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United States24768 Posts
On May 13 2014 07:09 xDaunt wrote:
Anyway, I feel like my swing is getting to the point where I'm about ready to hit a course. I rarely miss-hit the ball so badly that it's a completely wasted stroke anymore.
Hopefully this will be different for you than me, but I found getting my swing to that level on the range had almost no effect on how good my shots would be on the course. It was like night and day. Apparently, for me there is a waiting period between when I can hit the ball well on the range and when I can do it on the course... paid for with many painful high scores!
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On May 13 2014 08:09 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On May 13 2014 07:09 xDaunt wrote:
Anyway, I feel like my swing is getting to the point where I'm about ready to hit a course. I rarely miss-hit the ball so badly that it's a completely wasted stroke anymore. Hopefully this will be different for you than me, but I found getting my swing to that level on the range had almost no effect on how good my shots would be on the course. It was like night and day. Apparently, for me there is a waiting period between when I can hit the ball well on the range and when I can do it on the course... paid for with many painful high scores!
Hah, I have no doubt that my initial scores will be atrocious. Yeah, I'm swinging well with 6-7 irons, but I still need to learn the other clubs and how to hit off of a tee. Definitely lots of work still to be done.
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United States24768 Posts
If you can hit 6-7 iron, you should be able to hit shorter clubs, and hit all of those off of a tee without much difficulty.
I went to the range which finally opened today, and did atrociously. I took advantage of the fact that I can hit unlimited balls there, but even after shelling out like 200 I still could not hit the ball properly and could not figure out why (using short and middle irons). It is incredibly disheartening.
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On May 14 2014 11:20 micronesia wrote:
If you can hit 6-7 iron, you should be able to hit shorter clubs, and hit all of those off of a tee without much difficulty.
I went to the range which finally opened today, and did atrociously. I took advantage of the fact that I can hit unlimited balls there, but even after shelling out like 200 I still could not hit the ball properly and could not figure out why (using short and middle irons). It is incredibly disheartening.
Yeah, I'm not too worried about the short irons, though I suppose that there'll be learning when it comes to the SW and PW. I'm more concerned with the driver and other woods. I finally got my set of clubs in today, so I started messing around with the 4 hybrid. Wasn't too hard to adjust to that one. We'll see how it goes with the woods.
As for my swing, I now am having problems with coming in over the plane on my downswing. I'm not exactly sure what changed, but it frustrated the hell out of me that I couldn't effectively adjust out of it. Something to chat with the pro about this week.
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United States24768 Posts
Man I can't seem to get over this hump with my swing. When I swing correctly, I hit a really nice ball and it feels great. I just can't stop doing things wrong... there is an infinite number of ways to screw up a golf swing! I've corrected so many things already it's unreal.
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On May 26 2014 02:00 micronesia wrote:
Man I can't seem to get over this hump with my swing. When I swing correctly, I hit a really nice ball and it feels great. I just can't stop doing things wrong... there is an infinite number of ways to screw up a golf swing! I've corrected so many things already it's unreal.
That's golf! It really never goes away, you just do it less frequently and less dramatically as you get better, which is why golf is essentially a game of who's misses are the best.
Even tour pros do things wrong with their swing. They might slide with the hips too much making the club drop inside and hit a big old block or hook deepening on whether or not they get the club-face square. I could list a bunch of examples but you get the idea.
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United States24768 Posts
Yeah I guess in theory it's the same thing for pros, but there's a difference between your bad shot being a slight hook left of the green into the bunker, and your bad shot being a complete mishit lol
I would love to hit a lot of almost good shots forcing me to go up and down for par from 30 feet on most holes. That would be awesome. My bad shots are characteristic of a new golfer, which is a phase I never quite seem to be able to get out of.
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So I'm four weeks into learning golf now. One thing that I did not appreciate was how many components there are to a proper golf swing. First it was proper body alignment. Then it was hand position. Then it was club position on the backswing. Then it was keeping the hands forward ahead of the club. Then it was hip alignment through the swing. So much stuff. The hip alignment, in particular, is causing me some problems. I'm so focused on rotating my hips (I'm prone to under rotating them through the swing) that I have a tendency to pull my body up during my downswing and top the ball. I can tell when I do it right because I can feel a big arch on my right side (like I'm pulling my right shoulder towards my right hip). I also am generating a lot of power when I do it right. My 7-iron shots go 160-175 if I get everything in order. Of course, that's the real trick.
I went to the range today for the first time to try out all of my clubs. Man, was that humbling. I hit the irons well (except when I topped the ball), but I was totally useless with my driver. I don't think that I hit one ball well. Same deal with the woods. I tried out my 3-wood previously at the practice center and did pretty well with it the first time. I couldn't hit anything with it today, though.
