How's your game!

the lawman

I hit about 10 baby draws today at the range. Felt so wonderful I almost cried. Winter work starting to take shape. Lots to do yet but right direction after weeks of hard work and rubbish scoring.

dan_ep82

the lawman wrote: »

I hit about 10 baby draws today at the range. Felt so wonderful I almost cried. Winter work starting to take shape. Lots to do yet but right direction after weeks of hard work and rubbish scoring.

Was your normal shot a fade?

I had a similar reaction when I started hitting a draw. I had no problem with a fade but a proper fade was just as rare as a draw

the lawman

dan_ep82 wrote: »

Was your normal shot a fade?

I had a similar reaction when I started hitting a draw. I had no problem with a fade but a proper fade was just as rare as a draw

My only shot shape since I'm playing golf is a fade and not intentionally either.

Been working on club release and to hit some draws today felt surreal. I actually shouted 'yes' and fist pumped after I repeated 10 in a row.

Keano

Went for a lesson tonight, timely as I'd be hitting the ball pure rubbish for the last week on the range. Right knee locking is causing an awful lot of trouble.

slingerz

had 34 points for 14 holes last weekend. thought i'd be in the shake up with that score off 14 holes.

winner was 38 followed by 2 36's. dont want to even think about how many had 35!

ridiculous scoring for 14 holes

benny79

I was up in the spawell range last nite trying to sort out my woods as they have been shocking especially the wkend mainly my driving, Mainly due to my alignment, anyway got to my driver with about 20/30 balls left and I hit 1 of the best drives of my life! just like the pro's as when I was at the Irish open I was concentrating on watching them driving to see how the hit it so far.

I noticed their ball flight starts off really low and then rises like a jumbo jet taking off, thats how I describe it,obviously down to spin and technique. well I was doing some little tweaks and then boom out of nowhere I got the same ball flight, low at start then started to rise about 140/150 yds out, it definitely reached the fence cause I heard the bang.

Have to say was some feeling got it once more, but how I done it god knows, I think mainly pushing the power to my left knee on down swing if that makes sense, If only I could do it more often! ha..

The Big Easy

Had one of my best range sessions today Went to the range to book 4 30 mins lessons for €100 with the assistant pro.

I was pretty disappointed with my game after the Heritage even though you can't be too hard on yourself in conditions like that.

The pro wasn't available today so I belted away myself anyway and was happy with about nearly 80% of my shots - a record for me - I'm rarely happy with my strikes.

Was able to shape my driver both ways at will. Probably only the 5 iron that wasn't great but still a couple of nice strikes with it.

Consistency is the main thing I'm looking for now, so hopefully the pro will be able to iron some things out. My left wrist is pretty badly bowed at the top as well as being a bit steep initiating an OTT swing path.

Slowing gaining a better appreciation of the swing mechanics, a couple of years ago I was completely clueless. I would just stand up and hit it without an idea why it was going where it was going.

I'm the kind of guy who needs to understand something fully before I can commit to it. Plus the swing is a pretty interesting thing - well to us junkies anyway :pac:

dan_ep82

Got out today with Lemlog. New course was closed so (after a wait) we got out on the Old .. which was on temp greens

Irons are good enough. Driver was a bit hit and miss as were the wedges with some good hits and some terrible ones, mainly pushes with the driver, just not getting the face fully closed to the path

Impressed with lems striking with irons and driver, far below a 24HCP.

Oh, and I lost my car/house keys aswell so a perfect end to the day ha

dan_ep82

Out in Corballis today,21pts off 19

16 front and 5 back with ( I think) 5-7 scratches

Front 9 went alright if not great, back 9 was a disaster.

Trouble right on a few holes got the better of me and started swing left, which of course meant the ball went right. Then everything broke down slowly but surely as I lost interest.

Seriously though, Corballis is still the toughest course I've played.Some of the greens are very tough when on the wrong side of the hole. I hit some alright shots and got severely punished with the lies and rough, I might have had my fill for 2015 lol

SevesThreeIron

First full 18 in about two months today. Great to be back at it. Glutes not firing however!

dan_ep82

Went to the range for about an hour to see if I could get back to where I was a few days ago.

