Golf Random Irritations

[Orikoru]

Resigned to the fact that I'll never be a good putter. Have tried everything but no matter what, I'm streaky at best. Occasional nine holes of good putting then back to mediocre rubbish. Every slight change in green speed or conditions and it throws me off completely. Just going to give up and accept it.

 

[Slime]

Resigned to the fact that I'll never be a good putter. Have tried everything but no matter what, I'm streaky at best. Occasional nine holes of good putting then back to mediocre rubbish. Every slight change in green speed or conditions and it throws me off completely. Just going to give up and accept it.

I know exactly how you feel, however, I am planning on having a lesson from a putting coach sometime over the winter.
I just hope he doesn't convince me that my putter's wrong.
Hopefully it's just me.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I know exactly how you feel, however, I am planning on having a lesson from a putting coach sometime over the winter.
I just hope he doesn't convince me that my putter's wrong.
Hopefully it's just me.

It’s a flat stick…it’s you…

 

[cliveb]

Resigned to the fact that I'll never be a good putter. Have tried everything but no matter what, I'm streaky at best. Occasional nine holes of good putting then back to mediocre rubbish. Every slight change in green speed or conditions and it throws me off completely. Just going to give up and accept it.

You aren't exactly making it easy on yourself playing at Grims Dyke. Plenty of visiting pros routinely 3 putt a lot of the greens.

When I left GD and joined a course with somewhat flatter greens, discovered that I'd never learned how to putt straight

 

[Orikoru]

You aren't exactly making it easy on yourself playing at Grims Dyke. Plenty of visiting pros routinely 3 putt a lot of the greens.

When I left GD and joined a course with somewhat flatter greens, discovered that I'd never learned how to putt straight

The 3rd hole is the worst for me - green is so big as well which makes it look worse in the stats of course, but I firmly believe I three-putt that hole more often than not. It just stings every time given that I don't get a shot on it.

Firmly agree on the second point also. First of all you don't even trust that it's a straight putt, then you realise you can't hit it perfectly straight because you've never had to before. I genuinely believe straight putts are harder sometimes as you have less margin for error - on breaking putts you can hit different lines if you vary the speed, whereas on a straight one, it has to go straight and that doesn't change irrespective of pace.

It hits home mostly when I play against better players though - let's say single figure players. Four and five footers they always seem to comfortably roll them in whereas I don't very often. In summer I under-read the break, in winter I over-read it and it doesn't break as much. Again in summer I took too long to adjust to the quickness and I'll rolling them 5 foot past, and just when I have adjusted we get to winter and I leave everything 3 feet short. Just can't do it.

 

[Imurg]

Had a 9 foot putt today..uphill but not massively and pretty straight.
I didn't hit it quite hard enough but it got to 1 inch from the hole......and then slowly rolled all the way back to my feet.....
Just had to laugh...

 

[Albo]

Had a 9 foot putt today..uphill but not massively and pretty straight.
I didn't hit it quite hard enough but it got to 1 inch from the hole......and then slowly rolled all the way back to my feet.....
Just had to laugh...

That’s pretty bad pin placement by the green staff then! They shouldn’t put it somewhere that it will stop so close to the hole then roll back that far

 

[Albo]

The 3rd hole is the worst for me - green is so big as well which makes it look worse in the stats of course, but I firmly believe I three-putt that hole more often than not. It just stings every time given that I don't get a shot on it.

Firmly agree on the second point also. First of all you don't even trust that it's a straight putt, then you realise you can't hit it perfectly straight because you've never had to before. I genuinely believe straight putts are harder sometimes as you have less margin for error - on breaking putts you can hit different lines if you vary the speed, whereas on a straight one, it has to go straight and that doesn't change irrespective of pace.

It hits home mostly when I play against better players though - let's say single figure players. Four and five footers they always seem to comfortably roll them in whereas I don't very often. In summer I under-read the break, in winter I over-read it and it doesn't break as much. Again in summer I took too long to adjust to the quickness and I'll rolling them 5 foot past, and just when I have adjusted we get to winter and I leave everything 3 feet short. Just can't do it.

