2020 Golf Thread

[mreaves]

On 7/20/2020 at 12:09 AM, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

There’s only one choice to make.

First lesson tomorrow. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

15 minutes ago, mreaves said:

First lesson tomorrow. 

Nice. We knew you wouldn’t just give up like that. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

Playing Pound Ridge NY on Sunday with some high level folks from my company. It’s a super hard course and my tee game has been pretty bad. Good times.

[ORH_wxman]

5 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Playing Pound Ridge NY on Sunday with some high level folks from my company. It’s a super hard course and my tee game has been pretty bad. Good times.

Time to keep the big dog in the bag

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

48 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Time to keep the big dog in the bag

I never use the big dog anyway. It always stays in the trunk of my car. It’s my 5w and 3w that I’m struggling with. I’ve made some changes to my swing which has improved my iron play but messed with my fairway woods for some reason. The swing shouldn’t be all that different so maybe it’s my shitty old woods which have a flex shaft where they can’t meet my new crushing swing speed demand ha. Or maybe I just suck right now off the tee. Dunno.

[ORH_wxman]

8 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

I never use the big dog anyway. It always stays in the trunk of my car. It’s my 5w and 3w that I’m struggling with. I’ve made some changes to my swing which has improved my iron play but messed with my fairway woods for some reason. The swing shouldn’t be all that different so maybe it’s my shitty old woods which have a flex shaft where they can’t meet my new crushing swing speed demand ha. Or maybe I just suck right now off the tee. Dunno.

How are you with a 3 iron off the tee?

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

4 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

How are you with a 3 iron off the tee?

Don’t use it often but I should probably give it a go. That or the 4i. I know I’ll be that guy in the group but better to be 200yd center (relatively) then try be 250/260 but sprayed into the woods and ponds...right? 

[mreaves]

Had my first lesson with our new pro Wednesday.  We worked on posture, shoulder turn and ball placement.  Pretty standard stuff.  Hit some good shots during our session.  Last night I took what I learned to my men's league match and the results were about as expected .  Luckily for me, my opponent was a no show so I got a half point for our team despite my horrendous showing.  The pro was in my foursome so he tried to be encouraging.  I told him I was committed to keep on track until I started to get some form back.  It always takes a while to become comfortable with swing changes.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

43 minutes ago, mreaves said:

Had my first lesson with our new pro Wednesday.  We worked on posture, shoulder turn and ball placement.  Pretty standard stuff.  Hit some good shots during our session.  Last night I took what I learned to my men's league match and the results were about as expected .  Luckily for me, my opponent was a no show so I got a half point for our team despite my horrendous showing.  The pro was in my foursome so he tried to be encouraging.  I told him I was committed to keep on track until I started to get some form back.  It always takes a while to become comfortable with swing changes.

Old/bad habits are hard to overcome. I’m going through the same thing. Keep at it.

[ORH_wxman]

4 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Don’t use it often but I should probably give it a go. That or the 4i. I know I’ll be that guy in the group but better to be 200yd center (relatively) then try be 250/260 but sprayed into the woods and ponds...right? 

Yeah I mean there’s probably 4 or 5 holes anyway that would be in the 350-380 range (unless you are playing a really challenging course) and you can do just fine with low 200s off the tee but keep it straight. 

Then usually on most courses there’s 2-3 holes where you have a massive fairway with ample rough on each side that you can risk taking out the less accurate clubs. That maybe leaves you with 7-8 holes where you have to make a real decision on whether to trade accuracy for distance that might be very helpful if you can keep it in play. 

[DavisStraight]

7 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

I never use the big dog anyway. It always stays in the trunk of my car. It’s my 5w and 3w that I’m struggling with. I’ve made some changes to my swing which has improved my iron play but messed with my fairway woods for some reason. The swing shouldn’t be all that different so maybe it’s my shitty old woods which have a flex shaft where they can’t meet my new crushing swing speed demand ha. Or maybe I just suck right now off the tee. Dunno.

I always blame the clubs too

[STILL N OF PIKE]

Just shot a 29 on back 9 at Augusta to finish with a 63. Tiger woods golf boom!

