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Becoming a scratch or better player.

Played a round yesterday with a couple of members at my club and it went both really well and poorly. To begin I shot a kind of ugly 87 (+17) but I was 12 over on 3 holes that just killed my round. Those aren't normal for me, so I'm not too worried about them.

Now for the good. We were playing $2 skins, and I had 10-10-10 bets going against each of the guys. I was playing off a 9 and the other two were 7 and 2 index's respectively so I got some strokes but I knew I'd have to play well. Not to bore anyone with all the details, but I ended up winning 6 skins, won both 9's and the 18 against the 2, and won one 9 and halved the 18 against the 7. I won some money which was great and my game held up against some pressure.

The flaw in my game became pretty clear yesterday however and led to a couple of bogey's and one of my big numbers. I've been working hard on my chipping and putting and it really has paid off, I was getting up and down from just off the green and made a lot of great putts. Plus I got up and down from 3 of the 4 greenside bunkers I was in. However......

Pitching the ball is still the biggest flaw in my game. I try to stay away from those yardages (30-80 yards) but yesterday I just ended up in there 6 times and didn't put a single one within 10 feet, and in many cases missed the green. A lot of this is mental, as on the range, I can pitch the ball very well, but I just can't seem to bring it to the course. The only thing that can give me confidence is to keep working hard at it on the range and it will come, but right now its driving me crazy!

I'm going to be going to the range today to again work on this shot, as well as my full swing.
 
coolbreeze said:
Played a round yesterday with a couple of members at my club and it went both really well and poorly. To begin I shot a kind of ugly 87 (+17) but I was 12 over on 3 holes that just killed my round. Those aren't normal for me, so I'm not too worried about them.

Now for the good. We were playing $2 skins, and I had 10-10-10 bets going against each of the guys. I was playing off a 9 and the other two were 7 and 2 index's respectively so I got some strokes but I knew I'd have to play well. Not to bore anyone with all the details, but I ended up winning 6 skins, won both 9's and the 18 against the 2, and won one 9 and halved the 18 against the 7. I won some money which was great and my game held up against some pressure.

The flaw in my game became pretty clear yesterday however and led to a couple of bogey's and one of my big numbers. I've been working hard on my chipping and putting and it really has paid off, I was getting up and down from just off the green and made a lot of great putts. Plus I got up and down from 3 of the 4 greenside bunkers I was in. However......

Pitching the ball is still the biggest flaw in my game. I try to stay away from those yardages (30-80 yards) but yesterday I just ended up in there 6 times and didn't put a single one within 10 feet, and in many cases missed the green. A lot of this is mental, as on the range, I can pitch the ball very well, but I just can't seem to bring it to the course. The only thing that can give me confidence is to keep working hard at it on the range and it will come, but right now its driving me crazy!

I'm going to be going to the range today to again work on this shot, as well as my full swing.
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Nice work in the Skins.. That is the exact distance I seem to struggle with the most. Keep it going man, getting the pieces like up and downs and putting will lead you there in a hurry.
 
CB, it has been fun to follow you in this process. I struggle 30-75 yards as well. I can hit great shots or miss the green from those distances, but I feel like I should be under 20 feet every time. I just have no consistency.
 
Jjmorris said:
Nice work in the Skins.. That is the exact distance I seem to struggle with the most. Keep it going man, getting the pieces like up and downs and putting will lead you there in a hurry.
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Thanks man.
tomahawk18 said:
CB, it has been fun to follow you in this process. I struggle 30-75 yards as well. I can hit great shots or miss the green from those distances, but I feel like I should be under 20 feet every time. I just have no consistency.
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Its a stupid yardage and I think it gets in our heads. You feel like you should put that shot close as you are so close to the green and I think that adds extra pressure to the shot. I think the only thing that can make this shot easier for me is work on the range.
 
CB those are tough distances for sure. I have been spending a lot of time the past year working on those exact distances. It is that exact reason I have as many wedges as I do. I have taken a very mathmatical approach to these distances. 1/2 swing 58* flies X yards. 1/2 swing 54* flies X yards. 1/2 swing 50* goes X yards and so on. I found that for me this works better than the finesse version that many player better than me take. I just get my yardage and go with which club I know goes that far. I know it is not anything new and Stan Utley has talked a lot about the 8-9-10 o'clock swings. This is the method that has seemed to work for me.
 
Dr. Teeth said:
CB those are tough distances for sure. I have been spending a lot of time the past year working on those exact distances. It is that exact reason I have as many wedges as I do. I have taken a very mathmatical approach to these distances. 1/2 swing 58* flies X yards. 1/2 swing 54* flies X yards. 1/2 swing 50* goes X yards and so on. I found that for me this works better than the finesse version that many player better than me take. I just get my yardage and go with which club I know goes that far. I know it is not anything new and Stan Utley has talked a lot about the 8-9-10 o'clock swings. This is the method that has seemed to work for me.
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Thanks Doc, I think that approach could work really well for me. I've just started reading Dave Pelz's short game bible and I think that could be good for me as well.

I just need to become better at those yardages as playing away from them is a pain in the bum and you really should be able to hit the ball closer to the hole from 60 yards then you can from 130 yards, but not me.
 
I know what you mean. The real tough part for me is controlling the spin from those distances.
 
