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United States24768 Posts
Haha hi5 xDaunt.
I played 9 holes today after work. Although I wasn't swinging well or anything, some luck and good decision making led me to a great 5 holes to start. I par'd both of the par 3s and bogeyed the two par fours and one par five. Then I fell apart on the last four, probably due to being really tired from my work schedule.
It's amazing how I get out on the course and I forget how to hit golf balls. Like, at all. Basically, I revert back to day 1 micro-junior level golf skill when I swing... how does that happen...
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United States24768 Posts
On June 07 2016 09:15 micronesia wrote:
It's amazing how I get out on the course and I forget how to hit golf balls. Like, at all. Basically, I revert back to day 1 micro-junior level golf skill when I swing... how does that happen...
I doubled down on this today. I went to the range and could not hit a pitching wedge properly. Could... not... hit... a... pitching... wedge... correctly. I tried many different things to fix it and probably hit like 100-150 shots, but I could not make any progress.
I've figured out what golf reminds me of... it's like playing old videogames without a memory card. No matter how far you get in one session, you're forced to power the system off at the end of the day, and you start back at level 1 the next day.
I just don't know what else I can do at this point. I'm doing frequent lessons (and I'm pretty confident it's not the pros fault or anything), I'm practicing, and I'm still struggling as badly as the first time I ever picked up a club...
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I had the same problem. Lots of bad relapses that made me look like I'd never picked up a club before. I haven't been able to fix the issue with my driver yet (getting closer), but I do think that I have a good handle on my wedge and iron shots now. What I found to work wonders for me was to line up at impact position while at address (hands pushed forward, open hips). From there, I'd take my backwing. What this did for me was greatly simplify my swing such that I didn't have to worry about each moving part of my swing as much as I previously did. All that I had to worry about was properly turning my shoulders during the back swing to a good transition point, Everything else fell into place (most critically, my wrist position), and my shots were pretty damned pure. Things just click better for me when line up at impact position. You may want to try something similar, at least as a drill.
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United States24768 Posts
xDaunt I tried doing exactly that... I fully expected it would simply the swing (as you said) enough that I could at least see some changes from the total mishits, and it didn't end up helping. Whatever I'm doing seems to be too heavily ingrained right now and will need to be sanitized by a pro.
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I highly recommend using video if you are going through really bad spells.
Feel isnt real.
What you may think you are doing could be totally different than what you are doing. Mirrors help too.
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On June 08 2016 17:32 micronesia wrote:
xDaunt I tried doing exactly that... I fully expected it would simply the swing (as you said) enough that I could at least see some changes from the total mishits, and it didn't end up helping. Whatever I'm doing seems to be too heavily ingrained right now and will need to be sanitized by a pro.
Do you have a common mishit or are you just all over the place?
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I went back to the driving range today to work on my driver. My problem with my driver swing has consistently been that my hips are a little too fast for my hands/arms, resulting in big slices. For the life of me, I just can't quite get the club to come around fast enough, even if I shorten the backswing and really push on my right index finger. So I decided to cheat. I tee'd the ball about one inch forward (over my toes instead of at my heel), and, like magic, my slices turned into nice, easy ~260+ yard (carrying) draws going down the middle. Now, the trick is going to be making sure that my swing doesn't change too much from what I'm doing, otherwise I'm going to be re-positioning the ball again.
The other thing that I need to work on is my grip pressure. I'm holding the club a little too tightly, which means that I'm leaving a bunch of distance on the table.
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United States24768 Posts
On June 08 2016 22:34 Sadist wrote:
I highly recommend using video if you are going through really bad spells.
Feel isnt real.
What you may think you are doing could be totally different than what you are doing. Mirrors help too.
This makes perfect sense but filming yourself hitting golf balls is a huge pain in the ass.
On June 09 2016 01:04 xDaunt wrote:Show nested quote +On June 08 2016 17:32 micronesia wrote:
xDaunt I tried doing exactly that... I fully expected it would simply the swing (as you said) enough that I could at least see some changes from the total mishits, and it didn't end up helping. Whatever I'm doing seems to be too heavily ingrained right now and will need to be sanitized by a pro. Do you have a common mishit or are you just all over the place?
