Well I so like Style’s and muntz’ threads about their game that I thought I’d have a go.

So current status is that my last two rounds were both 92, one on a par 72 course (St Lucia in Brisbane Australia) and one on a par 71 course (today at McLeod Golf Club also on Brisbane’s south side).

Today I hit 6 pars, 5 bogeys, 5 doubles and 2 triples. 11 of my 18 tee shots were ok (meaning on or near the fairway/green). with 7 of those being drives (5 with driver 2 with 5 wood) and the other 4 being into par 3’s.

I played the 5 par 3s 1 over, so I was very happy with my irons/woods into the par 3s. The 4 par 5s were 5 over, and the 4s were 15 over. Lost 2 balls. I hit 37 putts, with only a single 1 putt and 2 3putts. That’s despite having 13 short shots – pitches, chips and sand.

My major full shot theme today was pushes. I mostly hit my drives right. This is pretty much in line with what I’ve been doing at the range. Just not getting that face square.

The other major theme was chipping. I’m just not getting them close so I can have a reasonable chance to putt out. This is the story of my golfing careers – my short game sucks! On a positive note today I hit the chips pretty well, it is my touch that has a long way to go. I have recently purchased a chipping mat and basket – Jack Newton’s set – so I am hoping to see improvement. I am also using a grip whereby the handle in in teh palm of the left and right hands. I think this is really helping with getting good contact, so it is now about distance and trajectory control.

As an aside I have been talking to Bio and am going to get an assessment and program done by him in a little while. I am NOT a natural sportsman, and I think that biomechanics is a real issue for me. So I expect that this will really help. And even if it doesn’t it will be quite cool to have the testing done. But I really thiink it will help so I’ll keep posting about that once I get myself organised to get the assessment done and to do the exercises.

Anyway, that is where I’m starting from. My aim is to get to a point where I am regularly scoring around the low 80s, and even to break 80. My best to date is 87, which I’ve hit twice at two different courses. So we’ll see how the stuff I’m learning at ISG and what I learn from Bio affects my scoring.

good stuff mate. your going in the right direction..

i would focus on your chipping more so than your putting in the short term. sounds like you can putt, but your chipping is leaving you with long putts in.

the way i hit a chip shot:. feet close together. maybe 8inches apart. weight slightly forward. ball 1inch behind middle of stance, grip down on club. grip on club same as full shot, but played like a putting stroke. short backswing and confident follow through. keep you hands ahead of the ball at all times.

i like to chose 1 club to practice with, whether it be a 56 or 60degree for my chips.. the 56 is an easier to club to hit so i recommend you use that.

mentally, when your out playing in a comp don’t stress over the shot, just think to yourself “i’m on the practice green, i’ve hit this shot 100 times before”.

thinking of the shot like a putt helps with distance control and really, your only using a lofted club because you have long grass between you and the hole.

the chip/pitch really is a must know shot as at your level of golf you would be hitting a lot of balls that just miss the green leaving you with a chip in.

best of luck and keep us informed of your progress.

Thanks OhNo. I think I said your name a few times today on the course!

great stuff weetbix, I’ll be looking forward to your posts each week!

Have to admit that I had 80 in my sights today as well haha! Shame its 70 I’m looking to break though!

I’ll be especially interested in how much you feel Bio helps you. If you start cranking it, we’ll all be beating a door to Bio!

With the short game as long as your action is right, feel is gained by regular sessions. They don’t have to be long, just regular. Don’t pitch from the same spot each time, vary things up.

Good luck.

Yeah, I’m really interested to see how Bio’s training improves my golf.

With the chipping I’m sort of trying two things at the moment. Lots of chips to teh same spot to try and get some consistency of action and contact. That’s about working on my technique. And then I’m doing up and down competitions at the range to practice getting it close with some pressure (especially when I take my son and we compete).

Hopefully we’ll see the improvement starting soon.

I only play irregularly – probably 8-10 times a year. But I try and get to the range most weeks.

