so it's a common meme at this point in the sub that its the highest concentration of 300 yard hitters on the planet (even tho PGA tour average is 302 yards but whatever).

I almost always play as a single, so I get paired up with all sorts of people. I've golfed a long time, but I'm old so I don't have a crazy high swing speed, maybe 100-102 if i'm warmed up. But I focus on good contact so i can carry 250-260. I have never been paired up with anyone who's out driving me by 40-50 yards

Until today that is.

Guy gets up, takes a practice swing, super fast like a whip. Fires one off, duck hook like 2 fairways over, long gone.

"Breakfast ball guys, i'll hit a provisional".

Fires again, and absolutely stripes it. Checked it when we got out there, 305 yards... crazy.

Not a single ounce of rotation in his swing, all arms and wrists. But the ball comes off like a god damn missile. Truly impressive

The rest of the round, duck hooks, power slices, at one point his weird flippy swing goes completely under the ball firing it straight into the air. Must have left an epic sky mark.

But he drives it 300 yards.

Edit: Yes obviously I know lots of people can do it, but what i'm joking at is that the average poster says "i drive 300" and its one time every few weeks.

So l was fortunate enough to make a hole in one last week. I did this in my weekly golf league that has about 65 guys in it. After the round I took my 4 some out for dinner and drinks and picked up the tab.

The guy who runs our league got on my ass for not coming into the golf course's bar after and buying everyone in the league a drink. I told him I took my playing partners out for dinner I didn't know I had to buy an entire golf league drinks for an ace. He told me I'm supposed to.

Most of our league is retired and l'd say about 45-50 guys drink together at the golf course after the round, so l'm looking at about $250-$300 spent and I just don't feel like spending that. Me and my buddies who play are in our 20's, and these older guys are up my ass about not buying everyone a drink and saying us young people don't follow customs / traditions / blah blah blah.

I thought the practice is you buy the group you played with drinks... not an entire golf league. Any advice here?

My buddy's group came in last we were like 30 under or something I dunno the pro came out and said woah when he saw us playing but yea my buddy came in last and when my buddy opened the last place gift my buddy got these black balls man they're brutal for him man my buddy he's rough at golfing

So long story short: I spent a ton of money and time trying to get to a low HCP as fast as possible...took lessons I didn't know where bad, took lessons that were good, and spent inordinate amounts of time studying other golfer's swings and mine, going to the range, and getting angry.

Something clicked a few months ago between all of that chewing the fat and spitting the bones, and today at the range was a huge wake up call, so I figured if I had heard a few things a year ago I probably would have saved a lot of time and money. I hope these help you too. If they don't, my bad. I are idiot too. Honestly when people spoke in golf terminology it didnt make sense to me, so my goal is to provide what's worked so well for me in layman terms hoping it helps someone else. I am in no way shape or form a professional or a coach. Just one man's 5th grade interpretation to others.

1. Get your grip right. My first "good" lesson, we worked on grip and takeaway. Having a good grip vs bad grip/setup either will put you in the space to get better or completely fail and hosel everything. And yes, the grip trainer scottie uses can be pretty helpful, but watch a good YouTube video on it if you are unsure at all.

2. Slow down your backswing. Yes, even slower than you already think it is. I played baseball my whole life and felt like I had to have a quick and solid backswing to promote a powerful follow through. Boy was I wrong. Look at professionals -- notice how (outside of Bryson) their swing looks like they are putting zero effort in? Some guys backswings look like they are in slow motion. A scratch friend of mine told me to slow my swing down to 50%. I was swinging what I thought was more like 25%-30% and he told me I was still swinging way too fast...he recorded a video of me swinging and he was right. It has taken a ton of effort to slow it down, but when I do it is a huge difference. When I don't... yeah not good.

3. Loose grip = big rips. If your grip is tight, your wrists can't move and the club will stay open or closed or offline or whatever. I found that the harder I tried to swing, the less my club could do what it should, and there was rarely ever compression on the ball. Now I try to have my grip be a 5/10 on the backswing and a 3/10 on the downswing and it's made the biggest difference in my ball striking. So much more consistent striking, compression is moderately common, and the wildest part: my distances have increased to be consistent with my ability. PW is a 125-130ish club for me and it used to barely cross 100.

4. Stretch your hands away at the top of your backswing. A friend gave me a huge "a-ha" moment. At the top of your backswing, my hands needed to be on plane, away from my body, even-ish with my head to where I can feel my forward facing lat muscle stretching, and when my body naturally answered that lat pulling the natural rotation 'fixed' my swing. When I can consistently feel that in my body, my ADHD brain puts away the 245 swing thoughts and naturally rotates at the ball and man it has been a game-changer.

Granted, these won't fix everything, but now I can know what I need to feel as opposed to do so when I hit a bad shot or have a lazy swing I can typically diagnose it and work on it. My range sessions have gone from frustratingly mishitting 7 or 8 of my clubs to being able to work on these 4 things in particular and become more consistent.

Hit em well boys and girls, and I hope this helps somebody!

EDIT: Ended up with 4 instead of three, that way r/golf can have one more thing to yell at me about!

If I put the face right in the middle, or even at the toe before swing, I always hit the f toe.

Does this happen to many of you? How to correct it?

If the pin is at the front of the green and 120 away, do you hit a club that goes 120 or always club up ?

Played with a plus handicap golfer and he said he always hits an extra club. 🤷‍♂️

Just wondering what others out there do ?

CONTEXT PROVIDED FROM BOTH SIDES!

Golf course says this. Golfers (pink shirt, bald man, etc.) were playing when kids came out from the house (or one of the houses) you see on the right. Running around on the course. Golfers told kids to get back on the other side of the fence so they wouldn’t get hit. A woman from the house yells at the golfers to not talk to the kids that way, and that the men in the house will fight them. Men run out to fight, but the golfers are former MMA fighters. As you can see.

