I did it finally, after a lot of hard work and three lessons, I finally broke 100, I played everything down, if I was OB I hit again from the tee, and I still shot a 95. There still is a lot of work to be done, first and four most 9 3 putts is completely and totally not an option. That is just crazy, five I guess I would be OK with right now, but I need to get it down to 0 and I need to work on that quite a bit over the next few weeks. Second I need to learn my distances on my Irons much better, actually I really only need to learn them for my wedges right now it seems from the whites, I am using mostly wedges in to holes and while I don’t mind coming up short so I can chip on and be below the hole, it seems like it would be better to be on in regulation and then two putt from there. My chipping was just OK this round, some were amazing and I have the one putts to prove it some where pretty bad but I still shouldn’t three putt them if I am on, I need to get better at lagging them close. Part of the problem is my speed control downhill, and uphill but I am also reading too much break into the putts, I tend to go a cup outside (and hit it there) when I only need a ball to a ball and a half. I stayed out of the sand today and that helped a lot, only two penalties one in the water one lost ball. Holes I normally hate I didn’t today, boogieing 12 today was a big relief after my 10 on Saturday. Coming to 9 knowing that I had 9 strokes to break 100 made it a bit easier, but I took a risk I know I shouldn’t have. I decided to tee off with 3 wood instead of 5h and while it worked out well and sliced over the trees into the middle of the fairway it could have just as easily been dead straight and into the lateral hazard. It was a bad decision and I need to avoid those for a while. When I trust my swing on the tee box and just hit the ball things work out really well. On number 12 I caught Chris and Jen and their group, and they let me play through, so I have four people about 100 yards ahead and to the left, instead of worrying about hitting them, I just took my normal swing I trusted I wasn’t going to hit them, and it was amazing it went straight and rolled a long way when it hit. My problem is when I get inside 150 which is happening a lot off the tee now, I don’t know what to hit to get there. I know my 6 iron is about 175, I know my 8 Iron is about 160, I know my PW is about 150 or so, I know there is a gap between my PW and my GW I am guessing my GW is about 130 or so, my SW is about 120 and my LW is about 100 but it doesn’t seem like that is true, it seems I am about 10 yards shorter on GW to LW which is fine except that with my usually being inside of 150 most of the time it makes it difficult.
My big decision now is whether or not I move back to the blues and see if I am out to where I can play 7-9 in instead of PW-LW if I am a better player. It only plays 130 longer from the blues than the whites on the front nine. I am mostly worried about par threes with this, but I think I will try it next time out (not Tuesday as I am practicing for the scramble) and see how it goes.
Well I went out twice yesterday got 9 holes in with Kathy before church from the back nine, and it was horrible. I tried to use driver off the tee all morning and shot a 59. Well this frustrated me quite a bit. So I went back for 18 in the afternoon. I was on the range while Chris (another member) was giving a lesson to his fiance. He made a comment to her “your swing is good just hit the ball” I heard this and thought it to myself as I hit the ball. It was straight as an arrow with a little draw on it. I went out with Chris, his dad Butch and his fiance Jen, keeping that one swing thought in my mind and only hitting my 3w I had a pretty OK round. I ended up shotting a 103 which while not great was a steady improvement. I had a 7 on 8 and a 7 on nine those hurt pretty bad. The problem, I added up my score before teeing off of 8 and realized I had a 39 at that point boogie out and I had a 49 on the front instead I started to think about it and sliced my drive on 8 into the trees, I should have played safe out but tried to go for it hit three trees back to where I started, didn’t learn my lesson and tried again, got out to the rough but no distance for a 7. On 9 I drove into the lateral hazard then clipped a tree coming out of that for a 7. My putting average today however was 1.89 I had six one putts, and only 4 three putts short game is going well. I had one top in the afternoon, on 12 in the morning I sliced a drive into the other fairway, topped a 6i hit a great 6i then topped a 5h hit a good 5h so you can see where the 10 came from there. If I can just stop thinking about my score, trust my swing and avoid one blowup hole I could easily break 100 today. Another 27 holes today.
Welcome Kilt golf
I started this web site to track my progress after a Lesson from Mike at Felicita Golf course. I have golfed for about 10 years since the trips to Myrtle Beach with my brother, I was never a good golfer. Last year my wife decided that she would like to play more, which was great because I got out more, but horrible because I realized that I was not that good and I was not improving much. Last year I broke 100 a few times but there was no way to know when it was going to happen. I took my first lesson on April 29th, and although the last few rounds I haven’t had noticeable score improvements my golf game is much improved. After two rounds of 18 and two rounds of 9 I decided that I needed to spend time at the range to get the swing engrained better than it is, so for three days I have done nothing but hit the range.
The lesson in review:
I was really nervous about going to the lesson, I knew I needed help, but I didn’t know how much I needed. I went to the range and warmed up a little bit. Mike came out with a video camera and taped me hitting a few shots with a 4 iron and my driver. They were my typical shots, of the three I hit with each club one was pretty good two were slices, that was typical for me for hence the reason I was taking a lesson. We went and watched the tape, the first thing I noticed was that I had put on a truckload of weight again around the middle, then he asked what I saw in my swing. I didn’t notice much let’s face it if I knew I was doing something wrong I would have fixed it long ago. So he pointed out that my grip was really strong, i.e my right hand was well under the grip, he also noted that I was very stiff at address, not relaxed at all, finally he pointed out that I left all my weight on my front foot throughout the swing. So basically there was nothing in my swing that was good. At first I was very discouraged with this, but I then realized I am paying the money for a lesson because I get so frustrated after I play because I don’t hit the ball anywhere near straight. We went back to hit balls again, and I listened to everything he said and tried to do it to the best of my ability.
The first thing he had me do was to bring my right hand way over the club, this was very uncomfortable for me, mainly because it was such a difference. Now two and a half weeks later, I am pretty used to it and that is just how I hold the club now I don’t think about it.
The second thing he had me do was to get my arms hanging more down from my body and less at an angle. By that I mean that my old swing my arms and club shaft were on the same angle, now my arms hang straight down from my body and then the club goes to the ball, that wasn’t to hard for me to understand and I find that if I am relaxed over the ball this is just how I stand.
Next we worked on my take away I think because in hockey I was always taught that you should come straight back and straight through the puck for a slap shot that I thought in a golf shot it should be the same way. I remember practicing this at the range when I used to go, putting a ball or a tee behind the ball I was going to hit and making sure I came back over that ball or tee. He said this isn’t right and worked with me to have a very different take away, right now I am over exaggerating this as he told me to do.
Finally he asked me to take the club back to my waist and then work hard on snapping my wrists through the ball, we did this over and over again. Concentrating on not only snapping through the ball but also the grip, posture and take away. Now the balls weren’t going very far but the ones I caught good I could feel it.
We had talked earlier that we were not going to work on my weight shift at the first lesson because we wouldn’t have time. But since I was progressing well we decided to work on this as well. My old swing when I turned I would straighten my right leg and flex my left knee which was still bearing the weight of my body, he told me this wasn’t right. So we worked on getting me to turn my upper body and when that happened the weight automatically went to my right leg.
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Went to the range yesterday to work on the inside out swing. I have never hated golf before, but yesterday did it. I am torn between giving up the lessons completely and just figuring out how to play on my own or going back and keep fighting it. It just seems that the hour that we have in a lesson I don’t learn what I need to learn to actually do what he is asking me to do when I get to the range on my own. He wants me to come inside when I do I get either a straight push or a slice never a dray, if I come inside a little less I hit the ball straight. It seems like he is having me over do everything and by doing that the frustration is growing really