What Took Your Game from Good to Great?

[cksurfdude]

13 hours ago, Hacker60521 said:

This reminds me of when I met some amateur open wheel guys at Laguna Seca. They would run laps on some video racing game of the course they would be competing at just to get a feel for things. 

 

11 hours ago, JAYER38 said:

This is actually how I train for tracks/racing when out of the seat for a bit...

Wow way off topic but did you guys read about an F1 Sim arcade opening in Boston? Now that could be *fun*!!

...

..and back on topic yeah my golf game still not good...

[chisag]

5 hours ago, WilliamYates said:

I really appreciate all of you low handicappers giving us the truth behind what got you there.

For those that are single digits, was it a big jump to your current handicap or was it a slow process over years of slight improvements?

 

... For me at least, it was a slow steady improvement. But there were jumps when I accomplished something really important. I'd say the biggest jump came when I started flighting my wedges. I had been taking full swings and when I learned to hit 3/4 and 1/2 wedges with a lower trajectory that was a pretty big leap for me and I dropped several strokes pretty quickly. Fwiw, I didn't start playing golf til I was 35 so plenty of time to improve for every age. 

[Hacker60521]

10 hours ago, cksurfdude said:

 

Wow way off topic but did you guys read about an F1 Sim arcade opening in Boston? Now that could be *fun*!!

...

..and back on topic yeah my golf game still not good...

Where in Boston?!

[cnosil]

15 hours ago, WilliamYates said:

For those that are single digits, was it a big jump to your current handicap or was it a slow process over years of slight improvements?

For me it was a big initial jump and then slow progress over years.   The big initial jump was from lessons.  I was scoring in the mid to upper 80s and after a couple of lessons I beat my best score by 5 strokes and scored in the 70s.  Better ball contact and swing gave me the initial big jump.   then things like course management and better understand how to play the game started another drop.   Age and a diminishing short game caused my handicap to start going up again and lots of work on the short game has started my handicap dropping again.  But as your handicap gets lower the drops become smaller and more difficult to achieve....meaning going from 20 to 15 is typically easier than 10 to 5 or 5 to 0.  

[Riley24]

One small thing that took my game from average to good was timing of tempo.

 

I was always taught to swing slow, but when do you start swinging fast? I’m a former baseball player so the over the top slice is something I’m always fighting against. 
 

AMG really got me to understand that the first and last quarter of the swing are the only parts of the swing that should be ballistic. When the club is above your waist it should be syrupy. 
 

This has helped me substantially to be able to hit a push draw and not a pull slice. 

[Riley24]

One small thing that took my game from average to good was timing of tempo.

 

I was always taught to swing slow, but when do you start swinging fast? I’m a former baseball player so the over the top slice is something I’m always fighting against. 
 

AMG really got me to understand that the first and last quarter of the swing are the only parts of the swing that should be ballistic. When the club is above your waist it should be syrupy. 
 

This has helped me substantially to be able to hit a push draw and not a pull slice. 

[cksurfdude]

12 hours ago, Hacker60521 said:

Where in Boston?!

Not sure but if you Google "F1 Arcade Boston" it should show you

[Overspark07]

10 hours ago, Riley24 said:

AMG really got me to understand that the first and last quarter of the swing are the only parts of the swing that should be ballistic.

AMG? Is this Athletic Motion Golf?

[Riley24]

1 minute ago, Overspark07 said:

AMG? Is this Athletic Motion Golf?

Yes. Just learning from their YouTube channel has been the most helpful source for me.  

