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Your Breakthrough Moment in Golf

dacatalyst41

dacatalyst41

#ReptheG #RocktheChev
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Relative to most of my golfing buddies, I'm a newer golfer. I've been "playing" for nearly four years, but really in the last two years since my THP involvement stepped up. Since coming back from The Grandaddy, I've been religiously working on a few simple swing changes and they have been gradually becoming second nature.
This past Friday, all of the drills, the repetition, the feels...they all clicked and the swing felt fantastic and I shot a new PB of +4 on the front 9. I actually felt like I was shooting at spots instead of just hoping for a good outcome. I went back out yesterday and the goods were all still there. Finally, a breakthrough!

My question to you: When was your breakthrough moment that changed your game and got your scores trending down? What happened?

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Fun thread and congrats on the breakthrough.

Mine occurred about 7 or 8 years ago due to lessons from my former club's head pro. We completely re-worked my swing. I used to fight a slice my entire golfing life until then. Since then, I hit a very straight ball which immediately led to lower scores. I certainly still have highs and lows like everyone else, but my better rounds are lower and my bad rounds are not nearly as bad. Has added much more consistency.
 
For me it was when I learned to manage the course. I am not long off the tee and dont have a 180 yd 7i, so i need to rely on course management and my short game. Once I started concentrating about scoring and not distances or looking good, the scores went down, i was more consistent and i was having more fun.
 
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...
 
Putting.

I don't really have an issue advancing the ball, whether it's thinned to win, blade a 7iron to 3 feet for an eagle tap in, or a pull hook left of the green leaving me a chip etc.

My epiphany was shooting 85 one round which is good for me but 39 putts. I finally had enough and needed to focus on putting. Bought a new putter and had a putting lesson.

I know when to take my medicine and punch out when I'm in danger or lay up to avoid danger. When the driver is haywire I opt for the 2H.
 
When I took a wedge lesson, really helped my short game and in turn my scoring.
 
Hasn't happened yet

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Lions81 said:
Fun thread and congrats on the breakthrough.

Mine occurred about 7 or 8 years ago due to lessons from my former club's head pro. We completely re-worked my swing. I used to fight a slice my entire golfing life until then. Since then, I hit a very straight ball which immediately led to lower scores. I certainly still have highs and lows like everyone else, but my better rounds are lower and my bad rounds are not nearly as bad. Has added much more consistency.
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Nice! That's what I'm seeing. Really straight flights. The big focus was to learn to to get my left side out of the way naturally and that's been a revelation. Hoping to see lower lows and highs like you have.

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Dartgod said:
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...
Click to expand...
I know that feeling all too well with the irons... especially on Par 3's where I was seeing a two way miss that drove me crazy. Curious...do you have a pre-shot routine?

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Antihero said:
Hasn't happened yet

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It's coming. Stick with it and get a lesson of need be. I was amazed at how few things needed to be tweaked.

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dacatalyst41 said:
It's coming. Stick with it and get a lesson of need be. I was amazed at how few things needed to be tweaked.

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Thanks.

I have had several lessons during the past couple of years (have been playing about that long). The biggest hurdle was learning to keep the ball in play from the tee box. Have made substantial peogress in recent months.

This has highlighted my dismal and neglected 150 and in game.

A little focus here should make it easy to lose a few strokes.

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I can give a recent example with my putting. The past couple of years have been an absolute struggle. I was constantly missing short putts and my distance control was horrible. I had tried different grips with my hands, different grips on the putter, different styles, etc. and nothing helped. Last winter I found a grip with my hands that seemed to just "click" for me and ever since then I've putted better than I have in years. It's been pretty nice not having to stress so much over those short ones.
 
Moment? Singular? I don't think I've only had one. In the 6 years I've been playing golf, I feel like I've had at least one breakthrough moment a year. Most recently it came after seemingly losing control of my swing, and figuring out how to simplify my takeaway. This has lead to significantly better ball striking and quite a bit more distance.
 
Just playing and practicing more got me down into the 80’s...playing the course properly has got me into the low 80’s high 70’s. Weekly practice really helped me and my game.
 
Every year I struggle at the beginning/middle of summer and sometime a could weeks later, after trying everything to find my swing, it just comes back...but that's just my "good" swing. I've never had that epiphany moment that forever changes my game...good to know that it's a real thing though.
 
For me was maybe 4-5 years ago when I noticed my topped iron shots started to go away and I began to get the ball airborne more consistently. That gave me more confidence that I wasn't as worried to hit a bad shot and focused on being totally committed. I think my next breakthrough is probably connected to better course management, and not getting too far ahead of down on myself after a bad hole. Hope to post in the PB thread this year!!
 
My breakthrough actually came when I was watching a college tournament during my sophomore year in college. I had been dating my now wife for a few months and her brother was playing for a really good Division 3 program here in Minnesota and I watched them play for 18 holes and thought they weren't any better than me. I practiced that whole spring and summer and actually won a few tournaments. I contacted the coach to see if I could try out as a walk on that next August and made the team.

Belief that I could play with them helped me focus that summer to improve and compete.
 
dacatalyst41 said:
I know that feeling all too well with the irons... especially on Par 3's where I was seeing a two way miss that drove me crazy. Curious...do you have a pre-shot routine?

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Click to expand...

I suppose I have a somewhat simple one. I'll stand behind the ball several feet and get a good look at the line I want to play. Then walk up and set my club behind the ball along my intended line. Then I'll get in the address position kind of "bounce" my hips to relax and a couple of club waggles and I'm ready to hit. It sounds a bit more involved and long than it really is. I do pretty much the same thing for every shot. I almost never take a practice swing with my driver or FW woods and sometimes do with my irons, but it doesn't seem to make much difference.
 
Im hoping it was last week. Played smarter, lower risk type of shots. Scored much better than my usual.
 
If it ever happens, I'll let you know.
 
Still waiting on it...haha

Actually about 6 years ago or so someone made a comment about my backswing seeming to be way too long and out of of control. I started to concentrate on just hitting the ball square and not necessarily hard. It changed a lot of things for me because the scores almost immediately went down. Now if I can just get out of my own head and limit the bad shots, I might be able to break 80 one of these times.
 
My breakthrough moment came when I started looking at my swing in slow motion and getting honest feedback.
 
Still waiting. But only been playing serious for 3 years. Weak back keeps my rotation and follow through from working well. Need big help with fairways. But better than average from 140 in and my putting keeps me going.
 
Adding a seemore putter to my bag about 6 years ago, it was a life changer for my putting and one has always been in the rotation since!
 
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.
 
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