Official Golf Thread

You guys and your crazy driving ranges. I could never get into the driving range. I'd always rather just play a quick 9 than spend an hour at the range.

about putters, for most people its hard to hit the sweet spot on a putter. As I wrote in my first post in this thread, I still use an old ping anser, which probably dates from '98 or earlier. For me this is the easiest putter to use, as I am used to it and know the damn thing for 10 years+. Most guys would benefit just to spend hours and hours on the putting green with one putter, style doesnt matter that much untill youve groved a solid stroke, not the other way around..

@ pio, just pick one you feel comfortable with and practice, practice and practice with it. Its the one club that youll use the most, and itll be the most valuable in your bag if you get comfortable with it..

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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I think the range can be dangerous for us noobs. Too easy to get wound up. As I've noticed, first 50% of my shots are on the whole not bad. Last 50% I get progressively worse. I figure part of that is mental, as mistakes accumulate on top of each other and part is physical, as those muscles are not really used to working together in that certain way and tire unevenly, screwing up my swing. Probably why the instructor specified we get only a medium bucket and split that between the two of us.

Next lesson Friday morning.

I think you're right. My biggest problem is that when I start doing something poorly I'll keep pushing and pushing until I get it right. This is probably a terrible approach for a game as mental as golf. It's compounded by the fact that the driving range I use charges by the hour and not the bucket - last Saturday I went through two buckets of balls in less than 1:15. I just kept looking for that one perfect shot, and it never came. The guy teaching me eventually told me just to walk away for the day. On my last ball I had a nice, clean swing, though the ball wasn't great, and he basically said "let that be good enough for today." Normally, I leave on a great shot, but that day I just needed to stop pushing.

Another problem, at least for me, is that I get sloppy when I get tired. This means my shots deteriorate pretty severly if I'm not careful, so I can end up doing exactly what you're talking about. This is a recipe for disaster - I kept thinking I could get over the hump for that day and hit a few good ones before I left, but fatigue and frustration made it pretty much impossible.

Originally Posted by nootje

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@ pio, just pick one you feel comfortable with and practice, practice and practice with it. Its the one club that youll use the most, and itll be the most valuable in your bag if you get comfortable with it..
This is absolutely correct. People spend all kinds of time, energy and money on their drivers and irons, yet ignore for the most part their putting. Spend lots of time on the practice green. Eliminate 3-putts and you'll improve your scores a lot more than adding 25 yards to your drive. 18 x 3 (putts) = 54 strokes. 18 x 2 (putts) = 36 The putter is the most important club in your bag.

I will indeed work on my putting. The golf course where I've gone the range twice now? Nice putting area with a huge, huge green and about 12 holes. Both visits, just one guy out there. I'll spend time there.

if interested I can provide you with a couple of drills that helped me keep it interesting..

Originally Posted by nootje

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if interested I can provide you with a couple of drills that helped me keep it interesting..

I would be interested, if you wouldn't mind passing them along when you have a chance.

I played at 7am this morning and wasn't happy, so I'm headed back for another 18.

Would like the drills too. We actually have a small putting green I had installed at work (justified under rehabilitative therapy ) so could practice at lunch.

I wouldn't mind getting info on the drills either.

The only drill you need for putting is a stack of dollar bills and some old guys at the local muni to putt against.

I'm actually a great putter and I use this old school wood one that I had made, I'll post pics.


And yes, I know this sounds like one huge pun but the entire post is strictly about golf.

Find clubs that you like looking at. It's true some clubs provide more margin of error than others, but in my experience, having confidence looking down at the club provides dramatically greater benefit. I play Titleist forged cavity backs from about 8 years ago, which have a thin top line, no more offset than their blades, and a very shallow cavity. Having hit these and bigger game improvement irons, I've found that most of my mishits go farther but more offline with game improvement irons, which typically leads to trouble.

I'm pretty devoted to Titleist, so I don't think you can go wrong with their products for your driver and putter. I'd really recommend looking for a gently used Titleist 905R. It's a bit old now, I want to say I got it about four years ago, but it's a great driver. I've used some of the newer Titleist stuff and not been as happy as with my 905R (I play 8.5*, UST Proforce V2 stiff shaft).

I think Scotty Cameron's putters are unmatched. I've got a Newport 2 Pro Platinum that I've had for almost ten years now. The weighting is perfect for me and visually it's very nice.

Once you get reasonable with your general ballstriking, focus most of your efforts on driving and putting. I've found that my scores are 95% dependent on my driving game and putting. I overemphasize my practice with irons because I love striking my irons well, but good driving and putting really are the secrets to low scores.

Played in a chairty golf scramble today. I played piss poor. From the tee I was ok ( just missed the long drive contest hole by putting one 2 feet into the rough). Couldn't hit irons for ****. Made some putts but as a team we missed about a half dozen for birdie and eagle. Shot -11.

Gimmic hole set up so that you tee up with a driver of your opposite hand. Kicker is that wherever the best ball is you tee up again and that is your first shot. Me being ambidextrous put one about 225 center cut and hit driver onto the green. We couldn't convert the double eagle putt.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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The only drill you need for putting is a stack of dollar bills and some old guys at the local muni to putt against.

yup, this will work .

as for other methods,

most crucial puts will be from within 2m or 6 feet. Place a tee on the green and start from one foot. With each put, move out one foot. If the tee is missed go back to one foot, 8 feet should be attainable.

for longer puts the goal should be distance control, so pace out a reasonable long put (for instance 20 feet) and create four squares 2 feet deep with tee's in front of each other. One should be able to hit each of these squares consecutively three times, so thats twelve correctly paced puts. Vary the distance if you will.

for short puts, place 6 tee's at three feet distance around the hole and give them numbers. Rules; make the put, onward to the next tee. two put, back one tee. three put, start over. i usually did this for two rounds. Place them on a sloped part of the green for the extra effort.