[S&P]

On 7/20/2020 at 11:05 AM, Chrisrotary12 said:

What's everyone's favorite weather to golf in?  I think mine is 60-65 F, overcast and a light mist.  You might think me crazy, but I enjoy it for the combination of comfort (not too hot or cold and really not wet) and open golf course.  If you find a course where the greens fees are good for the day you can get 36 or 54 in on these type of days. I love it.

 

On 7/20/2020 at 7:57 PM, Damage In Tolland said:

A day just like today. HHH. 

This

[S&P]

Hit the driver, what are you worried about if your not playing  for $, everything else is practice

[STILL N OF PIKE]

4 minutes ago, S&P said:

Hit the driver, what are you worried about if your not playing  for $, everything else is practice

He’s obviously competitive and pretty dang good. He also ( I would guess)  may have a mental hurdle or glitch of confidence when he picks up the driver ? and it had cost him enough in his overall score to can it . 

 

[OceanStWx]

4 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah I mean there’s probably 4 or 5 holes anyway that would be in the 350-380 range (unless you are playing a really challenging course) and you can do just fine with low 200s off the tee but keep it straight. 

Then usually on most courses there’s 2-3 holes where you have a massive fairway with ample rough on each side that you can risk taking out the less accurate clubs. That maybe leaves you with 7-8 holes where you have to make a real decision on whether to trade accuracy for distance that might be very helpful if you can keep it in play. 

That's the key, you have to be in the fairway otherwise you are giving up too much distance to be consistently worth it to lay up. It also helps to know your course. If I'm unfamiliar I'm way more likely to grab a hybrid off the tee if it's tight or short. 

When I read the book by the inventor of strokes gained my eyes were really opened about the game in general and how to improve your score. More or less amateurs aren't consistent enough reap the benefits of laying up, so you are almost always better off being closer to the hole in the rough than farther and in the fairway. Honestly freed me up a bit.

[ORH_wxman]

9 hours ago, OceanStWx said:

That's the key, you have to be in the fairway otherwise you are giving up too much distance to be consistently worth it to lay up. It also helps to know your course. If I'm unfamiliar I'm way more likely to grab a hybrid off the tee if it's tight or short. 

When I read the book by the inventor of strokes gained my eyes were really opened about the game in general and how to improve your score. More or less amateurs aren't consistent enough reap the benefits of laying up, so you are almost always better off being closer to the hole in the rough than farther and in the fairway. Honestly freed me up a bit.

Yeah if your irons are pretty shoddy off the tee then it definitely makes sense to go with woods and just get more distance. A lot of amateurs don’t hit long irons well to begin with...so there is little point in using them at all and just stick with hybrids.

My long irons are personally much straighter off the tee than woods so I’ll use them 3 or 4 times a round on a par 4. 

Most other holes I use a driver because my 3 wood isn’t any more accurate...maybe just marginally so. Only time I might use a 3 wood off the tee is on the occasional hole where it’s a sharp dog leg at about 240-260ish....so I still want a bit more distance than a 3 iron but I’m worried I may drive it through the fairway with my driver. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

13 hours ago, S&P said:

Hit the driver, what are you worried about if your not playing  for $, everything else is practice

Because I like to keep the ball in play and not have to take a penalty stroke. I prefer to score well then be a wannabe big shot. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

14 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

I always blame the clubs too

That’s the first blame. Then the ball. Maybe the course. Finally, I’ll blame myself...but only after all external options have been exhausted first. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

13 hours ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

He’s obviously competitive and pretty dang good. He also ( I would guess)  may have a mental hurdle or glitch of confidence when he picks up the driver ? and it had cost him enough in his overall score to can it . 

 

Yea. It’s part confidence and part mechanical. I honestly haven’t used it for years on the course. Only on the range. I can get a hold of it there sometimes...like 1 out of 5. So it doesn’t give me to confidence to bust it out competitively. 20% chance of a good strike doesn’t exactly get me excited to use it.

Maybe I just haven’t found the right driver that feels good. I’ve only had two. I may finally invest in getting fitted this winter...go from 20% to 30% lol.