Catching back of centre (hence going right) so addressing out the toe works but not mad about it as its only a patch.Going back tomorrow or Sunday when I'm a bit less wrecked ha.

Short game plan is on the back foot for the time being,meant to start this weekend

It's all really a mental thing, its been a while since my miss was right so its getting to me a bit which is making it worse.

Must think positive

galwaylad14

Very good round today. +1 without really making any putts, but didn't really miss any either (i.e. didn't miss anything inside maybe 5 feet but didn't make anything outside of that). Hit 12 greens which I'm happy with. Only 2 birdies though which isn't a great conversion rate really.

Drove it really well but did hit 2 wayward drives but actually got away with both of them but might not be as lucky another day so that and the mid-range putting are 2 things to work on. Irons were very good all day I must say.

But having said all that, its a lot easier do it when there's clean and place everywhere, the real golf is still over a month away but I can't wait to get up and running.

PARlance

Game is pretty decent... thankfully. I got out this afternoon for my first full 18 since early November. I've only play a Par 3 and 9 holes in between. No range either. So a bit of rust but good to know my swing hadn't left me.

Need to work on my driving and half wedges but was hitting my 3h great and irons were connecting nicely.

Have come on a long way since this time last year. If I had taken such a break before it would have been carnage today. It has certainly "clicked" from 12 months ago. Hope there are a few more clicks/levels to come.

zuutroy

2nd round of the year was my 2nd best score around Roganstown, so pretty happy. +6 for the back 9 after a brutal start.

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/zuutroy/round/185705

spacecoyote

So I took advantage of the free Thursday group lessons that have been running in the spawell for the last couple of weeks & went to their "Maximise your Long Game" session.

Was very interesting & picked up some good info. Basically was told I've a lazy lower body which was fair so the biggest takeaway for me was to start working on driving more through my legs & turning properly. Also managed to get myself hitting up on my drives for the first time ever, so plenty to be upbeat about.

First round since then this morning, my 3rd round of the year & my best round for a while. 38 points & no scratches.

82 strokes
71% FIR
44% GIR
34 putts.

Short game still needs to be dialled in a bit, left a bit too much to do on occasion. 2 sloppy 3 putts, but made a few that I shouldn't have too.

A positive day, which is great, and plenty to build on.

dan_ep82

Range this evening,
Irons and wedges are good.

Making good contact so distance and accuracy are pretty good.

Driver and hybrids are still a bit sh**e but use able. Pretty sure I'm coming over the top with it which is infuriating and so something I really want to get back on plane.

As bad as Corballis was the last day I forgot some of the better shots.
14th I think a hybrid up the right. Failed 7i turned into a hack out and got the yardage from one of the lads at 177 to the middle. 6i using a building as a line and stuck it pin high 10ft left
Pretty sure I made a balls of putting ha

Short game is back on the practice list

hades

I think this post is more of a therapy session than anything else.

I'm in a tough place with my game at the moment. I've been working on a few swing changes over the winter months to help "tighten" everything up. I feel like i'm making a good swing at the ball, i'm just not getting the results at the moment. All this came to a head when i played Mount Juliet at the weekend. Firstly, what a course. Its not as claustrophobic as i thought it was going to be and i really enjoyed my time, despite of my scores.

I play off 14 and went around in 98 strokes or 26 over. Going off my GameGolf stats I hit 50% of fairways (personal best) with an average drive of 215 yards and topping out at 247 yards, but i only hit 11% of GIR (which was only 2 greens). So my iron play is complete and utter rubbish. My short game yips have only gotten worse and the practice hasn't really improved anything. And i had 35 putts in the round, up from my average of 30 putts. Now that could be down to really tricky greens that i wasn't used to, but i also missed around 4 silly putts from around 3ft.