Gooday Weetbix,
As a bloke that got from 27 – 9 before just playing socially ie not a great golfer, my thoughts on your post are:
“Just not getting that face square”
If your shots are going right without curving you are getting the face square and the problem may be either
alignment- check feet/shoulders
ball position – ? too far back
inside out swing path – check divots
“The other major theme was chipping.”
To me chipping is about risk reduction. I putt when I can, like to run a 7 or 9 to the hole, I don’t practise enough to use the lob wedge regularly and only use it when I have to, pin behind bunker etc.
Another factor is finding the right ball, I know for a fact that using a titleist pro V will cost me shots, especially on a course with lots of water, whereas using the untrendy optima TS I can play par bogey golf and generally keep the ball, watching an $8 ball sail into the water is not my idea of fun. Hope something there helps.

Thanks Waffle

There’s plenty of help there. I do have a bit of fade generally on my pushes, so I am reading that my path is getting pretty close (maybe a bit inside out at the moment but I am happy with that at the moment because I used to be big time over the top). With my irons today I really was happy. I could have been 1 under for the par 3s because I hit every green from the tee (or so close I was putting from the fringe). But the driver was definitely in push fade mode. I did hit 2 drives that went left but they were both very bad swings, not my normal swing. So I am thinking that next time at the range I’ll take some Dart advice (and Lag as well) to roll those hands through – horizontal hinge style. See what happens.

Thanks for the thoughts on the ball. I’m currently playing an unusally names Blue Bottle by Brosnan. They are marketed as soft cover for touch and dynamic core for slower swing speeds. But I was reading in the Product Review section about these Vision UV balls and I’m thinking of looking for them to try out. Sound like the ball for someone like me – especially given my poor eyesight!

I putted from off the green a few times today, so I agree with your comment there. In fact I lipped out twice from those, so that was disappointing! :o)

Thanks for your thoughts. I am very clear that the thing that will make the most impact is to get my chipping and pitching sorted. After that getting the driver consistent so at least I can set up for what will happen. Currently it is hard to assess how far right it will end up. And McLeod has some narrow landing places. And I don’t want to be lining up so a straight shot ends up deep in trouble!

But I’m getting there. And the journey is fun!

Goodonya mate, good attitude, keep rolling the hands if slicing is an issue, it killed mine which was so bad I carried snake anti-venom in the bag. On the range keep sneaking the ball forward on your driver, think that may help. And those vision balls do sound the GO.

I had a bright guy to day who said after my FLW spiel, ‘You mean just twist the grip through the ball’.

That is how stupid it feels at first. No more slice shots.

Stupid is what I need!

Sad to hear my meandering golfing exploits have inspired someone… ;0)

My only advice would be to get a handful of lessons from a teacher who understands the whole FLW shebang to show you putting and chipping. Opened my eyes to the fundamental alignments that are now starting to get imbedded in the noggin.

Benefit 1. Getting up and down a lot more often.
Benefit 2. Giving you a platform to work up the power chain.

I hit that perplexing pitch from 50m to 6 feet on Saturday, a sweet payoff for birdie. Now I am working up to full wedges. Works with rhythm, falls apart without.

But even now I am hitting a lot more full shots and even driver with a FLW. Hammer time.

Hi muntz – what’s the matter? can’t handle being inspirational? :o)

I remembered a couple of things from the round yesterday that people might have some thoughts on. One which I’m quite excited about is that I was getting divots with my irons. Unfortunately I was so overwhelmed that I was hitting the ground after the ball that I didn’t spend much time look at them and analysing them. But here is what I do remember.

The divots were deeper on the toe side. Pretty straight – not majorly pointing right or left (wishing I had have stood behind a couple to see where they pointed! my rangte has mats and no grass so don’t get much of a read there – something to remember next time!). They were generally around 6 inches long, maybe a little longer. This was for shots with 6,7 and 8 irons, as best as I can remember. Don’t think I took a divot with my 4 iron, just a shave.

One divot I really remember well was from a full sand wedge shot. It was a perfect rectangle that ended up flying through the air for a few metres. When it happened I can remember thinking that it was just like you see the pros doing with their wedge shots. While the shot came up a few metres short just the pure feeling of the hit and seeing that divot fly through the air was cool. The divot went left too, which is what I see on the pga and reinforced that ‘pro quality’ feeling.

I’ll have to do a search on teh site and find out how to analyse divots. Anyone have any good links to sites with good info on this?

BTW I have a couple of swing videos on Youtube. One is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C... The good quality ones are just practice swings in my back yard without a ball. So there’s only so much you can get from them. There are a couple actually hitting balls at the range but they are really bad quality – on my phone camera with my 13yo who is not much of a cameraman!

