Golf Thread

Decided to hold onto my D9 irons, they have dropped significantly in price, and im not "giving" them away!

And regarding the JPX irons, I paid £616 in total, including p+p. so its a win win, one way or another!
 
Played my first competitive match today, a while back entered the local clubs Winter Greensomes Knockout and today was the first game, we were meant to play last Saturday but the course was closed.

We won 2&1 so good times :D

We got 3 shots total on the 1st, 2nd and 9th, won the first 2 holes to be up early which helped, halved the 3rd and 5th but lost 4th and 6th to be all square going into the last 3 holes. 6th was annoying as my drive looked reasonably good, bit right but should have a line to the green (dogleft right) just couldn't find the ball though so yeah.

7th I hit a nice tee shot to just off the green, the others had the option of a poor lie one side of the green or a chip over a bunker, they went for the bunker which left the higher handicapper with the chip and he duffed it to just roll into the front edge of the bunker, they couldn't get a shot onto the green so conceded.

8th my partner went first for the first time and put one in play and I went for the dangerous line, didn't think it had worked as it definitely hit a tree but we got very lucky and it was ~80 yards further up the fairway to my partners tee shot, he then got that on the green, my putt was close enough to be given for 4 (par) and they then missed their putt for 4 to halve it so job done.

Was a bit interesting both the format but also doing matchplay, only really done strokeplay/stableford stuff so made a change. Looking forward to the next match now, gonna be a bit awkward to fit it into December with my Marrakech trip for the first couple of weeks and then Christmas.
 
Made a decision this past week to only play with my irons until the EOY. The goal it to get the confidence and strike up on the course to resemble the range performance. I have to say it's amazing how nice this has been. The ball is pretty much always in play. My confidence in hitting my 5i and 6i are growing rapidly. It's just more relaxing and less stressful than trying to "get it there" as I have a more reasonable expectation of the number of shots I need to reach the green.

Par 5 are still reachable in 3 shots and outside of 400+ par 4, the rest are fine.

I also feel I have more freedom to work on just one type of swing. I'm looking forward to seeing what evolution it brings. On a bright note, ended the playing season with a 22 handicap seeing that I calibrated in June this year at 36 so that's good progress. 12 is the goal for this time next year and I feel it's achievable.

Self rewards:
- custom fit driver when I hit 18 handicap
- custom fit irons when I hit 15 handicap
- custom fit wedges and woods when I hit 12
 
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Yet more golf today... Is 4 consecutive days excessive? :p

Played 'ok', lost a 100 off my handicap/last-20 scores and replaced it with a 99... Too many big scoring holes, like a 9 on a par 4, a 7 on a par 3 and a 2 or 3 triples as well.

I think I'd rather score like 5 shots more but consistently 'meh' than an 'ok' score with a bunch of utterly terrible holes.
 
Think I have made a break through with my swing or at least my understanding of what I am doing with it and how to change or adapt it.

I have a tendency to block my irons and driver to the right by leaving the face open with and in to our path, so this year have been working on a draw to eradicate it. This has been going well but the draw is bigger than I would like and inconsistent.

This week I stumbled on a YouTube video for hitting a fade with a more out to in feel and leaving the face open. Tried it at the range on a couple of sessions with my irons and fairway woods and wow, much cleaner contact, better ball flights and a more consistent shape. The path feels massively outside but probably isn't on a launch monitor. Just need to see if I can do it with driver.
 
Robert896r1 said:
On a bright note, ended the playing season with a 22 handicap seeing that I calibrated in June this year at 36 so that's good progress. 12 is the goal for this time next year and I feel it's achievable.
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That's one huge step there brother.
Kudos to you, if you do that sizeable jump in a year... and good luck!
Knocking a few points off your handicap a year is considered pretty decent, unless you're a really long hitter already, then it's considered a little easier to have slightly bigger jumps.
 
MarkA said:
That's one huge step there brother.
Kudos to you, if you do that sizeable jump in a year... and good luck!
Knocking a few points off your handicap a year is considered pretty decent, unless you're a really long hitter already, then it's considered a little easier to have slightly bigger jumps.
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I agree - 22 to 12 in a year is a massive jump. Not saying it's not achievable but that's a BIG jump. @Robert896r1

On WHS the "average" score for 22 handicap is 98.3 per round.

Average for 12 handicap is 87.8

So you'd need to drop MORE than 11 shots a round from your current scores to get your handicap down to 12 in a year.
 
I fully agree. But if I don't set goals then I don't get the best out of me.

Right now I'm sitting mid 40's (44/45) on the front 9 at my local club(affiliate can't play until 1pm and then sunsets stop me from doing 18). If i can keep that trend going and slowly improving, hope to get there. Of course, its not easy so I need to get my ass in gear.
 
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Also... Season, pfft, I'll still be playing and putting in cards over winter :p

For the lols I checked what I was at at the start of the year, 49.9 :eek: That was with only 8 scores on the handicap record though, started playing mid-august 2022, joined a club in November.

Currently at 33.7, although got a really good score that'll be knocked off on Friday so might end up going up unless I pull my finger out :p

I'd like to get down to <25 next year, that feels like a reasonable goal...
 
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Robert896r1 said:
I fully agree. But if I don't set goals then I don't get the best out of me.

Right now I'm sitting mid 40's (44/45) on the front 9 at my local club(affiliate can't play until 1pm and then sunsets stop me from doing 18). If i can keep that trend going and slowly improving, hope to get there. Of course, its not easy so I need to get my ass in gear.
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I think it's important to set goals that are fairly easily achievable as a general rule. If you set them too large, you may get disheartened along the way.

I like the new clubs achievements though! Those would definitely keep me going :p
booyaka said:
Main goal for EVERYONE next year is....

1st OCUK Major Event.....

Would be bang up for some OcUK golf....
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Perhaps an early arranged game, say, mid-May next year, gives everyone a chance to get a little bit of practice in between now and then, and maybe get some courses ready and deposits paid? :)
 
Looking back to July, my goal was to be a 14-15 handicapper by the end of the season.
I'm currently 16.6, down from 18-19, so slowly getting there!

Some rounds have had the possibility of me being 14-15, but I've made some silly errors along the last couple of holes, where a good card almost turned into a bad one.
 
Superpatsy said:
I could only get another 2 on with us for Crail and St Andrews so you'll need to fight over it if more are interested! :D
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And me :p

Although I think Crail isn't 'that' expensive if we just did it normally for a bunch of us? St Andrews isn't that bad either really I think... Except the Old Course...
 
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