[S&P]

8 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Because I like to keep the ball in play and not have to take a penalty stroke. I prefer to score well then be a wannabe big shot. 

Why carry a driver then if your not gonna hit it.  MY point is if your out playing with nothing on the line why not hit it, play a couple of balls and hit the driver with one of them but count the other one for your score. My feeling is you have to practice with the club to become proficient with it. It’s all good. 

[S&P]

8 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Yea. It’s part confidence and part mechanical. I honestly haven’t used it for years on the course. Only on the range. I can get a hold of it there sometimes...like 1 out of 5. So it doesn’t give me to confidence to bust it out competitively. 20% chance of a good strike doesn’t exactly get me excited to use it.

Maybe I just haven’t found the right driver that feels good. I’ve only had two. I may finally invest in getting fitted this winter...go from 20% to 30% lol.

Get fitted, shaft is key

[mreaves]

Second time out after my initial lesson went much better. Went 44-42 with a dreaded snowman on the first hole. Still some thin shots but started to make much better contact by the end of the round. Still a long way to go and there will be setbacks but I felt like I made some progress today. Not sure if I’ll schedule another lesson for this week or next. Thinking 2 weeks in between to work on stuff might be best. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

1 hour ago, S&P said:

Why carry a driver then if your not gonna hit it.  MY point is if your out playing with nothing on the line why not hit it, play a couple of balls and hit the driver with one of them but count the other one for your score. My feeling is you have to practice with the club to become proficient with it. It’s all good. 

It’s a friendly convo here, no worries. But I don’t carry a driver when I’m playing somewhat competitively (with others) but if I’m playing by myself, sure. I’ll smack a couple. The issue lately isn’t even my driver though...it’s my fairway woods that I generally/used to hit them solid. So, my off the tee game has put me in bad spots. My strong game is approach, around the green, and putting. So, tomorrow where it’s pretty competitive playing in a 4some...I can’t just smack a couple off the tee for practice. I may just 4i/5i it 200yds and have it in play for my strong my part of my game to make a bigger impact. I know, it’s not the manly thing to do but I’d rather keep it short and move straight ahead then spray it around the course hitting from other fairways lol.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

1 hour ago, S&P said:

Get fitted, shaft is key

You’re right. The more I talk to folks, that’s the next step I should take. 

[S&P]

7 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

You’re right. The more I talk to folks, that’s the next step I should take. 

Yeah even if you don’t buy from the fitter, most places will do it for free, they will get you into the right shaft and then you can shop around, many different manufacturers use the same shafts.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

Played west Bridgewater country club again today. 45 front nine and 46 back for a 91. 
 

Take out the first and second hole 7 and 6 and could have been sub 90.

Whoever said in this thread that the first hole blows, they are right. Tiny fairway rolling right out of your car.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

40/44 at Pound Ridge. Used a different set of woods (stiff shaft) which made a big difference. Had a blow up +4 on 15 with two penalties but other than that...striped it pretty well. Solid improvement off the tee, some leaked right so have to work on bowing the left wrist some more. I beat my bosses too. Happy with my round especially on a very tough course.

[mreaves]

50 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

40/44 at Pound Ridge. Used a different set of woods (stiff shaft) which made a big difference. Had a blow up +4 on 15 with two penalties but other than that...striped it pretty well. Solid improvement off the tee, some leaked right so have to work on bowing the left wrist some more. I beat my bosses too. Happy with my round especially on a very tough course.

Stiff shaft for higher swing speeds. I’ve never had a high enough swing speed to need one. Whenever I’ve hit one the ball goes almost straight right. 

[S&P]

1 hour ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

40/44 at Pound Ridge. Used a different set of woods (stiff shaft) which made a big difference. Had a blow up +4 on 15 with two penalties but other than that...striped it pretty well. Solid improvement off the tee, some leaked right so have to work on bowing the left wrist some more. I beat my bosses too. Happy with my round especially on a very tough course.

Yeah I wouldn’t think you should be play anything but a stiff shaft, you can also adjust for shaft weight , helps with swing speed and feel the weight  of the head.