Yeah, AB, well that is what comes of not wanting to practice things that you are not very good at. I have learnt enough technique that I can normally get out of the bunkers at my course cause they have pretty good sand and not too much of a lip, but at the lakes I was toast – I found the sand very heavy and difficult to get the bounce of the wedge to slide through the sand like I try to do.

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http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Well done for starting the ladies inclusion deege:-)

Looking forward to you taking the plunge, Maggie and joining Deege at one of our OOM days.

9/10/12 – Hole In One – 7th Hole Portsea GC
2012 (Official) Winner of Inaugural ISG Nat. Champs.
2011 Inaugural winner Vict. Order of Merit Putting Champion – Long Island

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

How gentlemanish francie. Im looking forward to it too. Would love to join them at rosebud in march but ill be away. Perhaps next time.

I watch a lot of ladies (and guys too) in the sand, and the one thing that stops most people from getting out of bunkers is the absence of a follow-through, and often trying to smash the ball out of the sand of a green-side bunker.

There is no need to get the ball out of a green-side bunker with great power, even from wet sand. What you need to do (if you are connecting with sand first) is complete the swing – that is to finish with your hands high, at least close to shoulder height (if you are worried about your follow through). One smooth accelerating movement to complete the swing

If your hands stay low – so will the ball.

Too much slow play means that golf has a wait problem

That’s a great suggestion Mekat, largely because it is such an easy swing thought to keep in my head when playing out of the sand. I will have a practice with this thought in mind.

. Well done for starting the ladies inclusion deege:-)

Maggie, you should definitely try to come to one of the OOM events – I had a great time

So today was starting to feel the love some more with the new metal x dart. It jumps off the face a bit more so I feel like the roll matches my eye a bit better.

So it was great to feel again like I was confident of dropping those 3-5 foot putts and like I was consistently putting the long putts within range.

I am finding more and more that my approach of practicing shorter putts almost exclusively is a good one. It means that if I miss my first putt, I still feel reasonably confident of dropping the second if I am within 5 feet of the hole, which takes a lot of pressure off the first putt – I am not thinking of having to leave it in a good spot for the second so can concentrate on trying to hole it.

I don’t always hole the short putts of course, but get enough of them that I feel confident over the putter and that makes all the difference

Dan
when you get a short putt and you can see the cup out of the corner of your eye at address
it is very important that YOU DO NOT LOOK at the cup until you hear it drop,
if you look you will miss it,

It has never occurred to me that I might be able to see the cup out if the corner of my eye. Now that is all I will see. Geez thanks kiwi.

It has never occurred to me that I might be able to see the cup out if the corner of my eye. Now that is all I will see. Geez thanks kiwi.

Horsey blinkers may work
:)

32 putts today deege with an average performance. Just saying.

MOOOOOOOOSE

Double moose.

Had a reasonable day today. Was really pleased with my putting, not so much for the numbers, but because I made a number of clutch putts not in gimme range for those important two-pointers or one-pointers.

I am really liking the feel on the metal X which means that I feel in control of my distance much more than I had been. And I am developing that feel of not having to be inside 2 feet to make the second putt, which takes a great amount of pressure off the first putt.

The second thing I was really pleased about was my mental game today. I scored a 28 with 19 on the back 9. When I have a poor front 9 I have been taking to playing matchplay with myself on the back – on the 10th trying to beat my score on the 1st etc etc. I have found this really effective at getting my game back on track and salvaging a decent score from an atrocious beginning.

Finally, I was really pleased with my bunker play (I know, right?). I have been taking the rather radical step of incorporating some actual bunker practice into my routine. I normally spend about 40 minutes hitting some shots, hitting some chips, hitting some putts before I play. Given my atrocious record in bunkers, I realised that I really should include at least 10 bunker shots from our practice bunker in my weekly warmup. So admittedly only 20-30 practice shots so far, but that is 20-30 more than I have done in the last year. And amazingly enough, whenever I got in a bunker today (4 times maybe) I got out and on the green. It wasn’t always pretty, but I was pretty darn pleased.

Practice may not always make perfect but it sure does help build some confidence. Stick with it. Unfamiliar shots of any kind cause doubt….mainly because they’re unfamiliar :)

Well done on the bunker play Deege.

It’s pretty important to get that into your bag of tricks, and then you don’t worry so much when you are hitting shots into greens where you could end up in one. Helps you relax and hit the better shot, in the knowledge that they won’t be an issue for you if you get into one.

I reckon my bunker play is probably one of the better aspects of my game (relative to my handicap), and it is one less thing that I worry about on the course. Chipping out of deep grass…..that’s my nightmare.

Out of deep grass open the face and use nothing higher than a 8 ir. The grass will often catch and close the club face. Another thing to try Goldy :)

The thing is, I had never felt that bunker play was such a poor part of my game relative to the rest.. But it was certainly something that was hit and miss, and something that I was not spending any time at all improving. So hopefully, just spending a little time in practice will start to reap some dividends.

Have booked in for a lesson with my pro next week to start my regime for my race to single figures. So will be good to have a general check and identify some things to work on.

Oh and Goldy, I treat deep grass like a bunker, in the sense of take your medicine. I take a sand wedge and try to muscle it a bit.

Yeah…me too.

Sometimes good….sometimes not.

Out of deep grass open the face and use nothing higher than a 8 ir. The grass will often catch and close the club face. Another thing to try Goldy :)

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VTTP #534
The “unofficial” millionth POST poster

Deege
wack this on ignore
if you dont practise flops dont try this as even with an open face you need to swing it even harder as you have delofted the club and the result could go anywhere if not executed perfect.
try and stick with 100% shots that will always work and you know you can pull off every time

for deepish grass use a stronger loft yeah, instead of say a 56 use a pw or 9i, the stronger loft will help get the ball out.
a perfect bent left wrist is the answer with weight left leg and club face square
cheers
kiwi

I understood about every third sentence of that.

Though seeing as I haven’t identified deep grass as being a particularly annoying situation for me, maybe I do it at least as well (or as badly) as anything else.

deep grass is anything that has a ball down inside
and usually up to my knees

I understood about every third sentence of that.

here is every 3rd line and rest deleted

if you dont practise flops dont try this as even with an open face you need to swing it even harder as you have delofted the club
try and stick with 100% shots that will always work and you know a pw or 9i, the stronger loft will help get the ball out.
a perfect bent left wrist is the answer with weight left leg and club
kiwi

I managed to stay with you up to and including “deleted”

Can you run that by me one more time ;-)

I managed to stay with you up to and including “deleted”

Can you run that by me one more time ;-)

farrk
i kept every 3rd line & deleted the rest

deep grass is anything that has a ball down inside
and usually up to my knees

Always Always stand behind when playing in Shreks group
hosel rockets are soooo un predictable

You are opening yourself up to some short jokes…...with that statement.

So I played at the National the other day in a corporate day. I play this corporate day on the old course once a year and I love it, but gee am I glad I don’t play there every week. I get enough stick for being willing to tough it at at the buttcrack of dawn in the middle of winter in order to get a round in – if I had to tee off into the face of a gale force wind like we had yesterday at the National, I think I would give the game away.

I was generally very pleased with those parts of my game I am trying to particularly pay attention to. In particular, my putting was very solid, to the point that I became the designated putter in our group.

Despite the shocking weather, the day was very enjoyable and gave me a good boost to my confidence in being able to play in challenging conditions and aquit myself well compared with the others in the team. Now I have a definite aim to get myself under 20 by the next time I play there, to see just what I can do around the course when I have my game on song.