Relearning Golf Blog

[iampatrick]

Hey everyone.. so I haven't played Golf in over a year. I decided to clean the slate and start fresh during covid since I knew I couldn't play consistently each week. This is going to be a blog to track my progress, mostly for accountability purposes and share with the forum how I've progressed.

Backstory:
I grew up playing infrequently, trying to teach myself. As a result, I've never shot below 100. Recently graduated and no longer play any other sports, so I have the time now.

Goals:
Learn how to play with confidence.
Train consistently and build good fundamentals.
Put my ego aside.

What I plan on doing:
Taking lessons from a Coach once a week and going to the range to practice whatever my Coach tells me to work on.
Each lesson should result in 1 hour of teaching and then 2 sets of 1 hour of range practice on my own.
I plan to play after my first 3 lessons to get a base mark of what I can do. Unless my coach advises otherwise.
Time will tell what I do moving forward from there, but I am open to training bi-weekly for as long as needed.

I'm excited to see where this goes and would appreciate any feedback or advice moving forward.

 

[Muchmore]

Welcome to THP! It will be fun to follow along with your progress!

 

[YukonLiving]

Sounds like you've got a great plan set out for yourself! Look forward to following along.

Welcome to THP!!

 

[rlefig]

welcome to THP and good luck

 

[OldandStiff]

Love those goals. Welcome aboard and best of luck with your plan! Look forward to hearing about it.

 

[iampatrick]

Thank you everyone for the kind words.

 

[Smiter]

First welcome! Howdy! I’m Nate aka Smiter on here. Most everyone on here are friends and friendly.

Best thing I can tell you is play a LOT this year. I went from mid 90’s playing a dozen or so times to 70’ish in a summer. A summer of playing every day, usually 45-54 holes a day. Buy a youth membership and play. Play every day or close to it. Play all the time. I went from probably a 20 to a + in about 18 months just by playing all the time.

It helped that I was a power hitter in baseball and came out of the gate at probably 120+CHS but I still swing pretty close to that. It takes more time than just keeping CHS up to score well. Sure I can beat the hell out of it. Doesn’t help me much when I chunk the next two. Golf is fun!

 

[Smiter]

One more piece of advice. I played good golf out of shape. The only great golf I’ve ever played (outside of a lucky round) I was in shape.

Round is a shape and damnit it worked for “The Walrus”. But for most of us to play well we have to be in some form of shape (although the PGA qualifying might dispel that, ).

Anyways from last year I didn’t hit a measured drive, so nothing much over 350. In mud ball action this year I have a 387 and a 362. If I GPS it, it’s a shot. The 387 carried 372. Yes qualifiers on wind and grading and crap. But that’s a poke for me at this stage of my life.

 

[iampatrick]

First Entry: Clubs
Currently Have:
Callaway XR16 10.5
Cleveland Huntington Beach 4
Old Blades and Woods I'm getting rid of
Getting:
Cleveland HB 4-PW
Vokey SW or LW

Until I learn how to use harder to hit clubs, I will likely just start with a few clubs and focus on accuracy. This will also be very cost effective.

 

[McRock]

I support your idea of getting rid of 'old blades.' Golf will surely be more enjoyable with something more forgiving.

~Rock

 

[iampatrick]

Entry 2: Best $33 I've ever spent.

I had an hour-long lesson with an older coach that's been doing lessons for nearly twice my lifetime.

Expectations: None
Goal: Make contact

My instructor asked some questions, got me to admit I played baseball, and then I swung my PW as I would naturally to get an idea of where I was at.
He taught the fundamentals progressively starting with the grip and then corrected something every few swings.

Before I had many flaws. My grip was off, arms were too tense, I wasn't moving my wrists much in my backswing, weight was on my heels, left shoulder was dropping rather than coming towards my chin, I was swinging down like a pendulum and lifting the ball, and I was leading with my left arm trying to guide the club.

First 30 RB's: Used a PW and 58. I hit about 15 balls (slicing everything), mishit 15, and whiffed countless times.

My instructor corrected many of these flaws. Resulting in better grip, relaxed arms, moving wrists during the backswing, weight on the balls of my feet, left shoulder coming in towards my chin, swinging through and not up, and I was letting my right arm do more work and therefore trusting the movement. One key thing that helped me was swinging with one hand to understand the wrist motion and swinging through the ball not trying to lift the ball up. Then adding my left hand and trying to replicate the movement. I found it was easier to do this once I relaxed my grip and held the club with my fingers instead of in my palms.

With my last 30 balls, I swung a 7i after hitting the 58 well. I whiffed once or twice, mishit two or three, and made decent contact with the rest. What was amazing was I wasn't slicing the ball nearly as much. I hit my first draw and with the last 10 balls hit my 7i 120 yards relatively straight more than half the time.