I just find it hard at the moment, and i get somewhat ashamed to say i'm off 14 but i haven't played to that hc in over a year and i had to scramble to get a total of 2 pars at the weekend. Consequently, they came on the 16th and 17th, after i tore up my card on the 16th tee (i was only paying green fees, not a competition). Perhaps a feeling of liberation came over me when i wasn't held to writing down my scores, i honestly don't know what it was.

But having said all that, my swing feels good. I feel like i'm making solid contact and that the vast majority of my problems lie in my short game. I'm only hoping that if i persevere it'll pay off and i'll be playing to my hc again when the weather clears up.

Norfolk Enchants_

hades wrote: »

I think this post is more of a therapy session than anything else.

I'm in a tough place with my game at the moment. I've been working on a few swing changes over the winter months to help "tighten" everything up. I feel like i'm making a good swing at the ball, i'm just not getting the results at the moment. All this came to a head when i played Mount Juliet at the weekend. Firstly, what a course. Its not as claustrophobic as i thought it was going to be and i really enjoyed my time, despite of my scores.

I play off 14 and went around in 98 strokes or 26 over. Going off my GameGolf stats I hit 50% of fairways (personal best) with an average drive of 215 yards and topping out at 247 yards, but i only hit 11% of GIR (which was only 2 greens). So my iron play is complete and utter rubbish. My short game yips have only gotten worse and the practice hasn't really improved anything. And i had 35 putts in the round, up from my average of 30 putts. Now that could be down to really tricky greens that i wasn't used to, but i also missed around 4 silly putts from around 3ft.

I just find it hard at the moment, and i get somewhat ashamed to say i'm off 14 but i haven't played to that hc in over a year and i had to scramble to get a total of 2 pars at the weekend. Consequently, they came on the 16th and 17th, after i tore up my card on the 16th tee (i was only paying green fees, not a competition). Perhaps a feeling of liberation came over me when i wasn't held to writing down my scores, i honestly don't know what it was.

But having said all that, my swing feels good. I feel like i'm making solid contact and that the vast majority of my problems lie in my short game. I'm only hoping that if i persevere it'll pay off and i'll be playing to my hc again when the weather clears up.

It's a completely different game with a card in hand, although keeping track of your score in a casual round shouldn't really add the same kind of presure that is present in competition, one of the skills required to reducing your score and your handicap is to forget about your score and just stay in the moment, easier said than done.
Have you been getting lessons with the swing changes?, if not you definately should, it's next to impossible to successfully improve your swing/game with lessons, no matter who you are and how dedicated you are to the process.

hades

Norfolk Enchants_ wrote: »

Have you been getting lessons with the swing changes?, if not you definately should, it's next to impossible to successfully improve your swing/game with lessons, no matter who you are and how dedicated you are to the process.

I'm getting lessons at the moment, i changed from the pro i was working with previously to a new pro last November. I'm after having 4 lessons total so far with him and i do feel i'm after improving my ball striking with him. The changes that i've made aren't overly dramatic, just tightening up. Trying to stop at a 3/4 swing on my backswing and getting a full rotation thru the ball with hips and shoulders firing correctly.

Barnaboy

hades wrote: »

I think this post is more of a therapy session than anything else.

I'm in a tough place with my game at the moment.

We've all been there, keep the faith

Remember you have a 14 handicap, your GIR stats shouldn't be great! I play off 13 and my GIR is probably only 30% or so (I don't track it but probably should). Work on the short game- if you can get the pitching in some sort of shape the putts will get shorter, you'll make more of them, you'll score lower and your confidence will return.

Last year my pro told me to mix up your options around the green. I always used the PW no matter how close or far, might switch to a lob wedge if I had to go over a bunker or tree. Now I have started back with my long lost art of bump and run, still getting used to it, when to select a 7i, 8i or 9i.....but when you bump and run, more often than not you will give yourself a makeable putt.

Norfolk Enchants_

hades wrote: »

I'm getting lessons at the moment, i changed from the pro i was working with previously to a new pro last November. I'm after having 4 lessons total so far with him and i do feel i'm after improving my ball striking with him. The changes that i've made aren't overly dramatic, just tightening up. Trying to stop at a 3/4 swing on my backswing and getting a full rotation thru the ball with hips and shoulders firing correctly.

