Round Tracker 2019

Time for our annual daily stories thread.

I'm really psyched about my driver swing. I still need to gain strength in my hip but I've made some adjustments that have me really striking the ball squarely.

1) Choke down one half inch.
2) Left shoulder forward, right shoulder back at address.
3) Let the face open going back and close coming through (don't try to stay square).
4) Hit from the inside.
5) WATCH THE FUCKING BALL ALL THE WAY THROUGH IMPACT.

I literally don't recall my last driver swing that went OB or into unplayable trouble.

NEhomer said:

Time for our annual daily stories thread.

I'm really psyched about my driver swing. I still need to gain strength in my hip but I've made some adjustments that have me really striking the ball squarely.

1) Choke down one half inch.
2) Left shoulder forward, right shoulder back at address.
3) Let the face open going back and close coming through (don't try to stay square).
4) Hit from the inside.
5) WATCH THE FUCKING BALL ALL THE WAY THROUGH IMPACT.

I literally don't recall my last driver swing that went OB or into unplayable trouble.

Click to expand...

Good to see you working yourself back!

#5 is my big focus thru the bag. I actually can get away with pulling my head off the driver slightly before impact...not a great result, but those shots typically stay on the golf course, but that same flaw with my irons often means missing the green right.

I have about 15 rounds in so far this season (surprisingly warm FEB)...we played every weekend and that's a 1st.

Stroke avg is 86 right now, acceptable, but still higher than I would like. I'm hitting more greens than I was this time LY, but need to tighten up my short game. Hopefully some of that will come from improved course conditions....it was wet and soft other most of the winter/early spring easy for the club to dig into the turf.

Yeah, and we're starting to get more roll as things dry out and the temps climb.

I'm an 8.4 right now. When I start putting in scores, I'm hoping to get under an 8.

Under 8...is a great index...some sub 80 scores in that last 20 rounds. Got in one 79 LY, I'm hope to break 80 more this yr.

played shitty last night in league play and shot a 50. My tee shots were fine, but my second shot was more than likely terrible. I have no idea what was going on, that second shot is usually my bread and butter...

sunk a 30 ft putt on the Par 4 last hole...for a 7

Two day tournament at my course so it's closed till 2:00 each day. I'll likely play tomorrow afternoon but I do want to hit the range today.

...who's teein' it up today?

NEhomer said:

Two day tournament at my course so it's closed till 2:00 each day. I'll likely play tomorrow afternoon but I do want to hit the range today.

...who's teein' it up today?

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Have a 3:09 tee time.

Yesterday we were jumping around the course just practicing. Ninth hole, second shot, I got a sharp pain on the inside of my left elbow, can barely turn my hand towards the outside without screaming like a little girl.

Decided against an arm workout, but golf is a must try.

fknhippie said:

Have a 3:09 tee time.

Yesterday we were jumping around the course just practicing. Ninth hole, second shot, I got a sharp pain on the inside of my left elbow, can barely turn my hand towards the outside without screaming like a little girl.

Decided against an arm workout, but golf is a must try.

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Man, it's always something.

I was kneeling doing something on my motorcycle the other day and then couldn't straighten out my leg for a couple of hours.

NEhomer said:

Man, it's always something.

I was kneeling doing something on my motorcycle the other day and then couldn't straighten out my leg for a couple of hours.

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And you're a young man, just wait...it gets worse.

I ain't that much younger than you!

Hit the range yesterday and made a .6 degree loft adjustment on the driver. I feel like I really have it dialed in. We'll find out this afternoon. Gonna take a cart and play 18.

Felt bad yesterday at the range. Young high school-aged kid near me looked like good player material but he was making the classic mistake of trying to hit the ball up into the air and his swing was happening way behind the ball causing him to thin shot after shot. I asked him where he played and we chatted a bit. I told him to try hitting a little more down into the back of the ball. He was immediately insulted and said he doesn't have a problem with thinning shots. I smiled and wished him luck.