(Hope the link works)

One which I’m quite excited about is that I was getting divots with my irons.

Noice.

I’m still a “shave the grass” kinda guy, rather than a pork chop maker, but I’m getting there. Hit a few balls yesterday afternoon (30 min was all I could fit in) and I spent the time hitting lofted wedges. Got a few chunkier divots when I focussed more on hitting down and out with a smooth rhythm, but direction was all over the shop. Pretty windy though, so I’ll wait and see when things are calmer.

I realised I have the card from Sunday, so I thought I’d do a Styles and summarise my round.

First hole 354m Par4 – hit my drive off the top of the driver, so a bit short and went a bit left. I hit my 4i so I would have had about 160 or so uphill to the green. Pushed it right (story of the round) behind a bunker. Chip fell a bit short and rolled back into the bunker. Out of the sand past the hole and 2 putts back for double.

Second 186m par 3 pin. Took 7w and hit just off the back right of the the green. Just (and I mean JUST) slid the putt from off the green and sunk the par putt coming back.

460m par 5 third – pull hooked off the tee into the bush and lost the ball. Because the hole is a big dogleg right I also still almost had the whole hole to go! Punched a 4i out of the deep rough where I had to drop it. Pushed a 3w right but worked out alright because I was aiming to leave it left. So was basically on the cut stuff in front of the mouth of the green. It was actually a pretty good strike of the 3w just pushed. Left a chip which was a bit strong and which I pulled left (which was my chipping story of the day). Two putts back for another double.

Fourth 352m par 4. Hit a great drive with a slight draw exactly how I wanted. Hit my 8i maybe a bit fat and came up a bit short. First putt I pulled way left (4 ft!) and missed the next putt for a 3 putt bogey.

(As an aside I should mention that at the moment I am putting everything except short putts actually looking at the target – the straight line where the ball is to start rather than the hole. As someone mentioned this is the weirdest putting style they’ve ever seen but it is working for me in that I am getting the right distance. It has led me to hit a few pulled putts when they are very long. But I am going to stick with it for now because it is working – instead of averaging 40 putts I’m averaging 36).

Okay, this is getting too long. Shorthand from here.
5-327mPar4-pushed drive straight into the trees, lost. Chipped out. 7i (with beautiful divot) really nice rolled past the flag. 2 putts back for double.

6-141mPar3-crushed a 7i too far!!! Middle of green but flag was at front. Just missed the putt for birdie. Par.

7-480mPar5-5w off tee short of water (too short, bit conservative not needed) but nice swing. Another 5w left me with 155m (playing into a pretty swift breeze). 4i was pushed right. Long chip which was again pulled left. 2 putt bogie.

8-372mPar4-index1-slightly pulled drive onto the fairway. Nice start. Thought I’d grabbed my 5i, actually 6i, from just over 150m (BTW we all think this hole is longer than the posted 372m, more like 395m, and that includes the member who we played with). Pushed the 6i right (again!) but actually almost had the distance. So that was a pretty good hit for me with a 6i. 150m used to be my longest, now it’s the norm. Chipped left of the hole (again!). 2 putt bogie.

9-531mPar5-push sliced the drive onto the 8th fairway. 5w also push faded and left it on the bark (in retrospect I could have taken a free drop as it’s GUR, but forgot). Smacked a 7w out to the right of the green to avoid the water (should have gone for the green I hit it so well! lol). Brain faded chip landed short. Another chip – too hard! 2 putts again. Double.

Front 9 48 against par 37.

Started the back nine with a great drive on the 448m par 5. Hit a lovely 7w right up the guts to about 85m out. Smacked the SW to get the divot I was raving about earlier. Short of the pin by probably 20ft but got a par when the second putt fell.

10-310mPar4- another great drive but it left me at the corner of the dogleg in scraggly grass and on the side of a mound. Pulled the PW way right and because the side of the green had a big slope it bounced way right into where the water runs through to a nearby creek. Dry but it was deep in the grass sitting up on the side of a bank with about a 50degree slope. Shite! Chunked it out really well by just picking the LW straight up and chopping it out. Wished I’d hit it harder because I ended up short of the green on a great line. Too conservative but if I’d flown it it would have ended up in the sand on the other side of the green. Anyway … another chip and 2 putt for double. Can’t remember how the chip went wrong.

