My bad. I read bad data online. I saw it say 26C somewhere lol. I was like wtf.

Well, my lesson was pretty interesting last night. I have been taking lessons from one of Shawn Clement's students for the last 4 or 5 years, so my swing has elements of his teachings in it; most notably his braced-tilt pre-turn setup which results in me aiming WAY right. Coupled with a club face that was rolling open at the start, the only way to save the shot was to swing hard left or outside-in on the downswing resulting in massive pulls, divots that go way left, poor balance, spin-outs, etc.

Nick had me start with a wildly open stance and talked to me about keeping the club face shut on the way back and attempting to shut it on the way down. He teaches that the body instinctively reacts to the club face. By keeping the club face shut my body should get into a better position on the way back down; hips leading, forward shaft lean, etc.

I hit balls for about two hours during and after our lesson and the result were mixed. I was absolutely puring the golf ball on most of the shots that I hit and taking very nice divots for the most part. But with the open stance and subconscious spin-out move, the ball was going very hard left for most of the shots. I did however, hit a few very very nice iron shots amongst the bad ones that had trajectories like I have never experienced. It's going to take a lot of work to make this feel natural, but I definitely think he's onto something.

He also took a bunch of videos of my swing and he's very tech-savvy, so I emailed him last night to see if I can get my hands on them. I'll post them up for everyone to make fun of when I get them

That could be the result of more solid contact?

Choking your club is pretty well known to lose distance, especially if you are trying to hit the ball a little harder or get a little extra yardage on a drive. It's a common misconception. IDK the science behind it so hopefully someone else can save me. I just know from experience.

Haha. If you put it up I'll give it a shot, hopefully Spenda won't laugh at my critique too bad.

Also, we need to iron out that round with ND and GL.

I always mean to have my swing filmed but then next thing I know I am done at the range or with the round and Ive forgotten. Ill try super hard to remember this weekend...

From what GL posted he would want to stay in Canada but Im definitely up for a round if you hit up Turning Stone like you said you may (if I remember correctly)

My takeaway with my putter is ****ed up. My rhythm has been improving but I notice my blade doesn't takeaway directly back, but it sort of dips in toward my body (probably only like 1/4" but it obviously feels like a lot and I'm sure it affect my stroke) before I straighten it out. Any tips?

Also, how vital is playing par 3 courses toward doing well on par 3s? I really need to improve on par 3s but the only par 3 course near me is pretty far and out of the way. When you were working on your game did you play a lot of par 3 courses?? I definitely practice tee'd iron shots at the range but it would be great to get 18 attempts at an actual par 3 in one day.

For me whenever I play the par 3 in my area I never tee off from a tee, they actually have it set up like a range with a mat/set tee and it just irks me. I always drop the ball in the grass around the mat to simulate different lies to work on my shorter game for when I play a full course.

Vital? I'd say not at all. I would rank tee'd iron shots as one of the least important shots in golf. Par 3 courses can be fun but I'm not convinced you improve especially by playing them.

imo.

I don't tee up on par 3's unless they are over 190 or if the tee box is terrible. I gain like 20 yards per club when I tee it up and lose all my control and spin.

Why is this? They seem pretty important.

I'd like to be able to 4 times a round feel like I can hit a nice easy tee shot and plop it on the green or at least settle in the fringe and have a legit chance at birdie/par 4 times a round. Par 3s are not easy to birdie but they shouldn't be hard to par, either. I'd like to get to that point.

There are 4 par 3s per round in which you would tee off with an iron, right now you shoot in the ~100 so thats 4% of your score? and even if you shoot par for the round it only comes up to 6%..

Now factor in how many shots you will hit on a normal course from 120-200 (generally what I see as the range of yardage on par 3 courses)..

If you shoot ~100:
14 Driver tee shots
4 iron tee shots
36 putts (avg of 2 per hole, I may be being generous)
5-10 penalty/duffs/really bad shots
...that leaves 64 shots to get to 100, which are the shots you would take from within 200 yds which is generally the shots you can practice from off the ground when playing a par 3 course....

