Ask me anything about golf

[ntnBO]

[ QUOTE ]

I would go for these goals:

Beat your friends that are the same as you
Win Club championship
Beat your assistant pro
Beat your pro

[/ QUOTE ]
Am certainly not trying to be insulting to any profession, but I have found that in most cases winning the club championship is much more difficult than beating the asst. or head pro.

BO

[Tezaroo]

can beat my friends
came in second in club championship two years in a row
can beat 2 out of 4 of the pros

[Troll_Inc]

[ QUOTE ]
3. Going from 72 to 69 consistently is much harder than going from 90 to 80

[/ QUOTE ]

How about going from a 17 hcp who can shoot in the low 80's some of the time to first being able to break 80 and then being a <10 hcp?

How hard is that and what do I need to do.

Short background. I broke 90 all on short game practice/ability. Pretty weak from tee to about 100 yds in. I've now gone back and increased power, more consistent full swing.

I probably need to renew my short game efforts, but how do I know where I need to improve? Take last 5 rounds and count up putts, FIR, GIR?

I can budget about 1hr a day for practice during the week.

[dvh]

3. Going from 72 to 69 consistently is much harder than going from 90 to 80

QFT!

[black knight]

I agree...usually for the latter it's something simple like better short game (scrambling) and getting more consistent just off the tee. For the former, you have to get better at dialing in your short irons and wedges from 160 and in...and take your short game to the next level too.

Troll: the easiest answer is get some lessons. Most pros say that people in your range need to work on 2 things: tee shots, and short game. You'll get the most out of your time by doing that. Tee shots because you'll keep the ball in play and take pressure off the rest of your game (as well as avoid useless penalty strokes from tee errors). Short game because it's an area that people can quickly improve and it has the biggest impact in your game (most shots are from <70 I think).

Avoid the long, mid, and even short irons for the time being only because they take the longest to improve at and provide the smallest relative impact to your score compared to the other two. When you get <10, things start to change and the irons become more important.

[Troll_Inc]

[ QUOTE ]
Troll: the easiest answer is get some lessons. Most pros say that people in your range need to work on 2 things: tee shots, and short game. You'll get the most out of your time by doing that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you advocating bomb and gouge to get to <10 hcp?

The last 2 weeks, I've practiced putting pretty much every day. What's reasonable for a 10 hcp'er, 32-33 putts a round?

Let's say I get my putting good enough to average 32 putts a round, then at 80 score - 32 putts - 14 full tees shots that's 34 shots elsewhere. We'll say I spend 7 shots on the par 3s not including the putts, then that's 27 shots to look on 14 par 4 and 5 holes.

If I average an ok second shot and a chip/pitch to a good enough green position for my 32 putt estimate, then that is 28 for an 81. Sure I will hit some GIRs but they can be negated an equal number of tee shots that don't hit the fairway.

[Acein8ter]

Do you concentrate on a swing plane for each club that you hit? Driver, woods, long irons, mid, short, etc...

I know that I have a problem with my swing plane as I do not hit the center of the club on a consistent basis. (I know that the driver has a 'flat' plane and the SW/LW has the steepest)

I tend to hit on the toe of the club when I'm not 'on'. If I think about it, I can flatten the plane on club X but sometimes it leads to snap hooks, especially with a wood/driver.

I'm about a 15 handicap.

[Your Mom]

I hit my irons fairly well. Can hit the 4 iron 200 yards, can hit the 7 iron 160, etc. but I can't hit a driver for my life. I hit a lot of snap hooks with the occasional straight 240 yard drive. Seems I should be able to hit a driver further (more like 275-280) since I can hit my irons the appropiate length. Any thoughts?

[matt85]

I shot +8 on a course i'd never seen before with rental clubs after not actually playing any golf in almost 4 years.

When should I turn pro?

[black knight]

LOL...I actually did the same thing after 7yrs. It was hilarious playing with 25 yr old blades.