[golferguy2727]

Long journey for me. My greatest year was 2022. Got down to 8.3 index and felt like I could certainly get lower. I had previously done lessons (structured and ad hoc) and nothing stuck. So I did the Golftec thing. I had been using Arccos and then Shotscope since 2017 so I knew the areas that I needed to improve from the data. The GolfTec approach, for me, was also all about data. And what was weird - there was not one thing that got me to 8.3  - it was mostly the confidence to know that I could make good enough swings - I had done so thousands of times in GolfTec and related practice. The data from arccos and shotscope also showed me that I was a far better putter than I thought so I was able to redistribute my practice effort to approach shots which is my bonafide weakness. But that journey cost me a time of time and a lot of money. Fast forward to last year- winter of lessons and I’m super primed to “go lower”. Played 7 or 8 early season rounds and was playing well but getting progressively uncomfortable feet - so bad I had to stop playing. Plantar fasciitis…. Physio and exercises keep me out of the game until late summer . When I got back, I played another 15 rounds and was so completely lost again - golf and  I broke up. It was astonishing to work so hard and devote so much time and money for it only to be a temporary thing, it seems.
About a year later to the day we broke up, I started practicing again - and it was awful.  Hitting good shots surrounded by sheer disaster shots. Finally got out and played a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Played better than expected (84) but it was simply a joyous event to be back on the course. About another 10 practice sessions and played again last Friday. Awful, even though my data wasn’t bad and I managed some majestically beautiful shots. Could not score (shot 95) or stop the bleeding to save my life. The difference - absolutely no sense of confidence whatsoever.  So my journey back to confidence begins, but I confess, having to go through my original improvement journey all over again was a shocking outcome for me. I still remain a 10.7 index but that will soon shot to 12, 13, 15 by end of season on my current pattern if i play any reasonable volume of rounds before Toronto snow appears. 

So my plan - get back to confidence. Through structured positive- intention practice. But try again to love the highlights and forget the “others”. That said, I’m not sure I can continue this journey again. After breaking up with golf, I discovered the many hours I previously needed for golf improvement could be used for so many different things. Many of them truly pleasant and fewer that seem that punch me constantly in the kidneys as golf prefers to do (it seems).

wish me luck and wish it back to you Enjoy the journey to whatever YOUR great is  - when it’s good, it’s a wondrous journey.

[buckpillar]

Practice your short game, getting up and down is vital to anyone's golf game and will save strokes.

 

[ShopBoy3]

For me it was getting in lots of swings. If you are consistent and "know" the ball is going to go where you want it to things are so much more relaxed and confident. I was never a long hitter so accuracy was my strong point. As mentioned previously, short game is very important but usually comes with the high amount of swings/practice.

[cdewispelare]

Changing practice focus to 70% short game, 20% full shots, 10% putting.  Like most, I used to practice 70% driver, 25% irons, 5% putting (usually pre-round practice green).  Seeing how many shots occur inside 100 yards helped me see how many shots I could save just by hitting those shots better.  Went from upper 90s to upper 80s pretty quick.  Approach game was the next thing to get some work, grooving a consistently reliable strike and shot shape with irons (specifically 160y & in).  Bringing greens hit closer to 50% dropped me to low-mid 80s.  Anything under 80 is gravy for me, but any extra strokes saved typically go as my putter goes for the round.

[EasyPutter]

18 minutes ago, APKTEcheeee said:

 

I would like to comment that my response was to TriciaLee532212 who made the post that is shown in this Quoted reply as the only text visible.  The whole reply is shown below and I also noticed previously that the original post by @TriciaLee532212 no longer shows and that account does not appear to exist any longer.

@APKTEcheeee welcome into the forum and congratulations on your first posts, hope you discover the forum community here is more of a friendly place than others on the WWW.  Looking forward to seeing more of your posts.

Edited September 1 by EasyPutter

[jaskanski]

Discipline. Some have it - some don't. Some make up for that with naturual talent, but without the first component, they rarely make the 'great' grade. YMMV

[MattWillGolf]

I’m still waiting.

In all seriousness my driving has improved by quite a bit. For me it was a lesson and regular practice as well as doing the drills from my instructor. When I get lazy and don’t do the practice, I notice a fall off.

[cnosil]

7 hours ago, EasyPutter said:

 that account does not appear to exist any longer.

  Looking forward to seeing more of your posts.

The accounts you are referencing are SPAM accounts and making links to Android APK files.