11-167mPar3 way up hill-pushed the 7w right but not terribly bad. Unfortunately the lie was terrible – deep scraggly grass again! And a bunker between me and the hole. So I puched it low out to the right. Then hit a 15-20 footer back for par! Woo Hoo! Finally a putt that dropped.

12-403mPar4- hit a long drive with good contact, but again push and slice. Into the trees. Took at 8i to punch a 3/4 swing through a big hole in the canopy. Should have been great but I forgot something I’ve learned recently. Let me explain …

I had always been taught that the ball starts on the direction that the clubhead is swinging. The difference between that and the clubface is then what determines the spin. Well the second is sort of true. But the fact is that the ball starts mostly in the direction the clubface points. The difference between the clubface and swingpath is what puts side spin on the ball though.

What does this mean? Lets take trying to hit a deliberate slice. I used to think you would align your body where you want the ball to start and open the face. What this actually does though is that the ball starts out right – a bit less right than the face is pointing. You do get cut spin.

What I did was lined myself up with the gap I wanted to hit through, which was somewhat across the fairway, and opened the clubface to get the ball to turn right so it didn’t run through the other side of the fairway. So of course the ball went right off the face instead of straight, hit a branch and stayed amongst the trees! Lesson to remember! So next a 7i through a gap up short of the green by about 40m (best I could hope for). Pitch then chip then 2 putts for a triple. That hole sucked!

And it didn’t get better. 14th was a par 4 of 364m. Pushed and sliced the ball way way right into the trees. Still don’t know what happened but my 4i punch out only travelled 10m so I was still in the trees. Next 4i punch was fine, leaving me about 70m out with a shot that is way downhill. Full LW came up a couple of metres short and another chip and 2 putt left another triple.

15-295mPar4- hit another really nice 5w to middle of the fairway. My SW from 90m went way past the flag (really smashed the jooby out of that one, did not expect to be long). 2 putts for par.

16-145mPar4 way uphill to a blind green. Hit an absolutely pure 6i. It was probably my shot of the day, but I had some wonderful irons. This one was maybe 7ft short of the hole. 2 putts unfortunately for par – first putt slid below the hole. Just a misread I think.

17-405mPar4. Pulled and topped a drive left into the trees to waste one of the best driving holes I know. 4i punch out of the trees to about 140m. Pin at front so took an 8i to land it short. Smashed another iron shot past the flag and rolled back to the mid-back of the green! Normally I’d expect 120m from an 8i! 2 putts from a long way back for bogie.

The last hole at McLeod is a way uphill 181m par 3. Great hole with a big bunker on the left and everything rolling away from the green. Took out 5w to allow for the stiff wind on our faces and crushed it. Drew it a fair bit and just carried the bunker on the left to leave myself a fair way from the pin. I then misread the putt and ran it 10ft past the hole! Doh! 2 more putts for a second 3 putt bogie.

So it was a 2 over last 4 holes, which is a good result. Those 2 triples killed me. But 92 is an ok score for me given that my previous round was 92 and my ones before that were I think 100 and 99.

Hope that wasn’t too boring!

327m Par4-pushed drive straight into the trees, lost. Chipped out.

Just curious, I’m guessing you take penalty drops for lost balls when you’re playing socially?

Yep, sure do. We’re pretty relaxed about where you drop it – don’t measure the 2 clubs length or anything like that. But you lose it you take a penalty drop. That’s the rules.

Otherwise you’re just making up your score! :o)

The actual rule for a lost ball is that you must add a penalty stroke, and return to the place where you played your last shot. So if you lose your first tee-shot, you have to go back to the tee where you are now playing your third shot. It’s called taking a “stroke-and-distance” penalty. Have a read of Rule 27 if you want to get the details.

“traditional rules of golf” Stroke and distance is done via a walk back down the fairway 30 yards and a penalty stroke. Speeds things up a bit in a social round. Ask Lagpressure about the rules they use for the Persimmon Cups.

Speeds things up a bit in a social round.

That’s why the concept of a provisional ball is catered for in rule 27. But in social golf you can play whatever variant you wish, including mulligans and everyone’s favourite, “tee shot with your pants around your ankles”.