This is why short game is so important, take someone who shoots par even
25 putts (terrible estimate maybe)
14 drivers
4 irons from tees
...so thats 43 shots, leaving 29 shots or 40% of their shots from that range

...so what do you think you should be practicing on a par 3 course again? granted you could work on what you want where you want but for overall work on your game hitting it off the ground seems the best option

And trust me Im a guy who used to get 5s and 6s on par 3s all the time

It might be 4% of my swings but it leads to more than its fair share of strokes above par.

I don't know - I practice tee'd iron shots quite a bit at the range but it's weird when I actually have to aim at a green I don't feel very confident at all. It's probably my least-confident shot type (including out of bunkers) so maybe that's why I'm freaking out. Probably just something I gotta deal with.

Does your range have the set tees or are you able to actually able to put a tee in the ground? because that obviously would matter.. When playing a iron off a tee I barely tee it up at all, most times i look for a broken tee and just jam that almost 100% into the ground so the ball is barely off the ground...

Like I said before I used to have issues on Par 3 but it came down to being comfortable with my swing and realizing its the same swing as if it was on the ground and I also started really swinging at it...

FWIW all my misses are always pulls to the left which is a timing issue

love reading everyones input on their game. i wouldnt even know where to begin with all the lost balls ive had in my last couple rounds.

if anyone has any leads/suggestions for some golf lessons in the boston area i would greatly appreciate it.

Semi-Rules question, more as it relates it a bet. Is this ball on the green? This happens a lot on muni and low-mid range courses. There is the main collar on the green and then at some spots around the circumference of the green there's maybe a 2-3inch wide strip where they didn't quite roll it/cut it to the lowest level. The cut/height of this strip is closer to the green than it is to the collar. So, does the ball need to be on the lowest cut of the green to be considered on, or just inside the collar/highest cut?

I'd rate tee'd iron shots as unimportant for a couple reasons. One, already mentioned, is that they're rare. No more than 4 per round on most courses.

For another, they're entirely unnecessary. If you really do notice a difference between iron shots off turf versus off a tee, just hit 'em off the turf. I'm not sure why that would be - an iron shot off a tee is just an iron shot with a perfect lie (otherwise you're teeing it up too high).

Random Q hopefully someone can help me with, I use Ping G10 Irons and also have a 60 degree LW, I had asked in the pro shop where my friend is a member if they could tell me what degree my SW was, the pro measured it and said it was only 50degree and that my PW was 46.

The next week I went into my local pro shop and told him that my SW has be measured at 50 and i'd need something in between the 50-60, the pro then measured the SW and said it was 54 degree not 50 and the other pro was wrong.

Is there anywhere online I can find the exact details on my clubs?

looks like SW is 54 http://www.ping.com/clubs/ironsdetail.aspx?id=98

I track my # of putts and there are a lot of times when the fringe/green edge isn't clearly defined. I usually just guess as best I can. I would say that if it's not on the shortest stuff, it's not on the green.

Can weathermen ever get it right?

Thursday it was supposed to storm and it was beautiful, I was ok with it as I got in some range time... But today it was 60% of tstorms for big chunks of the day and regular rain scheduled for the rest, I was already pissed because it didnt look like I would get out so I got a chance to work a side job (Bouncer for a bar in the middle of a huge Art Festival for 6 hours) so I figured why not and made an easy $140 but of course the weather has been amazing all day and generally sunny, a perfect golf day...

At least I managed to find someone to go tomorrow @ 3 otherwise I definitely think I would have gone out on my own for the first time in a while.

got my golf member ship today. Cant wait to go golfing on an 18 hole course in the upcoming week

I have the Ping G10s and can confirm that the SW is 54

tyvm

Figured something out today:

Dont try and practice while you are playing a round of golf, I always seem to work too much on my swing while playing instead of just focusing on getting out of my head and just hitting the ****ing ball. Once I stopped thinking I got so much better out there...

...now lets hope I remember for next time

Before I hit a shot of course I make sure my stance feels right and check the distance a couple times and think about the swing I'm about to take. When I've checked on everything and I'm ready to hit I will give myself the OK to hit the ball. Then I wait a moment for that "comfortable" feeling to take over and then start the swing. Sometime though I will get that comfortable feeling before I've told myself I am ready to hit (and sometimes I haven't even double-checked the distance). But when this feeling comes over me I will just pull the trigger and go ahead an hit it, usually resulting in very good results.