Golf Thread

[stephenb]

^ naturally to lower my index which currently sits at 18.1. I'm sick of being a bogey golfer who never knows what swing is going to turn up from one week to the next

To that end I've got my first lesson of the year on Saturday. Going to someone new as I'm not sure I ever really gelled with my old coach and he now wants £80/hr! A few years ago now admittedly, but I was paying less than that for private skiing lessons in the Alps. New person I'm trying out is currently training to be a PGA Pro and still isn't cheap at £50/45min but we'll see what it's like. They offer discounted rates for block booking so if it goes well this will bring the costs down further.

My best round from the past year would give a score differential of 12.5 under normal conditions. If I can develop a consistent swing I don't see why I couldn't get my handicap out of the teens, or at least close to it.

 

[MR_Punk]

^ naturally to lower my index which currently sits at 18.1. I'm sick of being a bogey golfer who never knows what swing is going to turn up from one week to the next

To that end I've got my first lesson of the year on Saturday. Going to someone new as I'm not sure I ever really gelled with my old coach and he now wants £80/hr! A few years ago now admittedly, but I was paying less than that for private skiing lessons in the Alps. New person I'm trying out is currently training to be a PGA Pro and still isn't cheap at £50/45min but we'll see what it's like. They offer discounted rates for block booking so if it goes well this will bring the costs down further.

My best round from the past year would give a score differential of 12.5 under normal conditions. If I can develop a consistent swing I don't see why I couldn't get my handicap out of the teens, or at least close to it.

I would suggest getting something blocked booked in, nothing will be sorted in one lesson so give it time. Be prepared for your game to falter for a while but once it clicks you'll be annoyed you didn't do it sooner!

 

[booyaka]

^ naturally to lower my index which currently sits at 18.1. I'm sick of being a bogey golfer who never knows what swing is going to turn up from one week to the next

To that end I've got my first lesson of the year on Saturday. Going to someone new as I'm not sure I ever really gelled with my old coach and he now wants £80/hr! A few years ago now admittedly, but I was paying less than that for private skiing lessons in the Alps. New person I'm trying out is currently training to be a PGA Pro and still isn't cheap at £50/45min but we'll see what it's like. They offer discounted rates for block booking so if it goes well this will bring the costs down further.

My best round from the past year would give a score differential of 12.5 under normal conditions. If I can develop a consistent swing I don't see why I couldn't get my handicap out of the teens, or at least close to it.

£80 is pricey for sure!!! Not sure I'd want to pay that.

My local pga pro is £45 for 45 minutes....

Get a block booking is a decent idea - but don't get them too close together.... give yourself time to practice from one to the next

 

[Maccy]

Yeh I pay £50/hour, he’s a few years younger than me but fully qualified pga pro.

Achieved my goal last year, just, by breaking into the teens and ended 2024 at 18.8.
Think I’d like to drop a few more, maybe aim for sub-15?

 

[-westy-]

Goals for last year:

- Break 80 3 times - complete, 2 x 79s and a 78.
- Handicap into single digits - complete, finished the year on 9.9

This year:

- Improve on last year - where I was confidently shooting in the mid-low 80s - to the point where a "bad" round was high-80s. So getting into the 70s more often than not.
- Handicap to 7 or below. Aware that getting lower means undertaking more meaningful practice, not just showing up to the range, smashing some driver and playing loads. So intend on taking a few lessons throughout the year to work on some fundamentals. Perhaps a playing lesson as well, pick up some course management tips.
- Side goal, fitness. My fitness has definitely taken a drop this year, through injury from my other sport (hockey). So getting myself back into better shape is a priority. Flexibility/mobility being important factors I think. Less fatigue on the golf course = more consistency.

 

[MR_Punk]

Goals for last year:

- Break 80 3 times - complete, 2 x 79s and a 78.
- Handicap into single digits - complete, finished the year on 9.9

This year:

- Improve on last year - where I was confidently shooting in the mid-low 80s - to the point where a "bad" round was high-80s. So getting into the 70s more often than not.
- Handicap to 7 or below. Aware that getting lower means undertaking more meaningful practice, not just showing up to the range, smashing some driver and playing loads. So intend on taking a few lessons throughout the year to work on some fundamentals. Perhaps a playing lesson as well, pick up some course management tips.
- Side goal, fitness. My fitness has definitely taken a drop this year, through injury from my other sport (hockey). So getting myself back into better shape is a priority. Flexibility/mobility being important factors I think. Less fatigue on the golf course = more consistency.

Good idea, I've not set up the goals yet for this year but this post will push me to do, I'll recap later!

 

[SKILL]

Out today for the first round of the new year \o/ Ground was pretty frozen to start with and I didn't really click with it at all, played in the frozen wastelands before but yeah...

