tl;dr for those who don't want to read my autobiography:
I'm new to golf, practicing very seriously and trying to get as good as I possibly can. I want to find a mentor but have been having a hard time as I feel most golfers don't have these same goals and those who do collect a lot of lesson fees. I'm trying to find a more natural way to get regularly involved with skilled players so I can learn from them.
I'm nearly eight months in since I started. For the first few months I was hitting about 100 practice balls 3-4 times a week. Once my body got used to that (and I stopped trying to kill the ball with every swing) 200-300 daily practice balls is my new normal. I played my first 18 holes in December. I lost a lot of balls off the tee with driver, however I did score a handful of legit bogeys, which I was happy with for my first time out. But, I knew I had to put in a lot more time on the range before returning to the course.
I finally did that a few weeks ago, playing the front 9 of a local course twice over a couple days. Though I was confident I wouldn't slice more than a few drives, I still managed to lose a good 4 or 5 balls. However, I did score my first pars. One on a par 3 and one on a 4. I was ecstatic. I am finally starting to feel what the difference is between aiming on the range and aiming on the course. I don't balk at a ball that's landed in the hardpan way behind the green. I channel Phil and take a crack at that flop shot I've been working on. I've developed an augmented putting grip that has taken my accuracy from mediocre to very good. I know those 3s and 2s are going to change into 2s and 1s as I interact with more greens under differing conditions and develop reading skills.
Based on these recent scores, including penalties, I estimate I'm shooting over 100. If I can become more confident off the tee and eliminate the nervous slices, I know that will drop under 100. As the putting improves it will go lower and I'm sure once my wedge play locks in I'll really be set. I am just bursting to play good golf.
Therein lies my problem. Golf is not the first difficult activity I've strived to be good at. There are a lot of interesting parallels between sports (especially golf) and musicianship. One of the most important things I learned about becoming a good musician is that you absolutely must interact and play with others who are objectively better and more experienced than you in order to grow yourself. Nothing guarantees mediocrity like an absence of examples of excellence. I've found that this is true of pretty much every challenging activity I've undertaken.
Instead of being harsh about my golf peers I'll try to be more neutral like so many good golf teachers I've heard from. For the most part I don't like what I see most golfers doing at the practice range. I like what I see on the course even less. I don't want to swing like that. I don't want to play like that. It seems to me an excellent ball striker is a statistical rarity. Once or twice a week I'll spot someone who quite obviously knows exactly what they're doing and I can't help but watch (discreetly) as long as I can.
I don't think what I need are lessons. I've had a few great ones and I feel like I have a good awareness of what is going well from a technique standpoint, what isn't, and what I need to focus my practice on to get better.
I think what I need is a mentor. Someone I can get on the course with who takes the game seriously and strives for excellence with every shot. Someone I can confidently study and emulate. Someone who is actively interested in helping bring a novice to their level. I would imagine this person to be a scratch golfer or better.
In the world of musicianship these types were relatively easy to find. It didn't take long to track down a decent college band and join up in a lower ranking position while still being around more experienced members to learn from. I believe that excellent golfers are far less abundant than excellent musicians. Due to the scarcity, those who are excellent are usually booked up either selling lessons or playing exclusively with others near their skill level.
I'm anticipating the go-to advice here is going to be "just go play." Surely if I fill enough random threesomes I'll find someone like this to be friendly and play with. Though I do intend to do this more in the coming months, I can't say that it seems like the most efficient way to succeed, especially for someone with less than spectacular social skills.
So there it is. I have been exploring country clubs in the area and as much of a paradise as some seem, it's simply not affordable right now. Long term and on-course instruction don't seem to be much easier on the bank account.
There are so many things about golf and the golf community I'm still learning about. I'm hoping running this by ya'll might lead to some suggestions I hadn't thought of or discovered yet.
Thanks for reading and thanks again for having me here. I have a few new clubs I was fitted for coming soon; can't wait to share how that goes.
