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Date: 01 May 2007 18:48:20
From: WW
Subject: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
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Date: 02 May 2007 06:24:15
From: Thor
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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On May 2, 8:06 am, John van der Pflum <nowhammymyspa...@bite.org >
wrote:
> On 1 May 2007 18:48:20 -0700, WW <dirt...@msn.com> wrote:
>
> >This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
> >look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
> >suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
> >of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
>
> Mine dropped the most when I stopped going to the range to beat balls
> and started spending 15-30 minutes on the putting green. I found my
> chipping and pitching was a lot better and I could put lights out.
Got any video of said putting??
-- Thor
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Date: 02 May 2007 13:27:26
From: Bobby Knight
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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On 2 May 2007 06:24:15 -0700, Thor <thorpub@rsgohio.com > wrote:
>On May 2, 8:06 am, John van der Pflum <nowhammymyspa...@bite.org>
>wrote:
>> On 1 May 2007 18:48:20 -0700, WW <dirt...@msn.com> wrote:
>>
>> >This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
>> >look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
>> >suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
>> >of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
>>
>> Mine dropped the most when I stopped going to the range to beat balls
>> and started spending 15-30 minutes on the putting green. I found my
>> chipping and pitching was a lot better and I could put lights out.
>
>Got any video of said putting??
>
>-- Thor
Shill. :-)
--
___,
\o
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Date: 02 May 2007 08:06:01
From: John van der Pflum
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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On 1 May 2007 18:48:20 -0700, WW <dirtymm@msn.com > wrote:
>This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
>look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
>suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
>of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
Mine dropped the most when I stopped going to the range to beat balls
and started spending 15-30 minutes on the putting green. I found my
chipping and pitching was a lot better and I could put lights out.
--
jvdp
RSG Cincinnati July 13-15, 2007
http://www.rsgcincinnati.com
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Date: 02 May 2007 13:30:18
From: David
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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On 1 May 2007 18:48:20 -0700, WW <dirtymm@msn.com > wrote:
>This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
>look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
>suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
>of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
How often you get to play golf will directly affect how long it
takes you to get your handicap down. Good swing fundamentals will not
help if you can only play a few times per month. Players with
single-digit handicaps are playing at least 3-4 days per week, I would
have to believe.
As a beginner, you should spend at least 50% of your time working on
the short game. Banging countless balls at the range is fine for
developing the motor skills necessary to get the ball moving down the
fairway; however, the "feel" part of the game is much more difficult
to master.
If I have a practice day, I hit a maybe 100 ball at the range, spend
at least 30 minutes chipping, pitching and working on my bunker play.
I then spend at least one hour putting.
A lot of people don't like to putt so much; however, there are a
couple of benefits. Firstly, when you are practicing your putting,
there is instant gratification--the ball goes in the hole, a lot. I
love the sound of the ball finding the bottom of the cup. Secondly,
watching the ball disappear often helps to strengthen confidence in
your stroke, This translates very well to the golf course.
The feeling that you can make every putt you look at helps you to
loosen up with the rest of your game. This generally results in you
making a better pass at the ball, since you are not as worried about
having to get it close all of the time. The pressure of feeling that
you need to get it close causes you to tighten up, which will
invariably lead to a missed shot.e
By no means should you neglect the long game, especially at the
beginning levels. Simply try and find more time to play and work
really hard on the short game. If you do these things, and are
reasonably athletic, you will begin breaking 90 consistently before
the summer is over. You will also find that you are getting some
scores in the low 80's and my sniff the elusive 79 before the end of
the year.
David
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Date: 02 May 2007 00:07:21
From: Matt
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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"WW" <dirtymm@msn.com > wrote in message
news:1178070500.418937.27460@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
> look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
> suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
> of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
Well, let me give you a back ground. I started playing golf seriously in
2001. In 2003, I started taking lessons often and hitting the range and
playing 6 or 7 days a week.
2001 - 25
2002 - 23
2003 - 20
2004 - 11, just worked on previous year stuff, continued to take more
lessons and practice.
2005 - 8, but was injured a lot and had to deal with one HUGE bitch of a
girlfriend, could've gotten it lower if I didnt have to deal with either.
Again, just kept taking lessons and practicing.
2006 - Started to really believe in what I was doing with my swing, got a
lot more confident and improved my mental game. One big thing that improved
this year was knowing my average yardage with each club. Bounced between a 4
and a 6. Probably could've been maybe 2 or 3, if I took less risks and
putted better than a 30 handicapper. Started working at a golf club, so I
got free greens fees and played 3 times a week.
2007 - I am coming into the season with no swing problems, instructor even
told me it was a waste of time when I went for my usual beginning of the
season lesson. Plan on working double time on chipping and putting, expect
to get it down a couple more strokes.
Matt
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Date: 02 May 2007 03:22:47
From: Rob Davis
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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My improvement has been pretty steady over the last 6 years, from total
beginner, to about a 9.5 handicap now (all time low of 8.4 about 6
months ago, but a swing change has resulted in a few higher scores). I'm
not sure how much you can learn by other's experience ... everyone's
pretty different IMHO ... but FWIW ...
