Any tips for some good putting drills. Missing every putt by inches either left or right, and still having trouble getting close on long putts. Should I be using forward lean on the putter to get the ball there?

My first check on putting is to have some way to check your alignment and aim. Get someone to help you. Check feet hips and shoulders and try to make sure your eyes are over the ball. Drills are great for feel and touch but make sure the fundamentals are dialed in.

I'm currently "rebuilding" my swing. lol. It sounds cool to say it this way but in actuality I probably don't have a swing.

I have way too much forward press on all my irons and a pretty weak grip. I think a couple years ago when I started I did this and put the ball sort of back in my stance as a crutch to make sure I never hit it fat. Problem is, I will hit them thin once in a while and my ****'s just all ****ed up. Sometimes on my best wedge shots my left foot will actually lift off the ground.

Anyway I always notice on face-on views of players with their irons, the iron is almost perpendicular to the ground. Like no press at all - just straight up. Maybe a little press with wedges but not much. I forward-press several inches with every iron.

So I'm trying to learn to hit the ball with no forward press. This feels really weird to me, though. Like I legitimately have a hard time holding the club at address. I basically have no idea wtf is going on.

My driver is fine. It's a completely different swing. Ball way up on my front foot, 9 degree loft, ridiculously strong grip and hit up on the ball.

ARC,

Check out his video from Sean Foley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtzD-Hp9nOo

Practice.

Have you gone out to a practice green and spent an hour or two each day hitting putts?

No, not as much as I should. I'm gonna try to get in 8-10 hours before I head out again. Need more reps. But the long putts drive me crazy. If I'm over 20+ feel away I'm leaving it 5 feet short no matter how far back I take the putter.

****in killed it today. great day.

This may sound ridiculous, but I think playing tiger woods '13 (a golf video game for those who don't know) actually helps my real life golf game. You control the players swing plane and rhythm with a joystick, and IMO it's a pretty accurate simulation.

It's hard to explain but I feel like it helps me get a feel for tempo.

Confirmed ridiculous

Well, the actual playing of the game does nothing for your own game. But it could be possible to gain some positive feedback simply observing the swing of the avatar. If you're one of those people that can see something and then kind of mimic bits and pieces of the picture, it could possibly help.

Similar I guess to watching Couples or Singh swing and then subconsciously incorporating that great tempo. But in the end, you'd get much more out of watching swings on youtube than a silly video game.

BO

Well if nothing else I dont see how it could hurt.

I'm going to Kohler in a couple of weeks. Been plying the Straits and River courses on TW 13 to practice. Got my man dialed in to my irl driver yardage to work on my lines. Lol.

That's the thing I've done both. I think the fact that I control the motion (a more hands on version of watching youtube swings perhaps?) coupled with pretty stunning realism in today's video games might give better feedback than just watching a swing.

I think you might be joking but if you had the opportunity to play a course featured in the game it would be superb advance practice (besides actually playing it) to play it a bunch of times in tw13.

No. Just no. It's a video game, you sit there and push buttons. No.

BO

I would agree with this as far as course management and knowing the course. I actually think playing TW helped me too, especially with seeing how far to take the club back when chipping.

Golfed with a guy from Dallas yesterday, asked him if he knew you he said no.

Obviously not a scratch or better then.

I kid, I kid.

BO

I realize it sounds far fetched. But old school pilots probably think flight simulators are a joke.

I bet a friend who has just gotten into golf in the past year that I could beat him with his right handed clubs (I'm lefty) and my left handed putter on a par 3 course. I am probably a 13 handicap and I generally putt decently. He would probably shoot around 130 if he actually played by the rules on real courses, but claims to shoot around 105 usually. I did get 3 to 1 on this bet.

We have agreed to a course, but didn't mention which tees we would play. Even from the back tees only two holes are longer than 175 (longest is 190). Does it behoove me to campaign for the blues or whites given his skill level and that I think I will have more problems with distance control than direction off the tee? The course is very flat and I dont think I will have any tough short shots and I did screw around enough with right handed clubs as a kid to have a feel for the short game a little bit.

I am planning to turn his clubs around and hitting them lefty off the toe at a 90 degree angle off the tees and then putt from <15 yards off the green. Thoughts on this strategy?

Also, this course has very slow and bumpy greens (or did the last time I played it ~4 years ago), but is lighted. Would it be better to play under the lights or during the day given that I am the better putter and he has probably never played after dark?

I almost can't hit a ball from the opposite side, so I would NEVER do this. You're about a two stroke a hole favorite with out doing anything different. But, you're playing a par 3, so that goes down. I assume you're just doing this for fun, so why bother trying to think up subtle advantages. How much are you playing for? I would guess that most lefties are better at doing things righty then vice a versa because sometimes you have to try to do something righty.

Without knowing anything else about you, other than that you took the bet, I expect you to get crushed. Also figure, your buddy might actually practice a bit going into the bet.

What do you think a course rating is?

Playing TW definitely helped me a lot. I'm not talking about swing plane or tempo or anything like that but definitely other areas. Course management it helps a ton. And just real fundamental concepts like hitting greens in reg and 2-putting for par. Seeing how a bogey hurts a ton because now you need a birdie just to get back to even. How to aim for avoiding bunkers, how sometimes being 40 yards from the green can be worse than being further, etc. I learned a ****load about golf just by playing this video game.
This all sounds like easy stuff but for someone who didn't grow up on a golf course it's just not information you know.

Same can be said about NFL football. I started watching football in 2002 but just watched Texans games because they were new and I thought it would be cool to have a dog in the fight now. Then in about 2005 I started playing Madden for XBOX and learned real basic **** like what all the position players actually do. How big guys are who play certain positions, how to playcall, etc. All the fundamental crap. If you never played pop warner football you just won't learn this stuff by watching TV because all they say is **** like "There's a Spider 2 Y Banana double-A gap blitz" Or they keep the discussion real low-brow "DAS A FOOTBAW PLAYER RIGHT THERE".

There is a perennial joke in the NFL threads that NFL coaches should be REQUIRED to play like 10 games of Madden just to learn clock management, because NFL coaches make some of the most rudimentary mistakes imagineable and get paid millions to do it. Nerds playing in their living room don't make these mistakes - because you learn how costly they are when you play a 30-season franchise mode in 3 months. NFL coaches are so ****ing terrible. There's no way they'd play either because you know they think they're above that ****.

"A DAMN VIDEO GAME CAN'T TEACH ME A DAMN THING. NO VIDEO GAME EVER PLAYED NO FOOTBAW. AMERICA. GUNS. TOBACCO. **** YEAH"

Apparently you missed the part where he said that he's turning the club around and swinging lefty. That said I have no clue whatsoever if you're on the good side of the bet. Sounds like a fun time though

Ooops, my learning disabilities took over, there. LOL