Help with my hitting please!

[BRISTOL86]

Hi All

I'm a newbie golfer, never had any lessons, just been to the range a few times, watched lots of online tuition videos etc. I have had a friend of mine who plays off 6 have a look at my swing and give me a few pointers with the swing. My problem is that my hitting of the ball is very inconsistent, so I have decided to start keeping statistics so that I can see what I'm doing with my hitting.

So this morning I hit 77 balls and recorded each shot into the following categories:

Straight & Poweful - a shot that I made a nice contact with, went (relatively) straight and I was happy enough with the distance (bearing in mind that my short term goal is just being able to go out and play a few par 3 courses with mates)

Straight & Weak - a shot I made a nice contact with but got insufficient distance on

Wide Left/Right - mostly shots that I made a nice contact with but veered drastically to the left & right. Also includes a handful where I hit the side of the bay at the range

Topped ball - self explanatory

So these were my results:

Straight & Powerful - 35/77 (45%)
Straight & Weak - 4/77 (6%)
Wide Left - 8/77 (10%)
Wide Right - 22/77 (29%)
Topped - 8/77 (10%)

So as you can see, I've hit 45% of shots that I'm happy (enough) with and 55% of shots I'm not happy with. Of those "fault" shots, the biggest majority is hitting shots wide to the right.

SO...now the question is how do I get shots out of the fault columns and into the happy column?! Obviously having lessons with a pro would be the best thing, but at the moment cash is a little tight, so lessons aren't immediately feasible. However, a month ago it probably would have been 25% happy shots and 75% not, so I do feel I can make some progress without a pro.

I tend to be quite "armsy" in my swing and need to rotate using my torso more with less arm movement. Also I have a tendency to lean back a little and have trouble programming myself to follow through properly. My feet tend to want to stay where they are after I've hit the ball rather than following through properly.

Any help you guys can offer is much appreciated!

 

[Foxholer]

My view is that lessons increase the likelihood of any strike being 'good' by applying 'good practice' to swing mechanics - and increasing the 'repeatability' aspect.

Repeatability can also be achieved by practice. Ball eye co-ordination is what it's about.

 

[lyden]

If your really set on not getting lessons which would be the prefered option you must start with the basics. Grip / Ball position / Posture are something you must get right everytime and there really is no excuse even though we all let it slip. The problem is without lessons you will struggle to identify it if your doing one or all poorly. With the setup angle covered your giving yourself the best chance of making a good swing and can eliminate it from your list of causes.

 

[BRISTOL86]

Thanks both. I do want to get lessons, just for the next few weeks it's not an option, money wise. But it is on the agenda!

 

[Sid Rixon IV]

I'm a high handicapper beginning to improve.
Ive had about 10 lessons in just over a year.
I have a clip of my setup and swing at the outset.
It's cringeworthy.
What you are saying Bristol is that you can't hit 5 out of 10 balls properly and you probably don't know why you hit a good or bad shot.
We've all been there
Get some lessons - even just one to start and develop a disciplined routine.

 

[In_The_Rough]

If it were me I would leave the practice/range sessions alone and just play rounds of golf. All you are potentially doing is ingraing swing faults on the range which will become harder to fix when it gets to lesson time

 

[Coatsy79]

I had a few lessons to begin with simply because I had no idea what I was doing wrong when I hit a poor shot

Now I have a better understanding when I hit poorly what it is that I've done incorrectly

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Take it from one who knows, but too much time on the range isn't a long term solution. Get out on the course and make the mistakes there and work on rectifying it from there with your pro when you can afford lessons