Broke 100, now bring on 90

[whtatom]

Hi there,

New to MyGolfSpy. Obviously, I need help on my game. Right now, my biggest concern is my long irons. I know that I can work on my driver and wood game, but right now, even with a great tee shot, I can’t follow it up on longer holes. Any drills or videos that people would recommend? I am not at a point where I can afford lessons. Thanks for the help!

[tony@CIC]

12 hours ago, whtatom said:

Hi there,

New to MyGolfSpy. Obviously, I need help on my game. Right now, my biggest concern is my long irons. I know that I can work on my driver and wood game, but right now, even with a great tee shot, I can’t follow it up on longer holes. Any drills or videos that people would recommend? I am not at a point where I can afford lessons. Thanks for the help!

First off welcome to MGS. There could be a number of reasons for your difficulty with long irons, so kinda tough to give advice without more information. Hitting them fat or thin? What is your expectation for distance vs. what your getting? VIdeos would certainly help  Also have you taken any lessons? 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Took two videos into consideration today with the planemate and with it off and things felt amazing on the divot board (results were great too)

took two concepts from MrShortGame and Monte ( similar concepts) and I felt a lot of power. Keeping back to target as much as possible and separate the left arm from the body. Focus on the pumping drill to get feel of hands coming down and away with tight tight elbow. Gonna really focus on these for a while as I feel more in balance and feels like I swing easy. 
 

 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Going to address my grip as well. Supposedly this little trick of receiving can help unleash some serious contact.

 

 

[RollingGreens]

Gotta remember to have fun playing golf. At one point I got bogged down with drills, always looking for the next answer. Took a step back started playing for fun and my scores were better for it

[tony@CIC]

On 4/6/2021 at 10:24 AM, rbsiedsc said:

Took two videos into consideration today with the planemate and with it off and things felt amazing on the divot board (results were great too)

took two concepts from MrShortGame and Monte ( similar concepts) and I felt a lot of power. Keeping back to target as much as possible and separate the left arm from the body. Focus on the pumping drill to get feel of hands coming down and away with tight tight elbow. Gonna really focus on these for a while as I feel more in balance and feels like I swing easy. 
 

 

Great videos 

[dlow206]

Have you been hitting an object when using the divot board or just dry swings? "object" doesn't have to be golf ball, can be a crumpled piece of paper. 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

2 minutes ago, dlow206 said:

Have you been hitting an object when using the divot board or just dry swings? "object" doesn't have to be golf ball, can be a crumpled piece of paper. 

just the image of a golf ball on the mat. I have also used it at the range with good success

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Good session this morning. Stopped after this strike as I also nicked my garage door opener (man I need to go to the range). This divot was with my five iron and felt powerful, yet effortless. Was practicing with whiffles and my full swing finish came out, hence the small whack of the opener. No clubs were harmed. 
 

 

[ejgaudette]

12 minutes ago, rbsiedsc said:

No clubs were harmed.

That's all that really matters

[Kenny B]

12 hours ago, rbsiedsc said:

Good session this morning. Stopped after this strike as I also nicked my garage door opener (man I need to go to the range). This divot was with my five iron and felt powerful, yet effortless. Was practicing with whiffles and my full swing finish came out, hence the small whack of the opener. No clubs were harmed. 
 

 

So... wife kicked you out of the house after the "incident"?  Good call!!

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

In prep for playing with @Kenny Band @twyatt700 decided to see how my swing looks doing some NTC work.  Learned I am not getting any depth at all and I look like Kuch. After watching, I made a point to raise up and I felt like I had a lot more speed and more flow. I will keep trying to entrain this feel. 
 

 

[Kenny B]

2 hours ago, rbsiedsc said:

In prep for playing with @Kenny Band @twyatt700 decided to see how my swing looks doing some NTC work.  Learned I am not getting any depth at all and I look like Kuch. After watching, I made a point to raise up and I felt like I had a lot more speed and more flow. I will keep trying to entrain this feel. 
 

 

You don't need to practice for me!!  I'll be a basket case!!

