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Taking it to the next level


whiskey golf

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I need some advice from you guys but I'm somewhat reaching out to single digit handicaps. Lately, my ball striking has been getting a lot better and I feel like I've been getting better but my scores definitely haven't been showing it. My high school season is coming up and I need to get my act together a little bit. I think I've moved into the double digit handicap range and I'm not to happy with that. I know I can play well because I've broken 80 a few times from the tips or the set before that depending on the course and during 9 holes, matches or recreational, my good scores have been from even to 3 over. Heck, my best score was freshmen year. Anyways, my goal this season is to average 3 over for nine holes which I believe is possible but I still need some improvement for sure. Basically, my scores aren't too good and I feel like they shouldn't be what they are. I've been playing more on the course and I should probably practice short game more but it's not the worst and my putting could use a little improvement. My scores lately are around mid to high 80's so my handicap is not accurate right now.

 

For you single digits, what have you done in the past to take you down to breaking 80 consistently or at least shooting low 80's most rounds? Any advice will do right now.

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My coach always preaches to us about being the best from 150 yds and in. Mainly because thats where you are going to score. That means everything from short irons, flip wedges, chipping, putting and everything else inside 150. If your ball striking is fairly decent i would assume you drive the ball decently. Obviously practice every part of your game, but I would make a concerted effort to hone in your short game. There's a reason why PGA Tour pro's are so good, they take advantage of every opportunity from 150 and in.

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What apples said. I don't hit a whole lot of fairways and the days my putting is great, I miss greens and the days I hit greens, my putting is off. The key is finding a happy medium. I spend most of my practice time from 30yds and in. I score well by being a really good chipper and I miss in easy spots to recover from around the green. Picking one specific part of your game and getting really good at it will help you go low and keep you consistent, for me that was 30yds and in. Course management is the other part, knowing when to keep the driver in the bag or when to put a tee shot 30yds into the right rough, to completely take OB left out of play. With all that being said, I'm 32 years old now, when I was in high school, I just gripped it and ripped it; course management takes a lot of mental discipline. For me, it was a mental change; did I want to be really long and a decent golfer or did I want to be the best golfer I could possibly be.

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I think I just typed this in the other topic on lessons lol... Apples said it well, JBones added to it with good advice.

 

Putting, chipping, pitching, 1/2 wedges, 3/4 wedges, short irons all are your red zone type of shots, you better get it done well enough to make par or better majority of the time. Taking bogey in these situations can not only hurt the score it can hurt your moral and momentum.

 

Course management helps a lot as well, like JBones said. You have to learn when not to automatically pull driver off the tee or automatically pull a 60* wedge for every short game shot. Nothing in decision making in golf of what shot to play should be automatic to you, process everything the same every time even if it seems straight forward.

 

That brings me to mental aspects during a 5 to 6 hour tournament. Focus on the PROCESS of hitting each shot. FORGET about the results of the shot. You are going to hit bad shots it's just going to happen. Just focus 110% for 30 to 45 sec before each shot and let the mind wounder about anything other then golf after you hit the shot. You have a lot of spare time think positive and pleasant thoughts in-between swings, but once you start your pre-shot routine 110% focus on nothing else but that process of hitting the shot. You score shouldn't matter to you, that just puts extra pressure on you, when you focus on the process rather then the results (score is a result) then you don't stress yourself out as badly.

 

Like you said in recreational rounds your scores are better then the competitive rounds, its probably a mental state rather then a physical issue.

 

EDIT: I'm currently a 3.2 from the tips 29 years of age. My GHIN number is in my profile if you want to verify scores and handicap. My low handicap in college was a 1.1 ~ low 18 1 under 71 (choked on the round bogey 3 of the last 4 holes to not break 70 that day) ~ My low 9 hols this past season was a 3 under bogey free 33 from the tips on Duke G.C. front 9 without birdie on either Par 5 lol.