Sounds like you on right path, I'd say stick with it and as with all swings changes, remember they are ongoing and take tim to "click" and bed in.
When you're on the course, forget about the card and just play what you see and leave the technical swing thoughts for the range or practice rounds.

FixdePitchmark

Nice game with Ryaner in Beaverstown - 14 hole comp. 26 points .

Was very challenging in conditions - but we enjoyed it. Ryaner's handicap looks like it will fall this year - everything coming together for him.

On my own game - have played 3 rounds with the 1 ball - has become a bit of a funny challenge now, ball not looking in great shape at this stage.

The game is strange at the moment. Driver good - with odd very bad one. Irons very good - chipping a little better - putting shocking to average. Long putting good.

Putting is the least thing I have practised - so hope to go that direction more now. Putting green not in great shape at our place. But it is more a problem in the 2 to 8 foot range. Can do more work on mat. There is definitely a mental aspect to it for me.

Was getting a bit frustrated lately - floating in that 32 to 34 range. It is a frustrating place - as to get there I feel I've to play very good golf for me. I'm not sure where the extra points will come from - well I know it will be from putting. Not sure I can do much more to improve anything else.

So stick with the process - can see something there - but just seems very hard to get over the line. But today was good.

Ben1977

hades wrote: »

I think this post is more of a therapy session than anything else.

I'm in a tough place with my game at the moment. I've been working on a few swing changes over the winter months to help "tighten" everything up. I feel like i'm making a good swing at the ball, i'm just not getting the results at the moment. All this came to a head when i played Mount Juliet at the weekend. Firstly, what a course. Its not as claustrophobic as i thought it was going to be and i really enjoyed my time, despite of my scores.

I play off 14 and went around in 98 strokes or 26 over. Going off my GameGolf stats I hit 50% of fairways (personal best) with an average drive of 215 yards and topping out at 247 yards, but i only hit 11% of GIR (which was only 2 greens). So my iron play is complete and utter rubbish. My short game yips have only gotten worse and the practice hasn't really improved anything. And i had 35 putts in the round, up from my average of 30 putts. Now that could be down to really tricky greens that i wasn't used to, but i also missed around 4 silly putts from around 3ft.

I just find it hard at the moment, and i get somewhat ashamed to say i'm off 14 but i haven't played to that hc in over a year and i had to scramble to get a total of 2 pars at the weekend. Consequently, they came on the 16th and 17th, after i tore up my card on the 16th tee (i was only paying green fees, not a competition). Perhaps a feeling of liberation came over me when i wasn't held to writing down my scores, i honestly don't know what it was.

But having said all that, my swing feels good. I feel like i'm making solid contact and that the vast majority of my problems lie in my short game. I'm only hoping that if i persevere it'll pay off and i'll be playing to my hc again when the weather clears up.

Have just come throught something similar. Your stats from game say your GIR is low.
My low GIR was not down to bad golf but a bad setup and alignment. Try and see where the miss is.
I missed everything left, all due to alignment and a forward ball position. This season so far averaging 8 to 9 GIR and misses left are smaller

hades

Ben1977 wrote: »

Have just come throught something similar. Your stats from game say your GIR is low.
My low GIR was not down to bad golf but a bad setup and alignment. Try and see where the miss is.
I missed everything left, all due to alignment and a forward ball position. This season so far averaging 8 to 9 GIR and misses left are smaller

I have to agree 100%, i've been working very hard on that part of my game and thankfully its starting to show on my drives. My normal shot with the drive was a push/slice, but since i've adjusted my alignment i'm hitting a lot more fairways, 50% in Mt Juliet at the weekend was a personal best.

I think you're right in regards to how this affecting my approach play, i should be as strict on myself on this as i am on my drives. An interesting stat i also picked up from GameGolf over my last 6 or 7 rounds, was i'm more than likely going to hit the green from 100yards to 150yards, then i am from 50yards to 100yards. The vast majority of my misses closer in come up short. So i'd better reconsider what club i'm using when i get close to the dance floor.

