There's a YouTube golf pro named Shawn Clements who has a ton of videos... I think one is called "knife the grip" that talks specifically about the index finger on the right hand. Might want to check it out.

sorry guys, i was making a bad joke.

46-44 90 today’s tournament. 7/14 fairways. 6 greens. 36 putts. Greens were fast. Pins were in tough spots. Good tournament setup. Awful off the tee (5 tee shots didn’t get to the fairway (tops/duck hook) then irons were mostly okay. Wedges and short game was the best part of my game today and putting was decent. Just had to be so cautious bc of green speeds and slopes/hole locations.

One more round tomorrow to figure something out. Pre shot routine, setup, confidence and attitude were all really good today. I just blackout as I pull the trigger on the tee boxes of par 4s and 5s and it’s inexplicable.

had to scrap the round tomorrow. instead i'm going to have to work as if it's monday.

46-42-88. No birdies, 3 doubles, 1 triple.

Ball striking went AWOL. Started double, triple (#2 is a brute) and it didn’t get much better from there.

43-41-84

2 blowup triples but overall much better ball striking day. Had a string of 7 straight pars from holes 7-13 which is my longest non-bogey streak ever I think.

Side note, got paired with 2 nice guys and an angry club-thrower. Guy was miserable from the first tee and looked like he was ready to go postal. Thankfully he packed it in on hole #5. Was not looking forward to 4 hours with that guy. I play for fun, can't stand being around that negative energy. Brings everyone down.

Not sure exactly what I shot yesterday. Somewhere between 72-76. There was a lot of walking up to the tee box with two balls to use it as a range session or sorts since my drives are garbage right now. Made a 40 footer for a birdie 3, then on the next hole I was just in front of the green in 2 on a par 5 and pitched it to about 6 inches. Back to back birdies definitely help the round.

While my scores have been great lately, I feel like my swing is getting worse. Constantly coming up short with my irons and my usual drive cut is turning into a slice. Gotta get better before Pinehurst.

45-41-86. 1 birdie, 3 double bogeys.

Pretty happy despite the medioce score and finishing with a double. Ball striking was much improved - hard to say why, though I was nice and loose today. Short game was awful on the front, better on the back. May have found something with pitches and after rotating through a few putters the last couple weeks I think the one I pulled out on the back nine is going to stick for a while.

Shot 43-43 today, but feel like I played really well, especially putting (zero three putts). Three birdies, but unfortunately four doubles. I just flat suck at bunker shots, leading to two of those doubles. One of the remaining was a fluke (well, kind of); drive went a titch to the right into the rough, but in a place that was pretty open and you should NOT lose a ball. Spoiler alert: I lost a ball. Group was in shock. Back to the tee I went. Final double was a bladed 56 degree well across the green up against a fence.

Feeling like the game is close. To what, is relative.

47-44 91 today - 4 doubles a triple and a quad. Did end with a birdie which was nice. Hit 4 fairways 5 greens and took 34 putts.

Tee game is just shambles. Missed upwards of 60 yards each way and it’s the driver 3wood and even hybrid. Last individual stroke play event for a while - back to some fun golf and will keep working to find something off the tee that can translate to a tournament.

In general, getting off the tee is where my game rises or falls. Once I have a second shot, I feel decently confident with the next club in my bag, but too often I end up in the trees or deep rough and I end up with a blow up hole. It doesn't help that I'm a short hitter anyway, so a miss is usually going to be wayward and even shorter than normal.

Ramblewood Country Club (NJ) White/Red White tees
52-45-97

Second time in a row shooting under 100 (which I'd never done prior to these 2 rounds). Getting a hybrid has made a world of difference and is worth at least 5 strokes for me.

This course was a Ron Jaworski course and was $85 for the round without a cart and was in absolutely atrocious condition. It's amazing they charged this and the day was completely booked but obviously you can get away with it. It was a course near a friends house and neither of my 2 buddies who played today are serious golfers so we didn't mind. First time in a while having a beer while playing too but not til the back 9

I'm going about by myself tomorrow afternoon (it's so hard to get people to play especially midweek) to a local county course after getting rained out yesterday and really looking forward to playing. I'm curious to see if I can get under 100 on one of our 5 county courses which I'm growing ever more confident I can. My brother in low and his friends who I occasionally go out with and definitely take more seriously consistently shoot in the low to mid 90s. If I can get under 100 consistently I know I can compete with them.

