Golf - How to practice

[cmccuist]

I've taken up the sport again, but this time seriously. There's nothing to do here in the Kingdom except go to the gym or the golf course. We have a really nice course here that's pretty difficult (Slope 137 from the Blues). It's got 9 holes with lights, and you can get in 36 on the weekends pretty easily. I probably play 72 holes per week.

So I've worked my handicap down to 18, but have the potential to go lower. The pro here is good and I've had lessons. I'd like to hear from the lower handicap players on what their practice stragegy is. We have good facilities and range balls are one riyal for a bucket (30 cents!).

I can hit balls, chip, putt, hit out of the sand etc, but I've reached a plataeu and can't seem to score any better for the last three or four months. I need a systemized practice strategy.

Any advice will be welcome.

[Paul_Heery]

Change your playing partners. You can practice, practice, practice but that will only get you so far.

When I used to play, I never got better until I started playing with guys that had much lower handicaps than me. You can learn a lot by watching and listening. I eventually got down to an 11.

One of the things that I learned from the better players is that they took a completely different approach to the course than my buddies that I had been playing with. That shaved a couple of strokes per round right there.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by cmccuist

I can hit balls, chip, putt, hit out of the sand etc,

Any advice will be welcome.

Well, with an 18 handicap, you likely can't do any of those things very well.

So the upside is there is a lot of areas for improvement!

My educated guess would be, like most 18 handicappers, the lowest hanging fruit for you to lower scores would be chipping and putting. And then iron play, next. Really, at all levels, scoring is done from 30 yards and in.

For sure, when you are practicing, you need to have a coach looking at your swing. I spend a good deal of time on the range, and 99% of people there are just wasting their time, or actually making their game worse. It doesn't help to keep repeating a defective swing over and over again.

But if you can't see your swing, you don't know what you are doing wrong. All those hackers on the range with a swing that looks like "an octopus falling out of a tree" in their mind think their swing looks like Ernie Els.

So to improve an 18 handicap swing, you need someone looking at it, for sure. Coaches are really expensive, but the set of eyes and instantaneous feedback is really the only way for 99.9% of people to get better.

To supplement that, if you have an iphone, there is a great program called iSwing, to record and instantly analyze your swing.

[s_wilwerding]

I've found this to be a good book for reading and practicing:

http://www.amazon.com/Ben-Hogans-Five-Lessons-Fundamentals/dp/0671723014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326738293&sr=8-1

[Zeke]

Cheat.

[cmccuist]

I have the Tiger Woods ap where you can video your swing and place lines to see how you're moving. My swing is pretty bad, but the pro says it's salvageable.

If I were to follow some sort of practice routine, say chipping for 1/2 hour, putting for 1/2 hour, full swing etc. Does anyone have a systematic way to practice rather than just beat balls and reinforce old swing problems?

That's my problem - my swing keeps repeating!

[craigster59]

I've been able to shave 8 strokes off my game. I just skip a par 3 hole.....

[t-tom]

If you are an 18 you need to work on lots of stuff. I range from around 3 to 5 handicap. I practice back words, (by back words I mean "From the green to the tee box) I see so many people at the range just hit driver after driver. I chip and putt more than I do anything else. If you can't video yourself practicing, learn the golf swing. Read some books anything by hogan or flick. You can learn a lot about your swing by watching what the ball does in the air. When I teach I tell my student to watch women's golf, Long slow back swings with nice on tempo forward swings. Tempo is the most important part of the swing, learn to swing slow and easy. Golf is not about how far you can hit the ball its about how many strokes it takes to complete the hole. When you go out to the course keep track of every hole, how did you hit the ball off the tee, where did your aproach shot land how did your chip land and roll how many putts did it take ect. By keeping track of how you did in each aspect of the game during your round you can see where you need to spend more time working.

[mossguy]

How many putts per hole?

