New season, hows your game looking?

[Whereditgo]

The new season is pretty much upon us with several of the forum members playing their first competition proper of the year last weekend.

So hows your game looking for the start of the season? Are you playing around your handicap? expecting a big leap forward in your game with the resultant drop in handicap? or woefully short of practice and confidence?

For me I feel I am playing pretty well most weeks, just under handicap but totally lacking in confidence off the tee. My irons are going quite well and my short game is better than it's ever been. Strangely SS2 doesn't quite back this up:

27 recorded rounds this year

FIR: 73% - seems good but strangely I don't feel confident on the tee
GIR: 24% - not too bad considering a fair few of the rounds were firing at miniscule frozen temps.
Putts/ Round: 32 - Happy with that, cheers Bob
Birdie Conversion: 16% - hmmmm
Par Scrambles: 16% - surprised me this, expected it would be higher

So for me a driver lesson is on the cards and will keep on working on the short game.

 

[john0]

With 73% of Fairways hit, and only 24% of greens then I dont think it's a driver lesson that is needed

 

[John_Findlay]

Driving pretty well on the whole.

Irons could be crisper. Hitting them a fraction heavy at times, but having said that I've already hit two of the best iron shots of my life this year. 3 iron. 189 yards at Dalmahoy a couple of weeks ago. Soared like an eagle, landed 6 inches from the hole and stayed there. Had a few other goodies. They're never "far" off target at the moment.

Chipping we won't talk about. Trying not to use it.

Putting's fine but not outstanding.

All in all I'm keeping it generally trouble free. My dispersion is probably at it's lowest ever from tee to green (i.e. as straight as I can remember)

Feel a really low one coming at some point this year if I practice the irons at some point, which I've not done yet. 70/71/72 maybe?

 

[KeefG]

Above average considering I have hardly played lately!

My driving is good, quite consistent with it, my long irons need work, my short irons are ok, my pitching is frankly crap and my putting is decent!

I need to find the 15-20yds distance that i've lost with all clubs and work out why my ball trajectory is too high.

A few lessons coming up anyway and i'm hoping to shave a lot off my handicap this year

 

[USER1999]

Rebuilding my swing again. Not good timing wise with the comps just starting, but then again, why not? Should give me a much more solid strike, and also eliminate my snap hook (this would be good news).

At the moment, when I remember what I am supposed to be doing, and when I don't lash at it (rare), I'm playing quite tidy golf. Chipping and putting well too.

One nice thing about the new swing is I've been hitting a few 70 yarders without shanking them. This is incredible. I may even start laying up to 70 yards to test it out a bit.

First comp is April 10th, so still got time to nail the changes. Also means no chance of a cut before Hanbury or Redlibbets.

 

[G_Mulligan]

I thought it was going well I was hitting every club well off the range and working a lot on my short game. Then played on Saturday and it all fell spectacularly into pieces around me. I simply could not get the ball into the air 90% of shots hit thin the other 10% hit fat. The one and only highlight was a 40ft bump and run chip in for par...1 good shot amongst 115 bad ones was not much of a boost to be honest

 

[Whereditgo]

With 73% of Fairways hit, and only 24% of greens then I dont think it's a driver lesson that is needed

I know where you're coming from, but I genuinely feel that I am hitting my irons well, seem to be finding a lot of greenside bunkers and only just getting my sand wedge working again, so a lot of the misses are close misses.

With the driver when I miss it's a biggy!

 

[MKDave]

I thought it was going well I was hitting every club well off the range and working a lot on my short game. Then played on Saturday and it all fell spectacularly into pieces around me. I simply could not get the ball into the air 90% of shots hit thin the other 10% hit fat. The one and only highlight was a 40ft bump and run chip in for par...1 good shot amongst 115 bad ones was not much of a boost to be honest

I was playing pretty reasonably but had the same thing happen to me last sunday and monday. Hopefully range tonight will fix it but I'm so annoyed right now!