- A better swing. Still a work-in-progress for me ... but as someone
else also said, "swaying" was one of my biggest faults. Learning to keep
my right knee steady and flexed, and my weight inside of the back foot
made a huge differemce for me as well. There's been a few other "eureka"
moments, but also quite a bit of backsliding ... faults tend to creep
back in, and good changes sometimes "break" your swing for a while. The
basic need here is to make consistent contact and keep the ball in play
... you'll always make mistakes, but eventually you should be able to
advance the ball pretty consistently.
- Putting. I was a bad putter, now I'm at least decent. Keep track of
your putts-per-round as just a very rough gauge. If it's more than 32 or
33, then you're wasting all those strokes.
- Short game, chipping, pitching, sand. Doesn't have to be brilliant
... although that would certainly help 8^) ... but if you're still
stubbing chips or skulling them across the green, then those are all
*wasted* strokes. Make sure you have a clear plan and idea about how you
want to play the various shots.
- Learning to save bogey. When I learned to get out of trouble and
back in the fairway (and was able to make myself do it consistently), I
got rid of a lot of doubles (or worse). Hitting it in the trees is bad
... trying a "hero" shot and still being in the trees after you hit it
is just stupid. One of my big strategies is trying to recover from a bad
drive by trying to get the ball back in the fairway and just close
enough to hit a wedge (100 yards + or -). If your wedges and putting are
decent (both important things to work on) then it's amazing how often
you can actually get up-and-down and save par (or at least nothing worse
than bogey).
Hope that helps a little.
Rob
WW wrote:
> This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
> look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
> suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
> of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
>
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Date: 02 May 2007 13:19:19
From: David
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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On Wed, 02 May 2007 03:22:47 GMT, Rob Davis <davis.rob@verizon.net >
wrote:
<snipped >
> - Putting. I was a bad putter, now I'm at least decent. Keep track of
>your putts-per-round as just a very rough gauge. If it's more than 32 or
>33, then you're wasting all those strokes.
A word about putting statistics. If you are only hitting 4 greens
in regulation, then a high amount of putts may be more indicative of a
bad short game--pitching, chipping and sand play.
If you are hitting 14 greens in regulation and are averaging 32 putts
per round, then your play from the fairway may need improving. You
need to get the ball closer to the hole.
What you should be looking at in your putting game is how well you do
from various ranges. If you cannot get the ball inside of thirty feet
with your approach shot, you should expect that at least 90% of your
first putts are not going in.
If your number is high due to three-putting most greens, then your
putting needs a lot of work. You need to determine if it is an
alignment problem or a problem gauging the speed of the putts and then
begin working on correcting those errors.
The point is, simply stating that 32, or 33 putts per round is too
high is very misleading and cannot be used as a true indicator of your
putting skills. Par is based on a player hitting every green in
regulation and taking 36(underlined) putts per round.
<snipped >
>Rob
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Date: 01 May 2007 19:59:38
From: Dene
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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On May 1, 6:48 pm, WW <dirt...@msn.com > wrote:
> This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
> look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
> suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
> of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
First year of serious golf, I got my handicap down from mid 20's to
17, then a 5 point spread each year afterwards, depending on the time
of the year. Right now, I'm a 14, been as low as a 9, but just carded
a 95, so I still have plenty of bad golf in me.
To answer your question, lessons from a good pro created the most
improvement in me. Seeing myself on viddy (do it on an empty
stomach), then applying things one step at a time. The worst mistake
I made was reading Hogan's book and applying it by feel. Almost quit
the game after that disaster.
There is value in reading golf books and even ascertaining golf theory
from places like RSG, Hogan, the Golfing Machine forums, etc..
However, one runs the risk of becoming your own physician and getting
paralysis by analysis.
I mentioned getting a 95. It could have been worse had I not
discovered a golf swing with 4 holes to go. Seeing that the round was
lost allowed me to tinker and boom...I was feeling a golf swing
again. Without theory or some degree of knowledge base, I'd been
totally lost after that round.
-Greg
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Date: 01 May 2007 22:25:33
From: Frank Ketchum
Subject: Re: when did you cut your handicap & how?
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"WW" <dirtymm@msn.com > wrote in message
news:1178070500.418937.27460@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> This is my 3rd yr golfing. Last yr I took a few lessons (need more) &
> look much better since the "new" swing is getting ingrained. I still
> suck.....but better than last yr, shooting around 100. When did most
> of you see big changes & what occured to get you there?
>
A great question.
1st big improvement - When it was pointed out to me that in my backswing, I
was rocking my weight back too far and my weight on my back foot was on the
outside rather than the inside of my foot. It led to instability throughout
the rest of the swing. Had to practice a bit to learn the correct feel but
saw a huge improvement when I started doing it correctly.
2nd big improvement - Learning to hit down on the ball rather than trying to
'help' it up. Are you using your wrists to try to help the ball get
airborne? Don't! Go to the range and drive the clubhead down through the
ball. You will be surprised at the results.
3rd big improvement - When I finally understood and learned to accelerate
the clubhead through impact. When you learn to do this, you will see marked
improvement in consistency.
Good luck! Let us know your results.
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