So in summary, I learned swing fundamentals.
The clubs I practiced with were my RTX4 58 and my old 7i blade.
58: 60 yards avg. Very forgiving. Doesn't slice. Great height.
7i: 100-140 yards, avg 120. Topping the ball is my biggest weakness with this club.

Really happy with the progress. Feeling optimistic. Time to hit the range and build some muscle memory. New irons arrive tomorrow.

 

[Sean]

Develop a good short game...you don't need to be young or athletic to develop one and it can be a real stroke saver. Good luck!

 

[Smiter]

Develop a good short game...you don't need to be young or athletic to develop one and it can be a real stroke saver. Good luck!

I know of a fella that can shoot mid 70’s with 7i up. He has an excellent short game. He also hates Deer Ridges greens,

 

[Lefty Moonshot]

Awesome welcome to THP. Since youre getting back into golf from scratch, dont be too hard on yourself. Its too easy to get frustrated with golf because its so difficult. Make sure you keep having fun and enjoying it along the way!

 

[iampatrick]

New Irons arrived today, took them to the range for a spin.
For documentation and future reference purposes:
This is my form after lesson 1, using a 7i. One thing I noticed right away is my hips aren't involved much and i'm lifting the ball slightly instead of swinging through. I believe this is due to guiding the club with my left arm and poor wrist movement in my downswing.

 

[iampatrick]

June Update:
So I’ve had 3 lessons in total now and just played my first 18 holes. First full 18 i’ve ever played.

The 2nd and 3rd lessons were focused on my irons (6-9) and then my 4i hybrid. I had some instruction with my driver as well, however I was so bad with it I decided to hold off until using it until I dial in my irons.

First Round:
Location: Barony at Port Royal - Hilton Head, SC
59 out, 51 in
3 mulligans
3 lost balls
71% fairways
11% gir
2.39 putting
I felt pretty good overall! I hit my 4i hybrid very well, mostly striaght, all of my missed fairways were due to slicing. I gave atleast 5-10 strokes to mishits in the bunker or in the rough. My short game feels good but I added a few strokes due to lipping out on putts and putting too hard.

 

[iampatrick]

4 Month Update!
7 Rounds in, Broke 100!
Front 9: Par, Par, Triple, Double, Triple, Double, Bogey, Double, Double (51 / GIR 11%, FIR 29%)
Back 9: Par, Triple, Triple, Par, Bogey, Bogey, Double, Par, Bogey (47 / GIR 44%, FIR 57%)
Total: 98

Really happy with achieving this so soon. I'm using my driver now and am doing well keeping the ball close to the fairway when mishitting. Most of my triples are due to putting and wedge shots rather than irons and lost balls.

In the above video I have since worked on my left arm by keeping it straight and have slowed my swing down, keeping it at 3/4.

New additions to the bag:
Cleveland RTX-4 54 degree for those pesky 70yd shots. Fun fact, it's Andrew Novak's old club and has his name stamped in it.
Plastic Tees, I love these things, never using wooden tees again.
240 Golf Balls for $40. Best purchase so far. No longer worried about losing golf balls and playing stress free.

New Goal: Continue to play this course and play a full round with no triples, breaking 95.

 

[Smiter]

4 Month Update!
7 Rounds in, Broke 100!
Front 9: Par, Par, Triple, Double, Triple, Double, Bogey, Double, Double (51 / GIR 11%, FIR 29%)
Back 9: Par, Triple, Triple, Par, Bogey, Bogey, Double, Par, Bogey (47 / GIR 44%, FIR 57%)
Total: 98

Really happy with achieving this so soon. I'm using my driver now and am doing well keeping the ball close to the fairway when mishitting. Most of my triples are due to putting and wedge shots rather than irons and lost balls.

In the above video I have since worked on my left arm by keeping it straight and have slowed my swing down, keeping it at 3/4.

New additions to the bag:
Cleveland RTX-4 54 degree for those pesky 70yd shots. Fun fact, it's Andrew Novak's old club and has his name stamped in it.
Plastic Tees, I love these things, never using wooden tees again.
240 Golf Balls for $40. Best purchase so far. No longer worried about losing golf balls and playing stress free.

New Goal: Continue to play this course and play a full round with no triples, breaking 95.

Easiest way to stop triples? Don’t play golf, . But since we’re all in on that, don’t hit the ball OB. I am preaching what I don’t practice. You have to make par from the drop or re-tee from there if you’re making double. Ouch. My rounds go sideways when they’re all over the planet. Once in a while my short game kills me and often anymore my entire game is horrible, .