Golf Thread

I'm far from an expert but slicing means you are hitting the edge of the club normally I find I slice if I'm too far away in my stance as you are stretching. Could also be your grip (which it was for me a while ago) and if you at playing with too open a club fave you will slice.

I had two rounds this week, a terrible 50 over where I was just poor all round, nothing went right (apart from reaching a 480 p5 green in 2 then birdying :D) I didn't hit a single fairway all day with a drive.

Played a 42 over tonight (111) I had the best front 9 with a birdie and 3 pars, was beautiful and got 17 points then for no discernible reason I lost my swing on the back 9 and couldn't hit off the tee. Ended up with only 8 points and finished with 25.

Still another step in the right direction :)
 
Sorry to disagree with the above, but the new ball flight laws dictate that:

Face angle = start direction
Path = movement/ spin

So a slice means your path is too out to in compared to your face angle at impact (if you are trying to finish on target). Typical reason is an "over the top move" on the down swing, you are best of starting the down swing with your lower body :)

(Ignoring gear effect of face impact position)
 
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Played a new course and had the best game ive had. 30 over par usually 50+ funnily enough my irons were unbelievable and my driving went to pot. Completely sliced my driving and played my irons really well. So strange this game but enjoying it nethertheless.

Thanks for the input.
 
I played again today and had a bit of a shocker, so much so that I have no interest in working out my exact scores. I was playing matchplay against my friend so I picked up on several holes when it was clear I was going to lose. The last few rounds I've barely lost any golf balls, today I lost 6 :(

One thing that I really dislike about golf is when the course is mega busy. We were having to rush a bit today to stay ahead of some really decent golfers behind us.
 
Well I was right about Rickie Fowler but just 1 week too early. Would love to see him get back to back wins but for a Major to be one of them its going to be difficult!

Also with the comments about the swing path. There are so many things that cause the slice but it all falls down to the swing path. Stance set-up. Ball above or below the feet. Not enough rotation through the body. Would advise just taking a look at a swing path image so you can understand what we mean by over the top and so on. The club face being open or closed is just the line of which the ball is going to start.
 
A common problem for slicing is because people look up to early, just a thought.



Played about 7 years ago for about 8-9months, started again last year with a few mates more seriously, played all winter. Joined a club this year, its known as the hardest club in the area....went round in 99 a couple of weeks ago, 101 this weekend so things are looking good, starting to see improvements with conditions and from playing every week. Could easily have been in mid to low 90's if it wasn't for a few knocks out of bushes, extra bunker shots, 1 dodgy drive and lost 1 in water and 1 in long grass. Gotta love the game though!
 
Had my first ever round of 18 a couple of weeks back. Been nipping to the driving range once per week since April time, picked up a second hand set of clubs from my buddy who's just paid for a custom set of Pings.

Anyway, I played Barnsley Limes and we had a 7:40am Tee-Time, I ended up losing 5 balls, found one while looking for mine and then lost that a few holes later :eek:

Anyway, I cant remember my score, I think it was something over par :D but I loved it. I did feel slightly awkward on the first tee as all the other people stand there waiting for their time to play, nerves aside, I had fun. I know I'm not a good player but as with anything, it all comes with time.

I do need to pick up Driving lessons though as I'm always fading it, I ended up just using my 3 Wood instead. Thankfully I live close to Pete Cowen Golf Academy, who's taught Westwood, McDowell, Garcia and Stenson.
 
Milkybk said:
I've been looking at the Nike Vapor Speed irons, has anyone used them for an extended period? I've had a few test plays with them very briefly and they felt great and were quite forgiving. Thanks for any info. :)
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From what limited knowledge I have, I'd say it's all down to personal preference, if they are more forgiving then they sound ideal really, ease you back in to the game is what you want, right ? You don't want to spend big money on a nice set of clubs which you can't get on with and are less forgiving.
 
Milkybk said:
I've been looking at the Nike Vapor Speed irons, has anyone used them for an extended period? I've had a few test plays with them very briefly and they felt great and were quite forgiving. Thanks for any info. :)
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It depends on how well you played before you quit golf, how you play now and how well you want to play in the future. If you quit when you were a low-mid handicap I would suggest getting some relatively forgiving irons but give you enough to progress a bit further. If you were just a casual golfer looking to play more often and play to a 28 handicap then I wouldn't suggest spending loads of money on a new set. Pick up a nice cheap set of irons and then a bit further down the line purchase a new set that suits your swing that you have progressed. If I know where you want to go with golf then I can take a look at some for you :)
 
zakjattaway said:
Well I was right about Rickie Fowler but just 1 week too early. Would love to see him get back to back wins but for a Major to be one of them its going to be difficult!

Also with the comments about the swing path. There are so many things that cause the slice but it all falls down to the swing path. Stance set-up. Ball above or below the feet. Not enough rotation through the body. Would advise just taking a look at a swing path image so you can understand what we mean by over the top and so on. The club face being open or closed is just the line of which the ball is going to start.
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I've been working a lot on my swing path as I used to come in too high the down on the ball, I was doing it thinking it would help distance, shows how little I still know that it will mainly help the odd slicing that I still do :p
 
No1newts said:
I've been working a lot on my swing path as I used to come in too high the down on the ball, I was doing it thinking it would help distance, shows how little I still know that it will mainly help the odd slicing that I still do :p
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I used to play a fade but I had 2 lessons with the pro at our club and he taught me to play a draw. After the first lesson it helped me understand what I was doing wrong which really helped my game. Coming down on the ball will create more spin which means its just going to go up and up and up and up :p The same as the harder you strike the ball the more spin you are going to create. When I setup to a ball an want to play a draw I tell myself to feel like I am pushing the ball away from me. It caused a few shanks to start off with as expected as I was leading the swing with the heel but it come together.
 
