Lowering you handicap.

[srixon 1]

To be honest I'd rather spend several hours chipping and putting and never find it boring. Frustrating. Definitely, but not boring

When i practice my short game/chipping I spend most of my time doing difficult stuff. Trying to get close from buried lies in the rough with no green to play with or chipping from side hill lies etc. I also practice from on top of the practice bunker where it is a very sandy lie. If you do not get perfect contact the ball goes nowhere near the intended target. Makes the difficult shots out on the course so much easier. Also more fun than just pounding balls down the range with no particular objective.

 

[ScienceBoy]

To be honest I'd rather spend several hours chipping and putting and never find it boring. Frustrating. Definitely, but not boring

I am the same, its one of the main things I want from a golf club, a quality short game practice area. They make a membership fee worth it.

 

[Tashyboy]

Tashyboy, being in a very similar situation to yourself during my first year I went from 28 to 24 and then last year I went from 24 to 15.6.

Reading this thread with interest to see what help I can find, personally I found a couple of things worked for me throughout last year:
1. A lot of advice on here talks about thinking about various things - personally I found that over complicated and just pick up a club and swing it
2. Course management is all well and good, but the amount of times I pick up a 5 iron or 3 wood to play safe, still mess it up and could have done the same with the driver and be further down the hole - I don't swing it the same regular enough to apply course management all the time - although I do appreciate there is a time and place for this to be implemented
3. I practiced a lot (3 to 4 times a week) of going and playing for an hour and finishing with chipping, pitching and putting practice at the end for 20 mins

For me number 3 was then followed up with the next 2 which certainly made a massive difference:
4. Number 2 was implemented by way of aiming at the front centre of the green and not the middle for the following reasons:
A. It became a range on a number of holes I could reach - the middle would sometimes be on my limit
B. I found there was less pressure aiming at the front centre instead of trying to hit the middle
C. My ball flight has a tendancy to roll out (I appreciate that may be the starter clubs from ebay I use) so aiming at front centre, in the summer, tended to work
5. When playing with others keep playing your own and don't try to match the big hitters or go for the same long iron shots - don't feel pressured in to keeping up with the big boys - this for me was easier said than done and wasn't always put in to practice especially if I had a good few holes where I would then try shots that were to big a shot for my capacity

Just some thoughts and what worked for me

Glad someone else has spent the time reading and has " been In Tashyboys shoes" as I suspect have most of the readers on here. It's probably a cheat asking people for there advice and looking for a short cut, but the last thing I need is someone at the driving range who is probably playing off a worse handicap than me giving me advice re my swing.
a lot of the advice on here has been very helpful.

The short game is one thing I will deffo be working on.
Putting wise I am usually quite good but in the summer time some of our greens are like lightening and as level as wobbly jelly.
My driving of late has been excellent having had a mare mid season.

Its strange but playing a comp on Friday i leathered a drive 200 yd up hill but was blocked off on a dogleg right from hitting the green so just knocked it forward 80 yd. about five seconds later a I had a bit of a Eureka moment. I thought I had actually course managed/ played the hole quite well, because if I had hit a bad drive and had to chip out to the same place my head would of gone a bit trying to play catch up. further more. My PP pitched his ball 90 yd. it pitched 5 yd short of flag and bounced 15 yd above the flag and flew through the back (frozen green) Tashyboy 2 yd further forward pitches his ball 15 yd short of green and run it to 15 ft from flag. Again I sort of course managed the hole and came off with a five. A bogey but a happy bogey. So hopefully course management will be something I will be paying a bit more attention to

 

[duncan mackie]

Glad someone else has spent the time reading and has " been In Tashyboys shoes" as I suspect have most of the readers on here. It's probably a cheat asking people for there advice and looking for a short cut......

no cheat at all!

personally I think you had the best overall response to your question in post #5, but what's really important is to understand the difference between the acquisition of improved competence and the application of that competence to improve your score.

it's the relationship between the various elements which give rise to some of the truisms in the thread -

1. most golfers do not practice their short game - therefore most will have a relatively poor one = most will get the largest short term improvement in their scoring by working on this area (it's also relatively physical capability agnostic ie anyone can handle the physical side of a good short game)
2. golf is 80% mental when performing; confidence is therefore a huge factor in the most likely outcome of any shot. Getting round the course without a single attempt at any shot that you don't have a 90% expectation of success will deliver outcomes that are a magnitude better than taking on challenging (standing over the shot considering it challenging is what we are talking about here) ones and an inevitable % of failings (by your assessment). This is less about taking a 3 wood from the tee 'for safety' and everything to do with taking an 8 iron from an OK, but less than great, lie in the rough. You might get the same result from a topped/miss hit 5 wood but when you stand over your next shot to the green from that result your confidence will be in a completely different place which will influence the outcome of that shot. I was once advised to judge the lie I had first, without regard for the distance required. Decide which club I would be happy to take for a guaranteed outcome - then subtract 2! Now consider the distance I wished to play and the club required for that, if the answer to the first part let me use the necessary club then great - if it didn't I went to plan B. Years later I still use plan B, and I now know that it delivers lower scores overall - I will even use it in most matchplay situations for the same reason (my only concession is that I will not subtract 2!)

 

[Tashyboy]

Well just spent an hour up on the range with me wedges and five mins on my driver. Used the range balls and a couple of times thought I had broke my wrist.

then out came the "found over the autumn/ winter balls" 😜 as you do and some of the balls flew glorious. I hit one balata which sounded like I had hit a rubber ball (which I had) but the sound and flight was different. Was it new gear (vokey wedge) on old ball, dunno. But anyway short game is now tashyboys new, New Years keep fit resolution.