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United States24768 Posts
My personal take is that you are probably trying to swing too hard... if you are a few weeks into golf and hitting your 7 iron up to 175 yards... you can probably easy up... think of how much easier it is to use a proper form when you slow things down!
I shouldn't really talk since I personally find I screw up when I slow down :p
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On May 28 2014 11:46 micronesia wrote:
My personal take is that you are probably trying to swing too hard... if you are a few weeks into golf and hitting your 7 iron up to 175 yards... you can probably easy up... think of how much easier it is to use a proper form when you slow things down!
I shouldn't really talk since I personally find I screw up when I slow down :p
Yeah, maybe, though I don't feel like I'm over-swinging on the ball. I'm not really big, either (5'9"). Regardless, I'm not sure that I have the control yet to take 10% off of my swing. I'm like you. Whenever I turn it down for practice, I tend to get sloppy. I just have to work on stabilizing my platform. I'm still over-rotating on my backswing, which is probably contributing to my problems.
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United States24768 Posts
Something to consider is how the speed of your practice swing compares to the speed of your 'real' swing. It might be difficult to tell how fast your real swing is, because of your level of focus on hitting the ball. Maybe video recording yourself for both types and comparing them will help you see how big of a discrepancy there is, or isn't. The idea that you can't slow down your real swing might seem silly when you realize your awesome practice swings are at 50% the power.
Personally I'm moving away from practice swings and just swing with the clubhead 8 or so inches off the ground once before hitting a ball. I use it just to practice maintain proper balance and not to perfect every aspect of the swing. Based on this, my advice above wouldn't really work for myself... therefore I'm pointing this out for full disclosure.
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I had a practice session with the pro today. He identified the problem as me swinging too much with my arms as opposed to my body. What I need to work is leading with my torso and letting it drag my arms along through the swing. Once I got that motion right, I started to hit stuff better. I even was able to get good driver shots.
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United States24768 Posts
Today was MY session with the pro! I was still having tempo issues causing the change in direction at the top of the swing to screw up my contact with the ball. I can tell I screwed up the 'turn around' at the top of the swing when my back ends up arched during the follow through. I'm getting better at breaking those habits... and I hit some pretty nice shots. Unfortunately, I used up all my good fortune hitting some decent shots with the golf club, and someone rear ended me driving home.
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OK. So recently I've been earnestly learning golf. Previously had a few lessons from some shady hole-in-the Korean place when I was in High School. I guess it was beneficial since my swings are slightly better than my buddies' swings (they're also new).
Still haven't hit the course yet. Currently trying to gain some confidence at the range and putting green (20/80 split in favor of putting).
micronesia lets play once I stop being so bad.
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United States24768 Posts
Haha sure. rredtooth where would you want to play?
I think I'm going to try to play this afternoon... it's been a couple of weeks.
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United States24768 Posts
I decided to go to the range to warm up a bit before asking the shop when the next tee times were. I could not really hit the ball decently and decided to just give up on playing for today.
I'm rapidly running out of patience for this game again.
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Awh man I havent played golf in a serious form for maybe 2 years now. I went out to a few courses over this span and did like 10+ over par.
Might spend this summer getting into shape again after finding out about this thread. Hopefully will pay more attention to the pro scene a bit more
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Got my first round of golf ever scheduled for this afternoon. Full 18 holes. Should be fun. Even if my golf game sucks, at least the cigars will be good.
As just a follow up to my previous swing issues, I fixed it by dramatically slowing down my tempo. My body and hip rotation are pretty good now. I just have to make sure that I stay down through the swing rather hath an pull up. I'd say about 1/10 shots is a "perfect shot" where I feel everything engage properly. Those feel pretty damned good. Most of the rest are serviceable, which is all that I'm hoping for anyway at this point.
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The first round went about as expected. My long game was pretty good all things considered. After flubbing my drives on the first two holes, I hit the ball pretty damn well thereafter. I had some good fairway shots and some others that wound up in places both just off the fairway and some in the fucking jungle for all intents and purposes. My follow-up/secondary shots were okay. I had some bad ones early on, but then picked it up nicely until the last few holes when I ran out of gas (carrying a bag and not eating enough took its toll). I had trouble when the ball was in rougher areas. Just wan't accustomed to hacking through all that shit. Where I really had trouble was with my short game, but I expected that. I had no touch or feel for chip shots because I hadn't really practiced them. Putting was a mess, too.
I lost 4 balls. One ended up in an irrigation ditch. The other three I lost on shots that wound up in really rough areas.
We didn't keep score, but if we had, mine would have been awful.
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United States24768 Posts
Yea that sounds about right for a first round haha... sounds like things might have actually gone a bit better than expected from the way you described the round. Losing 4 balls in most courses isn't so bad for an early round in your career. Good golfers occasionally lose more!
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EPT