... and everyone’s favourite, “tee shot with your pants around your ankles”.

Would probably improve my footwork!

Never knew that that was the rule. What about when it is lost in a hazard – I watch the pros play it from a drop behind the hazard? Or at least that’s what I thought I saw!

I’ve always played it that the provisional/going back to where you took the last shot from was for out of bounds. Otherwise it was a drop from where it crossed the hazard or where it was lost. However it makes sense for a lost ball I guess given how do you determine where to drop from?

I think I’ll stick with the drop it and go strategy – the people behind will get pretty crabby if I walk 200m back up the fairway to hit again!

Not to mention the people behind them… and behind them …

Set a goal to play a round with bogey being your worst score on any whole. This really worked for me. I play off 8 now and still play to this basic principal.

What about when it is lost in a hazard

You have one or two additional options when the ball is certainly lost in a water hazard. See Rule 26.

You can always take the stroke and distance option as per a lost ball, but if the ball is certainly lost in a water hazard (yellow stakes) you can drop behind the hazard on a line through the point of entry and the pin. If it’s a lateral water hazard (red stakes) you can also drop within two clublengths from the point of entry (or within two clublengths from a point on the margin of the other side of the hazard equidistant from the hole).

Reading the rules and talking about any points of confusion in the rules forum, or with a knowledgeable mate is pretty important if you are going to play the game properly. And knowing the rules thoroughly can actually save you strokes, as they can be used to advantage in certain situations.

Went to the range tonight. I suppose I will call it a good learning experience!

Started with some 50m pitches. Realised I was flipping hugely and had quite an aggressive pivot turn going – more than necessary for a precision shot. When I tried to get the body action better found myself absolutely shanking it. This was a shock as I have NEVER shanked in my life. Sliced yes. Pulled yes. Shanked? No.

Mucked around a while but was getting nowhere so thought I’d hit a few full shots and come back to the pitches.

Then hit some 7 irons. Pretty good overall. A few pushes but not too bad. Can’t remember hitting any fat which is a nice change. Pretty happy with the 7i overall.

Then went to driver to see what I could do about Sunday’s push fade. Was putting it all over the place – straight, left, right, hooks, slices, low, skyed. Was quite a display!

Things were not looking good!

Went back to the pitches and realised that I was totally off plane on the backswing – way inside. And then the flippy release was bringing the front of the sole/hosel into the back of the ball. So after a while I finally remembered to hit down and out and started hitting the ball properly.

Was still pulling it a bit. My follow through was often a bent left arm that was pulled around my left side. Hands finished to the left, like they’d been pulled across. The club was straight up in front of me. This did not speak to me of a FLW, or arms straight a couple of feet past impact. Interested in people’s thoughts and experience as to cause and correction for this.

Then the youngen and I went to the chipping green. And had some fun. Started off just relaxed whacking balls around and found a real hitting action out of nowhere. Just picking the club up and pushing it into the back of the ball. So kept working on that the whole time. By the end I was conscious of setting the wedges at impact fix at whatever shaft and club face arrangement I wanted, and then lifting the whole setup without disturbing it. Challenge then was to push it back through the ball without doing one of two things – either running out of right arm and hitting the big ball before the little ball, or flipping the hands and hitting it thin.

When I got it right I maintained the BRW and FLW and drove the hit through a definite feeling of getting weight into my front foot and hitting down through the ball. Was very happy with how this went.

The boy and I played a few chipping games. We are both up for 6 pushups now as penalties. Then we returned to the mats to hit the balls we’d saved for chipping and then go home.

Decided we’d have a driving game to finish. Don’t know exactly but we probably hit 12 drives each. I hit most of them beautifully. Straight or close enough. And good distance.

I learned a couple of things with those drives. One was that I was pulling myself out of alignment on the backswing through too much extensor action. I was not maintaining my weight inside my back foot, and so I was having trouble getting back to the ball. Got back to just getting my right arm back to a good position with a simple right forearm takeaway, and then starting the downswing by getting my left heal back to the ground. It worked. I did hit one big slice and one big hook. And a couple of others that were going to be in the trees. But the rest included some absolute crackers.

So that’s something to memory bank and work on in future sessions.

So that was a good way to end. Next thing to groove that chipping motion, and sort out whatever it is I’m doing with those pitches!