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Golf improvement thread

markst said:
to be fair, I know exactly what I do wrong..........its just hard doing the right thing !

good news though is that I now wear an ankle support to stop me turning it over on the follow through - and so far my foot feels a bit better on the course

slightly better today but very windy !
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All sounds good :thumbsup:

Spent the afternoon hitting balls in the sim with the tour pro you can see a few posts above. He doesn't half stike the ball well. Not sure a single drive carried less than 290 yards - yes you read that right, 290 yards through the air. He's playing Celtic Manor in a Tournament soon so be interesting to see how he gets on.
 
Been a while since I updated this thread and a few things have happened in the meantime so may as well jot them down.

First point is I'm spending more and more time practicing with the 2 pros I know, probably 4 or so times a week with one, other or both. It's been a real eye opener and is really driving me forward. It's not just seeing the way they practice which is important, it's having a constant target to work to in all aspects of the game. I can't yet strike the ball like Brian but I have data and video to work towards. My putting is coming on pretty well and have won the odd mini competition there but my chipping needs lots of work. My pitching is getting closer, again won a few competitions against them there but bunker play is lagging a long way behind. Because we have skills based competitions in all aspects of the game (even closest the hole coomps on the sim) I can see exactly where I need to improve the most and what I'm aiming at.

I went to the final day of one of Brian Casey's (the male pro I practice with) tournaments last week with Jess (the female pro) and walked round with him. As it's Europro Tour there are no ropes and any spectators are just trusted to know what they are doing and to stay out of the way. All the courses played have plenty of room so it's not an issue. I walked with him a bit of the way which was good to get a feel for how he saw the course. He actually came 4th out of 168 pros, not bad in his second tournament in front of the cameras IMO (will be shown on Sky Sports next Tuesday - you'll see Jess as she was wearing a bright pink golfing top and the cameras were following Brian quite a bit as he climbed the leaderboard). He got down to 2nd by the 15th but dropped a shot coming in to drop back to 4th. 2nd was really the target on day 3 as the guy leading had smashed the course record by 4 shots on day 1 by shooting 10 birdies and no dropped shots. Given the venue has been used regularly for European Tour Q School for years it shows the standard of play is pretty high.

Brian's up again this week and I got a message last night that the course suits him this week (clearly coming 4th out of 168 was a disappointing result.....) so we'll see how he goes. If his game is 'on' we could see fireworks though - he has the ability to quite literally take a course apart. On the final day last week the other guy in his group was about 6'2', athletically built and played for the England international team a couple of years ago. Even though he was ripping it down the middle, on a few occasions where we walked ahead and Brian shot 2nd, Brian's ball was carrying where the other guys ball came to rest after his drive. At the point at which he's going into a 550 yard par 5 in pretty still air with a mid iron for his second shot you know he's got serious length off the tee. Will be watching him a few more times this summer and really looking forward to it.

My own slightly less high level match schedule starts properly now, playing for my club's 1st team and in some club competitions. Club competition wise I'll play a few to get my handicap moving down but am really only interested in the scratch matchplay and scratch stroke play championship. I'm through to round 2 of the scratch matchplay as the guy I was supposed to play forfeited the match. Without being too 'cocky' I was going to win it (he was a mid handicapper) but it would have been good to play all the same to get into the competition a little. Besides you never know in matchplay, if I had a bad day and he played a blinder anything could have happened. One of my main 'rivals' (we're the number one pair for the club's team) got knocked out in round one making the road to the final a tad easier as he was club champion last year.

So anyway, practice is going well, my match schedule is just starting and between that I'll be supporting Brian at a few events and getting a feel for how it feels at that sort of level. Just hope I can get to the odd Ferrari event between all that. Busy summer ahead.....
 
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right well been very unhappy since I finished teaching the other week as my game seems to be going nowhere and tbh I was not that happy spending more money with my coach - so I've changed coach !

Now coached by Janice Arnold - a tour winner :thumbsup: - and its going in the right direction again
 
markst said:
right well been very unhappy since I finished teaching the other week as my game seems to be going nowhere and tbh I was not that happy spending more money with my coach - so I've changed coach !

Now coached by Janice Arnold - a tour winner :thumbsup: - and its going in the right direction again
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Good news :thumbsup:

I've been working on both long and short game pretty hard, mostly short game with Jess and long game with Brian. I'm making progress all round really especially around the green with chipping and putting which I'm practicing every morning. Pretty convinced I'll get up and down more times than not when I miss the green now.
 
tbh i just feel like giving up .......................one moments its working the next it isnt, my feet hurt and can only walk 9 holes, and if I use a buggy in the comps - i would be the only one to do so.

i'm meant to be playing in a comp on saturday and tbh i'm pretty sure i will withdraw -

apart from that one dog has got to have a ligament in her knee operated on on Wednesday..................hello Noel the supervet - prob with supervet prices now....:cry3:

still comes with 24hr care, piped music, swimming pool, and choice of areas for them to go out on (depending upon your pets preferance - grass or patio).............i wonder if i can stay too:hmmm:
 
Sorry to hear that, mate. Playing with an injury is no fun and is often counter productive. Maybe worth giving it a proper rest so it can get better?

I won't go on about how well my game is going now but it's going pretty well. Lots of practice with very good players (3 tour pros now) is paying off. Put it this way, 18 months ago my Dad beat me each time we played when we competed with no handicaps. Went out yesterday and I won pretty convincingly while giving him 15 shots, and it was matchplay so that's more like 20 shots (matchplay is normally 3/4 handicap difference). Takes a bit to impress my Dad but he said he was blown away by my driving in particular.
 
