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How low did you go on your own?

TurboStang

TurboStang

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Joined
Mar 11, 2010
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Location
Louisville, KY
Handicap
GHIN 11.7
For those of you who have never taken lessons, or before you took lessons, how low are / were you able to consistently score?

I feel as though I've hit a platueau in the 84-90 range, with occasional let downs up into the mid90's. I discovered Shawn Clement on youtube, and that has helped with my consistency, and I just ordered his DVD, and I think that is going to help even more. I was hoping to break 80 for the first time this year, but am starting to question if this is going to be possible without a one on one intervention with a teaching professional.

Just curious how many people were able to score well without lessons and maintain a decent level of play on their own. I'm really competitive, so at times I feel I'm wasting my time in continuing to play without taking some lessons.
 
I've only had one brief lesson and I also shoot in the mid to high 80 range.

But... I had a freak round of 76. lol
 
i've never had a lesson but really want to one day. i look at lessons as an investment and unfortunately i don't have much to invest right now.
 
Ive never taken lessons and am able to shoot in the mid 80s most of the time. It kind of makes me wonder just how good I could get if I actually did take lessons.
 
I reached a plateau a few years back (5 maybe) where I was stuck in the mid 80s. 82-86 just about every round. I was a good player by average thoughts, but it was not getting any better. I went to the range with purpose but found myself just banging balls. I eventually gave in and had a pro look at what I was doing and change some things. It changed my game completely. I went from scoring to SCORING. Im still not the best golfer, but I know I haev been as low as a 2 thanks to instruction.
 
I am currently at a 7 hdcp, been as low as 5 without ever having a swing coach/lesson. I did have an awesome high school coach, who was not a golfer but a smart man who taught us a lot about course management and managing misses. He was also a football coach who made us run laps with our bags:beat-up:.

I can argue both sides of the coin for lessons, its all about practicing with a purpose and taking baby steps toward the ultimate goal. Its all mental look at Eldrick.
 
I’ve never taken a golf lesson.

For a number of years, when I was playing a lot and practicing almost every day, I played to a around a 2 hdcp. I say "around" because I've also never kept an "official" handicap and I just figure one out every now and then on my own.

If I play and practice a couple of times a week, I can easily play to mid-single digits or so, but if I only play once a week and hardly practice, I can get up around a 10 or 11.

Golf is like any other craft, the more time you put into it, the more you get out of it.


-JP
 
I got myself down to a 12 handicap and then had knee surgery and took 2 years off golf- and now I am really struggling. Ended up getting my first lesson last week.
 
i cant speak to this for myself... ive been taking lessons since i was a kid...
but a friend of mine is pretty even with me scoring wise and is about a 8-9 hcp...
he has the worst looking swing on the planet and has never taken a lesson but his ball does what he needs it to do and he can hit it pretty far
 
Ive never had a lesson and am currently at a 7.2 - but last year was as low as a 6.3


This year I have not been shooting well and have completely lost my swing, but I usually shoot low 80's - high 70's
 
TurboStang said:
For those of you who have never taken lessons, or before you took lessons, how low are / were you able to consistently score?

I feel as though I've hit a platueau in the 84-90 range, with occasional let downs up into the mid90's. I discovered Shawn Clement on youtube, and that has helped with my consistency, and I just ordered his DVD, and I think that is going to help even more. I was hoping to break 80 for the first time this year, but am starting to question if this is going to be possible without a one on one intervention with a teaching professional.

Just curious how many people were able to score well without lessons and maintain a decent level of play on their own. I'm really competitive, so at times I feel I'm wasting my time in continuing to play without taking some lessons.
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I suscribe to his you tube channel or whatever its called, love his videos though. And he has tons of them too!

But on the topic of lessons and having someone watch me swing and then critique it, best thing I ever did. I was shanking every shot and ready to give up on golf when I decided to take lessons. Really really helped me get back to some sound basics and fundamentals that I had lost.
 
My folks decided my brother and I needed to try the game when I was 13, so our first time on a course was a group lesson. Then at 28 I took a long stint of lessons and had a pretty solid game until I moved and gave it up.
 
Never had a lesson and shoot 78 - 85 most trips out. Yesterday I was one under through 6 until we had a 30 minute rain delay. The remaining 3 holes I went triple, par, triple. It really messes with my mind going from a firm course to a soaked course in a short amount of time.
 
Started off at 21. 21.7 (I think?) being my highest and got down to 14.0 without one lesson...

Had a purple patch last year where I shot a net 59, won the Club Open and Championship :act-up: Better being lucky than good!
 
JB said:
I reached a plateau a few years back (5 maybe) where I was stuck in the mid 80s. 82-86 just about every round. I was a good player by average thoughts, but it was not getting any better. I went to the range with purpose but found myself just banging balls. I eventually gave in and had a pro look at what I was doing and change some things. It changed my game completely. I went from scoring to SCORING. Im still not the best golfer, but I know I haev been as low as a 2 thanks to instruction.
Click to expand...

This was me almost exactly. When I was really 'on', I could get into the mid 70's once or twice a year. After taking lessons, not just a few, more like 7 or 8 one hour sessions over a year, I completely changed. Now I am pretty consistent in the mid to high 70's. If I could hit balls and play more than once a month, who knows.

The best thing about having taken lessons is that now that I am doing things properly, it doesn't take anytime to get it back after a layoff.
I hadn't played in 6 months and the first time out this year I was 5 over through 10 holes before getting rained out and was starting to hit the ball really well the last few holes. It was like I had never stopped playing.
 
Thanks for the replies, I'm bound and determined to break 80 at least once on my own, and I know it can be done. Some of the above posts will serve as inspiration. Probably need to dial back the "play" and dial up the "practice". Most of my bad rounds come after I've played alot in a short time frame, and my back is really sore. I ended up with some bulging disc issues last year, so they give me some grief at times. The swing gets tight and mechanical, and after a couple bad holes, I can't seem to recover. For example I played 9 holes last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, played 27 on Saturday and the melt down came about three holes in to the 18 I was playing on Sunday. Not sure if it's the back pain or mental side of things, but probably a combination of the two. Working on getting the back issues sorted out now, and hoping for the best.
 
I have never had a true lesson, except for someone trying to tell you to "do this" or "do that," but I currently have a 7.7. It has fluctuated, but as of now it has been pretty steady. I have always wanted to take a lesson, but being a 20 year old college student and being raised by a single mom, I just always read books an studied others.
 
its amazing to me how many single digits in here are self taught
 
bogey_russ said:
its amazing to me how many single digits in here are self taught
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Yeah! I guess it shows that it pays off when you work hard and give it all you have got!
It does make you feel good when you break your goals on your own. And by no means has it been simple. I was stuck in the mid to high 80's for three years, then something clicked! I would love to have a professional look at my swing, but for now I'm happy with my work in progress! :banana:
 
I've never had a lesson and got down to a 6.6 at one point, going a long time without having a round above 79. I moved and lost my great short game practice area, now my handicap hovers around 10-12. I think if I could sharpen up my short game again, I could get back down to single digits. Like most golfers, that is where I lose strokes, inside 100 and really inside 50 yards.
 
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