I'm new to golf, practicing very seriously and trying to get as good as I possibly can. I want to find a mentor but have been having a hard time as I feel most golfers don't have these same goals and those who do collect a lot of lesson fees. I'm trying to find a more natural way to get regularly involved with skilled players so I can learn from them.
I'm nearly eight months in since I started. For the first few months I was hitting about 100 practice balls 3-4 times a week. Once my body got used to that (and I stopped trying to kill the ball with every swing) 200-300 daily practice balls is my new normal. I played my first 18 holes in December. I lost a lot of balls off the tee with driver, however I did score a handful of legit bogeys, which I was happy with for my first time out. But, I knew I had to put in a lot more time on the range before returning to the course.
I finally did that a few weeks ago, playing the front 9 of a local course twice over a couple days. Though I was confident I wouldn't slice more than a few drives, I still managed to lose a good 4 or 5 balls. However, I did score my first pars. One on a par 3 and one on a 4. I was ecstatic. I am finally starting to feel what the difference is between aiming on the range and aiming on the course. I don't balk at a ball that's landed in the hardpan way behind the green. I channel Phil and take a crack at that flop shot I've been working on. I've developed an augmented putting grip that has taken my accuracy from mediocre to very good. I know those 3s and 2s are going to change into 2s and 1s as I interact with more greens under differing conditions and develop reading skills.
Based on these recent scores, including penalties, I estimate I'm shooting over 100. If I can become more confident off the tee and eliminate the nervous slices, I know that will drop under 100. As the putting improves it will go lower and I'm sure once my wedge play locks in I'll really be set. I am just bursting to play good golf.
Therein lies my problem. Golf is not the first difficult activity I've strived to be good at. There are a lot of interesting parallels between sports (especially golf) and musicianship. One of the most important things I learned about becoming a good musician is that you absolutely must interact and play with others who are objectively better and more experienced than you in order to grow yourself. Nothing guarantees mediocrity like an absence of examples of excellence. I've found that this is true of pretty much every challenging activity I've undertaken.
Instead of being harsh about my golf peers I'll try to be more neutral like so many good golf teachers I've heard from. For the most part I don't like what I see most golfers doing at the practice range. I like what I see on the course even less. I don't want to swing like that. I don't want to play like that. It seems to me an excellent ball striker is a statistical rarity. Once or twice a week I'll spot someone who quite obviously knows exactly what they're doing and I can't help but watch (discreetly) as long as I can.
I don't think what I need are lessons. I've had a few great ones and I feel like I have a good awareness of what is going well from a technique standpoint, what isn't, and what I need to focus my practice on to get better.
I think what I need is a mentor. Someone I can get on the course with who takes the game seriously and strives for excellence with every shot. Someone I can confidently study and emulate. Someone who is actively interested in helping bring a novice to their level. I would imagine this person to be a scratch golfer or better.
In the world of musicianship these types were relatively easy to find. It didn't take long to track down a decent college band and join up in a lower ranking position while still being around more experienced members to learn from. I believe that excellent golfers are far less abundant than excellent musicians. Due to the scarcity, those who are excellent are usually booked up either selling lessons or playing exclusively with others near their skill level.
I'm anticipating the go-to advice here is going to be "just go play." Surely if I fill enough random threesomes I'll find someone like this to be friendly and play with. Though I do intend to do this more in the coming months, I can't say that it seems like the most efficient way to succeed, especially for someone with less than spectacular social skills.
So there it is. I have been exploring country clubs in the area and as much of a paradise as some seem, it's simply not affordable right now. Long term and on-course instruction don't seem to be much easier on the bank account.
There are so many things about golf and the golf community I'm still learning about. I'm hoping running this by ya'll might lead to some suggestions I hadn't thought of or discovered yet.
Thanks for reading and thanks again for having me here. I have a few new clubs I was fitted for coming soon; can't wait to share how that goes.