Again though adding that hybrid and being able to consistently 2 putt (lol 1-putting) has been the difference for getting under 100. Tomorrow is the true test

LFC,

Good work out there. Stay after it and you'll keep seeing those scores drop. You'll hit stretches where you'll make a lot of improvement in a short time, then hit a bit of a wall which can be frustrating. But keep playing\practicing and the results will be there.

Thank you! Can't say enough how helpful this group has been. From encouragement, to club suggestions, to reading everyone else's rounds and challenges and achievements. Great community here and I really appreciate it. My goal was to break 100 before the end of summer.

True test comes tomorrow (and really when I get out with my bro in law and friends whenever that is) but would be a huge morale boost to break 100 on a county course. I have no doubt the wall is coming. I'm just at least hoping the duffs where you forget how to hit a ball for 6 holes are gone for good lol. I will say adding the hybrid has also made me start swinging my irons so much better in terms of contact. I've dialed in my 56 wedge game but sometimes get too cute when I should really just take a gap wedge and punch it on the green when I'm super close.

Nice work. Do you only have the one hybrid, the 4h? Sorry if I missed this conversation elsewhere, but I highly recommend a 5h, and even a 6h. I've carried a 4h and 5h for a few years now, and every now and then when the swing isn't so great I consider getting a 6h.

I've been looking for a 6h but pickings seem to be pretty slim. I'll live, getting pretty good at dialing back on the 5h.

Also, nice work LFC, you'll be consistently around 90 before you know it.

seconded. all of this is spot on.

Im gonna miss a lot of you guys when the snow comes again soon!

This would be a GREAT year to have delayed winter. I was deleting some photos off my phone and saw that two years ago I played on December 19.

I always tell myself I don't mind playing in rain and cold, but then I never play too much (I've also been injured a lot during the winter, it seems). For years my scores would stop mid-October through February/early March, with a round or two around Thanksgiving and Christmas when I'd get a round in with my dad in the "banana belt" of Idaho.

you should check out the 'banana belt' of Oregon, aka Bandon, in January when the prices are as low as they get and the golf is still (mostly) great.

41 (par 36). No birdies, 1 double bogey. 2/7 fairways, 6/9 greens, 19 putts.

A windy evening on a wide open inland "links" course made for interesting times. If I counted wrong fairways I could double my fairways hit off the tee. I had zero shots between 50 and 150 yards -- the only iron in my bag that I used was the 54 degree wedge. Every other shot was driver, hybrid or putter.

Howell Park 57-47-104

Finally got out to the county course by myself after work today (3:15pm tee time) buoyed by b2b rounds under 100 for the first time in my life. The first on a random last minute day out by myself where I was paired with 3 dudes in t-shirts who were there to drink beers as much as golf. It was a decent course (not total trash) but not a county course. It was my first round with my hybrid and I shot a 91. The other round was this past weekend I described earlier itt with 2 buddies who are hardly serious golfers on a nice course in bad shape and our 4th was a guy who smoked cigarettes on every hole and was a really cool dude.

Today was a different story. It was the nightmare of why I haven't felt ready or comfortable to go out by myself yet. When I got there tee times were running behind so we went out 10 minutes later than usual. A bunch of people were on the practice green. I met the two guys I'd be paired with who were obviously good. One guy was flying to California next week and playing some Trump course that costs $275/round when his buddy asked him. This alone gave me anxiety. The 4th guy was good but quiet.

Also around the green was another foursome going off after us with some corporate dickhead and 3 meatheads. They were calling over the cart girl and ordering drinks before they even started their round. The corporate guy was clearly cocky af. This ended up being the group behind us.

I was extremely nervous on my first few holes. I don't know why. I've been hitting the ball consistently, in terms of making contact, but suddenly you worry about duffing it and making a complete ass out of yourself. I got a 7 on the 1st hole par 4 but didn't really chunk or duff anything. Just a bad approach shot and a 3-putt. Second hole I was still jittery. 3rd hole is where it really got bad.

My drive has a natural fade in it. On the first two holes it wasn't even that bad but one of the things I've be doing to correct it is to close to the club face. On my drive on 3 I decided it would be a good idea to do this and I pulled it across my body to the opposite fairway where the loud foursome I alluded to above was already up by the green. They were so far up our ass all day. The ball was a good 20 yards away from everyone but obviously it was a horrible horrible shot, and I think they knew the twosome in our group were good and thought they were big shots so they started saying ****. Like making a huge deal out of it. I apologized told them it was me but it was in my head all day. The twosome in our group, the good players, were actually really cool and it really pissed them off even more than it did me. I was completely in my head. I wasn't even enjoying myself at this point.