PARlance

hades wrote: »

I think this post is more of a therapy session than anything else.

I'm in a tough place with my game at the moment. I've been working on a few swing changes over the winter months to help "tighten" everything up. I feel like i'm making a good swing at the ball, i'm just not getting the results at the moment. All this came to a head when i played Mount Juliet at the weekend. Firstly, what a course. Its not as claustrophobic as i thought it was going to be and i really enjoyed my time, despite of my scores.

I play off 14 and went around in 98 strokes or 26 over. Going off my GameGolf stats I hit 50% of fairways (personal best) with an average drive of 215 yards and topping out at 247 yards, but i only hit 11% of GIR (which was only 2 greens). So my iron play is complete and utter rubbish. My short game yips have only gotten worse and the practice hasn't really improved anything. And i had 35 putts in the round, up from my average of 30 putts. Now that could be down to really tricky greens that i wasn't used to, but i also missed around 4 silly putts from around 3ft.

I just find it hard at the moment, and i get somewhat ashamed to say i'm off 14 but i haven't played to that hc in over a year and i had to scramble to get a total of 2 pars at the weekend. Consequently, they came on the 16th and 17th, after i tore up my card on the 16th tee (i was only paying green fees, not a competition). Perhaps a feeling of liberation came over me when i wasn't held to writing down my scores, i honestly don't know what it was.

But having said all that, my swing feels good. I feel like i'm making solid contact and that the vast majority of my problems lie in my short game. I'm only hoping that if i persevere it'll pay off and i'll be playing to my hc again when the weather clears up.

Forget everything else and focus on the highlighted bits buddy!

The rest will come, concentrate on the positives for the time being... and there are massive positives there.
From the round I played with you, your iron striking is not an issue. It may be at present, but it's not something that you won't "find".
I think you'll find that you'll click up a few gears if you resort to figuring it out for yourself for the rest of the year imo.

If I was to give you some tough love
1. I would say that it's time to leave the lessons behind. You're more than equipped now to go out and do it yourself. Figure it out by yourself now that you've got the ammo from your lessons (they can be a crutch sometimes).
Stop working on it and start figuring it out.
2. Short game has a lot to do with confidence, fool yourself into thinking
you're good. It worked for me. It's not an issue with your ability, that's there.

alxmorgan

How's my game ? Hard to say truth be told. Getting to play infrequently because of the weather combined with no chance for mid-week golf.

Been playing ok when I have been getting out but not reached the heights I was reaching about 6-8 weeks ago when everything was turning to gold.

Fear is I peaked too early :eek:

Can't wait for the long evenings to kick in. Seriously tough being a golfer in this country at times. Dreaming of a big lotto win to travel the world...its always golfing season somewhere

the lawman

Having a real crisis of confidence the last few months. Decided to change my swing in October as I had made it to singles and I needed to add much more to my game to get even lower. My second shots in particular. I hit the range 3 times a week and I work as hard as I ever had on my game.

I seem to get some great feedback on my changes at the range but on the course it is complete garbage. I'm playing about 10 shots worse than my handicap. Now I could always have a bad round or two but I haven't broken 30 points since October.

And the worst thing about is the reliable and strongest part of my game is as bad as the rest. Short game. Rarely now will I get up and down and simple 2 putts are becoming 3. It's a real spiral of hell at the moment as I'm walking into the course feeling good but after two holes I'm already drained of belief.

I know and I will keep working away at it but I'm nearly at taking a break level of frustration. So that's my game right now. Shi*te.

Keano

Attack the post and not the poster.

I've deleted some posts and if there is any more personal attacks you will be getting a day off.

dan_ep82

Not great at all.

Work being mental I only got to hit a few 6i today for about 20 minutes since last saturday. Not really enough time I know but still I dread to see what the driver would do

slingerz

havent gotten out at all in recent weeks, not even thought of getting to a driving range either

at least i've gone about getting a series of lessons organised to give me the push to get out on the course/back on the range!