On July 02 2014 12:36 micronesia wrote: I forget if I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I'm a big fan of SW for newer players, rather than SW+LW or just LW. Learning how to properly use your SW is more important than getting slightly better results with your current technique on some shots by using a more lofted club.
Yeah, I hear ya. I'm not sure how much I agree though. To get the same results with my SW I have to really open up the club face, which makes it pretty damn hard to hit right. Regardless, I'm painfully aware of the fact that I need to spend a lot more practicing <100 yard shots. I've just been putting it off until I get comfortable with my long clubs.
As for those clubs, I've spent the past few days working out my fat shot problem since my 9 hole disaster discussed on the last page. I focused on a few things. First, I forced myself to keep my left arm straight throughout the swing. Second, I made sure that I was keeping my hands out in front of me in my backswing so that I could pull my club straight down into a good consistent downswing. Last, I worked on my swing rhythm such that I was always getting my weight on my left foot on the downswing. I'm getting much better at this, but it still isn't automatic like I want it to be.
I also decided that I need to be able hit longer than 200 yards off the tee. I tried working on my driver swing again, but I gave up. I feel like I am committing a hate crime whenever I swing it. It makes the most awful sound when it strikes the ball. -- like I'm pounding the ball with a beer can. It actually startles other golfers at the driving range. So I have officially retired that piece of crap. My 3 and 5 wood are just as bad, so I'm retiring those, too. I'm now using my 4 hybrid to hit off the tee. It is working pretty well. If I hit it properly, it will go about 230 yards off the tee. I have a little bit of a slice in my swing. I'm not sure whether it is there because I'm not closing the head properly when I strike the ball or if I am lining the club up wrong at address. Regardless, it will do until I get a new driver.
On July 02 2014 12:36 micronesia wrote: I forget if I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I'm a big fan of SW for newer players, rather than SW+LW or just LW. Learning how to properly use your SW is more important than getting slightly better results with your current technique on some shots by using a more lofted club.
Yeah, I hear ya. I'm not sure how much I agree though. To get the same results with my SW I have to really open up the club face, which makes it pretty damn hard to hit right. Regardless, I'm painfully aware of the fact that I need to spend a lot more practicing <100 yard shots. I've just been putting it off until I get comfortable with my long clubs.
As for those clubs, I've spent the past few days working out my fat shot problem since my 9 hole disaster discussed on the last page. I focused on a few things. First, I forced myself to keep my left arm straight throughout the swing. Second, I made sure that I was keeping my hands out in front of me in my backswing so that I could pull my club straight down into a good consistent downswing. Last, I worked on my swing rhythm such that I was always getting my weight on my left foot on the downswing. I'm getting much better at this, but it still isn't automatic like I want it to be.
I also decided that I need to be able hit longer than 200 yards off the tee. I tried working on my driver swing again, but I gave up. I feel like I am committing a hate crime whenever I swing it. It makes the most awful sound when it strikes the ball. -- like I'm pounding the ball with a beer can. It actually startles other golfers at the driving range. So I have officially retired that piece of crap. My 3 and 5 wood are just as bad, so I'm retiring those, too. I'm now using my 4 hybrid to hit off the tee. It is working pretty well. If I hit it properly, it will go about 230 yards off the tee. I have a little bit of a slice in my swing. I'm not sure whether it is there because I'm not closing the head properly when I strike the ball or if I am lining the club up wrong at address. Regardless, it will do until I get a new driver.
Say what:
On June 29 2014 03:54 xDaunt wrote: so my 6 iron shots were carrying about 180-200 yards. .
Sounds like you can already hit it 200 off the tee. With a 6-iron. 3 Iron/Hybrid should be good for 220-240, and driver anywhere from 270-300 given those conditions.
I wouldn't personally worry about keeping the left arm straight, it's a bad way to conceptualize the concept as in general it leads to tension and locking the left arm. A better way to think of it is as extension, think of keeping the hands away from the chest and maintaining a nice wide arc with the arms.
On July 02 2014 12:36 micronesia wrote: I forget if I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I'm a big fan of SW for newer players, rather than SW+LW or just LW. Learning how to properly use your SW is more important than getting slightly better results with your current technique on some shots by using a more lofted club.
Yeah, I hear ya. I'm not sure how much I agree though. To get the same results with my SW I have to really open up the club face, which makes it pretty damn hard to hit right. Regardless, I'm painfully aware of the fact that I need to spend a lot more practicing <100 yard shots. I've just been putting it off until I get comfortable with my long clubs.
As for those clubs, I've spent the past few days working out my fat shot problem since my 9 hole disaster discussed on the last page. I focused on a few things. First, I forced myself to keep my left arm straight throughout the swing. Second, I made sure that I was keeping my hands out in front of me in my backswing so that I could pull my club straight down into a good consistent downswing. Last, I worked on my swing rhythm such that I was always getting my weight on my left foot on the downswing. I'm getting much better at this, but it still isn't automatic like I want it to be.
