Everything golf

[shafnutz05]

Scheffler and Burns going to a playoff. What a final round from Burns

[dodint]

Congrats on the hot round, shaf.

I played a mediocre round at Penn State Blue today. My 7w experiment is working out, so that's cool. Everything else was meh.

[shafnutz05]

Congrats on the hot round, shaf.

I played a mediocre round at Penn State Blue today. My 7w experiment is working out, so that's cool. Everything else was meh.

Thank you sir.

Please remind me again, what's the 7w iron equivalent for you?

[dodint]

It's the same loft as a 3i, at 21 degrees.
Specifically I replaced my 17 degree 2 hybrid. The 7w has a longer shaft, but more loft. So the club swings faster, around 90mph, and flies higher. So it is going about 215yd (15yd farther than the 17h) and comes in for a softer landing.

My 17 degree 2h and 18 degree 3h were overlapping way too much so it was an easy call to pull one of them.

It's really nice for 2nd shots into par 5s. The top of my bag now:
Bridgestone JGR 9.5° 
Bridgestone Tour B JGR 7w
Ben Hogan VKTR 18h
PING G425 4i-9i

I have been cycling several different clubs in that spot and this is the first one that I have really liked both indoors and out. I finally have actual gaps at the top end.

[shafnutz05]

Thanks. Might take a few swings with one at the local golf store tomorrow.

[dodint]

They are hot this year. Used to be only for ladies and seniors, but people love the trajectory and forgiveness. Tough to find used in stiff flex. I tried two and hit them both really well. Good luck.

[King Colby]

Man... What a round today. I was +9 through the first four holes. Calmed down, played holes 5-13 in four over par, including three pars and a really hard fought birdie on a Par 5. That stretch is the best golf I've played my life.

Fell apart a bit down the stretch and ended up with a 98, breaking my PR by one. A lot to be excited about but man, that could have been even better.

Haha I played an almost identical round on Thursday. Started double-triple-double-double and wanted to quit and was +1 over the next 5 to finish the front with a 46 the hard way shrug

[FistOfCaufield]

So I've been listening to two podcast, the first is the Chasing Scratch guys and the other is the Sweet Spot with Adam Young and Jon Sherman.

Adam Young has an interesting take on the golf swing - a more "skills" approach moreso than mechanics. For him - the clubface contact is the biggest thing - so swing mechanics while they might help you a bit, matter less than how you actually hit the ball.

He will practice for example hitting balls more toward the toe or heel... or maybe hitting shots with the club face 1 degree closed vs 3 degree closed. The smaller adjustments you can make on demand, the better your skill is. Developing this makes you a better golfer in his opinion, he actually has a video of him doing 9 really bad swings by striping it because he can control the club face at impact though skill.

Interestingly the Chasing Scratch guys have talked to him, and this year they are trying to be more "Athletic" on the golf course, Eli was a D1 college basketball player and he brought up the point, at no time did he video his shot and diagnose mechanics. He practiced shooting - was his form different than another guy? Sure, but he shot the ball well because he practiced the skill of shooting and could adjust it, not by changing something mechanical - but because he just knew how to make a shot.

That got me thinking - we worry so much about the mechanics of the swing, these little things that happen in a split second - and we spend hours trying to "fix" them, but what about the 1000 other things? I think your body isn't given enough credit to know how to hit a ball to a place.

They had an interesting study they brought up - two groups learning how to play darts. Group 1 was given a dart board and darts and told to go ahead and learn to hit their targets, group 2 was given mechanical instruction, perfect form, etc to hit their target. In the end group 1 ended up being better dart players, but group 2 players actually had a more consistent form, they learned and were able to replicate the perfect form more often.

I tried it this past week, part of my pre shot routine involved some more visualization - a focus with each practice swing on where I wanted the ball to start and go, I had been fighting the pull hook/push as I come quite a bit from the inside... but every tee shot I took ended up just where I wanted. I think letting go of mechanical thoughts let me focus on tempo and just hitting the ball.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

yeah, I mean at the end of the day the only things that matter are club head speed, swing plane, club face angle and point of impact. how you get there doesn’t really matter but all the mechanics training stuff is more about building good habits and a consistent, repeatable swing. Like when you’re in little league and you’re told to keep your back elbow up.

[MR25]

Live look at my swing with a sprained toe

[willeyeam]

Well the LIV golf event is next week and we don't have a tee sheet yet. Getting interesting

[Troy Loney]

Well the LIV golf event is next week and we don't have a tee sheet yet. Getting interesting

Are there contractual reasons a PGA tour pro wouldn't do this thing, or would it just be looked on poorly by PGA officials?