Now I'm not necessarily a sage at golf but I was booming my driver swing after swing. I just remember when I was young and desperate to get better. I took in anything an older, decent player told me. I'd at least consider it and I'd recognize that they were just trying to help.

Anyway, I wish the young lad well.

Terrible tourney prep round....played Sat at the home course with my normal crew...they both just back from a 5 day golf trip/tourney in Mrytle Bch area. We haven't played here in 3 weeks due to to the greens being punched and sanded....they need another week or so.

51 - 41....fighting my swing, especially my irons early...pulled the approach left into a hz...made +2 7 on the opening par 5...easy par 4 2nd, short but demands a fade if you hit driver which I normally do...left again, hz, drop make a 1 putt 5...par 3 3rd, miss hit came up short, missed the par putt make bogey...#4 tough par 4 uphill, tight landing area...left again heading towards trees, somehow get away with it 160ish out, uphill to green, 6i over compensate right, into lateral hz, pissed now, drop and swing again no practice swing, left into hz greenside...snowman.

Finally figured out something, with 2 pars on the front...my new swing thought of the day...see the ball, i.e. stay down thru the shot and trying to make a concentrated effort to do that I wasn't turning my torso nearly as fast as normal and the arms were taking over, left hip not cleared, over the top, left, left, left.

Fixed it on the back at least...greens got me on back to back GIR with 3 jack bogeys, #13 195 yd par 3, I almost never hit...wasted a rare GIR. Those bogeys were sandwiched between 2 pars on 11 & 12 and 3 pars on 15-17

Triple on 18 (OB right drive and another missed putt inside 3) kept me in the 40s for the back.

I should have taken my distance on the lateral penalty area on #4, maybe I grind out a 1 putt 5 or 6 instead of taking 8, but I felt like I had already lost front 9 the way they were both playing...38 won the front....I did manage to win the back with 41.

Golf is a 4 letter word for a reason!

Going to the range early and on the grill for lunch.

Enjoy this Memorial Day fellas!

Finally going out for the 1st time this morning. I got talked into playing a little mom & pop 9 holer in Hillsborough by a friend of mine that lives real close to it. The yardage is short AF (no par 5's) and the fairways are wide open on almost every hole, but...................... the greens are freakin tiny and 5 of them have goofy pitches or undulations that can make this little course play very difficult if you aren't where you're supposed to be.

Should be a good time

I think I wore myself out a tad at the range Saturday. I just wasn't sharp but I managed to settle down on the back 43-40 so not too bad for still having to take a cart. My first par came at #7....yikes.

Poor Phil came off the front with a +1 36. He was +1 on the 12th tee and made a friggin' snowman! From one bunker to the next, left one in the bunker....yada yada. The he played careful and came down to #18 needing par. You guessed it, he chunked an approach shot and bogeyed to card an 80.

Been doing some contact drills.

Played nine yesterday, shot a 46..not bad considering I had two 7's on the scorecard. Both of those holes i got in trouble on the short game, tried to finesse chip shots and didn't get the blade closed and the ball went off about 2 o'clock.

Don't slow down the club head...Don't slow down the club head...Don't slow down the club head...

Been going to GOLFTEC every other Saturday for lessons. My coach has been able to fix a lot of issues with my swing and I’m striking the ball really well now.

BTHOtu said:

Been going to GOLFTEC every other Saturday for lessons. My coach has been able to fix a lot of issues with my swing and I’m striking the ball really well now.

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Good deal.

Part of their system I like, the part I didn't like as much once I realized I wasn't as nearly talented, trying to get me in the same positions as Ernie Els was never going to happen. I do like that they picked a player similar to my size with a great swing to mimic.

Admittedly I did improve slightly after the Golftec lesson plan.

I know I don't hit enough balls these days to really make any effective swing changes.

ATL96Steeler said:

Good deal.

Part of their system I like, the part I didn't like as much once I realized I wasn't as nearly talented, trying to get me in the same positions as Ernie Els was never going to happen. I do like that they picked a player similar to my size with a great swing to mimic.

