Running 2021 Golf Thread

My swing plane has always been extremely steep, which causes me to blade my irons if I'm not super careful about taking the club back low and slow PLUS remembering to pause just a touch at the top. The fairway and rescues have a flatter sole, which much more forgiving for my contact angle because of the bounce. Because my shots come in really high and soft, I can hit a 5 rescue almost exactly 185 yards and a 7 rescue 165 without rolling out. The 4 iron is in my bag to get out from under trees. The 5 iron used to be my go-to fairway club, but for some reason, I've been dropping my shoulders or jumping at the ball, resulting in massive chunking.

Of course, the downside is coming over the top and hitting a massive fade/slice at times, and the more I concentrate on trying to get inside-out, the worse it gets. I've had some lessons in an effort to fix it, but 50 years of muscle memory eventually forces me into my bad habits. I'm content to just aim for the left side of the fairway and take whatever consistency I have that day. My three rounds in June were 83, 81 and 78 -- but most of that can be attributed to really good wedge play -- so I'm playing well enough. I only need to play at this level 20 more years to shoot my age!

 

My biggest problem by far is convincing myself to get all the way through the ball. It was a bad habit that I fell into that's taken some time to fix. I'll be at the range and finish my swing, the ball goes screaming to the right, and I'll look and say to myself, 'dummy, look where you finished your follow through. To the right!' Adding a more pronounced wrist hinge and becoming far less stiff in my backswing has helped, and I've had some OK results. Not so concerned with distance as just trying to play from the fairway.

Have played a lot of very tough golf courses of late just because, hey, work allows for it and it's been free. I'm going back to a more forgiving track in town that I've had some success on for this Sunday round and am eager to see if I can score a little better. It's been an eon since I've broken 100, but I got super close last year before making snowman on the par-5 last. Ugh.

 

A few years ago I was playing my best golf. I was a solid 4.5 index and I took a lesson with a well regarded pro.

when I hit 7 irons he thought I was decent. When I hit woods he wasn't so impressed. We did trackman, I hit all the clubs and different types of shots. Lots of talking about my game.

At the end he said "I'm going to be honest. It would be a long journey to get better and you would get worse first. And you may not make it back to where you are now. Just accept your limitations, keep working with what you have and play to your strengths".

Likely the best advice he could have given me, even if I didn't quite care for it at the time.

 

I agree with those who have occasional issues hitting their long irons. For some reason, I tend to "chop down" more with a 3 or 4 iron than I do with my 3 or 5 wood (causing me to hit behind the ball). There can't be a physical reason for this ... it's not like the clubs are that different.

Whoever said 90 percent of golf is between the ears got it right.

 

Trying to improve at a physical activity demanding precision as you get older. What could go right?

I told this one before. A friend played a pro-am with Gary Player. The didn't talk at all about golf. After they finished, my friend asked Player for advice on his game.

"Take a lesson," he said. "Then quit."

 

I know I'm never going to be MUCH better. But I have improved my consistency somewhat. I had a horrorshow round a few days ago, but mostly I've been right around my 18 handicap, seldom if ever more than 5 strokes above or below it. All I did was spend a little more time at the range, but not that much, and make my mental focus the effort to avoid making two bad shots in succession. I pretend our local nine and 18 hole public courses are US Open prepared and try to escape trouble no matter how much distance I give up. As a result, I have turned a number of what would have been triple bogies into doubles or just plain bogies. Avoiding the really big numbers is the simplest way to keep scores respectable. Of course, this plan would be infinitely more effective if I could putt better.

 

I got basically the same talk a while back. I had been a scratch for a few years during and after college, stopped playing for a few years when I was busy with work in my 20s, came back and got down to a 7 after basically relearning how to swing. Went to a pro, took a bunch of lessons, realized that it would be 20 hours a week of practice to be scratch again, so I decided to just drink beer and enjoy golf rather than try and be great at it. Sometimes I break 75. Most times I don't break 80, and I'm ok with it.

 

I had a friend who had been about a 5 for years, maybe better. Played competitively, well seasoned. Saw his swing on video and was shocked at how it looked. Went on the long journey into darkness and became a 12 with driver yips. Stopped playing events, wouldn't enter embarrassing scores etc. He's back to about an 8 now, but I don't think he can truly play to it.

 

I shoot In the 90s for the most part. Took me seven years and a lot of self analysis to get under 100. I never practice. Between a full time job, freelancing an average of 3,500 words a month and attempting to kind of give a shit about a life outside of those things, I don’t have time to practice. If you give me a free weekday night and I have a chance to play nine holes or chop away at the driving range, I’m picking the former every time.

And despite this, despite knowing this, I still get pissed when I play like shit.

 

Ha, same. We were done early at our junior match play championship a couple of weeks ago and I asked if I could jump on and play 9 after I was done with my work and they said feel free. Went straight to the 10th tee and played the back nine, no warmup. Honestly, helped with my post-round questions of the players the next day because I had a feel for the green speeds and playing out of the rough.

I do try to throw in a random range sesh every once in a while, which I kind of want to do tomorrow as I continue to work out a few kinks and try to get those irons at least passably playable.

 

I played once or twice a summer until 2020. Working from home and curious about hybrids, I went into Dick's and hit a Tommy Armour 4 well from the first swing. Got the golf mojo of my youth back and played about 10 times last summer/fall on a beautiful county course I had no idea existed. I mean, you can putt from 40 yards out. Got the Armour 3 this year, which I also hit nicely. Wanted the driver but they're sold out.

I once read in an in-flight magazine that the back should face the target on the takeback. If I do that, the swing falls into place every time.