Had another round today after an early finish and got round in 106. Edging closer to breaking 100 :D

Massive change from the last few rounds where combined I've hit 10 fairways off the tee, fixing my swing path I hit 14 fairways today from the tee :)

Had a few lost balls and a had a few bad putting holes but without those I would have really troubled 100. Nicest part was my short game improvement, hit a few differs but getting great loft and control round the greens today.

Potentially a round Sunday, definitely got one Tuesday. 100 will be mine this summer!!! :D
 
When you break 100 im sure you will do it by more then 1 shot too!

Don't know if you are watching the open or not but if you watch how Zach Johnson sets up to the ball he sits his club head short of the ball. It helps him make a in to out swing as he needs to come over the top of the back swing to reach the centre. May be worth giving it a go to cure some of the slice you have.
 
I started playing Golf back in December, starting to get the hang of it and be more consistent but I definitely think I need some lessons now. I got given a set of clubs by my Dad who plays off a very low handicap (was scratch, but he's getting too old to play like he used to so it is creeping up) but they didn't suit me at all (they were completely customised for him so I'm not surprised). I think learning my swing with those clubs has affected my game.

Anyway, since buying my own clubs (Calloway X-Hot something or other), my game has massively improved but I have some things I really seem to struggle with...

I can hit my gap wedge 75-80 yards every single time, dead straight every time. PW is about 100 yards, 9 is 110ish and usually pretty straight, 8 is 120-130 and starting to see some left, 7 is 125-150 depending on if I hit it sweetly or not but this is where I start to lose it - it isn't very accurate and almost always hooks off to the left in flight. Sometimes, out on the course, the ball is rolling almost 90* right to left when it comes to a standstill, which is really hurting my game.

6 is generally worse and a 5 is worse again. Each club I go up I get less and less loft. Same sort of story with my driver - struggle to get much past 175-200 yards (range balls probably not helping here) but even when I do, there's always a significant right to left travel in the ball.

Finally, as straight as I can hit my AW and PW shots, I can only seem to hit them well when I am hitting a "whole club". If I try and hit a half-power shot with either club I will either find myself significantly over-hitting it by either thinning it or completely failing to put any backspin at all on the ball and it rolling forever. If I'm closer than 100 yards to the green, it is becoming a running joke that I'll almost always send it over the back. Again, this is devastating for my game. I've tried choking the club down and trying to really gently hit the ball but most of the time I'll either only hit it a foot or thin it and send it rolling straight over the other side of the green - although this tends to happen from 10-40 yards away rather than 60-70 yards out.

I'm going to have to try and get some time together for proper lessons before I bad-habit my way out of these issues (or ingrain them into me irreperably) but if anyone has any tips they'll be gratefully received!
 
I'd do what you're thinking of doing and have some lessons. There could be any number of reasons why you aren't hitting your longer irons accurately. It's normal to get more loft with the higher lofted clubs, but you should still be able to get 5, 6 and 7 irons up quite high. At a guess, you could be delivering too little dynamic loft, meaning that you're presenting less loft than the club has on it; or, you could be playing too much in to out, meaning that you are swinging from the inside and swinging out to the right. If your ball tends to move from right to left in the air then it could well be that you're doing this. It could also be grip related. Unfortunately there are so many possibilities that trying to fix it yourself might just make matters worse. Oh and regarding the short shots going too far or not far enough, that's more just a practice thing. Sure, getting your swing sorted will help your short shots too, but you're suffering more because you don't know how to adapt your swing for shots under 70-80 yards. Spend some time on the range working on shortening your swing and focussing on certain distances. You could pick some targets on the range that you know are less than 80 yards away and try to get as close to them as consistently as possible.

In the meantime, I'd take a look at this video:


and also this one:


It's amazing how many problems can be grip related so if you are going to try to sort it yourself then I'd start there, then think about swing path and swing plane, and then think about things like rotation and weight shift. Ultimately though, I'd say getting a lessons is still your best bet. They will be able to identify and help fix your issue(s) much more quickly and stop you picking up any bad habits in the meantime. Well worth the investment in my opinion.
 
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+1 to lessons, definitely a good investment.

I did (and still do) struggle with shots using anything under a full swing, I'm getting a lot better with it but my issue tended to be with the shorter backswing I them shortened my follow and kept scuffing them or scudding them along the deck. Following through my swing helped massively controlled my short game (which was obvious but I kept struggling to do :p)
 
^^ i prefer shots under a full swing, a 1/2 - 3/4 backswing is ideal for me, i love to punch my 7 iron like that to 150 yards... itl bounce once then stop on the spot,
its worth taking bag of balls to a field to practice hitting like this, when on the range paying good money for a few balls its hard to justify hitting these shots.. you just want to hit your driver :D
 
Played like a complete ****** today :(:mad:

I was only 8 shots worse than last time but my putting was horrific and I couldn't string a good hole together which I think made it feel far worse than my last round. Putting was bad all day which killed me but I was just scuffing my iron shots all the time, it got worse when I got in my own head and I killed my own game by the end :p:mad:

Few days off then playing Tuesday. With my current form of good round, bad round I should be due a good one Tuesday :p
 
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