probably just send this in a pm to micro, but I think it is interesting enough to share with the class. Through a series of semi-unfortunate events I have very quickly climbed the ranks at my golf course due to a vacuum above me created by firings. Long story short, I may now hold the world record for highest handicapped assistant pro ever. Oh god I can just see it now when people ask me for tips and I am like 10x worse than they are. I'm not giving lessons or anything though, so I think I am more of just a guy that works in the pro shop, but I will be running the entire course 2 or 3 days a week...I'm kinda scared.
Sick hahaha. Now you have even more motivation to get better... you should probably tell the head pro to train you on a nearly daily basis :p
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Yeah I am going to try to get some semi-free lessons out of it. I was even thinking of signing up for a league but the only one I qualify for is on a day that I have to work. 
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Lemonwalrus thats pretty crazy stuff. Are you PGA Certified, if so I'm pretty sure there is a playing ability test that you have to pass that isn't a complete joke, so you couldn't be all that terrible. Congrats on the promotions and good luck with the extra stuff that comes along with them.
What's it like working in the golf industry as a course pro?
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EPT![[image loading]](http://z.about.com/d/golf/1/0/y/E/interlocking_grip.JPG)