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Golf Swing & Putting -- Bruce Rearick (Burnt Edges Consulting)

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Whiskey, I feel like I can speak clearly and simply on what got me to a single digit handicap, as it has been over the course of the last 2 years that I dropped from about a 15 to a 7.

 

First - Pitching/Chipping and putting.

I NEVER practiced my short game growing up, so I could always drive the ball, and hit my irons fairly well, but when those wheels fell off I couldn't lean on any other part of my game.

I moved 2 years ago and found a place that has a driving range where you can pitch/chip to a green with free range balls all day. I practiced that for hours, and hours, and hours. That made my bad ball striking days easier because I could pitch/chip close and save par far more often. Add that to actually practicing putting at the same range and low and behold, my short game drives my handicap down about 6-7 strokes.

 

Second - Learn what the flight of your ball tells you.

I always used to hit slice after slice one round, then hook after hook the next without knowing what changed from one day to the next.

By understanding the relationship between swing path and face angle (reading divots helps too), you can pretty much understand anything you see in your ball flight.

This allowed me to make small tweaks from shot to shot instead of just making the same mistakes over and over again in a round expecting different results.

 

Third - Point and shoot.

This goes hand in hand with what JMiller and RP are saying. Replace mechanical swing thoughts with a pre-shot routine, and replace vague targets with very very specific ones. What I mean is instead of thinking "hit a draw into the middle of the fairway by going inside out with a slightly closed club face" instead tell yourself "hit a nice draw to the 3rd mowed row of grass 250 yards down in the fairway." Trust that your mechanics are good before getting to the course (by practicing them on the range) and focus on targets and execution.

 

The thing that really helped me on that last point was the book "Golf is Not a Game of Perfect" by Dr. Bob Rotella. This book lays out an approach that takes mental stress away from an already taxing game that's played between the ears!

 

Hope this helps!

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First - Pitching/Chipping and putting.

I NEVER practiced my short game growing up, so I could always drive the ball, and hit my irons fairly well, but when those wheels fell off I couldn't lean on any other part of my game.

I moved 2 years ago and found a place that has a driving range where you can pitch/chip to a green with free range balls all day. I practiced that for hours, and hours, and hours. That made my bad ball striking days easier because I could pitch/chip close and save par far more often. Add that to actually practicing putting at the same range and low and behold, my short game drives my handicap down about 6-7 strokes.

Exactly majority of high to middle handicappers (even some single digit players)could reduce their average scores by 3 to 6 shots without really trying anything new in the full swing just getting up and down a few extra times and making a couple extra putts here and there.

 

Second - Learn what the flight of your ball tells you.

I always used to hit slice after slice one round, then hook after hook the next without knowing what changed from one day to the next.

By understanding the relationship between swing path and face angle (reading divots helps too), you can pretty much understand anything you see in your ball flight.

This allowed me to make small tweaks from shot to shot instead of just making the same mistakes over and over again in a round expecting different results.

This is a good bit of advice on how to adjust on the fly assuming you can't just "play it" and get away with it. If I am having issues with cuts one day where I couldn't hit a draw, I try hard not to force myself to play a draw and just go with a cut that day. Same with a draw if I couldn't hit a fade to save my life I'm not going to try and put myself in the position to have to hit the fade just play the draw that day. You don't have to force a shoot that you don't have in the bag a lot of times. Avoid those situations with course management and ball placement.

 

Third - Point and shoot.

This goes hand in hand with what JMiller and RP are saying. Replace mechanical swing thoughts with a pre-shot routine, and replace vague targets with very very specific ones. What I mean is instead of thinking "hit a draw into the middle of the fairway by going inside out with a slightly closed club face" instead tell yourself "hit a nice draw to the 3rd mowed row of grass 250 yards down in the fairway." Trust that your mechanics are good before getting to the course (by practicing them on the range) and focus on targets and execution.

