Swinging easy

I played 18 holes yesterday, and ended up with 111. Although this was my best score yet for 18, obviously it was nothing to brag about. I'm pretty sure I could have done better, and here's why.

Sometimes I'll start a round of golf with one particular thing that I want to concentrate on. Yesterday, I had decided that I would work on making a nice easy swing, and forget about distance. In fact, I had come to the conclusion that a preoccupation with distance is the curse of the high handicapper. So I resolved to forget about distance and just work on making a nice relaxed swing every time.

It worked very well at first. I left my driver in the bag and just used the 3W for most tee shots, and didn't in the least try to crush it. I'd say I was getting 200 yards every time, and straight down the middle. I took the same approach with my irons, and my slogan was "less swing, more club." So on the front 9 I shot a 52, which I was more than pleased with.

But here's the interesting thing. I'd missed some sleep and was more tired than usual, and this fatigue began to kick in after 13 or so holes. I was dragging. I found that the more tired I felt, the harder it was to keep the relaxed swing going. Instead, I started to swing harder, despite my intention to do the opposite. The predictable result was, my swing started to fall apart. In particular I started hitting those nasty pushes. You'd think fatigue would make it easier to make a relaxed swing, but I found the opposite to be true.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

You should have had a double espresso at the turn...haha.

Gotta have a sense of humor, right?

Chessbum.....

If I didn't, the way I play, I would've gone postal long ago.

Ubi

The one thought I have when I get tired is to make sure I rotate my forearms properly through release and 'swing to right field'. Thus I ensure even if my body and arm turns get out of sync i am releasing the clubhead through the ball on the right line. I may not get perfect results but I am making good yards

I also make sure I shorten my backswing, I find if/when I get tired I start to pick the club up rather than using my body/shoulders to turn the triangle. I'll know im doing this right as with a 7/8/9 iron the club should get nowhere near parallel due to the steeper swing plane. If it does i know ive swung back with my arms/hands

Ubi,

It sound like you have tried to concentrate for the whole round, this is almost impossible, try thinking about other things during the round, take in your surroundings etc.

Alot of golfer flag towards the end of the round and it's not always due to health of lack of sleep etc.

Next time you play try this, it really does work. Take a large bottle of water with you and make sure you have a drink from it after every tee shot, and an odd drink while you decide on the fairway shot on par 5s. Also take some fruit and eat it at the turn. You may be very suprised how well you feel towards the end.

P.S. steer clear of bacon and coffee before a round.


Hope this helps


Ian.

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Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

just out of interest, have you ever broken down your round in number of Putts, GIR, FIR etc?
I would be interested in seeing how you racked up 52 on the front 9 when you were keeping it straight?
Something as simple as shot selection & course management could be costing you 5-10 shots per nine...

Gree, just because you hit it straight, doesn't mean you hit it clean. It also doesn't mean you're aligned properly.

Lots of my 52's (over 9) came from misalignment, and hitting fat/thin.

this is what Im trying to find out, I think something relatively simple like shot selection or alignment could save the high handicapper a bunch of easy shots per round

I haven't formally tracked this, but I can say that my GIR was almost certainly zero. On a "good" par 4 hole, I'll get pretty close to the green in 2, then chip on and 2-putt. I had a lot of those on Monday, and was pleased to get them. More commonly, at least one shot between tee and green will be a mishap: maybe a short topped ball or a push into the deep rough or the next fairway.

On a par 3 I hit the green from the tee once in a while, but since I don't have consistent distances with my clubs, it's uncommon. There's one par 3 hole that's 130 yards, with a pond in front of the green, downhill from the tee. Should be a clean 8 iron shot, and I've done it. Once. But countless other times I've hit what seemed like a good solid 8 iron only to see it go high and then drop into the pond. Even shots that feel clean and fly straight are not especially consistent in distance.

Putting wasn't bad on Monday. I only 3-putted one or two (but only 1-putted one or two as well).

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

so why not play every hole for a bogey?
Dont try to hit the green in two, lay up with a 7 or something that you know you can hit and wont end up 2 fairways away.

