so if you're saying twice a week for 2 hours i can safely assume its more like once a week for a half hour but yeah get to work on your short game ASAP and you'll get there soon imo

figured i'd quickly tell you my story of going from an 80's shooter to a 70's shooter.

i picked up the game when i was 15. i had been to the driving range maybe 5 times in my life before that but had only played on an actual course once when i was like 12.

so i got a job at a golf course and started playing a ton since it was free. fast forward ~8 months later and i barely make the JV squad of my high school team.

the summer following that JV season i decided to work really really hard on my short game, and by the end of the summer was shooting the the 70's consistently. was #1 varsity the next season from start to finish.

sure my swing got better but i attribute the quick and rather drastic improvement to my short game practice.

don't be scared of thinking you can start shooting in the 70's consistently within a few months. but playing ~10 rounds a month is <<<<<<<<< putting in ~7 hours a week around the chipping/putting green.

best of luck, i'll be following this thread to see when you breakthrough!

my game is one big mess currently

irons- when I feel it I hit it perfect (of course perfect imo), but I'm so inconsistent
driver- disaster last few weeks, no distance, no direction, no feel in my head
putter- still bad, but at least I'm starting hitting it on the line more and more often, pace is a big problem right now

don't think I will break 80 soon, not sure when I'm gonna break 90 again

LFC - spend as much time as you can on the putting greens, seriously hit over 100 6ft, 12ft, 18ft. Then to finish do like 50 3-4 ft putts, and if u miss one start again. Ul shave like 5-10 shots off a round in no time. Before u play knock in a good few putts that you know you'll hole, amazing for confidence.

funny story on putting about tiger woods. i'm reading a book on him right now called "follow the roar". pretty good book. very good writer.

anyway, when tiger was in LA (northern end of town) he needed somewhere to play/practice. a guy at a club i'd barely heard of (across from universal studios) helps him out. tiger shows up with only putter and some golf balls. doesn't want to do anything else. spent 12 hours over 2 days trying to make all 3 balls from the toughest long putts on the putting green. talk about targeting perfection.

i'm pretty close i hope to breaking 80. tons of 82s and 83s and 37's and 38's sometimes on courses that aren't that easy and/or that i don't know at all.

here's what i'm working on:

blowup holes are the obvious nemesis. learn to hit 3 wood and 5 wood off tee and then use them. i am just starting to implement this and it looks extremely promising. now it's more the mental part of sticking to it (a friend and i talked about how hitting driver is so enjoyable, but if you want to score you have to get away from that mindset)... as a note, somehow i could never hit 3w off a tee that well and hadn't been hitting it that well off fairway for a long time. but i really put tons of thought and effort into fixing this. and i think this is the one club where a proper fitting makes a massive difference. every other club i find i can hit fairly well no matter what stick i hit but 3w is just so prone to slice i find.

figure out what i need to hit out of deep rough to advance the ball 150 yards and more.... looking for insight from others here. hybrid seems obvious answer and in my case may fill in yardage gap too.

learn to hit driver straight.

figure out my alignment. wider stance = more consistency. narrower stance = better best shots but some horrible misses. but i think i need the consistency

accepting the fact that my average 5w shot is probably just as good as all but my best 3i or 4i. like many here, i remember the 3 iron i stuck on the pin over a bunker from 205 yards ONCE. gotta figure out my yardages and practice delofting 5i and punching 5w to fill in distance gaps.

wedges, wedges, wedges... and try to get away from overly relying on 60 degree wedge.... was at pro tourney a few weeks ago and they are astoundingly good at wedge play.

learn trouble shots. attempting low, high, hook, slice shots when necessary just kills me. i'll try to hit low hook and end up hitting big pull. very bad. but i think just pitching out all the time is too wimpy (sometimes for sure)... at LA Open, PGA pro's just astounded me at how good they were at getting around trees. never saw a bad result at all.

sand has been killing me recently. took out 56 SW thinking 60 degree could do job. it can't.

moving my set up i think to D, P, 3 and 5W, 19H, 5-PW. 53, 56S, 60... again have to figure out 180 to 220 yards but they are hardly the money strokes in trying to break 80 (break 70 maybe)

one other thought regarding my tiger woods story (spending 12 hours over 2 days trying to make 3 impossible putts in a row) is that i think it's useful to try to figure out how to hit 2 or 3 shots exactly the same in a row. gets you really thinking about balance, tempo, target contact point on the ball etc.. basically hand position and tempo i'd think.

one last thing i'll add that adds to my previous point. it will amaze you how much doing alot of chips and pitches will help your long game. just feeling impact. it can be somewhat boring of course. a pro i took some lessons from also had my hitting balls with my feet together (john jacobs preaches this too and i consider him one of the very best teachers). anyway, hitting with feet together really helps improve swing feel alot.

how often do you practice vs play?

i have found while trying to improve that actually playing golf is usually just a step backward. of course, playing 18 holes is a lot more fun than practicing, but if you want to really improve than playing a lot might be hurting your game.

first there's the time wasting aspect. in a round of golf you take 3-5 hours to hit 50 shots and 32 putts. you could get that done in the practice area in an hour.

but more importantly, when you're playing 18 holes, you're not thinking about your swing mechanics. or at least, you shouldn't be.

i played golf last tuesday- i couldn't hit a draw to save my life even though i had been hitting a draw all week on the range. the way we swing is different on the course, for a lot of different reasons that aren't all that important. on the range you can check yourself on video, use alignment, and work to groove your swing to where you want it to be. can't really do any of that on the course.

i was thinking the exact opposite. hitting balls at the range lulls you into false confidence. constantly tinkering to get the proper ball flight. you can't do that on the course.

at least try to hit balls with a purpose. maybe replicate a round so you are never hitting driver back to back.

agree totally on golf rounds taking a long time.

can't say i can make sense of this. you think that if it's a stripe show on the range that you're pretty much doomed when you step on to the course?

so if you shouldn't tinker with your swing on the range...and you shouldn't tinker on the course...you just shouldn't tinker? works for bubba watson, probably won't work for 99% of golfers.

you may go to the range and just whack em around without thinking about a thing but that's not how i practice. hopefully it's not how LFC practices!

Lol @ completely ignoring my putting advice, don't u know I put a lot of effort into writing it?

@ frankie
thx, I really put some time in putting. But mostly I'm concentrating on shorter putts rather than long ones. But need to change it.
Also do ~100 putts/day in my room with peltz putting tutor.
My back doesn't like it tho

@augie
I dont play much (almost at all) practice round. We have a Summer Cup in my club- so I play a tourney every Wednesday, also almost every weekend we have other tournaments (sometimes 2day events) so usually 2-3 competitive rounds per week.
Other days I spend on driving range and putting green.
Sometimes (like today) when I don't feel like practicing I will go and play 9 holes with multiple driving from the tee, few approaches, few putts on each hole - so typical practicing play

If its any comfort to u lfc, I played golf for the first time in 5-6 weeks tonight, I'm used to shooting maybe 3 or 4 over at worst. I'd have been lucky to shoot 90 ish tonight.

worst golfer ever

http://eagle.pzgolf.pl/Public/LiveSc...ref=True&lang=

5 OB
at least I see a little improvement in putting

spent a lot of time near the green lately.
Here are 2 vids I took today

1st one is ~40m pitch, 2nd is 32m. Got only front view
any opinions ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAAOPs4e_nY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTbFeV_4QD8