[iplagolf]

Hogan said you dig your game out of the dirt. I used to have a 2 HC in my teens and twenties. Broke my back and didn't play for twenty tears. A very good chiropractor got me playing again. Started breaking 80. The one thing you should do is make sure your clubs are matched to you. Do you have the right flex in your shafts? Swing weight? Have the lie and loft checked on you clubs. They must be forged to do this, or to change or adjust them. Are you using the correct golf ball for your swing speed and ball flight? When things start to go south in my game it's because I'm taking two big a back swing, doing the John Daley swing. Think about your shot. See it in your haed. Relax and swing away. Remember it's a GAME...Have fun. Fritz

[steves31]

Accept your limitations

[landrover88]

Originally Posted by iplagolf

Hogan said you dig your game out of the dirt. I used to have a 2 HC in my teens and twenties. Broke my back and didn't play for twenty tears. A very good chiropractor got me playing again. Started breaking 80. The one thing you should do is make sure your clubs are matched to you. Do you have the right flex in your shafts? Swing weight? Have the lie and loft checked on you clubs. They must be forged to do this, or to change or adjust them. Are you using the correct golf ball for your swing speed and ball flight? When things start to go south in my game it's because I'm taking two big a back swing, doing the John Daley swing. Think about your shot. See it in your haed. Relax and swing away. Remember it's a GAME...Have fun. Fritz

Very solid advice

[Rapewta]

Work on getting the ball through the "Windmill".
That is the biggest obsticle I had to overcome.
Good Luck.

[jimrs2000]

If you are an 18 you need to work on lots of stuff. I range from around 3 to 5 handicap. I practice back words, (by back words I mean "From the green to the tee box) I see so many people at the range just hit driver after driver. I chip and putt more than I do anything else. If you can't video yourself practicing, learn the golf swing. Read some books anything by hogan or flick. You can learn a lot about your swing by watching what the ball does in the air. When I teach I tell my student to watch women's golf, Long slow back swings with nice on tempo forward swings. Tempo is the most important part of the swing, learn to swing slow and easy. Golf is not about how far you can hit the ball its about how many strokes it takes to complete the hole. When you go out to the course keep track of every hole, how did you hit the ball off the tee, where did your aproach shot land how did your chip land and roll how many putts did it take ect. By keeping track of how you did in each aspect of the game during your round you can see where you need to spend more time working.

+1

Plus I would add to practice the "scoring clubs" say from a 7 iron upwards, its your acuracy with these clubs that determins how good you have to be at chipping and putting. Dont think you have to take a driver off every tee, pick a distance that you like, for me its an 8 iron at 155 yards, practice it until you are really accurate, take lessons if you vary too much, then hit the ball off the tee to 155 yards from the green.

[Steve Carlton]

I bet the sandtraps there are killer.

[strupgolf]

Go to the range, hit some balls, wedge, 5 iron, 3 wood, driver. Then relax, play your round, enjoy the sun, the breez, the friends, and then sit back, have a beer with your friends, talk golf, enjoy the full day. Then go home and enjoy the night. What a perfect day, right? Then the next day, work on you faults from the previous day, again, have fun.

[lendaddy]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Well, with an 18 handicap, you likely can't do any of those things very well.

So the upside is there is a lot of areas for improvement!

My educated guess would be, like most 18 handicappers, the lowest hanging fruit for you to lower scores would be chipping and putting. And then iron play, next. Really, at all levels, scoring is done from 30 yards and in.

For sure, when you are practicing, you need to have a coach looking at your swing. I spend a good deal of time on the range, and 99% of people there are just wasting their time, or actually making their game worse. It doesn't help to keep repeating a defective swing over and over again.

But if you can't see your swing, you don't know what you are doing wrong. All those hackers on the range with a swing that looks like "an octopus falling out of a tree" in their mind think their swing looks like Ernie Els.

So to improve an 18 handicap swing, you need someone looking at it, for sure. Coaches are really expensive, but the set of eyes and instantaneous feedback is really the only way for 99.9% of people to get better.