I am happy you brought this up, visualization needs to be as detailed as you can make it in a short period of time. For my I pick two targets and a trajectory I want to play. Target A being the target my ball starts on, Target B is the target I want the ball to curve towards and by how much. So a verbalization of a shot (good drill actually to talk out the shot). I like to use a white line in visualizing the flight (think shot tracer on TV).

Example of a shot: "Wind is right to left, flag stick left center behind a bunker. The ball will start out on a normal trajectory heading towards the chimney of the house behind the green. The ball will fly straight for the first 1/4 of the flight then turn left with the wind in-towards the flag stick. IT will hit one time then on the second bounce grab and dribble into the hole so i won't have to putt."

 

I visualize all that first behind the ball then go over it in my head again as I make a practice swing at 40% power to feel the motions needed to make the visualization true, walk into the ball align the face to a spot on my initial line look up while I waggle

going over that positive image one last time of hitting the perfect shot, last thing that goes into my head is a FEEL / tempo thought if anything normally SMOOTH is my keyword.

 

I have a link that might help build a good mental / physical pre-shot routine... fill out the forum and watch the video and read the articles they have LOTS of great info on that site on mental game >> http://www.golfpsych.com/blog/free-mental-skills-video/?CFID=248401&CFTOKEN=61243181#

Callaway Epic Max 12.0 (-1/N) @ 44.50" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-7 Stiff

Callaway Epic Speed 18.0* @ 42.75" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-8 Stiff

Callaway Mavrik Pro 23.0* @ 40.00" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 95 HYB Stiff

Sub-70 639 Combo (5-P) w/ Nippon Modus 3 125 Stiff, Standard Length, Weak Lofts (27-47, 4* gaps)

Callaway MD5 Raw 51-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 55-13 X-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 59-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 63-09 C-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Golf Swing & Putting -- Bruce Rearick (Burnt Edges Consulting)

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Thanks for all the input so far. I think one of the things I'm not doing, that a lot of you have mentioned, is being specific when it comes to a target and visualizing the shot. My usual routine is taking 2-3 practice swings, stand behind the ball and pick an alignment spot, check alignment, swing. I'm leaving out the visualization and that probably has something to do with it. Also, I have been driving it pretty solid and accurately and my irons are getting a lot better but I think I need to start practicing a lot more on the putting green and chipping area vs. the range, while keeping a good balance.

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What can I say - these guys are dead on - I'll say these things to a middle handicapper and they think I'm full of it. I'll tell them they have as much or more physical ability than I do and they think I'm engaging in platitudes - I'm not.

 

I'm like Rudy five foot nothing, etc. But I can take what I have and fit it into the course that lies ahead of me - I can do the Bagger Vance thing of seeing the field and I can do it under pressure. Thrive on the pressure kid - golf is a great place to walk up in front of people and drill a drive down the middle (because you can see it in your mind's eye like you've done it 1,000 times) or better yet where you can hole that putt and rip their heart out (because you saw it go in way, way before you pulled the putter back.)

 

I wasn't the best player on my high school baseball team but my teamates wanted me up with the tying runner on second and they wanted me in our own pitcher's face when we needed to get the next hitter.

 

Golf is like that - see it and do it.

 

Of course the way to see it and do it is to do it lots of times first. You'd be amazed - you get on new courses and in your minds eye number 2 is just like number 7 back home and you've birdied number 7 100 times - you know what I mean.

 

Work on that short game because it can keep you in the 70's even with a few grounders thrown in - it can get you to the low 70's with just adequate ball striking.

 

The guy whom I play with most will marvel at how far this guy hits it or what that guy can do and I just shake my head and agree to a point. Every once in a while I will say - you know I'm better than this guy and that guy don't you - He'll reply yeah but I don't know why they hit it so much farther or better than you. One time he played with this guy in a scramble and afterwards he said, "You are better than him! He bombs it off the tee but we used most of my approach shots - he has nothing from inside 100 and he kept leaving us inside 100 - you always leave yourself what you can handle best."

 

It's about the score and how your game, the shots you hit, can make the lowest score.

 

Good luck

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