Admittedly I did improve slightly after the Golftec lesson plan.

I know I don't hit enough balls these days to really make any effective swing changes.

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I had to make a lot of swing changes. Basically had to strip my golf swing down to bare wood and rebuild it a little bit at a time. I’ve been working on the full swing since January and it’s all finally coming together. For a while I was really frustrated because it seemed like I was getting worse. The last few weeks Ive been hitting the ball better than ever. My fairways hit and greens in reg stats went up considerably.

BTHOtu said:

I had to make a lot of swing changes. Basically had to strip my golf swing down to bare wood and rebuild it a little bit at a time. I’ve been working on the full swing since January and it’s all finally coming together. For a while I was really frustrated because it seemed like I was getting worse. The last few weeks Ive been hitting the ball better than ever. My fairways hit and greens in reg stats went up considerably.

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I started the game with a group lesson pkg...the basics she was able to get hammered in, grip, posture, decent irons, but my driver was not ready for a tight golf course...big slice...able to break a 100, by the end of the summer...barely, 96-100. The following winter I got Golftec lessons and as I said, they did straighten out my slice but my scores were 93 to 97. The last set of lessons I got was probably 12-13 yrs ago...only 3 lessons, but the best instructor I ever had.

At this point...I think I have to own my swing, and go back to some of the basic drills he taught me when things go south. I'd love to be in the 70s more often, but that would require playing more than I'm playing...once a week most weeks.

BTHOtu said:

I had to make a lot of swing changes. Basically had to strip my golf swing down to bare wood and rebuild it a little bit at a time. I’ve been working on the full swing since January and it’s all finally coming together. For a while I was really frustrated because it seemed like I was getting worse. The last few weeks Ive been hitting the ball better than ever. My fairways hit and greens in reg stats went up considerably.

Click to expand...

When you're on track with something it's always good to do some drills of that motion. Just for a few minutes after dinner, step outside and make some swings using those fundamentals. Your body remembers repeated motions. Get comfortable making those moves. I think that sometimes balls flying the wrong way (esp near the end of a range session) can get in the way of learning a correct good move that will bring you forward if you stick with it.

NEhomer said:

When you're on track with something it's always good to do some drills of that motion. Just for a few minutes after dinner, step outside and make some swings using those fundamentals. Your body remembers repeated motions. Get comfortable making those moves. I think that sometimes balls flying the wrong way (esp near the end of a range session) can get in the way of learning a correct good move that will bring you forward if you stick with it.

Click to expand...

I had to learn how to ignore the ball flight early on. According to my coach, I have to make over-corrections instead of adjustments and my body will eventually get used to it. An example is my grip was too weak and was the primary reason for my chronic fades and slices. He adjusted it by making it really strong - like uncomfortably strong. For months I was hitting everything to the left. But as I corrected other things like my lower body, the ball flight straightened up. I don’t even think about my hands anymore. It’s still really strong and I don’t interlock my fingers anymore.

I’ve progressed more by doing the drills in my backyard without hitting balls just to get the muscle memory dialed in. I think the most difficult thing to teach my body was footwork. Going from the balls of my feet to my heels in the back swing and keeping my heels planted through contact. Bending my left knee down towards the ball and straightening my right leg in the back swing to allow for more hip turn. Years and years of bad habits had to be replaced. And with every change I made, it threw my timing off.

Probably the main reason I chose GOLFTEC was for the data analysis part of it. Plus seeing myself swing a club on a big screen is good motivation to lose weight.

Since this post is already tl;dr - Hole #8 on my home course is a long par 3 with a really tight window between trees on the left and right. 190 yards from the blue tees. I have never hit the green on that hole. When I’m near that hole, I always hear balls knocking a tree and profanity so I’m not alone. Until Saturday, with a 4-iron I launched the ball perfectly straight and landed on the green with an easy putt for birdie. And I did it again on Sunday and Monday. I couldn’t be more excited unless I hit a hole in one. This is why I chose to seek professional help with my golf swing.