Your Breakthrough Moment in Golf

Ive had so many (what i thought) were break through moments through the decades playing. But unfortunately they always only ever end up being some temporary short lived flashes. Ive had so many i simply dont believe in breakthroughs anymore. Ive come to the reality that you need to be one of the lucky ones to be good at this game. Good consistent play is just something that is in some peoples cards to be able to do. Others work as hard and even harder and it just never comes. Hope for your sake you are one the more lucky ones.
 
At a young age I realized that I don't hit the ball along way which means I missed a lot of greens. I used to chip for hours at our local driving range on the practice green and saved a ton of strokes getting up and down.
 
If it ever happens, I'll let you know.
If you came out the womb shooting 70s, I hate you. :act-up:

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk
 
Ive had so many (what i thought) were break through moments through the decades playing. But unfortunately they always only ever end up being some temporary short lived flashes. Ive had so many i simply dont believe in breakthroughs anymore. Ive come to the reality that you need to be one of the lucky ones to be good at this game. Good consistent play is just something that is in some peoples cards to be able to do. Others work as hard and even harder and it just never comes. Hope for your sake you are one the more lucky ones.
I definitely believe some have a natural knack or gifting for this game, but I'm also a believer that achievement is a combination of hard work, timing and information. Hopefully, all of those can align for something good long term for you brother!

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk
 
Still waiting.
 
I have had a few break throws in my life time. My first was in College during a range day for the golf team. It's the day I discovered face angles and how they can effect the shots. From the day forward I was able to creat shots and lowered my scores. The next was in '98, again on the range. I discovered how to make the club weightless on the back swing and gained some serious distance at the time. The last one was two years ago when I switched from over lap to interlock on a rainy day in Florida. My ball striking and shot making took a turn and produced a different sound.
This weightlessness in the backswing sounds intriguing...

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk
 
In the same boat as the OP. Started golfing a few years back.

I don't think it's been one thing specifically, although it's always one thing specifically that leads to the next level of improvement.

I will say this year, I took the biggest step, by focusing on grip pressure, shoulder turn and balanced weight at set-up. My swing is much more effortless and I have even gotten my driver under control. My range sessions are great, but I have not been able to pull that entirely over to the course....one aspect always lets me down. Even my buddies are commenting this year though. One of these days I will pull it all together for a truly good round and a new PB..... I'm close, I can almost taste it
 
I've had a few but the biggest was the day when I realized that playing golf wasn't the same as trying to have a swing that looked good. I didn't do anything very well that day but managed to shoot 75 to break 80 for the first time. I'm trying to get back there and still searching for and chasing the next one.
 
This weightlessness in the backswing sounds intriguing...

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

Place a tee in the butt end of you club. On the back swing, that Tee should be pointed straight down to the ground just above the hip. It this moment if done correctly he club is weightless. If you were to hold the club at this angle and leaning it back or forward you would feel the weight of the club. With the tee pointing straight down you've made the club weightless and all that is left to do is turn the shoulders back and then fire throw.
 
Place a tee in the butt end of you club. On the back swing, that Tee should be pointed straight down to the ground just above the hip. It this moment if done correctly he club is weightless. If you were to hold the club at this angle and leaning it back or forward you would feel the weight of the club. With the tee pointing straight down you've made the club weightless and all that is left to do is turn the shoulders back and then fire throw.
Nice! I was wondering if that's what you meant. I've heard others describe it as getting the club vertical vs laid off or across. I'm still working on this as well. Getting too quick has been the biggest challenge for me. Working on pace right now.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk
 
I have a had a few, one was in a round with Tadashi and he just told me to keep my head behind the ball, changed my tee game (and the fact he turned me on to the Atmos black x flex). Another was on a Par 3 at Kinderlou, I was playing Bridgestone DF irons with steel fiber shafts and did something (like swing properly) and the ball was 2 clubs longer than I had been getting. I was dead on that hole, but I kept that feeling for a long time and try to go back to that moment when I get sloppy.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 
I think my breakthrough happened when I learned to trust the shot. I always had a bad habit of adjusting after a bad shot trying not to let it happen again. Too many times it did happen again. I've been doing this long enough where I know the basic fundamentals. Its just a matter of focusing better. Now I just concentrate a little more on the fundamentals and I never have consecutive bad shots.