Still deciding whether to bring my new Mizuno or my trusty Bridgestones.  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

5 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

You don't need to practice for me!!  I'll be a basket case!!

Still deciding whether to bring my new Mizuno or my trusty Bridgestones.  

well if it makes it easier, it would be nice to see the new shiny things  

[dlow206]

2 hours ago, rbsiedsc said:

In prep for playing with @Kenny Band @twyatt700 decided to see how my swing looks doing some NTC work.  Learned I am not getting any depth at all and I look like Kuch. After watching, I made a point to raise up and I felt like I had a lot more speed and more flow. I will keep trying to entrain this feel. 
 

 

Looks like something is triggering you to make a cupping move right at the end of the backswing. 

[twyatt700]

You don't need to practice for me!!  I'll be a basket case!!
Still deciding whether to bring my new Mizuno or my trusty Bridgestones.  

Bring them! If you don’t like them you can leave them with us!


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

[Kenny B]

8 hours ago, rbsiedsc said:

well if it makes it easier, it would be nice to see the new shiny things  

 

6 hours ago, twyatt700 said:

Bring them! If you don’t like them you can leave them with us!
 

I might bring them, but it's still a work in progress.  I have no idea the yardages I hit each club and most of the time I mishit them, so it really doesn't matter anyway.  

I have several days to work on it, but can't play them on Sunday because we do "birdie shots" with another couple.  One day we had 7 birdies among the 4 of us.  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

11 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

 

I might bring them, but it's still a work in progress.  I have no idea the yardages I hit each club and most of the time I mishit them, so it really doesn't matter anyway.  

I have several days to work on it, but can't play them on Sunday because we do "birdie shots" with another couple.  One day we had 7 birdies among the 4 of us.  

I think you bringing your mizzys may be the best shot I have at beating you

[Kenny B]

2 minutes ago, rbsiedsc said:

I think you bringing your mizzys may be the best shot I have at beating you

Actually looking at the course, I doubt I will be hitting them very much.  It's pretty long for me, so most shots will be driver, 3W/hybrids, and wedges.  I'm decent with those clubs.

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

100 on the dot today. Many things could have made it possible. I look back at the start of my round struggling to get out of a fairway bunker. 

[dlow206]

1 hour ago, rbsiedsc said:

100 on the dot today. Many things could have made it possible. I look back at the start of my round struggling to get out of a fairway bunker. 

Bunkers kill me. Usually i barely make it out of the bunker if I even make it out on the first try. And then today i make a good strike and fly it over the green into the water...

[sirchunksalot]

2 hours ago, rbsiedsc said:

100 on the dot today. Many things could have made it possible. I look back at the start of my round struggling to get out of a fairway bunker. 

I find bunkers to be a problem area in my game, too. The two courses in my area don't have many, so I really don't practice them. A couple of years ago I played Bear Trace and ended up in a couple. It wasn't pretty. 

That's a good way to recover from a bad start, keep it up!

[TBT]

48 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

I find bunkers to be a problem area in my game, too. The two courses in my area don't have many, so I really don't practice them. A couple of years ago I played Bear Trace and ended up in a couple. It wasn't pretty. 

That's a good way to recover from a bad start, keep it up!

Bunkers used to bother me until somebody gave me a great tip.

open the face of the club then open your stance until the club is aimed at your landing spot. Now look at a spot about 2 inches behind the ball....now try to throw the sand on the green with the face of the club....don’t worry about the ball the sand will carry it on the green.

[CarlH]

4 hours ago, dlow206 said:

Bunkers kill me. Usually i barely make it out of the bunker if I even make it out on the first try. And then today i make a good strike and fly it over the green into the water...

I'd rather be in the bunker than a similar length chip/pitch

[Kenny B]

30 minutes ago, CarlH said:

I'd rather be in the bunker than a similar length chip/pitch

I don't mind either shot; I practice chips/pitches quite a bit.  I should practice bunker shots more than I do, but I don't have a problem getting out.  I was always afraid of bunkers, but Monte's videos on bunker play are gold.  Now that I have confidence, I can attack a few holes at my course where I wouldn't a couple of years ago.  