Just a thought on that range, here are the PGA Tour stats from this season for approach shots from 50-75 yards:
http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/?076

I'll save you some work and tell you that the guys right in the middle of the rankings after just over 15 feet away from the hole. I think that a lot of us amateurs get caught up in thinking that we should be right next to the hole from that range because that's all we see the pros do on TV, when in reality all of their shots aren't that close to the hole. So going for a goal of 20 feet or less from the hole would be pretty stellar.
 
arydolphin said:
Just a thought on that range, here are the PGA Tour stats from this season for approach shots from 50-75 yards:
http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/?076

I'll save you some work and tell you that the guys right in the middle of the rankings after just over 15 feet away from the hole. I think that a lot of us amateurs get caught up in thinking that we should be right next to the hole from that range because that's all we see the pros do on TV, when in reality all of their shots aren't that close to the hole. So going for a goal of 20 feet or less from the hole would be pretty stellar.
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Those are great numbers Ary, but I'd be happy just hitting the green most of the time.
 
coolbreeze said:
Those are great numbers Ary, but I'd be happy just hitting the green most of the time.
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Same here! I'm just saying that for a scratch-level player, 20 feet and lower would be a great target. I struggle in the same range as you....it's very hard for me to figure out where my full swing ends (as shown in multiple videos recently), and I struggle even more with 1/2 and 3/4 swings. I've even tried to ditch 1/2 and 3/4 swings and just try to choke down on my wedges to hit them different distances, but that hasn't worked really well. I can figure out a 50 yard swing decently because my driving range has 50 yard poles out there, but the next set of poles is 100 yards, so figuring out stuff between 50 and 85 yards is tough. I say 85 yards because that's a full 58 degree wedge for me.
 
arydolphin said:
Same here! I'm just saying that for a scratch-level player, 20 feet and lower would be a great target. I struggle in the same range as you....it's very hard for me to figure out where my full swing ends (as shown in multiple videos recently), and I struggle even more with 1/2 and 3/4 swings. I've even tried to ditch 1/2 and 3/4 swings and just try to choke down on my wedges to hit them different distances, but that hasn't worked really well. I can figure out a 50 yard swing decently because my driving range has 50 yard poles out there, but the next set of poles is 100 yards, so figuring out stuff between 50 and 85 yards is tough. I say 85 yards because that's a full 58 degree wedge for me.
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We are very similar there. I love hitting a full 58* which is around 85-90 yards, but I haven't yet found the best way for me to hit these shots.
 
Today I went up to the range and met with BigCountryStein (who hits the ball a freaking ton!) and hit some balls on the range. I was working on my full swing, but I spent the majority of my time hitting pitches with my wedges.

I was working on keeping the head outside of my hands, then hinge and hold. I was hitting them great, all day. I think I've really found a pitching technique that works for me, and now distance control is really coming along. Its going to take some time for me to become really comfortable hitting these shots on the course with confidence but I'm geting there.
 
Nice job, Breezy. Once you get that swing down, figuring out your distances will be the easy part. I think you'll end up building your confidence really fast.
 
coolbreeze said:
Today I went up to the range and met with BigCountryStein (who hits the ball a freaking ton!) and hit some balls on the range. I was working on my full swing, but I spent the majority of my time hitting pitches with my wedges.

I was working on keeping the head outside of my hands, then hinge and hold. I was hitting them great, all day. I think I've really found a pitching technique that works for me, and now distance control is really coming along. Its going to take some time for me to become really comfortable hitting these shots on the course with confidence but I'm geting there.
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Awesome. I've been working on the same types of shots with wedges from 50-100 yards for a while now and I think that these type of shots are the ones that really make a difference when you are trying to score well and improve your confidence.
 
Hawk said:
Nice job, Breezy. Once you get that swing down, figuring out your distances will be the easy part. I think you'll end up building your confidence really fast.
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Thanks buddy, the book you sent me has really helped too. I think with some more work it will be a shot I look forward to hitting instead of dreading.
 
You're skilled enough that it should be an easy one for you to nail down.
 
Dude that was righteous range time, that short flag was getting peppered!! When you bring that to the course you're gonna feel so good. It's a huge relief and when you do it once it really helps when you need to do it again, because you know you've done it before.
 
I'll be supporting you!
 
Well last night I got out for my first round in over a week and I wasn't expecting a ton, but man I wasn't expecting what I got. I had twisted my right ankle earlier in the day (this is my front foot) and I was having trouble getting through the ball but considering that I was hitting the ball fairly well and I hit 5 of the first 6 GIR.

I don't want to get too much into the round as I had a great time with forum member Wpoz but this should tell you all you need to know, I shot an 85 with 39 putts! THats right, 39 putts. 4 three jacks, I missed 3 birdie putts from within 3 feet and in the end I just didn't want to putt anymore. My chipping and pitching was actually really good, but my god can I not putt.

So, this leads me to what I will be working on this week. Can you guess? Nope, not my driver swing, but putting. With my ankle killing me this is a great opportunity for me to simply go to the putting green and work this crap out. I still think I have the right putter for me, but I just can't putt and now its in my head.
 
Breezy, why not look at some of the SPi techniques?
 
While the pros hit those 50-75 yard shots to 15 feet, one huge difference is they make way more of those putts than the normal human. They take advantage of their birdie opportunities at a higher rate.

Kevin
 
Canadan said:
I can't wait to hear how you progress dude, I'm dealing with major putting issues right now. Probably 3-4 strokes on every single card.
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Thanks man, it will be the bulk of my focus for the next long while.
Hawk said:
Breezy, why not look at some of the SPi techniques?
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I have been, but I think I've been trying to work too many thoughts into my putting at one time.
Esox said:
While the pros hit those 50-75 yard shots to 15 feet, one huge difference is they make way more of those putts than the normal human. They take advantage of their birdie opportunities at a higher rate.

Kevin
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Agreed you handsome cheese filled fella. When you stick 3 shots inside of 5 feet and 2 within 10 feet and don't make a single birdie its your putting.
 
Haven't commented yet, but been following along, every couple of days I'll catch up. Just letting you know you have all the support and best of luck towards your goal from the other side of the country Cool.
 
Good luck, hope you can achieve your goal, it just takes time and effort!
 
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