I assume Phil is a definite.

[willeyeam]

they had to request a release to play it, similar to when they play Euro DP World Tour events. The Tour rejected all the releases. So they now either have to choose to play the Saudi tour or the PGA tour exclusively

[dodint]

I'm getting pretty disillusioned about golf right now. I shot 109 in the last three rounds I've played. Every time I correct a problem it just gets replaced by two more.
I played on Sunday and it took four or five holes for me to start making solid contact. And that was after a proper full warm-up. It was the first round I can remember where I didn't card at least one par. I understand that I've made substantial technical improvements in all facets of my game (except putting, that doesn't change, always average 2-putts per hole) but with the scores not coming down I'm getting really dejected. Holes like this still happen three to four times per round:



That's four straight swings that resulted in mishits. I've been working on that exact problem for over a year. Maybe I'm just not coordinated and athletic enough for competitive golf?

I want to play in the WV state championship in two weeks but I'm completely miserable out there. Lately I've been stumbling out of the gate with blow-up holes early, and then when the match is out of reach I relax and play fine. How do you commit without confidence when it matters?

[Troy Loney]

Okay, so this is going to get a bunch of average to above average players to bail on the PGA tour to get some cash?

Just seems like a dumb gamble, the only way this thing brings any "competition" to the PGA tour is if it snags some of the recognizable current top guys. It it's a Korn Ferry event with Phil Mickelson, then so what?

[Troy Loney]

That's four straight swings that resulted in mishits. I've been working on that exact problem for over a year. Maybe I'm just not coordinated and athletic enough for competitive golf?

I want to play in the WV state championship in two weeks but I'm completely miserable out there. Lately I've been stumbling out of the gate with blow-up holes early, and then when the match is out of reach I relax and play fine. How do you commit without confidence when it matters?

Things can spiral pretty easily, and shanks beget more shanks.

Might be a mindset thing. There are so many things that can cause a bad shot/shank, might be thinking more about what not to do as opposed to what it feels like when you feel good over the ball. When I have rounds with contact issues, I am OCD about getting to the range and regaining comfort over the ball.

[dodint]

That's what is most upsetting. I practice indoors and outdoors every week. I am a hero when it doesn't matter. Get me on course and it all goes away.

I don't understand how I can be so good at sportscar racing, high stakes high intensity driving for long durations. But I can not hit a small ball sitting still on a patch of grass if someone is watching.

[Troy Loney]

That's what is most upsetting. I practice indoors and outdoors every week. I am a hero when it doesn't matter. Get me on course and it all goes away.

I don't understand how I can be so good at sportscar racing, high stakes high intensity driving for long durations. But I can not hit a small ball sitting still on a patch of grass if someone is watching.

Sounds mental to me, if you are hitting the ball square on the range, then you are able to hit the ball square.

I'd also try and hit more on grass ranges than matts. If it's a contact thing, the lie you get on the matt is not a consistent indication of what you will actually have to do on the course.

[dodint]

Agreed. I do my driver training indoors because there shouldn't be any turf interaction. But I do my irons and wedges at the grass range where I take my lessons. Just wish they were able to grow grass faster as that area gets a lot of use. I can also practice hitting out of the 'rough' at home with my net, but I haven't set it up yet.

There were several times Sunday that I made clean, pure contact and was one club over the green. But then I'd also thin shots. I can't really even get my distances dialed in when I'm alternating between puring shots and duffing them.

I know I'm being a dodint today but I just can't tell if it should be *this* hard. All I want to do is shoot in the 90s but all I've done is lower my ceiling without actually lowering my scoring average.

[Orlando Penguin]

If I ever say that I've figured out my golf swing, someone please get a mass of doctors ready because I'll likely die the next day and I won't be able to enjoy that swing.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

dodint how much do you do in terms of pre-swing routine? I mean like, when you are at your ball and ready to set up for your shot, do you have a sort of rhythm of things you do to reset your mind and put yourself in a position to hit a good shot regardless of what May have happened previously?

I don’t but I think this is a pretty important thing for me to develop. Like, we all take practice swings before a shot but so we do the practice swings in a way that’s actually beneficial or are we just “practicing the shot” (and if we have a bad practice swing…what do we do then?)? same thing with setting your your feet, hand position, etc

[dodint]

I have a setup routine that is the same every time. It's the last thing I can control before the swing. I do not do practice swings.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Stop trying so much.

[King Colby]

What ktk said. Go have fun the results will take care of themselves

[shafnutz05]

Yeah, that's all I can offer. I think mostly it's the mental game at this point. Not that I'm the one to talk to about controlling that