I also decided that I need to be able hit longer than 200 yards off the tee. I tried working on my driver swing again, but I gave up. I feel like I am committing a hate crime whenever I swing it. It makes the most awful sound when it strikes the ball. -- like I'm pounding the ball with a beer can. It actually startles other golfers at the driving range. So I have officially retired that piece of crap. My 3 and 5 wood are just as bad, so I'm retiring those, too. I'm now using my 4 hybrid to hit off the tee. It is working pretty well. If I hit it properly, it will go about 230 yards off the tee. I have a little bit of a slice in my swing. I'm not sure whether it is there because I'm not closing the head properly when I strike the ball or if I am lining the club up wrong at address. Regardless, it will do until I get a new driver.
On June 29 2014 03:54 xDaunt wrote: so my 6 iron shots were carrying about 180-200 yards. .
Sounds like you can already hit it 200 off the tee. With a 6-iron. 3 Iron/Hybrid should be good for 220-240, and driver anywhere from 270-300 given those conditions.
I wouldn't personally worry about keeping the left arm straight, it's a bad way to conceptualize the concept as in general it leads to tension and locking the left arm. A better way to think of it is as extension, think of keeping the hands away from the chest and maintaining a nice wide arc with the arms.
Yeah, the issue is that I wasn't able to hit any club longer than a 6 iron. I'm pretty comfortable with my 4 hybrid now, so I'll be using that from the tee.
Keeping the left arm straight is important for me because it helps me keep it extended. I have been having an issue where it wings a little bit at impact. But yeah, the goal is to maximize extension.
Next weekend I have another one scheduled. If it goes well I might try going to play after. After my break where I couldn't practice, I decided to wait until I'm comfortable before I go back out on the course. According to the pro I've been getting much better at identifying what I'm doing right/wrong after hitting the ball, and identifying what I should do next... we'll see if I start to see results on the course or not.
For the first time, I properly fired my hips through the swing to produce the torque with my core as opposed to over-relying upon my arms. Club lag isn't great in this particular swing, but it's something that I can reincorporate as the hip turn becomes more natural to me. I'm using a 4-H club here.
Oh I need access to a room like that...looks cool/useful.
I tried to play 9 today (after not playing for quite a while).... it was so hot/sticky/etc I decided I couldn't play anymore after 7. My first few holes weren't bad, but then it quickly went downhill.
I don't know what to do about that... I kept hydrated but it's just so exhausting/painful being out in the sun on a hot day, and this area is a little hotter than where I grew up. Playing early in the morning is obviously one way around this, but that isn't always an option. Riding in a golf cart would help but I have neither the inclination nor the money to do that on a regular basis.
On July 13 2014 06:39 micronesia wrote: Oh I need access to a room like that...looks cool/useful.
I tried to play 9 today (after not playing for quite a while).... it was so hot/sticky/etc I decided I couldn't play anymore after 7. My first few holes weren't bad, but then it quickly went downhill.
I don't know what to do about that... I kept hydrated but it's just so exhausting/painful being out in the sun on a hot day, and this area is a little hotter than where I grew up. Playing early in the morning is obviously one way around this, but that isn't always an option. Riding in a golf cart would help but I have neither the inclination nor the money to do that on a regular basis.
Yeah, that's one of the rooms at the Golftec center where I'm receiving coaching. It's been really helpful for me to learn how to swing quickly. They also have rooms set up with full-blown golf simulators so that you can see precisely what your shot is doing and where it would be going as if you were at a driving range. I think going to the range is usually more helpful, but it is really nice to have that kind of video room available so that you can see what you're doing wrong and make some specific adjustments.
I hear ya on playing late in the day. It's brutal. I always play in the morning (7-9 am tee time depending on whether I'm playing 9 or 18). If your club allows it, get one of those caddy carts to carry your bag. Not having to carry your bag while golfing makes a huge difference.
I played another 9 this morning. I averaged a little better than a double-bogey on each hole. My tee shots and fairway shots were pretty good. I was on the fairway pretty much the whole time and didn't lose any balls. My short game was bad as is to be expected. I'm about ready to start spending more of my practice time working on chipping and putting. If I was any good at the short game at all, I'd be a single-bogey golfer instead of a double-bogey golfer.
I left the driver in the bag again. I spent about an hour with the pro working on it during a lesson on Thursday, and was hitting some really nice balls with it after he tweaked my swing. Unfortunately, I couldn't duplicate it when I was warming up at the range. All I did was draw more derogatory comments about how awful that damn club sounds.
I have a push cart which I plan to use... unfortunately it is in a different state right now but I will be picking it up in a week or two. It will help a little, but the problem won't go away on those hot days.