At the time I was sending many of them low and to the right. I think my hands were getting behind the clubhead, causing the belly to get exposed, but when I tried drills/etc to prevent that from happening it didn't really help.
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On June 11 2016 08:05 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On June 08 2016 22:34 Sadist wrote:
I highly recommend using video if you are going through really bad spells.
Feel isnt real.
What you may think you are doing could be totally different than what you are doing. Mirrors help too. This makes perfect sense but filming yourself hitting golf balls is a huge pain in the ass. Show nested quote +On June 09 2016 01:04 xDaunt wrote:On June 08 2016 17:32 micronesia wrote:
xDaunt I tried doing exactly that... I fully expected it would simply the swing (as you said) enough that I could at least see some changes from the total mishits, and it didn't end up helping. Whatever I'm doing seems to be too heavily ingrained right now and will need to be sanitized by a pro. Do you have a common mishit or are you just all over the place? At the time I was sending many of them low and to the right. I think my hands were getting behind the clubhead, causing the belly to get exposed, but when I tried drills/etc to prevent that from happening it didn't really help.
Sounds like you are hitting the ball off the toe. How do your divots look?
Also, I think I have my driver figured out. I was crushing balls off the tee yesterday, driving them somewhere outside the back bounds of the driving range. They were carrying at least 300 yards. Now I just need to figure out wtf I'm doing wrong with my hybrids (almost certainly a setup problem).
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United States24768 Posts
The artificial turf at the range does not leave divots, but I'm pretty sure I was not hitting off the toe.
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United States24768 Posts
I had a lesson with the pro today and showed him how I was hitting the ball low right. He said he could see my legs were getting earlier than my upper body which was screwing up my impact with the face opened to the right. As I tried swinging while keeping my legs quiet so they wouldn't start to complete the swing before I even hit the ball, we also noticed my left arm seems to have been bending slightly on the downswing as a result of the legs getting ahead of the upper body. I also worked on keeping the left arm straight after that.
These two changes helped a lot, and after some more experimenting we realized I was also needing to ensure my weight was more on my left heel than left toe as I made contact with the ball. Things went fairly well for the remainder of the shots I hit while the pro was there. Afterwards, I went back to wedges just to hit some shots, and I was having some problems again. I tried falling back on the main swing thoughts we focused on during the lesson, but could not seem to develop any type of consistency. At least I wasn't repeatedly hitting the same mishit way to the right, but it still was bad.
I think my brain is addicted to me being unable to hit the ball relatively consistently in the right direction/trajectory. I've been playing golf most of my life and I still can't hit the ball.
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United States24768 Posts
In case anyone is interested, I went to the range today and at first I was having the same problems and unable to hit the ball. Then I realized I really wasn't bringing the club back very far at all, and I forced myself to bring it back further (with the goal of bringing it parallel to the ground) and I was getting much better results. I'll play around with that and see if I can develop consistency with a longer swing.
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On June 15 2016 08:47 micronesia wrote:
In case anyone is interested, I went to the range today and at first I was having the same problems and unable to hit the ball. Then I realized I really wasn't bringing the club back very far at all, and I forced myself to bring it back further (with the goal of bringing it parallel to the ground) and I was getting much better results. I'll play around with that and see if I can develop consistency with a longer swing.
That's kinda odd. You'd think that it would be easier to hit the ball with a shorter backswing than a longer one. That certainly is the case for me.
I went back to the range, too. Driver looks really good. My iron/wedge shots weren't bad, but now I'm closing the club face a little too much (as opposed to leaving it open, which was my old problem). I also think that I've worked out the kinks on my hybrid shots. Like I suspected, my set up was bad as opposed to there being something mechanically wrong with my swing. What didn't look so hot was my chipping. It's probably time for a chipping lesson to learn some of the basics.
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United States24768 Posts
I think the reason why a longer backswing helps me is because my mechanics are all really good and I just have a synchronization problem between my upper and lower body. By bringing it back further my upper and lower bodies end up more in synch and my good mechanics take over.