Another breakthrough was when I stopped watching all these instructional videos. I think it jumbled my mind and I couldn't settle in on one consistent swing. I just went back to the fundamentals of the swing. The set up. Ball position. Back swing. And I kept repeating it at the range. Things started coming together. To the point where I could trust it. If I have a bad shot I know I lost my concentration. Just re-focus and the next shot is always fine. I feel being able to trust has made a difference in my game. I'm always in the low 90's now and a couple rounds in the 80's. I think I'm getting closer to staying in the 80's. I just need to refine some things like lag putting and chipping out of thicker greenside rough. Once I improve those two I feel like low 80's is not out of reach.

On another note, I went golfing with my 17 year old grandson a couple weeks ago. He hadn't touched a club in two months because he had graduation and was studying a lot for finals. He hit 13 out 14 fairways. Shot an 80. And that was because he hit the water on his tee shot on the par 3 17th and double bogeyed the hole. Dang the kid is good. I had to birdie the last hole from off the green just to be within 10 strokes.
 
I have been back golfing for just about year now. When i first came back it was as much range time as possible and lessons. The instructor i had was good at the fundamentals but i was inside and not out where i could see the ball flight. I made a switch to a new instructor with a trackman and it has been a game changer for me. Seeing the ball flight outside and the data from the trackman has helped me break into the 90's consistently and shoot a PB of 86!

Probably the biggest moment though was the help i got form @Cbaker at the Odyssey experience with course management. The advice i got has changed how i look at a course when i play. I don't have the control on the driver to bomb it over a desert area or trying to cut the corner of a water hole and land in a fairway so i will use a hybrid or 3 wood off the tee and look for the fairway. I still have a TON to learn but i have brought my handicap down from 25.9 in Jan to 20.3! Also playing with better players makes you see what they are doing @wildcat4life has been a big help also in my progress!

My coach has been on a 5 week vacation and is back on the 8th. My next 2 lessons are scheduled so i can keep the progression moving forward!
 
I'm still waiting for mine. For some odd reason I cannot hit an iron approach shot or off the tee on a par 3 to save my life. There are the occasional good shots, but they are very few and far between. The rest are an assortment of shanks, fat, thin and whatever else that don't go far or near the target.

I hit my driver well most of the time. Once I am close to the green, I'm pretty decent in the short game. Putting could improve but is not costing me numerous shots per round. I just can't get past my horrible iron play. When I go to the range, I normally hit them fairly well. Accuracy is not all that great, but I'm at least striking the ball well and getting it up in the air and generally towards my target. But on the course? Forget it.

I think its mostly mental, but I'm still waiting...

Do you often play on hard fairways? I mostly do, and my iron play is similarly challenging. I noticed that when I play on softer courses, or fluffy lies, I hit them really well -- I think hard ground has me hesitating or picking at the ball, while soft ground makes me mentally think of scooping past the ball and into the grass. It's come to a point where I often prefer to be just a little in the rough when I have to hit long/mid irons.

As for breakthrough: still waiting. But I took a lesson not long ago, where we ended with quarter swing 7i pitches ... for some reason, I hit those perfectly, and both the sound and feel of them made me go "oh ... so THAT's how it's supposed to be."
 
Do you often play on hard fairways? I mostly do, and my iron play is similarly challenging. I noticed that when I play on softer courses, or fluffy lies, I hit them really well -- I think hard ground has me hesitating or picking at the ball, while soft ground makes me mentally think of scooping past the ball and into the grass. It's come to a point where I often prefer to be just a little in the rough when I have to hit long/mid irons.

As for breakthrough: still waiting. But I took a lesson not long ago, where we ended with quarter swing 7i pitches ... for some reason, I hit those perfectly, and both the sound and feel of them made me go "oh ... so THAT's how it's supposed to be."

No, not really. And I have issues no matter the lie. Even when I tee the ball up slightly on par threes.
 
I'm struggling a bit with the term "breakthrough moment". I know what you are getting at. You arrived at a time when what you'd been working on came together. But I also want to acknowledge that you worked on several things over time with considerable effort to get to the point when things came together. That description you gave I can relate to. In my experience, that's how it works and if you stick with it you'll have several junctures when what you are working on come together to get you to a new level. I've had a number of those moments when what I've been working on clicked.
 
I had a breakthrough moment. I had been playing about 2 yrs, and was a freshman in high school. At the time I could only drive the ball about 180 yds. I was playing in a junior tournament and suddenly started hitting my drives 250! At first, it took me by total surprise, and I was unsure about clubbing my 2nd shots, as I had never been out that far before.
It's an empowering feeling, when your timing and alignment/balance come together.
 
My break through moment came when I just embraced the fade, stopped trying to draw the ball and shallow out my aoa with my irons. Given me confidence to go for pins and meant I could develop and practice my strike for more consistent results.

I'll never have a breakthrough putter moment
 
There have been two that come to mind, and I hope I'm in the midst of a third.

First - after hacking around for several years, I finally went and got some lessons, got fitted and picked up some new irons. The lessons corrected some fundamental problems and I went from 100+ to breaking 90 within a few months.

Second - got tired of not knowing what to do when I had less than a full club left in to the green... so I asked my instructor for a short game lesson focusing on shots inside 100y only. I still remember him stopping, smiling, and saying "Good job - this is my favorite lesson. When people ask for this one, I know that means they're serious about their game."

He taught me how to hit my wedges at 25%, 50% and 75%, how to keep them high/low, etc. That made an immediate difference in my game and I broke 80 that summer for the first time. More importantly, though: one thing he taught me in that lesson that has gone a long, long way is that when my full swing gets out of whack, I need to retreat back to the concepts of that short game lesson and it'll fix the full swing. I have absolutely found that to be the case. If things get weird with the full swing then I take a wedge to the range and just work on solid contact with 25%, 50% and 75% shots, and by the end of the session I'll be back in shape w/ the full swing.

I think that's probably the biggest breakthrough for me since he basically taught me how to fish there. I can (often, not always) self-diagnose the issue and work it out by returning to the fundamentals from that lesson.

Right now, I feel like I'm on the edge of another breakthrough, but it's tied to my mental game. I'm trying some different things related to mindfulness, visualization, etc, and while it's not ingrained yet, I can see the benefits already - especially in putting.
 
Been playing for about 5-6 years and was ALWAYS a slicer. Nothing real banana like, but if I aimed down the middle, I ended up in right rough or trouble. So I would aim down the left tree line or whatever. And as is the case, further left I aimed, further right I seemed to end up. Soooo, I would spend hours in the backyard trying for the “whoosh” at impact to get the hands in better position to get the club face and path to merge correctly. Then one day, I would aim down the left as usual... and would end up left side rough or trouble. I stuck with that, figuring it’s just a glitch. Next time, same thing. But I began to aim a bit more left center after 9. Still working on the ‘whoosh’ in the meantime. Eventually, I got that baby draw, bullet flight I saw on TV. That Summer I shot even for the first time. I consider that my defining season in my golfing ‘career’. And now I fight the snap hook!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
When I was 14 I figured out one day on the range how to truly hit down on my irons and no longer pick the ball. I started taking nice shallow divots and within a few weeks my average scores went from mid to high 80’s to shooting in the 70’s nearly every round. I shot even par for the first time the following summer.
 
I definitely believe some have a natural knack or gifting for this game, but I'm also a believer that achievement is a combination of hard work, timing and information. Hopefully, all of those can align for something good long term for you brother!

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

Thanks,
There are "some" people (small percentage) who never really relatively had to work all that hard and fairly quickly (relatively speaking) were able to achieve 80's golf or lets call it mid and to even a mid/low cap status. Then there are those (very many) who achieved it via putting in much much more time and efforts. Then there are those who put in just as much and even a lot more than that yet just cannot maintain the consistency. Thats why I have no issue saying that people who can do this well are lucky. Many dont like to hear that because they have worked for it. But the way i mean it,..its not any insult yet simply applies to the fact regardless how hard one had to work to get there, they are still imo lucky in the sense that they were/are able to maintain enough consistency to become (if not really good) but at least that good at the game.
 
Smashing Ping eye 2 persimmon woods as hard as I could...
 
My breakthrough moment came about 2 months ago when I finally figured out how to feel my arms connected in the swing. I've always been an arm swinger so this felt very different to me but I knew I was onto something because I felt so much more control of the club and my body. Just from this simple revelation I've been able to improve other parts of my swing starting with a one-piece takeaway, shorter backswing and balanced finish. It feels like a chain reaction of light bulb moments that never would have been possible if I never grasped that feeling of connection.

I've had other moments where I thought I had made a breakthrough that turned out to be fleeting. This one feels like the real deal because of all the other positive things that have come from this. Now I'm trying to figure out how I want to grip the club so I can deliver a square face without manipulating too much. I feel like I am finally on a path to improvement rather than the utter confusion that was my game before this.
 
For a long time my issue has been in my transition. Learning how to get my left side out of the way and fire through has been game changing revelation. It woke me up. Well...that and being schooled by a short 15yr old kid that was half my weight and playing a tee box behind me.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top