I read the whole thread in the last days, I'm curious - what hcps do you have? (mine is -13.3, living in Austria) I started 11 years ago but didnt play much the last 3-4 years, probably 2-5 rouns/year - never saw a driving range in those years :D
Ps.: backpacking my clubs > any cart/trolley It's tiring at first but pays off since you are getting inbetter shape - physical and mental (in my opinion)
I golfed 18 today at the Glenmoor in Denver. Christ, what a fucking brutal course. The fairways are VERY narrow and packed with difficult lies. Basically, if you're not in the fairway, you're Fucked. With a capital F. You'll either be in the jungle, out of bounds, or in the water. I went through more than 15 balls today. I scored 8's on probably half the holes or so. Beyond that, I had one par (yay, second ever) and a couple bogey holes. Everything else was basically a 6 or 7.
My driver was easily my best club today. Almost all of my tee shots with the driver were really nice, landing on fairways. I spent a ton of time practicing it over the past week, so it was really gratifying seeing that pay off.
Unfortunately, my iron shots went to shit. I had some good shots, but by and large, I was very inconsistent. I hit a ton of shots off of the toe and was thin most of the day. Only a few shots were "perfect" (ie nice divot after the ball, leading to good, high, and straight flight). And for the life of me, I couldn't hit shit off the tee with my irons. I probably burned through 5 or 6 balls landing them in water on tee shots with my irons.
Short game was better, but still not good. I hit a lot of my chip/pitch shots thin, causing anomalous results such as hitting a sand wedge 130 yards, resulting in yet another ball sleeping with the fishes (really big fishes, too). I have a lesson coming upon on Thursday which will be dedicated to short game stuff, so hopefully I'll some big improvement like I did with my driver.
played 9 holes last weeks - Weyregg, Austria awful only hit 2 greens and got 14 stableford points... a little bit depressing but I nearly got 2 chip ins, which got me excited but didn't help me much..
nearly bought new irons - Cleveland 588 TT, because mine are ~ 8 years old (cleveland tour action 2) but I'm movin right now, so i decided to wait for next year
I'll never understand why my dad always recommends me FTi, even in 2014.
Though it sounds like he's finally more open when it comes to me selecting my comfortable driver, since he's allowing me to demo everything in store now >_<;;
Got my first birdie today. Par 3 hole with a ~160 tee shot to the hole. I landed the ball about a foot away. That was basically the only bright spot though. My driver shots were pretty bad today. Almost all of them went way right, which put me in shitty areas that were hard to recover from.
Congrats xDaunt. Your first birdie is an exciting achievement. Do you know why your driver is going right?
I brought the pro out on the course with me so he could see how I differ there from the driving range. In the past I have been able to fix things with the pro on the driving range, but struggled to hit the ball well on the course (more so than normal). It seems like my problem might be that I am much more prone to failing to open the club on the backswing when I go out on the course...
Regardless, I have been struggling with my driver since I first posted in this thread months ago. I just can't seem to hit a good clean shot... I saw some improvement today, but still nothing spectacular. The pro lent me a driver to try with a different flex than my current club... it also has an extra degree of loft. We'll see if the increased flex helps me.
On August 17 2014 05:31 micronesia wrote: Congrats xDaunt. Your first birdie is an exciting achievement. Do you know why your driver is going right?
I brought the pro out on the course with me so he could see how I differ there from the driving range. In the past I have been able to fix things with the pro on the driving range, but struggled to hit the ball well on the course (more so than normal). It seems like my problem might be that I am much more prone to failing to open the club on the backswing when I go out on the course...
Regardless, I have been struggling with my driver since I first posted in this thread months ago. I just can't seem to hit a good clean shot... I saw some improvement today, but still nothing spectacular. The pro lent me a driver to try with a different flex than my current club... it also has an extra degree of loft. We'll see if the increased flex helps me.
Yeah, my problems right now are tempo and over rotating on the backswing. I've learned to properly fire my hips on the down swing. The problem is that some times my hands are too slow, leaving the club face open at impact. To help out, I've been focusing in shortening my back swing and forcing myself to pause at the top of the backswing. If I do it right, my shots are pretty damned good. Today, I didn't do it right with the driver.
I've also outgrown my current driver. It has a 10.5 degree head and regular shaft. I'm now swinging with enough velocity such that I'm skying my shots and putting ridiculous amounts of spin on the ball. My pro told me that it is time to look at a stiff flex and probably something around 9.5 degrees for the head. I'll probably do a club fitting next month.
A good trick when using the driver is to only take a half swing for your practice swing. It will keep your actual shots tempo and overawing in check and should give more control over the shot. Feet alignment can cause huge problems too if it is incorrect
I went to the range today, and they had people hitting off of grass. I started with my wedges, and never left my wedges. I couldn't even hit my wedges. I know grass is less forgiving than range mats, but I don't think that's sufficient to explain the difficulty I was having. I did not seem to be making a consistent mistake so I couldn't really troubleshoot properly. I was thin on some, fat on others, and other things I wasn't sure what even went wrong.
EPT
