Breaking 80...............

kid2

kid2

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Evening all,
Pretty self explanatory post....Whats the secret.....My short game is starting to tighten up...So is it just a matter of time and a litttle bit of lady luck?....
I won our Monthly medal yesterday and had a little cut of 0.6..I shot a gross 83 for a nett 69 and 2 under Par....So im down to a new low of 13.8 (14)...Not too bad for self teaching at the moment anyway.
I left at least 4 putts behind me which lipped the hole and a little off the beaten track from the tee on others had me choosing to accept a bogie and limit the damage....But other than that a really solid round of golf....

Iv played my last too rounds very relaxed and i have to say the improvement in my game has been night and day.....Iv been soaking up heaps of Freddie Couples videos and his tempo is rubbing off on me in a good way....Much more care free and relaxed and much better shots....

My goal is to at least get to Cat 2 before the season finishes and i think that its very achievable with my current form....
It would be a huge boost considering the Injury i had earlier in the year where i honestly thought that i would have no hope of getting the handicap down until next season.
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Don't push it. I shot a PB when I felt I was swinging like a dog but I made a few putts and chipped well. Go out and play and let the score take care of itself
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I think thats what helped over the past few rounds Homer.....I got way to rigid and mechanical with my swing and while it was fine with irons in my hand it just felt way to uncomfortable with anything longer than a 4 iron.....
Now im doing what feels natural to me.....Posture,grip, stance width, and tempo and its been great.....Much more relaxed and if im honest i lost maybe half a club length in the long irons for some reason with a smoother swing but im hitting the mid and shorter irons lovely....Iv shallowed my divots considerably....I still take a nice one but im not busting my wrists and unearthing families of worms like i used to....
Hybrid and 3 wood are also good.....And starting to feel confident in the driver also....
 
sounds like to me that your doing everything you can at the moment, just a case of getting out and playing and you'll break 80. as homer says don't push it, cos it might have the opposite effect
 
kid2 said:
I think thats what helped over the past few rounds Homer.....I got way to rigid and mechanical with my swing and while it was fine with irons in my hand it just felt way to uncomfortable with anything longer than a 4 iron.....
Now im doing what feels natural to me.....Posture,grip, stance width, and tempo and its been great.....Much more relaxed and if im honest i lost maybe half a club length in the long irons for some reason with a smoother swing but im hitting the mid and shorter irons lovely....Iv shallowed my divots considerably....I still take a nice one but im not busting my wrists and unearthing families of worms like i used to....
Hybrid and 3 wood are also good.....And starting to feel confident in the driver also....
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Kid i remember giving a bit of advice on here a long while ago , cant remember who it was to.. & i got roasted by a few at the time , the poster was looking for advice on a load of technical stuff... i asked did they ever just thing of going out hitting it , finding it & hitting it again , i think alot of amatuers get in their own way at times.

My tip to you which helped me , was to accept my punishment if i play a bad shot & i dont have a clear shot , get the ball back in play then believe you can get it on & make par or at worst bogey .. going for stupid shots may work the odd time but in general it compound the problem & costs you more ..

Putt smart , dont be going for unmakable putts , if the hole is on a slope or hill its better to lag & 2 putt than go for it & end up 3 or even 4 putting , course management in general i supose , shots are hard to make up so dont throw them away foolishly
 
bladeplayer said:
Kid i remember giving a bit of advice on here a long while ago , cant remember who it was to.. & i got roasted by a few at the time , the poster was looking for advice on a load of technical stuff... i asked did they ever just thing of going out hitting it , finding it & hitting it again , i think alot of amatuers get in their own way at times.

My tip to you which helped me , was to accept my punishment if i play a bad shot & i dont have a clear shot , get the ball back in play then believe you can get it on & make par or at worst bogey .. going for stupid shots may work the odd time but in general it compound the problem & costs you more ..

Putt smart , dont be going for unmakable putts , if the hole is on a slope or hill its better to lag & 2 putt than go for it & end up 3 or even 4 putting , course management in general i supose , shots are hard to make up so dont throw them away foolishly
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Been doing all of the above Pal....
Putting is probably the strongest part of my game with my iron play a close second...
I think that my course management is improving also as im getting a lot cleverer at figuring out where to put the ball on the par 5's for my second shot on a lay up....Instead of trying to cream a 3 wood as close to the green as i can and hope for an easy chip im getting much better par results with the odd birdie by laying up to 80 mtrs and wedging on with a 56 degree SW....