I happen to agree with you re giving it a rest - I'm going to play until I go back to school in October and my membership up for renewal and just stop for the winter.

in the long term I suspect its what I need to do, esp as I play at a serious players club where an 8 handicap wont even get you in a comp restricted to 70 entrants !


but glad yours is going well :thumbsup:
 
right where do I start - for last week it was ******* shocking , so spent a few days on the range practicing and cut back on my playing in the hope of finding my missing swing.

well hello, one turned up and was working very well ! and good enough for a net 61 so something clearly was working well.

and, having rested my foot for all of a week, seen the quack and specialist (waste of time) .....done a few exercises , I actually WALKED 18 holes yesterday for the 1st time in 2 years and 9 again today, so I must be on the right track.

so things could be worse !

now waiting for the Golf Sales so I can buy some new kit :thumbsup:
 
All sounds mostly good news, Mark.

My game is going pretty well, I'm heavily into practising now - alarm goes off at 0500, in the gym by 0545 most days, often finishing up at 2000...... it's why I'm rarely in here, frankly had more time when I was working.

There's way too much to report to try to bring people up to date but will just share a couple of vids I made for a mate in the states as it gives an idea of where I am now.

Pitching:

http://youtu.be/CtBN9q7Y9y4

Driving:

http://youtu.be/Zwe7lK7NriA

http://youtu.be/f_dqy55kviw

All my on course performance is tracked by a stats guy in the states and my play is about on par (no punn interded, honest) with a scratch player, well, 0.3 handicapper right now. My progress needs to be about a shot better per year for 4 years to get to the sort of level I want to get to and that seems achievable given the progress I've made. Being able to drive it over 300 without too much bother helps a bit :)
 
sadly done my back in and now not played for a month ! - even worse I've gone back to work , which in hindsight was a grave error !
 
markst said:
sadly done my back in and now not played for a month ! - even worse I've gone back to work , which in hindsight was a grave error !
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You needed hindsight to work out that was an error!?!?!? :)

Sorry to hear about your back though. Whatever happens, don't go back to golf too early! I've see people with bad backs try and it never works and will just put you out for an age.

I know I haven't really kept this thread updated, just not much interest so haven't bothered, but I've kept at the golf thing. Now practice with some very good players (one just shot 24 under par for 4 rounds on a course over 7,000 yards long to cruise through European Tour Q School stage 2, one more stage to go to make it to the big time! Another is 20th in the amateur rankings in England right now and is pipped for a spot in the international team in the spring) which has helped me hugely. My driving is up over 270 yards carry now (about PGA Tour average) and my short game in particular is coming on well and I've beaten the pros I practice with now and then in this area. Last season I just played matchplay for my club so no handicap changes but next year I'll hit the qualifiers and see where I get to. My scoring average is now 1.7 over par which is around scratch level so I expect a significant drop. I'm working pretty hard - was in the gym at 05:45 yesterday (as I am most days now) and didn't finish till mid evening. It's a lot of 'work' ...... well effort anyway..... but I am enjoying the challenge.
 
Nosevi said:
You needed hindsight to work out that was an error!?!?!? :)

Sorry to hear about your back though. Whatever happens, don't go back to golf too early! I've see people with bad backs try and it never works and will just put you out for an age.

I know I haven't really kept this thread updated, just not much interest so haven't bothered, but I've kept at the golf thing. Now practice with some very good players (one just shot 24 under par for 4 rounds on a course over 7,000 yards long to cruise through European Tour Q School stage 2, one more stage to go to make it to the big time! Another is 20th in the amateur rankings in England right now and is pipped for a spot in the international team in the spring) which has helped me hugely. My driving is up over 270 yards carry now (about PGA Tour average) and my short game in particular is coming on well and I've beaten the pros I practice with now and then in this area. Last season I just played matchplay for my club so no handicap changes but next year I'll hit the qualifiers and see where I get to. My scoring average is now 1.7 over par which is around scratch level so I expect a significant drop. I'm working pretty hard - was in the gym at 05:45 yesterday (as I am most days now) and didn't finish till mid evening. It's a lot of 'work' ...... well effort anyway..... but I am enjoying the challenge.
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Good work Pete. I am glad to see that the hard work is paying dividends. :thumbsup:
 
JoyZipper said:
Good work Pete. I am glad to see that the hard work is paying dividends. :thumbsup:
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darrens said:
I continue to watch with interest, and more than a little envy :)
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Robgvx said:
Still watching with great interest. Please keep going with the updates.
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Guys, in honesty I didn't think anyone was all that interested on here, hence the reports 'drying up'. Over on a golf forum in the States a post I made on another thread was taken out and a new thread created by a moderator (the place is far more heavily moderated than we like this place to be). For a bit I posted on here and there but as I didn't think there was interest here I just started posting stuff on there. Not for the first time I've had a bit of a run in with the management there (I was previously banned) and I'm not sure I'll go back to posting, not decided yet. The place is just a tad more 'controlled' than here and I find it tough to bite my tongue and toe the line - I know you lot will find that extremely hard to believe :grin:

Anyway, if you're interested here's the thread and no I didn't name it :) It fills in the gaps of where I've been and what I've been up to. If you have any comments, comment here - I'm not actually following the thread or getting updates as I'll just end up in a row again and frankly life's too short.

http://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/80287-petes-programme-single-digit-to-tour-player/
 
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