Cheers for the advice mate, will keep my eye out for one.
Golf Thread
- Thread starter Andr3w
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Update #1 in quest for PGA Professional teaching qualifications
It's been almost 6 months since I decided to pursue the long term goal of getting my qualifications to teach, so thought Id do a bit of an update.
I've been working with a teacher who's aware of my aims and has decided to work with me long term. We come together once a month for a lesson and 1 out of every 4 will be a playing lesson. He's set me a number of short term goals to reach before the longer, more financially bothersome ones should need to rear their heads.
Short term goals to hit within the year and ones achieved so far:
Join a club:
Sadly still a pipe dream due to financial constraints
Practice at least once a week, every week:
Guilty of skipping this one on occasion. I mostly despise range sessions, so usually go to my local to practice on chipping greens if I don't feel up to the range.
Play at least once a week, every week:
This one I've managed to stick to. I've not skipped a week since early December and often times play twice on a weekend.
Play every course within a 20 mile range of where I live:
8 ticked off so far. Leaving the more 'lavish' courses until the season starts and I can get a group together to tag along.
Break 100 consistently at my preferred course:
Hopefully well on my way to doing this. Only failed once in the past 12 rounds to do so and that was quite recently.
Break 90 at least once before the end of 2024:
Amazingly this was done in early Jan! Both fluke rounds really and on the 'easier' courses, but still very proud that I was able to get this done so early.
Have at least two reliable aspects within my game that I can fall back on to save scores:
These came pretty ready made as I've always been competent around the greens and it's relatively rare that I three putt. 8 times in a round was the most I've had in the last 6 months, averaging 4.
Track every shot each time I play:
This has been a real help and something I'd recommend everyone do be it through an app or notepad. It stops you from viewing each round as binary 'good' or bad' and sheds light on the real issues within your game, not just GiR percentages and length of drives etc.
Lesson focus
Driving:
From the off the biggest issue I had was lack of distance from the tee paired with a general fear of hitting Driver. I'd get really snatchy with it and had a tendency to drag the club on a massive in to out path causing huge pull hooks. Lost balls off the tee where easily costing me the most shots per round.
We spent several lessons working on club path and feels to try and get me more on plane. I also agreed to get hold of a mini driver as a bit of a short term solution.
This has been one of the biggest success so far. It's very rare I loose a ball off the tee now, averaging just above 1 a round in the last 3 months and whilst my swings not perfect and I'm still leaking a little power, I now consistently hit big sweeping 240 yard draws off the tee. I have a 'straight' shot feel for driver but it always comes out a little too spiny, loosing me on average about 20 yards of carry.
Long irons (6 down to 3)
Second biggest issue (and one we're still battling to a lesser extent) is 180-210 long iron shots into greens. I think every amateur struggles with this to some extent and it's definitely eaten up the most of my lesson time. I leak a lot of power through 'lazy hips' and a poor transition. My compression has never and probably will never be amazing, but I've always been able to stay pretty on plane with my irons and club face at impact is pretty square, meaning my misses have never been that catastrophic, just short.
The fix sounds easier then it is too implement. Slowing the tempo of my swing down throughout and encouraging a decent weight transfer through impact. I've lost count the amount of times we've watched Ernie Els swing and think we've probably found every available video clip ever recorded of him to obsess over.
I've made a lot of progress with this the last few weeks specifically. The biggest help has been keeping my arms and hands 'lazy' throughout the swing and not trying to kill the ball on the downswing.
Reading lies
This is all we've focused on during the on course lessons and it's something we're all told to do, but having a professional there to reinforce it is hugely beneficial. 60% of a shot is what you anticipate the balls going to do before you hit it and reading the lie correctly can save you so many shots over the course of a round.
It's been almost 6 months since I decided to pursue the long term goal of getting my qualifications to teach, so thought Id do a bit of an update.
I've been working with a teacher who's aware of my aims and has decided to work with me long term. We come together once a month for a lesson and 1 out of every 4 will be a playing lesson. He's set me a number of short term goals to reach before the longer, more financially bothersome ones should need to rear their heads.
Short term goals to hit within the year and ones achieved so far:
Join a club:
Sadly still a pipe dream due to financial constraints
Practice at least once a week, every week:
Guilty of skipping this one on occasion. I mostly despise range sessions, so usually go to my local to practice on chipping greens if I don't feel up to the range.
Play at least once a week, every week:
This one I've managed to stick to. I've not skipped a week since early December and often times play twice on a weekend.
Play every course within a 20 mile range of where I live:
8 ticked off so far. Leaving the more 'lavish' courses until the season starts and I can get a group together to tag along.
Break 100 consistently at my preferred course:
Hopefully well on my way to doing this. Only failed once in the past 12 rounds to do so and that was quite recently.
Break 90 at least once before the end of 2024:
Amazingly this was done in early Jan! Both fluke rounds really and on the 'easier' courses, but still very proud that I was able to get this done so early.
Have at least two reliable aspects within my game that I can fall back on to save scores:
These came pretty ready made as I've always been competent around the greens and it's relatively rare that I three putt. 8 times in a round was the most I've had in the last 6 months, averaging 4.
Track every shot each time I play:
This has been a real help and something I'd recommend everyone do be it through an app or notepad. It stops you from viewing each round as binary 'good' or bad' and sheds light on the real issues within your game, not just GiR percentages and length of drives etc.