Have a look at the book Putting out of your mind by Bob Rotella, that may, or may not, help!
Also practice those gimmie putts relentlessly, 1ft and 2ft putts, hole as many as you can of them, I’m talking 100’s you won’t miss too many from that distance but you will gain confidence from seeing/hearing the ball hit the bottom of the cup relentlessly, you’ll also grove your start line as a result and the 4/5ft ones you fear now will become a sight easier as a result.
Edit to say, once you have confidence in your 4/5 ft putts, your lag putting has a lot less pressure instead of thinking about lagging those to gimmie range, once you know you will hole most 4/5 fters your lag putting to that range becomes easier and you will relax and putt better from range as a result

 

[Orikoru]

Have a look at the book Putting out of your mind by Bob Rotella, that may, or may not, help!
Also practice those gimmie putts relentlessly, 1ft and 2ft putts, hole as many as you can of them, I’m talking 100’s you won’t miss too many from that distance but you will gain confidence from seeing/hearing the ball hit the bottom of the cup relentlessly, you’ll also grove your start line as a result and the 4/5ft ones you fear now will become a sight easier as a result.
Edit to say, once you have confidence in your 4/5 ft putts, your lag putting has a lot less pressure instead of thinking about lagging those to gimmie range, once you know you will hole most 4/5 fters your lag putting to that range becomes easier and you will relax and putt better from range as a result

I did read that book - a couple of months ago. I liked it, and it did help me. At the time I read it I was going through a spell of horrendous putting and my head was all over the place, the book definitely reset my mind and got me back to the mediocre putting I was used to. It's hard to make the leap to being a good putter though, because I think a lot of it instinct, and a lot of it is also down to green-reading which is harder to teach. You can either see it or you can't.

Top putting tip for those 4/5 footers if you’d like… ignore otherwise…

Unless there’s a really obvious break, no putt inside about 5 feet should be started outside the hole, if hit with enough pace to go 1 foot past. Mostly you can just go right at the centre cup, maybe left or right half if you see a small, but not dramatic, break.

Try it out…

Thanks for this. Generally a good rule, but as @cliveb will attest, at my course there are lots of greens that would break more than that over 5 feet, unfortunately. Or it'll be a severe downhiller than I don't feel like I'm able to 'take the break out' because if it lips out I'm going six feet past. As I mentioned earlier, your advice may be a bit more applicable in winter now, where it actually doesn't break as much as it does in summer, but it takes me so long to retune my brain to this.

 

[sunshine]

Top putting tip for those 4/5 footers if you’d like… ignore otherwise…

Unless there’s a really obvious break, no putt inside about 5 feet should be started outside the hole, if hit with enough pace to go 1 foot past. Mostly you can just go right at the centre cup, maybe left or right half if you see a small, but not dramatic, break.

Try it out…

I read that one of the design principles of Robert Trent Jones was that golfers shouldn't have to aim outside the hole on putts shorters than 6 feet. So your approach would work on his courses.

Definitely wouldn't work on many older parkland courses, including my course. They were designed at a time when green speeds were much slower, so have significant slopes on the greens. On my course it is common to aim outside the hole on a three-footer

 

[JonnyGutteridge]

Biggest problem with witnessing any kind of cheating...you have to be 1000% sure...

I think that’s the hard part - and if you happened to call something out, be proven wrong, it’s a big hole to dig yourself out of!

A few weeks ago, I took part in a “end of season cricket team golf day” - at an iffy “pay and play” course. One of my pals found an orange Titleist number 11 and started using it half way round. On the 18th, he drove it onto an adjacent hole. We walked up to have a look for it, couldn’t find it, and then saw a young lad (about 15 yrs old) chipping an orange golf ball onto the green on the adjacent hole.

My big 6ft 4 mate went bombing over with “is that a Titleist” and “I think you’ve just played my ball”…
The kid said no, it was his… and my mate continued over, onto the green, picked it up… it was indeed an orange Titleist… but number 22

I have a regular playing partner who just loves to prefer his lie by identifying the ball - as another poster has described. Every time it’s in the thick stuff, he has the same routine, and no one is particularly surprised or impressed when the ball comes flying out as if it was on a tee.
You know those lies where you think “I’d be lucky to even move that”…

Most dodgy rule moment I ever witnessed was a chap claiming a hole in one. 175 yard par 3, lots of humps obscuring view of the green - but I very clearly saw his ball roll over a hump behind the green, into the long grass/bushes. We looked for 5 mins (old timings), and he said “I’ll just have a quick look in the hole” and claimed to find it in there. This was in a competition, I was just a teenager, so never spoke up - but it was definitely long!

 

[Orikoru]

I think that’s the hard part - and if you happened to call something out, be proven wrong, it’s a big hole to dig yourself out of!

A few weeks ago, I took part in a “end of season cricket team golf day” - at an iffy “pay and play” course. One of my pals found an orange Titleist number 11 and started using it half way round. On the 18th, he drove it onto an adjacent hole. We walked up to have a look for it, couldn’t find it, and then saw a young lad (about 15 yrs old) chipping an orange golf ball onto the green on the adjacent hole.