 

[brendy]

My game is in pretty good shape bar my putting but I am putting (sorry) that down to the saned greens at the moment.
The one thing I havent seen anyone mention so far rearding driving etc is that the fairways re still not running out yet so those stats will nose dive come may . If they dont, well done as Winter golf is a little easier on the tee shots than when there is 5-50 yards of run on the ball.

 

[Timh27]

My long game has been good recently but now that i have joined a longer course i hoped that would be the case. My putting is not so good but i'm getting used to playing decent greens and have only played 1 round with my new putter so would expect it to improve in time.

 

[Adi2Dassler]

Driving is improving, long irons too.Short irons have never really been an issue and putting is average.

The main thing I need is to concentrate for 18 holes, be mentally ready and physically ready for each shot.I hope to break 80 this year and reckon i've got it in me.

 

[G_Mulligan]

Driving is improving, long irons too.Short irons have never really been an issue and putting is average.

The main thing I need is to concentrate for 18 holes, be mentally ready and physically ready for each shot.I hope to break 80 this year and reckon i've got it in me.

It certainly sounds like you do I would get that average putting image out of your head though and start seeing yourself as good if not great at putting. If you can't do that you have to keep working on it until you do.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Driving well (especially with the new great white hope!)
Irons from range going well.
Short irons & pitching hit and miss (mainly miss)
Chipping decent
Putting not yet hit last years highs.

I'm avreaging 2 or 3 over par so quite hopeful for the season proper.

 

[Swinger]

It's looking like an interesting year.

If I get to the practise ground a bit could be really interesting.

All I know is there is a lot of .1's needed to get to my target H/C!

 

[Losttheplot]

Like others I've rebuilt my swing, really had issues with consistency too.

But after working on my swing and settling for a certain technique, I played 14 holes the other day and was 4 over. I was level par for the first 6 then dropped a shot on the next. Overall game was strong so things are looking up and I might even manage to play to my handicap of 8 afterall and who knows... Even a drop sometime this year, I'll be hoping so!

 

[chris661]

My game is in pretty good shape bar my putting but I am putting (sorry) that down to the saned greens at the moment.

Better using the maded greens

After going for a lesson and diligently working on the changes I am beginning to see real improvements and am looking forward to the season starting properly

 

[StrangelyBrown]

Not great, but I know what's wrong and I know what I need to do to sort it.

 

[Adi2Dassler]

Driving is improving, long irons too.Short irons have never really been an issue and putting is average.

The main thing I need is to concentrate for 18 holes, be mentally ready and physically ready for each shot.I hope to break 80 this year and reckon i've got it in me.

It certainly sounds like you do I would get that average putting image out of your head though and start seeing yourself as good if not great at putting. If you can't do that you have to keep working on it until you do.

Right now I'm not fussed by putting, mostly 2 putt with the odd 3 and rare 1.

This weekend I played the monthly medal, got to the turn at +6 ( handicap 16) so I'm on for a good score because I play the back 9 better (generally).I proceed to drop 9 shots in the next 4 holes down to a fog of stupidity.Shanking/sclaffing/thinning all being compounded by the last shot.I honestly reckon I should have been in with a shout of winning...ended 5 shots back from the winner...but because of my lack of concentration I messed up

 

[Lawrence22]

After a couple of lessons and an increase in practice I have noticed a definate improvement. Shot 101 on Sunday and if the 4 nightmare where put down as doubles I believe that would put me on a 23 handicap. Don't think I could play to 23 just yet but I'm not a million miles away. Driving has improved big time and I'm actually bringing the driver with me to the course now, not getting massive distance prob 220-230 but I'm hitting most fairways or am in the semi. Fairway woods and hybrids are working well but my long irons are still the obvious weak point. Wedges are working well for full shots but I am having difficulty judging partial shots from say 60yds in. From bunkers I need help. Putting has been mostly good but I am still getting the odd one where I get the pace totally wrong.
Still compared to a couple of months ago when I was finding it hard to break 120, things are looking good.

 

[crux]

The pieces are there for me, I see flashes of good stuff in all aspects of my game. Encouragingly, the days when I’m just not hitting it so well are now yielding considerably better results than they did in the past so hopefully less confidence sapping bad rounds and more consistency is coming.