Lesson focus
Driving:
From the off the biggest issue I had was lack of distance from the tee paired with a general fear of hitting Driver. I'd get really snatchy with it and had a tendency to drag the club on a massive in to out path causing huge pull hooks. Lost balls off the tee where easily costing me the most shots per round.
We spent several lessons working on club path and feels to try and get me more on plane. I also agreed to get hold of a mini driver as a bit of a short term solution.
This has been one of the biggest success so far. It's very rare I loose a ball off the tee now, averaging just above 1 a round in the last 3 months and whilst my swings not perfect and I'm still leaking a little power, I now consistently hit big sweeping 240 yard draws off the tee. I have a 'straight' shot feel for driver but it always comes out a little too spiny, loosing me on average about 20 yards of carry.
Long irons (6 down to 3)
Second biggest issue (and one we're still battling to a lesser extent) is 180-210 long iron shots into greens. I think every amateur struggles with this to some extent and it's definitely eaten up the most of my lesson time. I leak a lot of power through 'lazy hips' and a poor transition. My compression has never and probably will never be amazing, but I've always been able to stay pretty on plane with my irons and club face at impact is pretty square, meaning my misses have never been that catastrophic, just short.
The fix sounds easier then it is too implement. Slowing the tempo of my swing down throughout and encouraging a decent weight transfer through impact. I've lost count the amount of times we've watched Ernie Els swing and think we've probably found every available video clip ever recorded of him to obsess over.
I've made a lot of progress with this the last few weeks specifically. The biggest help has been keeping my arms and hands 'lazy' throughout the swing and not trying to kill the ball on the downswing.
Reading lies
This is all we've focused on during the on course lessons and it's something we're all told to do, but having a professional there to reinforce it is hugely beneficial. 60% of a shot is what you anticipate the balls going to do before you hit it and reading the lie correctly can save you so many shots over the course of a round.
Averaging four 3 putts a round looks like a lot to me. What is your average number of putts per round?
£10 later
Needs a new grip but still!
I ended up on a bit of an expedition this morning, I found a shaft to fit my driver and whilst i was there the guy also ended up selling me some Mizuno S18 wedges and a TM Spider Putter, brand new MCC+ grips on the wedges and he gave me a brand new SuperStroke Fatso to go on the putter. My dining room starting to look like GolfBidder warehouse!
Not much I can really give in terms of advice but best of luck mate!
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I've averaged 40.1 in the past 3 months, that's down from 48.3 since August.
It's fairly up and down, but mostly down these days and that's pulling the average down quite quick. Last weekend I made 33 putts for instance where as the week before I hit 39.
Last edited:
There is quite a few out there, they all pretty much have a premium for the features you would want. Not personally tried them but my dad tried 18Birdies and SwingU which were good but again he didn't want to pay the premium charge. He eventually picked up a Shotscope v3 watch and the app they have is incredible and there is no charge, you may be best off looking at that option. He paid £80 I think on Vinted. Bonus points as well that it means he isnt getting a ton of notifications through to his watch etc and is "switched off" whilst on the course. You can of course just snooze things but the temptation is always there. Shotscope is just golf!
The TagHeuer golf app on the phone was pretty good however and was nice and clear to use, https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/tag-heuer-golf-gps-3d-maps/id1449021143
100% recommend Shotscope.... No annual fees, great data output, tracking etc.... Excellent watch, very accurate and very simple to use. Very intuitive..
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What version of the watch do you have? their sites has some demo models for 3 and 5 series.
Had V3, very good, upgraded to X5...
You'll pick up a cheap V3 for around £70 on facebook groups/ebay if you don't want to drop money on X5
Last week was the first time in about 3 months since I’d last hit a golf ball, range practice. Purchased 50 balls, my ball striking was terrible. Again today I went to the range and again my ball striking was poor until I slowed down my backswing. Ball striking was unbelievably improved, hit the ball crisper and even a little further. Will hopefully have another chance to go to the range to get some more practice before trying a slower backswing on a golf course. 
Last week was the first time in about 3 months since I’d last hit a golf ball, range practice. Purchased 50 balls, my ball striking was terrible. Again today I went to the range and again my ball striking was poor until I slowed down my backswing. Ball striking was unbelievably improved, hit the ball crisper and even a little further. Will hopefully have another chance to go to the range to get some more practice before trying a slower backswing on a golf course.
Totally agree mate, slow, smooth tempo is key…and I can’t do it all!
Usual round today, pretty boggy still and the rain started around the 11th but never too heavy so all good.
Definitely a toppy-thin kinda day
Still, shot 92 so not unhappy with that. Looking at the Garmin stats though my putting was shocking! 41 putts/2.3 average, kinda impressed I even got low-90's with that
Definitely a toppy-thin kinda day
Still, shot 92 so not unhappy with that. Looking at the Garmin stats though my putting was shocking! 41 putts/2.3 average, kinda impressed I even got low-90's with that
Take away the positive, it wasn’t so long back you were struggling to break 100.Usual round today, pretty boggy still and the rain started around the 11th but never too heavy so all good.
Definitely a toppy-thin kinda day
Still, shot 92 so not unhappy with that. Looking at the Garmin stats though my putting was shocking! 41 putts/2.3 average, kinda impressed I even got low-90's with that
First net session of the year, and the new SkyTrak. Was struggling a bit, still paranoid about shanking right into the device!
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