My big 6ft 4 mate went bombing over with “is that a Titleist” and “I think you’ve just played my ball”…
The kid said no, it was his… and my mate continued over, onto the green, picked it up… it was indeed an orange Titleist… but number 22

I have a regular playing partner who just loves to prefer his lie by identifying the ball - as another poster has described. Every time it’s in the thick stuff, he has the same routine, and no one is particularly surprised or impressed when the ball comes flying out as if it was on a tee.
You know those lies where you think “I’d be lucky to even move that”…

Most dodgy rule moment I ever witnessed was a chap claiming a hole in one. 175 yard par 3, lots of humps obscuring view of the green - but I very clearly saw his ball roll over a hump behind the green, into the long grass/bushes. We looked for 5 mins (old timings), and he said “I’ll just have a quick look in the hole” and claimed to find it in there. This was in a competition, I was just a teenager, so never spoke up - but it was definitely long!

But did he then buy drinks for everyone in the clubhouse for his fake hole-in-one? I'm guessing he made a quick exit instead?

 

[cliveb]

Thanks for this. Generally a good rule, but as @cliveb will attest, at my course there are lots of greens that would break more than that over 5 feet, unfortunately.

I certainly can attest to that. Grims Dyke greens are distinctly tricky, with some big slopes. It's the only course where I've 5-putted. (And one of those 5-putts began with a 6 foot uphiller!)

 

[Imurg]

The weather over the next 3 days is not going to be highly conducive to playing golf..
This is irritating
What is also irritating is that, of the 2 ways to get to the club, one way is closed for HS2 work and the other has 4 way lights for drain repairs where you can sit for nearly 5 minutes before you get a 20 second phase of green lights....
The only viable detour adds, approximately, 12 miles to the 4 mile journey......
Add into that the numerous roadworks in and around town.....average speed is worse than London at the moment.
Thank God I gave up work a year ago...

 

[sunshine]

The weather over the next 3 days is not going to be highly conducive to playing golf..
This is irritating
What is also irritating is that, of the 2 ways to get to the club, one way is closed for HS2 work and the other has 4 way lights for drain repairs where you can sit for nearly 5 minutes before you get a 20 second phase of green lights....
The only viable detour adds, approximately, 12 miles to the 4 mile journey......
Add into that the numerous roadworks in and around town.....average speed is worse than London at the moment.
Thank God I gave up work a year ago...

Look on the bright side - the horrible weather will close the course and save you the irritation of sitting in traffic

 

[BiMGuy]

I’m going to have to go through the hassle of selling some old clubs to fund my new st of irons.

 

[IanM]

A guy I know wilfully filling his newly acquired igolf handicap with really bad general play scores "ready to play" pairs Opens next season with another mate of his who is doing the same.. I wonder if anyone at England Golf looks at these?

He's heading for mid upper 20s HI, and I reckon he's a 10-12 at worse!

Hey, it's growing the game!

 

[IanM]

Second irritant of the day..

I've advertised a G425 driver on Marketplace. I am getting messages offering about £50 and more, below the going rate. I politely decline then get some really rude replies!

Classic... "I am only about 15min away...I'll come over now and pay £130 cash." Will you eh? No, naff off!

 

[MACM85]

Second irritant of the day..

I've advertised a G425 driver on Marketplace. I am getting messages offering about £50 and more, below the going rate. I politely decline then get some really rude replies!

Classic... "I am only about 15min away...I'll come over now and pay £130 cash." Will you eh? No, naff off!

I find this all the time with marketplace. Offer daft value for something that is blatantly valued higher. Then when you say I can trade it in for x they don't care.

Best one is when they say I will come now and pay cash. I am always like what form of payment do you expect me to take? Crypto? Only because you will pay with actual cash doesn't mean I am going to give the item away

Currently selling some Shamrock Supersofts on Facebook as Mrs doesn't like the ball for her game. Had some chap offer me £5 a dozen cash and would take all 5 dozen we had. Such a generous offer!

 

[Orikoru]

Second irritant of the day..

I've advertised a G425 driver on Marketplace. I am getting messages offering about £50 and more, below the going rate. I politely decline then get some really rude replies!

Classic... "I am only about 15min away...I'll come over now and pay £130 cash." Will you eh? No, naff off!

Yeah. anything valuable I'd only sell it on ebay. Just have to take the hit on the ebay fees in exchange for being able to ignore time-wasters like that more easily. I use Marketplace only for cheaper items I want rid of quickly. For example, flogged an office chair for 40 and an old pencil bag for a fiver the other week.