My God...... I am quite certain that I scared the squirrels silly tonight at the driving range with my horrid game. How the hell does anyone enjoy this sport?? I have been playing off and on since I was about 9 and I still completely and utterly suck. It kills me. I address the ball, and then get really tense, start thinking about every aspect of the swing..... then: A. I slice the ball to the left like a posessed boomerang. B. I top the ball and it goes rolling forward like a bowling ball. C. I get under the ball and hit a pop fly. I sway, my head moves, I dont keep my eye on the ball, Im using too much of my right arm, my hands are in front of my body when I hit the ball.... I could go on.......
My advice would be calm down and enjoy it. Just try and keep your swing nice and easy; you don't have to kill the ball. It's just like anything else; if you think about it too much while you're doing it, you're probably going to mess up.
But out of the 100 or so shots you hit when you go out... one will be awesome and will keep you coming back for more.
man Drewdog you just described me exactly. been playing since about nine, but don't get to play much and i do the 3 things you do. being left-handed, my slice goes off to the left and it's a thing of beauty. sometimes i swear i actually get it to turn around and start coming back. there have been about two times in my life i actually needed the slice to happen on a second shot. one time beautiful, worked perfectly. the other time, one of the most horrible shots of my life (and that's saying something). i can top balls, pop them up, take nice divots behind the ball and hit it nowhere. i'm versatile. i'm sure i frustrate my dad to no end. he's always giving me tips and i try to follow them all, but there's like 8 things to remember during the swing, and i can do about 3 at one time. the other 5 just go to hell. i can shoot a basketball amazingly well, hit a baseball, throw a football, play ping pong, bowl straight, everything that requires coordination in sports, i can do. except hit a damn golf ball. it's just ugly. but like Rocket104 said, you hit like 2 good shots all day, and they're all you remember. and then you wanna play some more. i'm actually thinking of taking golf my last semester of college to see if i can get some semblance of an iron game back (getting a driving, chipping, and putting game would be good too, but i'll start with the most terrible part).
Well, if it was easy, you wouldn't want to play it. An assistant pro told me once that you'd have to hit a garbage truck full of golf balls to get any good. I've hit my garbage truck and I like to think that I'm slowly getting there. However, in your case it sounds like you have a bit of a mental block when you are standing over a golf ball. I have 2 tips for you: 1. Don't think so much about hitting the golf ball. This will cause you to use your hands too much. Think about swinging the clubhead through where the ball is. 2. To avoid your block, get a few whiffle golf balls and head to a park or open area. Try practicing hitting these whiffle balls there. This helped me a lot. Good luck!
Hit more balls at the range, play less golf courses. (I used to go to the range maybe 5 to 7 times for every 1 round I played) RELAX Check your grip This is an EXCELLENT book: Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, written by Ben Hogan. An oldie but still a goodie
When I first started to get back into it around the age of 24, I went to Golfsmith in Austin and got a lesson from one of the Harvey Penick coaches. They have a knanck for breaking it down to something simple you can start out with. It really is all about solid, consistent contact on the center of the clubface. If this is accomplished, not only do you not have to swing hard, it is a detriment to try and swing hard. Here's a drill that you can start with. Stick four tees in the ground with the top of the tee sticking up about a half inch. Do not put any balls on the tees YET. Just start out with a simple ARM swing; do not use your legs or wrists or any other power source. Only take the club back to where your hands go just past your back foot. Then swing through with your arms and try to clip the tops off the tees. Practice this and when you can do it it pretty consistantly then put a ball on the 4th tee. Clip 3 tees, and when you clip the fourth don't even think about the ball just use the same motion. I promise that you will be shocked at how far the ball goes when you just hit it FLUSH using a 1/4 arm swing. I still use this drill when I am having problems connecting flush and working the ball. Not only will this help you to develop hitting the ball with the sweet spot of the club, but it will also help your chipping and short game skills as well. Also remember that when you swing your arms down in a full swing, only try to bring them down as fast as they would normally drop to your sides if you had your arms out stretched. (Know what I mean?) Golf is one of those sports that nobody can just pick up and be good at. In this way it is unlike any other game in the world. Keep practicing.
Practice and dont get frustrated. Have someone look at you and show you what your doing wrong. One lesson can help with this. Or you can go back to being the pocket pool champion of the world.
name came from my golf game (what I lose on the course ) This coming from a guy with the word "balls" in his handle. coming guy balls handle Punk ass Mulder
Not to keep the b**** train rolling but, Am I the only one who HATES hitting off the astro turf and the way too high rubber tee that forces every solid hit to go straight up in the air?