I was gripping the club so tight at this point. Hitting everything all over the place. Honestly I just wanted to pick up and leave, but there's zero chance I'd ever do that. I was going to see the round out. Meanwhile that foursome behind us was so loud the entire time. You could hear them on the whole course. Every shot loud praise or ball busting. This had nothing to do with us but just gives you an example of the kind of guys these are.

Things got worse around hole 7. Mind the course was very crowded today thus the delayed start time. We were waiting a minute or two to tee off on every hole because of the group in front of us. Hole 7 was a par 3 that the group behind us got to before we cleared the green. The corporate ******* yelled "You guys gotta keep it moving we're waiting for you on every hole" The way he said it was like a pompous ****ing dickhead too. To me he was clearly showing off for his meathead friends who didn't seem like avid golfers like he was. One of the guys in our twosome (the one going to play California Trump this week) took exception and went back at him. It was uncomfortable. Then as fate would have it one of their meatheads hit a tee shot in our fairway on his next hole and couldn't find the ball while we were teeing off. This led to another confrontation with fat corporate man and he was just a complete douche. He actually said at one point "we should play through. We're better than you" I'm no avid golfer but it wasn't the day to play through. They would have had to play through everyone on the course. I personally don't play slow. I walk up and hit my ball. I don't stand over putts and read them and I just hit them. The good players understandably take forever to swing, want to find every ball, but it's not like we had anywhere to go.

They were in my head the whole day and the atmosphere was completely unenjoyable. I felt so ridiculous for my tee shot, which I would have felt regardless, but it was made worse by feeling rushed, being with 3 really good players, and have a complete ******* foursome behind us. The guys in our group, in particular the good twosome, were actually really cool and had my back. I can't help but think I spoiled their round too. They kept saying things like no apologizing in golf, forget about them etc...and like I said the one guy was pissed at the corporate dude from the group behind us. It's hard to convey in text but they were just incredibly obnoxious.

This is a county course. My round was $32 walking. It's not like we were at some elite course. When I've gone one as a twosome we've almost always been paired with people who cool and/or not great. I feared so much being paired with a good group, which was bad enough as it made me self conscious (I've been an athlete my whole life and played basketball at a fairly high level). But this was next level. Honestly I don't want to go back out on my own again to a county course. Maybe weekday afternoons get the dickhead corporate clientele? Idk

Good news is I settled down on the back 9. Even had back to back pars on a par 5 followed by a par 4 and a couple of bogey runs. The twosome started busting the balls of the other guy with us for "whining" lol every time he hit a shot so that took the heat off me. I like that sort of thing and I was able to relax and play. Overall though for being anxious about doing this sort of thing in the first place this was not a good first time out solo during the week at a county course.

(EDIT: Holy crap that's long lol sry)

tl;dr played county course by myself for first time, twosome in my group very very good, complete *******s behind us, in my head, nervous, not enjoyable

LFC,

I'm sorry your round was made worse because of *******s behind you. Even when the guys in your group are pleasant to play with, having a bad group behind you can make things miserable. Usually they're like little yappy dogs. They bark and bark and bark until someone barks back louder. It sucks it gets to that point but unfortunately that's the world we live in. It's an uncomfortable situation for everyone and I can see it being even moreso for you as a new player.

I'm never trying to end up in a fight on a golf course, or anywhere for that matter, but I won't hesitate to tell someone when they're out of line. You don't necessarily want to go full Karen, but make a call to the clubhouse or seek out a marshal if you're playing somewhere that's an option. Nobody wants golfers like that on their course.

I like seeing you pulled it together and had a better back 9. Don't let the idiots out there ruin a good time for you, or keep you from going back out. Yes, it's always more comfortable, especially for a newer golfer, to play with a group of buddies, but if that's not an option don't let it stop you from playing. I'd say over half the rounds I've played this year have been me booking a tee time as a single and getting paired with randoms. Some have been great, others miserable. But I try to do whatever I can to block that out and worry about me. I know - easier said than done.

Don't let the bad experience discourage you. Get back out there and do it again.