Yeah I tried chipping on the course a few weeks ago and it was a bit ugly. Then I spent 5 minute on it with the pro and I did a lot better the next time :p
I've heard different advice about how to chip, but my pro's philosophy is to treat it like putting. Move the hands forward, grip the wedge like a putter, and use a longer club if you have more green to work with than distance you need to carry. A mishit with a 9 iron might end up in exactly the same place as it would have if you hit it perfectly :p
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interesting reading you guys talk about golf swing technique. is golf hard or easy to learn
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United States24768 Posts
Golf is hard to get good at, but worth it once you accomplish it. There's nothing like having a good day in golf!
For some reason I've been really struggling though.
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On June 17 2016 18:18 OkMong wrote:
interesting reading you guys talk about golf swing technique. is golf hard or easy to learn
Most people find it pretty challenging, especially if you're new. More so if you're starting older rather than later.
One of the big problems is that many of the things you want to do are totally bass-ackwards for golf. In other sports for example if you want to get the ball up in the air you...hit the thing up in the air. Golf? Nope. You actually hit down on the ball trying to compress it into the ground makes it move up the face of the club.
If you do decide to learn I'd recommend getting a teacher, it can save you a good deal of trouble if you don't develop awkward, bad habits at the start with your swing. At the beginning too I'm of the opinion it's better to worry more about how the body moves overall (i.e. good posture, good weight distribution, good turn, good movement through the wall, getting body through to the finish, etc.) before you really stress about aspects of club position.
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On June 11 2016 08:39 xDaunt wrote:Show nested quote +On June 11 2016 08:05 micronesia wrote:On June 08 2016 22:34 Sadist wrote:
I highly recommend using video if you are going through really bad spells.
Feel isnt real.
What you may think you are doing could be totally different than what you are doing. Mirrors help too. This makes perfect sense but filming yourself hitting golf balls is a huge pain in the ass. On June 09 2016 01:04 xDaunt wrote:On June 08 2016 17:32 micronesia wrote:
xDaunt I tried doing exactly that... I fully expected it would simply the swing (as you said) enough that I could at least see some changes from the total mishits, and it didn't end up helping. Whatever I'm doing seems to be too heavily ingrained right now and will need to be sanitized by a pro. Do you have a common mishit or are you just all over the place? At the time I was sending many of them low and to the right. I think my hands were getting behind the clubhead, causing the belly to get exposed, but when I tried drills/etc to prevent that from happening it didn't really help. Sounds like you are hitting the ball off the toe. How do your divots look? Also, I think I have my driver figured out. I was crushing balls off the tee yesterday, driving them somewhere outside the back bounds of the driving range. They were carrying at least 300 yards. Now I just need to figure out wtf I'm doing wrong with my hybrids (almost certainly a setup problem).
Are you fairly tall? And/or at altitude? 300 yards is a massive, massive carry. Even guys like McIroy, Johnson, Day, etc. barely carry the ball 300, if that. If you're really carrying 300 you've got at least 120mph of clubhead speed to work with. Definitely wouldn't need 11.5 with that, heck even 9 degrees of loft is quite a bit for that kind of speed.
How far do you hit a 7 iron and say a 4 iron?
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On June 11 2016 08:43 micronesia wrote:
The artificial turf at the range does not leave divots, but I'm pretty sure I was not hitting off the toe.
I'm sorry for your loss ;(
On June 17 2016 18:19 micronesia wrote:
Golf is hard to get good at, but worth it once you accomplish it. There's nothing like having a good day in golf!
For some reason I've been really struggling though.
Because golf. We all do at times. 
On June 08 2016 22:34 Sadist wrote:
I highly recommend using video if you are going through really bad spells.
Feel isnt real.
What you may think you are doing could be totally different than what you are doing. Mirrors help too.