On the par 3, if a perfect 8 gets you on the green and its protected at the front, hit a 7 everytime, a perfect 7 will have you over the back, but in play.
A mishit will have you on the green and in play.
Course management is vital to your game.

Try playing for a bogey on every hole, actively playing for a bogey, not just accepting one coz you missed your par.
Im sure you woulb be happy walking off the course with a 90...

I think there's a big difference between the ordinary high handicapper, who maybe plays about 100 most of the time, and the "super handicapper," like myself, who is yet to break 110 (and until just recently played pretty consistently around 120). For example, alignment is a very sketchy thing to a golfer who doesn't hit straight. And shot selection is a guessing game to a golfer whose distances vary a lot.

Consider, say, a 425 yard par 4. The first decision is the tee shot. For most golfers this wouldn't take much thought about club selection, but for me...if I'm smart I'll leave the driver in the bag. The probability is too high that I'll either lose the ball outright and take a penalty or send it into an unplayable lie and take a penalty or send it where I need to take a "medicinal" shot to get it back on the fairway. If the fairway is very wide, I may take a chance. More likely, I'll use my 3W or 3H from the tee and hit 200-220 yards, with a pretty good chance of hitting the fairway.

With 225 yards to the green, for my next shot I just want to get close. There's nothing I can hit from the fairway that will travel 225, so I probably choose either my 22* hybrid or my 18* hybrid--180 and 200 yards respectively, but the 22* is likely to give me the straighter shot. If all goes well I'm now 45 yards or less from the green. I probably use my sand wedge, a nice easy swing, and put the ball on the green. Then two putts.

That describes pretty much an ideal golf hole; about as good as it gets for me. I'm very happy to get that bogey. That would get me a score of 108, which I've yet to achieve. That's because there are going to be a few holes where...golf happens. Maybe the 3W off the tee wasn't so straight after all. Maybe the hybrid shot from the fairway was a little thin. Maybe my pitch onto the green rolls right off on the other side, etc.

So my immediate goal is to play consistent bogey golf and reach that 108 mark. My strategy is to leave the driver alone unless I'm looking at a fairway the size of Rhode Island, and to swing the club easy, lessening the likelihood of junk shots.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

all the more reason to make sure you have one less thing to worry about.
If if goes left and you dont know if its because thats where you were aiming or because of a swing fault then you dont know what to work on...

all the more reason to take enough club to allow for a bad shot..if the trouble is short..
sounds perfect...
here is where I see poor shot choice.
Why not hit a 7 iron 130yds and leave yourself ~100 yds from the green.
You have now eliminated the riskier hybrid shot and also givien yourself an easier pitch shot (full shot is easier than trying to judge a 3/4 1/2 swing)
you know have 2 putts for a bogie, or 1 for a sneaky par.
Bogie your way around (using pars on the par 3's to make up on doubles) and you have just shot a 90.

Now that's interesting. It never occurred to me to do that. If I'm over 200 yards from the green I just figure I need to eat up that distance. If I were going to try the strategy you suggest, I think I'd go with the 6 iron and try to end up about 80 yds out. That would give me a shot with the gap wedge and a relaxed swing.

For that matter, I could resort to my hybrid 5, with 27* loft. The added loft gives it even less susceptibility to sidespin than the 3 hybrid. And it's a pretty reliable club for me. I don't use it as often as I might because I so often find myself 180 yds out or more on my 2nd shot and I automatically reach for more club, which usually means the 3 hybrid.

Thanks for the suggestions. They give me some options to consider.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

No worries.
Sometimes its hard to look at something from a different mindset.
Bottom line is reducing the number of shots it takes you to hole out.
Club selection, distance, what the other guy is hitting dont matter a damn at the end of the day.
Let us know how you get on.
but make sure you dont fall into the trap.
(Hey, Im only 10 over after 9, if I can par the next I will have a great score!)
Bogey is your aim.

The best advice when facing water:

You can either hit one more club or two more balls.