We have a short par 4 that I don't try to go for the green unless the tee boxes are up along with the prevailing wind... like today.  I went for it; came up short in the bunker; had a 50 foot shot; 15 feet to cover the sand; 25 feet of flat green, then a downslope to the pin about another 10 feet.  I landed the ball on the green where I wanted, and it rolled to the slope.  I thought it was going to stop, but the wind helped it get over and roll down to tap-in range for a sandy birdie.

[TBT]

When I was really working to get better several years ago, I focused on 2 things.

 

1. Eliminate penalties off the tee

2. 100 yards and in

If I could get the ball in play off the tee it didn’t matter if I was right left or short, my goal was to get my second shot in the fairway within a 100 yards, then just get the ball on the green. If I made a nice shot and made a putt for par it was a bonus, my goal was get it on the green and 2 putt. That’s a stress free bogey..18 of those is a smooth 90!

I used to go out late during the week to play when there wasn’t a whole lot of people on the course and when there wasn’t anybody behind me, I would finish a hole then I would go back up the fairway and throw out 4-5 balls inside 100 yards, all at different distances and different lies and then I would play them all out. Doing this on 2 or 3 holes a night a couple of times a week really helped me to groove my short game and gave me confidence when facing those shots during a round.

 

Another good tip is to “play the hole backwards from the green” in your mind. What’s your favorite approach yardage? 100 yards? 75 yards?

let’s say it’s 75 yards.....and it’s a 400 yard par 4....so I need to get to 325 to get my 75 yard shot Now let’s say we have OB on the right and water on the left.

So, I can hit my driver 250 but that runs a risk of getting into trouble and causing a penalty and even if I hit a good drive of say 240 I still have 160 to the green with more risks for penalty strokes.

I hit my hybrids really well and almost always dead straight, so if I hit hybrid off the tee 210 in the fairway, then I only need 115 to get to 325, so that’s a smooth PW and now I’ve got my 75 yard smooth SW to the green. If I hit a great shot I’ve got a make-able par putt....if not then I should have am easy 2 putt for my bogey.

using this approach you will naturally make a couple of pars during a round and those will cover for the hole or 2 where you make a mistake and card a double.

this is the strategy I used several years ago and it worked very well. Give it a try, I think you will find you’ll start scoring better pretty quickly and you’ll gain enough confidence on some shots that you can start playing to make pars instead of bogeys.

Good Luck!

[edingc]

18 hours ago, rbsiedsc said:

100 on the dot today. Many things could have made it possible. I look back at the start of my round struggling to get out of a fairway bunker. 

Looks like you're just needing to avoid one big number hole to break 100 easily. Lots of progress there!

[BMart519]

On 5/23/2021 at 12:08 PM, rbsiedsc said:

100 on the dot today. Many things could have made it possible. I look back at the start of my round struggling to get out of a fairway bunker. 

What are 5 things you did well and did bad? Ask yourself this after every round and focus your practice on the bad list. 

Playing the par 5's at +4 appears to be a strength this day. Par 3's at +6 is still on pace for a 99. 
Look for patterns or repetitive issues: how many sand traps did you hit into? Were they greenside or fairway? What was the club that put you in the sand? Any reason for the blow ups on holes 1&10? 

How many GIRs did you hit, total number of putts, 3 putts, and up/downs?
Were your penalties off the tee or on approach shots? 
What tee clubs did you use on your successful holes (bogey or better)? 
Were there similarities on the holes you scored double bogey or worse? 

Edited May 26, 2021 by BMart519

[DriverBreaker]

On 4/23/2021 at 10:08 AM, rbsiedsc said:

In prep for playing with @Kenny Band @twyatt700 decided to see how my swing looks doing some NTC work.  Learned I am not getting any depth at all and I look like Kuch. After watching, I made a point to raise up and I felt like I had a lot more speed and more flow. I will keep trying to entrain this feel. 
 

 

I'm jealous of those high ceilings you've got!  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

9 minutes ago, GolfSpy_CS said:

I'm jealous of those high ceilings you've got!  

Haha. I’ve hit the garage opening mechanism several times