Golf Thread

In other news :p

Had my first playing lesson today, didn't get through much of the course with lots of talking etc, but was quite interesting. He gave me a few things to work on going forward.

One was the pre-shot routine, biggest thing I think was that I didn't do any practice swings or anything, and he didn't advocate practice swings but did want me to 'swish' the club a bit, just like half way back and bring it through brushing the grass, basically just getting a feel for the length/weight of the club before hitting the shot. This did feel pretty good actually, but also did forget it a few times as I kept playined after the lesson was over.

But biggest thing he wanted was basically for me to absolutely not get to the green in regulation :eek: :p Expanding on that he said I should be an 18 handicapper with my swing etc, and basically he wants me to play to that. E.g. get to the green in GIR+1 and then ideally 1-putt for par but have that 2-putt for (gross!) bogey nailed on. Rather than trying to get to the green by taking more risks. Although he did also say on the 7th for that course there's no nice layup so just go for the green as it's the safest option, but almost every other course there's a safe easy layup.

It felt kinda wrong at times, like a 140 yard par 3 which I know I can get on with say an 8 Iron but instead hitting a PW and chipping on. But also on the other hand the last hole (in fact both first and last) are awkward par 5s, and I've thought for a long time "I'm happy with getting on in 4" but that's not the same as 'trying' to only get on in 4, instead I'd try for 3 and fail and be happy if the fail wasn't too big and I chipped on. So for the last hole I hit my hybrid off the tee, the safe option for that hole, but then instead of trying to say push an 8 iron and a hybrid to get there I hit two solid if unexceptional 9 irons and chipped on. The chip wasn't even that got but it was on and almost sank the putt for par. At no time was that at any risk of going wrong.

So yeah, we'll see :p The Friday game has moved to Wednesday this week, so I'll be trying that out there and see how it goes...
 
I have seemingly fixed my horrible driver slice, slowing down my backswing and gripping down maybe half an inch. Losing a bit of distance but they are now consistently straight. This was all done at the range so keen to get on a course to try it also.
 
Murray said:
Yeah, I did notice even from just watching the basics when it comes to things like setup everyone said something different :D

Just trying to get to the point where its not embarrassing while I try to find some lessons. I'm worried about forming some bad habits if I practice too much before instruction.
Click to expand...
I was full of bad habits (been playing for just over 3 years) and a couple of lessons weeded those out so don't be too concerned now. Do your research into instructors - I'd personally stick with PGA-qualified people and not someone 'selling' lessons on Facebook, I got caught out by a cowboy this way.

Gripping the club and ball position with each club is fairly standard so I'd focus on that first and get a general feeling of swinging the club and hitting the ball. You'll hit that one ball sweet as a nut and you'll be hooked forever! :D
 
SKILL said:
We had 16 I think, but 3 of those were from Taunton for some comp thing (those 3 + 3 from the Bath group counted), so not massive but 3-4 tee times worth so not bad :)
Click to expand...
Yeah it's a regional competition. We have our last game today against Bradford, win and we are through.
 
So I'm on a forced break from golf :( came off my road bike a couple of weeks ago - physio tells me that I have a frozen shoulder, so need to rehab that before I can swing a club again - foolishly tried at the weekend, no dice :( aiming to be back playing by early July. It's a bit rubbish, but it is what it is - could have been a lot worse.

In the meantime, I can caddy/hurl abuse at @Maccy while he plays :D
 
Well these are a thing of beauty!

IMG_3016.jpg
 
Give you a fiver for 'em? :p

Out for a morning round today, trying the whole 'aim for GIR+1' thing, makes a bunch of sense for some holes but not convinced on others... Like a 130 yard par 3, I can take an 8 Iron and 'probably' get it on the green, or intentionally a PW or 9 Iron to not get there, seems so little risk in going for it...

Anyway, started off slow (zero warmup never works great on the first hole), but after the the first two holes it was solid so pretty happy. Wasn't hitting my irons perfectly and the greens are just so hard now.
 
SKILL said:
But biggest thing he wanted was basically for me to absolutely not get to the green in regulation :eek: :p Expanding on that he said I should be an 18 handicapper with my swing etc, and basically he wants me to play to that. E.g. get to the green in GIR+1 and then ideally 1-putt for par but have that 2-putt for (gross!) bogey nailed on. Rather than trying to get to the green by taking more risks. Although he did also say on the 7th for that course there's no nice layup so just go for the green as it's the safest option, but almost every other course there's a safe easy layup.