To supplement that, if you have an iphone, there is a great program called iSwing, to record and instantly analyze your swing.

Yep, dead on. First time I saw my swing on film I think I actually threw up.

[cmccuist]

Distance is not my problem - it's direction. I'm long off the tee, but can't control it. I won the long drive at the last tournament (140 golfers entered, with lots of single digit guys). There are guys I play with that just grandpa it down the fairway 200 yards, hit it somewhere around the green, chip up and sink the putt. Meanwhile, I'm 260-280 in the bushes, punch out, miss the green, chip up and 2 putts!

I like working on the short game, but don't really have any method for practice. Do I take 10 balls and hit the same chip or pitch? Do I try and hit different shots to all different pins with different clubs?

I can work on the full swing with the pro and am making some good progress with that, but those lower handicap guys are really good at getting up and down.

I'm not a great putter - average about 2 putts per hole. I know it should be lower, but I think that's a function of not getting it close on the chipping and pitching.

The clubs I'm playing with are the NIke Victory irons. They're forgings, but not the blades. They're the ones for 10-20 handicap players. I noticed that my divot is deeper at the toe than at the heel. So maybe the lie is not right for me. We have a guy here who can adjust that. I'll look into that.

The consensus seems to be that the most effective use of my time is to work on the short game. That makes a lot of sense, because even the best players don't hit every green. So maybe I hit 2-5 GIR, I could really help myself by working on my wedges and putting.

[iplagolf]

Direction is always the problem. If you're not playing from the fairway you're costing yourself strokes. Try this, a golf pro in Terre Haute, Indiana told me this and showed me this. Leave all your clubs in your car except your putter and a 7 iron. I hit my 7 iron 160 to 165 yards and the ball goes straight. Average par 4 my second shot is on the green or I'm with in the 100 yard range. I can hit a bump and run for my chip or run it it up and on with my putter. The pro beat me using two clubs. I tried it a few times and he was right. Tiger and Phil can drive it anywhere and if they're in trouble they can scramble to save par. Forget about distance, play from the short grass. The scoring stats from the 40's, 50's, 60's are just a few strokes more than they are now. You don't have to be long to play well. Fritz

[Seahawk]

All good stuff above.

Full disclosure: My low handicap was a 9 many years ago. Flight school, actually. Most days I was done flying by 10am, studied two hours for the next day hop and then went to play a sport of some kind.

I had played a lot in college but got stuck at around a 12/15 handicap. What changed things for me was meeting another flight student who was a scratch golfer. We ended up friends, played a lot of golf and eventually went to the same fleet squadron and cruised together. Great stories of playing golf in India and the Philippines.

Anyway. Some tips he gave me that really helped (assuming a reasonable swing and knowledge of the basics):

- Establish a routine for hitting every shot and use the same exact methodology on the practice tee. Take your time. He would take at least a minute between shots.

- Play a round of golf off the practice tee. Take the score card from a golf course and play it. Be honest. You can use the pictures of each hole that virtually all cards have. Pounding driver after driver is stupid.

- Drop every range ball and play it for where it lays. Too many guys virtually tee up every practice shot and then wonder why they can't hit from lesser lies.

- Short game. Work it to death.

- Learn to LOOK at the golf course when you are playing...slope, wind, bend in the grass. Pay attention.

- Never move a ball, ever, even in a friendly game when no one is keeping score.

- Always keep score.

- Walk as much as you can...get a pull cart.

A nine is as low as I could get, mainly because I mentally drift off on the back nine.

What separated Mike (my golfing Buddy) from most golfers is not only did he practice in the manner described above, but he practiced getting out of trouble and all other manner of shot selection. I could never get to his level of commitment, and even then it is doubtful I'd have gone much lower than a 9.

I play about three times a year now and always hit the P tees a few days in advance. I generally will shot, 90 to 93 depending on the course. I have learned tempo and don't try and out drive anyone.