There was about 10 holes from the 3rd onwards though where I was striping it! Some of the best ball striking all year, lols. Not that it helped though cause with the ice what I thought were great shots just ended terribly, like a short chip that hits a downslope on a frozen green and shoots forward 20 yards... Landed it exactly where I wanted it to

Then of course I voiced that and proceeded to hack it around and even have a shank on the 14th, nice. Overall pretty bad score but it was good to be out at least, although cold the sun was out and I like the cold so I was loving it

But now, as the time has come...

I'm also sad so looked up the stats for the year. I played 142 rounds (including 9-hole rounds) at 22 different courses over the year, that's a fair bit of golf

So, onto next year, decided on some goals again cause why not:

1. Get my handicap sub-25 - currently 32.6, again seems quite optimistic but also doable
2. Driver Clubhead speed >100mph - currently low-90's I think
3. 2x UK Royal courses - I ended up playing 2 this year with Royal Cromer and Royal Ashdown Forest and I'm kinda thinking playing 'all' the UK Monarchy Royal courses could be a bit of a bucket list type thing cause why not, that includes the ones abroad but for the next year just play 2 more of the UK based ones.
4. Break 85 - Feels less overly-optimistic than last years but still a solid goal
5. Break 40 in 9 holes - Don't really need it for the 85 goal but my best is currently 43 so seems good
6. Ideally 2 trips abroad - The Marrakech one was my first time but that group has organised a trip for the last 5/6 years so planning to do that again, would like to do a Portugal trip in Feb/March with my normal group but not sure it's gonna happen.
7. Almost forgot but OcUK Major!

I've also kinda decided that if I managed both 1 and 2 then I'll get a proper driver fitting as mine was just off the shelf, but if it's later in the year I might leave it till January 2025 for the new releases...

Anyone else setting some golf goals for the year?

So, the results are in and:
1) Easy game, from 32.6 to 18.7 over the year, smashed it!
2) Nope, didn't really put any serious effort in, did increase the speed but from ~90 on a 'smooth' swing and 95 max up to 95 'smooth' and highest I saw on the sim was 99mph
3) Done, Royal St. Davids and Royal Ashdown Forest (2023 was the West Course, played the Old Course in 2024)
4) Easy again, knocked in a solid 79 on a day where everything worked! Also shot an 81 on NYE and various others under 85 so all goods.
5) Kinda required for 5 really, but yes, best of 38 I believe.
6) Yep, regretted the one with my normal trip (the people, Amendoeira was lovely though) but enjoyed the Turkey one with the group I went to Marrakech with was great.
7) Um, who was supposed to be organising this again?

Overall quite happy with the year and still thoroughly addicted to golf so still wanting to keep getting better

Also I played 201 rounds of golf (including 9-holes) at 26 different courses

Onto 2025 I've got the following currently:
1) Driver clubhead speed >100mph for a 'smooth' swing (carried over)
2) Handicap, which I've split into 'medals', Bronze is <15 (should be easy), Silver is <12 (bit more challenging but I'll be upset if I don't get it), Gold is <10!
3) Gonna start a bit of a light exercise and also golf practice 'habit', definitely need both and probably a lot of the former but want to go in slow and make it a habit rather than the usual 'new years resolutions'
4) 4 Royal courses this year, gonna try to get to Royal Porthcawl, Royal North Devon + 2 others as yet undecided.

Not fully decided if I need to do more Was maybe thinking like 'X <80 rounds' (at my easy course) or maybe Break 80 at a harder course maybe, dunno.

 

[booyaka]

201 rounds - holy cow.... @SKILL

Probably not done that in the last 5 years total.... Wish I had the time for that....

 

[SKILL]

201 rounds - holy cow.... @SKILL

Probably not done that in the last 5 years total.... Wish I had the time for that....

The 9 hole rounds definitely help with that one

In the summer I can tee off at 7 or a bit before do 9 holes in ~1h10 ish and be back home around 8:30 for work.

Then there were a couple of periods I did ~10 days consecutive of 'at least' 9 holes, being a contractor I was working 4-day weeks and playing a full 18 most Friday and Sundays, occasionally 36 on Sundays cause why not, so yeah. Lots of golf

 

[stephenb]

This mornings lesson turned out to be a disappointment. After a very quick chat about my game, with no probing from the instructor, he asked what I'd like to work on (irons). He had a look at my current swing which he videoed quickly on his phone. We watched it back and he highlighted my narrow swing, bent arms and said we'd work on getting more width. I then spent the rest of the lesson doing a singular drill with half swings while he continually feed me balls. I don't hit that many balls when I'm just smashing them on the range for fun. There was very little feedback and little further video.

Difficult not to draw comparisons with my previous pro but it felt like there wasn't much instruction taking place, that they needed to get more hands on to get my body moving into the right positions and that something should have been done to break up the monotony of 40 minutes on the same drill. To cap it off when I came to pay at the end the price was £5 more than advertised on their website. I cut my losses and left. Have a couple of other options I'll try but otherwise I'll be back to my original pro.