It felt kinda wrong at times, like a 140 yard par 3 which I know I can get on with say an 8 Iron but instead hitting a PW and chipping on. But also on the other hand the last hole (in fact both first and last) are awkward par 5s, and I've thought for a long time "I'm happy with getting on in 4" but that's not the same as 'trying' to only get on in 4, instead I'd try for 3 and fail and be happy if the fail wasn't too big and I chipped on. So for the last hole I hit my hybrid off the tee, the safe option for that hole, but then instead of trying to say push an 8 iron and a hybrid to get there I hit two solid if unexceptional 9 irons and chipped on. The chip wasn't even that got but it was on and almost sank the putt for par. At no time was that at any risk of going wrong.
Click to expand...
I can understand this for longer par 3/4/5's but if you've got a club you can reliably hit 150y straight most of the time then I'd be going for those shorter par 3's or par 4's where a couple of mid irons will get you on. Reminds me of some of Golf Sidekick's videos:

 
stephenb said:
I can understand this for longer par 3/4/5's but if you've got a club you can reliably hit 150y straight most of the time then I'd be going for those shorter par 3's or par 4's where a couple of mid irons will get you on. Reminds me of some of Golf Sidekick's videos:
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about it a bunch, both in terms of my local (where the pro is/playing lesson was) and also Woodlands, and yeah it feels more situational than just a fixed rule.

The local course (Whitley) has a bunch of tricky risk/reward points, probably 5 of the 9 holes, where his concept I think could stabilise scoring a bunch. Woodlands on the other hand is wide open almost everywhere and I just don't see it making sense.

I'm playing the Masters course tomorrow and I'll be thinking about it throughout but take the 6th for example it's a very short par 4 at 320 yards, wide open off the tee so Driver all day. It is usually into wind but tomorrow isn't looking bad so it should be a solid 200+ drive leaving 120 in. There's one bunker short right, but still, no reason not to go for the green.
 
Club Champs tonight Round 1 (top 16 handicap qualifiers)

Giving away 1 shot..... Was 4 up through 8, then lost my abilty to swing the golf club.... Lost 9/11/14/15 to be all square. Won 16.

Halfed 17 with probably one of the best up and downs of the last 10 years from me... Short sided, decided to open the face right up and swing hard and it landed like a butterfly with sore feet and stopped about 2ft from the flag for the half.

Lost 18th, and then won up 19th with a par 5.

Good match but scary how quick I lost the ability to swing/hit the ball tonight!

On to tomorrow night now, last 8.
 
Played the Friday game early today, and mostly went for the whole 'play for the bogey thing', except where it just made no sense.

Played some of the most solid/consistent golf I've played in a while. Front 9 was almost perfect, 7 bogeys to start with, par'd the 8th with what I'm declaring as Putt of the Year already but then 3-putt for a double on the 9th. Overall +9 through 9, but could've been 1 or 2 better really.

Back 9 was scruffier really, oddly it's usually my stronger 9 on that course but hit +11 through 9 here so 2 over the 'target'. 2 pars on the back 9 but 4 doubles, silly mistakes mostly.

Also found 4 bunkers (at least?!) today, which is annoying but the plus side being each one was out in 1 so some of the practice I've been doing there has worked out. 2 of those did lead to double bogies though, mostly as the sensible shot out was to the side rather than onto the green so almost a 'wasted' shot there.

Happy overall though, kept the same ball throughout, +20 is my second best score on that course, +24.3 score differential in the app which will be my second lowest counting score so should get a nice drop :)
 
Battered tonight in last 8 of club champs...

Close game on front 9 - was 1 down at the turn.

Lost 10 to a birdie 2, I lost a ball on 11, he parred 12 and 13 and I missed 8 & 10ft putts for the half on those holes.... Suddenly I'm 5 down with 5 to play.... We halfed 14th in 3's for him to win match....

Short game/putting is fine, but I'm very very lost with my swing at the moment..... Take the club back and I've no feels or anything for what happens from there - just feels like I'm lurching/throwing the club at the ball.... horrible feeling.....

Holiday in a few weeks time, might try and squeeze a lesson in before then to figure out what's gone wrong!!
 
Do any of you use rangefinders? If so, what ones would you recommend? Wanting to try and keep it around the £200ish mark and AG have a sale on...

Got some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket and been considering one for a few months so seems like as good an excuse as any. I've got Golf Pad on my watch but it would be helpful to have something to zap parts of the course for hazards/laying up, and so on.

Need to get it bought soon before the temptation to add to the tattoo collection overtakes it...
 
I've got a rangefinder, just a cheapo one from China, I don't really use it much, but I have got the Garmin watch so things like hazards it tells me and even I can select points on the hole for distances. I bought it after playing a course with temporary greens so had no idea of the distances and do occasionally use it for things like trees etc that the watch doesn't show...

Out for morning golf again today, amusingly I got there and Google Maps in the car suggested I set the location as Work :cry:

I may have figured out how to do a flop shot. This could be dangerous :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom