Your Breakthrough Moment in Golf

Fixed my alignment. Honestly that was the biggest thing by far for me. Adjusting my alignment to be actually square and figuring out where I was actually aiming dropped my scores dramatically.
 
I’ve had what I thought were several breakthrough moments only to find down the road that they weren’t.

My real breakthrough moment was realizing there’s no aha moments in this game. Only hard work, lessons, proper course management and playing within one’s skill level will get one to “breakthrough”.
 
Last Sunday felt like a breakthru... Have not played much at all this year.... 36 holes over 2 months. Drove it well Friday night, chipped & putted ok, but everything in between was rough, R-O-U-G-H!

Anyways after hitting a few shots to get loose, I really focused on pulling the hands thru the impact zone, letting the natural club lag happen and things went well... Hope it goes to the course on Saturday.
 
There’s been multiple breakthrough moments but I’ll just list one. Don’t remember who said this but someone said you can’t go from slicing to being a good golfer. You have to go from slicing to hooking and from there you can become a good golfer. For me that’s been 100% true and when I had the breakthrough of my wrist hand action and being able to turn it over and hook it that was huge for me. Took me a couple years of playing before I really got the wrist hand action down in the golf swing.
 
I think my breakthrough came between my senior year in HS or freshman in college, around 1965/1966. I was a slicer, but during that Winter I read as much as I could about the golf swing, and practiced swinging in the garage, concentrating on pronating my wrists through contact, hopefully to rid the slice, and gain a draw. That Spring I began to draw the ball, sometimes to the extreme of fighting a hook. My scores came down, I broke 80 on a regulation course, and it was very satisfying. Even today, 50+ years later I still draw my irons (and still battle the occasional hook).
 
Many years ago I had a long swing, crossed the line at the top and played a big sweeping hook. I had been playing for about 10 years and I was about a 10 handicap but I constantly fought sloppy lower body fundamentals. One day at the range I decided that since I couldn't clear my left side properly, I'd just start with my left hip out of the way. So I opened my stance and just swung down the line. Eureka! All of a sudden I had room to get through the shot! The only difference was now I hit a fade. I could aim down the left side, swing as hard as I wanted, and peel it back towards the middle. Took the left side of the golf course completely out of play. My handicap dropped to a 5. The best golf I've played in my life.

p.s. As father time has messed with my body and my swing has gotten shorter I can't use that technique anymore, but It was fun while it lasted!!!
 
Haven't had a true breakthrough yet. I've had a bunch of mini breakthroughs that have taught me about the swing, but none so major that they revolutionized my swing. I feel like I'm close though.
 
For me it is this season. Coming back to the game after a 7 year break I am a different player - less aggressive, slower swing and simply more relaxed. Other than the first round where I simply wasn’t making contact, my scores now average 88/89 which is 8/9 strokes off my average when I quit. More than the simple score however is that I’m just enjoying the game more . Of course these scores show I’m still a very average weekend golfer but I do believe that if I carry on doing what I’m doing I could see a sub 85 this year.
 
I have been playing for a good part of my life. I don't have a one moment where everything seemed to click scenario. I have found that my game comes and goes. One year, I have a breakthrough where all of a sudden, my takeaway feels like it puts everything into a good motion, another year, it may be something simple like figuring out how to hit a certain wedge shot that seems to get my scores trending down. The long off season usually does a good enough job of displacing some part of my game causing me to begin the search a new the next year.

This year, I feel like I finally hit a stride in terms of basic setup. Up to this point, I have been hitting the ball way too high, losing distance, hitting weak wipes that went nowhere. For some reason, when I felt like the ball was in the middle of my stance, it was actually very close to my left heel. Now, I am forcing myself to consciously align myself properly while ensuring that my club face is square to target. All of a sudden, my launch angle is down, my contact is crisp, and my distance is up across the board. As confidence grows, swing is less tentative.

It is always amazing to me how some of the most seemingly insignificant change can be a domino effect in the right direction.
 
I don't really believe in them, sure there are wonderful moments when a fault gets fixed and I've played better, but never have I dropped my scores dramatically, just small steps.
 
I’ve had several breakthrough moments but they generally only last a few rounds and then it’s like I’ve never held a club before. Keeps it interesting I guess
 
Learning a proper grip was the big light bulb for me. I learned/developed very improper technique as an adolescent and never played often enough to bother fixing it until a couple of years ago.

The newest one for me is shallowing out the downswing.
 
... I had only been playing 2 years but very seriously. I was on a golf vacation with a friend and was hitting my 7 iron about 150 and very accurately but my driver was all over the place. This was a persimmon driver so not quite like todays 460cc drivers and it demanded good contact. I had a birdie on a par 3 where I stuck my 7 iron to a few feet and made the putt and frustratedly said "I wish I could hit my driver like my 7 iron" to which my friend said why not give it a try? He said I was swinging my driver muuuuuch harder than my 7 iron so on the next tee I imagined I was swinging a 7 and not my driver. I hit my first solid drive that went farther and straighter than any I had hit, so that was my breakthrough moment.
 
Not to sound cliché or to make it look like i'm sucking up, but my breakthrough moment in golf has been joining THP. I used to play golf, but now I'm really learning about golf and really loving it. Before I never thought about proper gapping, I used to play a 48* PW, and 56* and 58* wedges. I'd always get mad about this large hole in my yardages, but never had the knowledge to do anything about it. Yes I know, basic stuff, but not for your uneducated hacker! I've learned more about lofts, lies, angles of attack, shafts, and the list goes on and on, since I met all you THPers. I've never heard of Tour Edge, now I'm playing a 3W I love from this company. The same can be said about Snell, heard about and learned about them here, now I'm enjoying their equipment! I'm part of this great community who is so willing to help with advice, encouragement, and free golf gear! They have event after event that brings the community together, whether you are on the team, or watching from home. The knowledge here has allowed me to learn so much, ask questions, and just absorb so much knowledge from so many people.

I used to play golf, now I love playing, researching, reading, sharing experiences, getting in on contests, etc. A great place to grow your game as a player!
 
My brother gave me a Ben Hogan Gift Pack for Christmas over 20 years ago. It had 3 sleeves of Hogan 2-piece distance balls, a sleeve of Hogan balatas, and a copy of Five Lessons. I couldn't wait to use the balls the next time I played. A few weeks later, I thought it may be a good idea to read the book at some point, too. It didn't take long to see how bad I was holding the club and addressing the ball.

My grip was overhauled that winter, and the balls are still in the sleeves.
 
I'm probably going to explain this poorly, but my moment was realizing that I had to get to the left side by a little shift instead of just pure rotation around my stance at address. Now I need to figure out how to get the arm rotation into the swing.
 
Anytime I take a lesson and fix what I have reverted back to. Always reminds me to keep up with lessons.
 
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