I suppose that as you get lower with a more consistent swing and tighter game then you will have the confidence and the skill to attack the greens where you want.
 
how many par3s are at your course? we have 4. 3 front 1 on the back. these usually dictate if i have a good round or not. then its the par 5's. these are usually easy enough to par if you lay up and get on in regulation with a short iron.

if i dont get these right then im spending my time playing catch up on the par 4's instead of shooting below handicap.
 
you've almost answered yourself in the OP, 4 putts left out there gives you a 79 despite a few wayward tee shots.
Keep the ball in play and good course mangement, if you dont need to hit driver to get up hit 3 wood or hybrid find the fairway and hit 7/8/9 i9nto green rather than trying driver wedge route and ending up chipping out sideways.
Same on par 5's if you cant get up in 2, think about hitting drive 6 iron, 9 iron rather than fairway wood and then chip at best.
 
my advice would be to just play smart and try to alleviate the possibility of having a bad hole,it sounds like your game is in good order so it is all about course management if you have a hole that makes you shudder use your shot you receive and play for the bogey but most of all forget the score and swing easy,good luck.
 
pbrown7582 said:
you've almost answered yourself in the OP, 4 putts left out there gives you a 79 despite a few wayward tee shots.
Keep the ball in play and good course mangement, if you dont need to hit driver to get up hit 3 wood or hybrid find the fairway and hit 7/8/9 i9nto green rather than trying driver wedge route and ending up chipping out sideways.
Same on par 5's if you cant get up in 2, think about hitting drive 6 iron, 9 iron rather than fairway wood and then chip at best.
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Agree with this one. Being quite analytical, I always like to run my mind back in my head, make a note against every shot as to whether I thought it was a success or not (or any number of 'grades' of shot that you want, bad/ok/good works too) and then work out what situations I am doing the worst in.

Think about the most likely may of hitting the par 4's in two. Drive, PW might sound easiest but considering how much a wayward drive costs you might be better off taking an iron off the tee and playing a longer club to the green. You might be left scrambling from green side to make your par, but are you more likely to get down in two from the edge of the green or three from the rough on the fairway?

Good luck with it. Like Homer says, you'll more likely do it when you don't think about it.
 
Clearly you have the ability to break 80, do not keep the score in your head (ie do not get ahead of yourself), just enjoy the game and you will get there. Good luck.
 
I find that what lets me down are bad holes, rather than wayward tee shots on each hole, or bad chipping and putting throughout a game. Sometimes it's about taking a big deep breathe and remembering the good, not the bad.

Not that I'm very good at taking my own advice!
 
I'm almost in the same boat Kid and I think it's now mental more than anything.

On Friday, on my own, nice and relaxed I played the front 9 in 38 (+3). Had a wobble on the last 3 holes of the back 9 going bogey, bogey, double. Parring them would've given me 79. Walked off with 83 for a nett 68.

Switch to Sunday's Medal....front 9 of 50 (h/c gone!) Some horror shots in there and I think it's now all mental with me. I played the back 9 in 41 and parred the last 4 holes. Walked off with a nett 76.

My last 5 competition scores have been 90+ (5 x 0.1s), yet I've been hitting 83-86 every other round, so it's card in hand syndrome at the moment. Strange considering the start I had to the season.

I am however confident that a good score in a comp will happen sooner or later. I am not going to change anything other than trying to relax more in comps. The game is there, it's just getting everything to work and reduce the impact of those wayward shots. Knowing how close I am to cracking it is making me so hungry for it right now.
 
Since you say your putting is good I'm going for chipping.

Out of curiosity (if you can remember the shots) how many of the 18 greens did you miss but were close to in regulation, and how many of those did you make par (or better) on?
 
Region3 said:
Since you say your putting is good I'm going for chipping.

Out of curiosity (if you can remember the shots) how many of the 18 greens did you miss but were close to in regulation, and how many of those did you make par (or better) on?
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Missed 16 Region....around 6 were within 4 or 5 yards of the green....The rest would have been 10 yard pitchs or so over bunkers and out of rough.....Managed a chip in birdie from about 30ft on the 10th from 3 feet off the green.....

Out of the 16 i made par on 5 and birdied 1.... i think if i recall thats right....Cant get on to HDID to check.


Of all the greens i missed and had to chip onto i think i 2 putted nearly all of them.....I think that if i could get the odd chip closer then id be confident of getting at least a handful of one putts.
 
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bobmac said:
Improve your bad shots
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nah! i had an 83 today too - and that included the worst thinned chip i have ever seen, but it hit some rough grass, scooted along the green and stopped next to the pin for a tap in! nothing wrong with skanky shots! (sometimes)

happily got 1.2 whooped off the hcap today - first major cut in a year! ;)
 
From my Ben Hogan book '...any golfer with average coordination can learn to break 80 if he applies himself intelligently'. Worked for me - took a long time though :-)
 
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