This is really true. Now if you have a coach watching you that's fine, but yea if you're diagnosing swing stuff yourself without video...risky business. I remember at one point early when I was learning back in early HS I was trying to
widen my arc for more power/consistency, but in an effort to do this I kept reaching higher towards the sky. After a month or two I literally had my left arm perpendicular to the ground at the top of the swing (like as much or more than Furyk at the top). Not good.
On June 11 2016 08:05 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On June 08 2016 22:34 Sadist wrote:
I highly recommend using video if you are going through really bad spells.
Feel isnt real.
What you may think you are doing could be totally different than what you are doing. Mirrors help too. This makes perfect sense but filming yourself hitting golf balls is a huge pain in the ass.
o.O
I think it's super easy. Take out phone. Press record. Place on top of golf bag, direct behind target line OR face on. Hit 3-5 balls. Walk over to phone and press stop. When home, examine video.
Takes all of 30 extra seconds.
On June 15 2016 09:22 micronesia wrote:
Yeah I tried chipping on the course a few weeks ago and it was a bit ugly. Then I spent 5 minute on it with the pro and I did a lot better the next time :p
I've heard different advice about how to chip, but my pro's philosophy is to treat it like putting. Move the hands forward, grip the wedge like a putter, and use a longer club if you have more green to work with than distance you need to carry. A mishit with a 9 iron might end up in exactly the same place as it would have if you hit it perfectly :p
I generally agree with this. The variation I use is to take the club that will land the ball about a foot on the green while ending up at the hole.
Now, when you get into situations where you're more short sides or have longer chips/pitches this doesn't apply well, but if you're just off the green in the rough or fringe, or have a ton of green to work with I find it really easy to take a 7 or 9 iron and basically use my putting feel/stroke to pop that ball in there close.
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On June 01 2016 10:28 micronesia wrote:
I went ahead and played 9 after work today. Didn't have time to loosen up at the range before I started which couldn't have helped, but the round went pretty terribly lol
It reminded me of all the times people told me how you should spend most of your time practicing short game and I've thought to myself "NO! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO NOT BE ABLE TO GET TO THE GREEN!"
Like, "Oh God, I two putted when I could have one putted this and got a 10 instead of a 9 oh no!"
Hopefully things can only improve from shooting 56 (with a little bit of 'assistance') lol
This statement holds generally true. But not for everyone.
When you're totally new, you definitely need to practice your swing far more than short game. There is more to lose there, most people don't make a 12 as a result of 3 chipping and then 5 putting. It can happen, but most totally new guys can get on the green in one or two and then in the hole in 3-4 putts at worst. Not to mention it just feels miserable and holds play up way more if you're constantly hitting shots OB, topping them, or laying sod all over them.
After you get to where the ball goes consistently in the air and in a generally more forwards than sideways direction the short game tends to take greater precedence. Most people shooting 85-100, are generally around (within 50-100 yards) the green in two shots. A good, consistent short game will turn that kind of card into mostly pars and bogeys with the rare double. There is your 80s shooter.
The exception to this rule is if you're massively wild off the tee. If you hit balls consistently OB, or in location where all you can do is chip back into the fairway on a routine bases...then your long game and iron game need more focus. Those kinds of shots you can't afford.
If you just hit lots of crappy drives that generally go crooked, but in play, and then questionable iron shots that still generally make forward progress...short game will save strokes from your score that much more.
The last portion of it comes down to what you care about. For most people, I think they enjoy the game more hitting solid drives and nice pure high iron shots even if they do some damage to themselves around the green. Whereas scrapping your way around to a score in the high 80s with a bunch of bladed irons and sliced drives doesn't always feel as satisfying. So, for the typical amateur it somewhat comes down to what you enjoy and are worried about. If you really wanna beat your mates at the end of the day, short game (<100 yards) is the most likely place worth developing. If you want a game that feels better and looks prettier but at the end of the day produces higher numbers, place most of the emphasis on your driving and iron work.
This can always be checked with good score keeping too. Keep track of how long it takes you to get within 100 yards of the green (include penalties), and then how long it takes you to get into the hole from there. Both should be 2 shots. If you're taking 4 one way and 2.3 the other way...it's pretty obvious which one you should focus on.
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EPT