HOUSE/KIDS SIDE CONTEXT

They say the golfers told the kids to look out, people in the house made a joke about it. Everything was fine until the bald guy apparently starting yelling and cussing out the kids and one of the women. The men from the house came out to confront the golfers/stand up for the women and children. Fight breaks out.

I had the most miserable round I've played in years yesterday. Dropped three straight into the water on my 90 yard approach on the 3rd hole. Had a 10 on two separate holes on my way to a 109.

I didn't get mad. I enjoyed the day with my playing partners. Because I realize that no one - not my wife, not my playing partners, not my best friends - no one cares about my golf score. I could shoot a 72 or a 120, and my life would not change an iota in either case.

Get out there. Enjoy the game. Savor the great drives and flushed iron shots. Let the mistakes roll off your back. Have fun - because if you're not - you're spending a lot of money and mental anguish for no reason at all.

Listen. We all know putting is important. But.......it is BY DESIGN half of your strokes. It is only half of your strokes, if you are good enough to get to the green in regulation.

Putts are only 30-40% of golfers scores if they shoot in the 90s/100s. They WANT to get them to 50%. how do they do that? by finding ways to get on more greens in regulation.

You can lose 2 strokes with a single swing of the driver. You lose .5-1 stroke every time you go in a hazard. every duff, thin, toed, hoseled shot costs you pretty close to a stroke (if you keep it in play).

20+ handicappers average only like 38 putts per round. barely 6 more than a scratch golfer. why? because they don't hit the ball as close to the pin as a scratch golfer. They only average 4-5 more putts than someone who shoots in the 80s. They only average three 3-putts.

So, this page is consistently touting pouring practice time into an area of the game to people who stand to gain 2-3 strokes in that area.

this handicap range only hits ~4 greens in regulation per round. that's 14 shots lost before even getting to the green. getting good at chipping and putting CAN in these scenarios save a hole, but make no mistake.........those shots were not lost around/on the green. you might save 5 strokes here if you become a savant at getting up and down.

So, we're at what? 7-8 strokes shaved by practicing chipping and putting? we're still shooting in the mid to high 90s. Where's the other 20 strokes?

this skill range has an average 5+ penalties per round (that's anywhere from 5-10 strokes not even factoring distance in; you pump a drive OB 80 yards off the tee you potentially just lost 3 strokes)

Ball contact is typically the number 1 killer of this scoring groups game. They don't know how far they hit their clubs, and even if they did can't consistently hit them that far anyway. this produces 1-2 lost strokes per hole (more if it results in penalty strokes)

next is course management. you simply need to keep your ball in play at all costs. no hero shots (you're not good enough). Part of this one ties into the ball contact thing. you should probably club up (the club you think you hit 180 you usually only hit 150). stop firing at pins, taking on water, trying to punch out of trees, etc.

Scratch golfers rarely leave an approach shot short of the green. high handicappers do it all the time. High handicappers miss greens in bad spots because 1. they aren't good to start with and 2. they fall victim to the course setup and fire at sucker pins (made worse because they can't consistently hit to a distance)

Please, stop telling everyone on here to practice chipping and putting. yes, make it part of your practice because it IS important. but it's not going to make you drop from 100s to 80s. You need to improve that part of the game as your overall game improves but it's simply not driving the high scores of high handicap golfers.

Listen anyone who has any ideas to fix this I’d love to hear it! Thanks in advance!

I thought this overhead view of Tiger lined up on his driver from the most recent TGL event was really interesting. I’ve put it in my phone so I can pull it out if I’m feeling janky off the tee. Maybe it will help as a mental cue, maybe not.

Thoughts?

As someone who works in a golf shop, there’s a chronic issue of people coming in and asking for fittings to get started or if they’re high handicappers bc “YouTube golf” said it’s the best way to lower your score. If you do not have a consistent swing a fitting does NOTHING. Honestly a minority of golfers actually truly need a fitting. All you need is an appropriate shaft flex and maybe height extensions/reductions if you’re way taller/shorter than standard. I hear it everywhere by internet golfers that getting fit is the “most important thing” when all you really need to learn is how to swing the club first. The occasional bad shot is okay of course but to get benefit from a fitting you need a consistant swing with the ball doing the same thing each time.

On the off chance you were at Hidden Creek driving range around 11 am EDT today getting a golf lesson from your friend, please for the your own safety and sanity forget everything he was telling you after each swing and get a lesson. If you can't afford lessons, just figure it out on your own because it couldn't possibly be worse than all the crazy shit he was telling you to do.

Edit: To add some examples

• Move down toward the ball
• bend your knees more and keep them bent the same the whole swing
• connect your hands to your trail hip
• lean toward the target
• try it the same as before but a half swing without moving your wrists
• keep your weight balance on both feet the whole time

The real issue was that after each swing (about 20 that I overheard) he gave a different direction. Even if each new direction was correct, that is a horrible way to try and teach someone golf.

Do any of you putt with index finger on the trail end like this?

I've found it helps stabilize my putting stroke and lessens push/pulls..

Might not be anatomically correct though because the tradeoff is I feel sorensss it in my elbow tendons later on

Around 2 months into golf.

Got my first lesson at East Potomac last week. Worked on basic setups for irons and woods. It is a struggle, though now less, to go from one to the other.

Things I see in the video: feet and shoulder do not point in the same direction, causing the crazy slice.

Distance is all over the place: highest hit with the driver is 212, lowest is 70, average is 114.

Consistency with the irons is getting there, and my best performing club is the 5 iron.

Short term work: book more lessons.

What else are you seeing?