Quote:
Originally Posted by t walgamuth
Yesterday we drove over to Columbus OH to watch the oldest grandchild (14) play golf. She has only been playing about three years but her dad was an excellent golfer and her mom was an outstanding distance runner in high school.
I used to play some golf (that is an exaggeration...I was a pitiful hacker!).
She is playing as a freshman on the varsity team. It was an invitational tournament with at least four teams competing. We assumed that she was playing against more experienced and older players. She had some problems near and on the green but off the T she was simply killing it! Her drives were always straight and from 50 to 100 yards further than the nearest competitor in her group of four. And a simply lovely smooth swing.
Suddenly I am a golf fan!  |
After playing for years my best advice to a beginning golfer with decent skills is to have a solid practice routine.
Disclaimer: She probably already knows this stuff.
How I practice:
1. Stretch and warm your body before you practice. This means nothing until you age and injuries become more pronounced. Still it’s a good habit to start early as eventually you get injured and knowing what your body physically responds to speeds recovery.
2. Make sure you have a good range finder and than use it to understand what every iron can do in distance on an 80% effort swing. Make a card that has this data and keep it in your pocket while playing. I don’t us a range finder while playing because I read the yardage markers but having the exact yardage each of my irons can reach keeps guessing out of the
game.
Buy a good swing speed/tempo meter where you can learn your swing speed for every club. Golf is a game of consistency so the sooner you know your club speeds the easier it is to have proper tempo which means consistency.
3. Practice with purpose, know what your doing with ever ball. Learning cause and effect on ball striking will help you troubleshot on and off the course.
4. Save one practice session a week to work on problem shots. Example, if you keep slicing your 3 iron use the problem shot day to focus only on that iron until you fix the slice, learning cause and effect can’t be over emphasized. Don’t diagnose your swing through others eyes while playing a game as they are usually wrong about what you can only feel. Again the sooner you can learn cause and effect and do corrections on the fly the better.
5. Play with strangers when you can. This helps you learn a broader gambit of golf skills and etiquette.
6. Practice in reverse of most people. Go to a driving range and watch 10 players. I bet most will grab the driver first and hit 20 balls as hard as they can and probably have crappy shots. They get frustrated and grab a 3 iron and it’s still bad. They rarely chip or putt.
a. I putt 3 footers until I can make 8-10 in a row. Than I putt from 10-15 foot away until I land inside of 3 foot from the hole 8-10 times.
b. I than practice chipping and sand shots from a bunker for 10-20 balls.
c. I than practice my 9 iron all the way up to the 3 iron.
d. I than practice my 3-5 wood and than driver.
If I have a problem club that I can’t diagnose in 5 shots I save that for the problem shot session. Again can’t say enough about learning cause and effect.