I started playing one year ago and thought I'd share my progress:

• First round: Went +71 (shot 143). Triple was my best on a hole.
• Since then, I've had one lesson a month and 2 hours or so a week at the range/on the sim, and then the 65 or so rounds I've played.
• Couple of injuries prevented me playing in November and February.
• Made some real progress through March, when I played a lot more and saw my handicap drop quickly from 44 at the start of the year to 35ish.
• Incremental improvements since then: I've started using the driver a lot more, which is helping me get more pars and more GIRs but also hitting more OB off the tee can blow up a hole easily.
• Best GIR performance was 5/18, but I've also tracked GIR+1 (so 3 on a par 4, 4 on a par 5) in my quest to become a bogey golfer. Record there was 12/18 GIR+1's.
• Clearly for a high handicapper, the variation is still large. I imagine for a low handicap, the anticap (worst you could play in range) is probably a lot tighter than the 12.5 differential currently between my handicap and anticap, but that has come down for me from 18 in January, and the 20 differential at the end of last summer.
• Best round was +25 and I ended my Year 1 at a handicap of 30.4.
• On my home course, I've birdied 5 different holes, parred 11 of them, and an elusive 2 remain yet to be parred (both bogied).

• Goals for Year 2: I'd like my handicap to be in the low 20s, under 20 would be a stretch goal. I'm realistic in my progress rate. I'd like to have a best round that breaks 90 (so +17 or less).

• Swing-wise:

  • I've gone from a huge slicer of the ball to drawing it, sometimes too much. My bad shots are usually when I do then slice it as I'm often aiming to play for the draw.
  • Main issues currently:
    • Face angle variation - I have the ability to send the ball either 10+ degrees either way.
    • Hitting any iron longer than a 7 is a real issue, in fact my 7/8 go longer than 4/5/6 because I just can't make good contact. Working on longer irons is a step for improvement, definitely will also my help my shorter irons also I think.
    • Driver is good, swinging at 90mph or so, on the range that can get up to high 90s but out on course I'm often half swinging to keep it in play. This year, I'd like to work a bit on swing speed there while keeping it in play.
    • Chipping has been a big improvement in the last couple of months, from thinning every ball to now getting some nice ones. More consistency could easily drop me a shot or two every round.
    • Then putting, lag putting for speed control has improved a lot but I need to look at increasing my hole-out rate from that 7 feet and in range.

• Will update you all next year on my Year 2!

Lots of slices, lots of duck hooks. 1 in 5 goes dead straight.

I know i have a strong grip here, I was having trouble closing the club face that day.

I learned golf in college but was never serious about it, and I let it fall by the wayside. That was 12 years ago.

Well about 4 months ago, my wife was throwing away trash in our building's basement when she noticed someone had thrown away a full iron set (sw, pw, 2-9) of very old but great condition clubs. She asked me if I wanted them and I figured why the hell not.

Been practicing consistently since then and im at a place where i feel comfortable enough with my pitches to get some pointers on what i can improve. I still feel stiff in my swing and it probably shows lol. 50 degree wedge.

I always hear about how winter indoor golfers are surprised when their course scores don’t resemble anything close to their simulator scores, and now I understand why.

I got to a point where I can go through my entire bag and consecutively pure every single club 3W - LW on range mats, 3x in a row. As soon as I get on the course, I’m chunking or topping every other ball.

After this experience, I firmly believe that beginners should avoid range mats - those are for seasoned golfers who are trying to work on swing mechanics instead of ball contact.

Thoughts?

Edit: why does this sub downvote everything lol

I have a tendency to go over the top a lot when i dont focus on my swing plane. Im slightly over the top here, any suggestions how to fix this and be a little more shallow? And any other fault you can spot?

24hcp

Cheers!

Am I OTT? I’ve tried to focus on keeping an outside takeaway and dropping the hands while keeping my back to the target in transition. Any advice is appreciated.

Went back to the range today and laid a towel behind every ball I shot. Immediately noticed my mentality shifted and I felt the same slight discomfort before approaching a ball on an actual course. This helped me realize I don’t have the same anxiety on mats because I’m not worried about chunking, but as soon as I’m on grass I get start getting nerves about hitting the ground and make micro adjustments to compensate. Having to worry about not hitting the towel simulates those exact thoughts and should help inoculate the nerves.

Immediately saw my range performance tank to my level of play on an actual course, and I was forced to adjust my weight, swing path, etc to get better strikes.

Use towels on range mats!!!

I don’t know if this is a major power leak, but I’ve been trying to fix my downswing for a while now. I feel like I’m leaving a lot on the table because I just can’t seem to compress my irons consistently. Most of my shots feel shallow instead of that solid, compressed strike.

The problem is I have no idea where to start. Is this usually a sequencing issue, weight shift, shaft lean, low point control, or something else entirely?

Has anyone dealt with the same issue before? If so, what was the biggest change or drill that finally made compression click for you?

Made some major changes off the course and i have really seen some huge improvement on the course. Happiest i have ever been with my game off the tee,significantly longer and more accurate than ever despite the swing looking relatively the same. I was pretty surprised at how similar the swings looks when I synced them up.

I don't really golf, yet. I want to get into it but got a lot going on so I have no stress, but I did go and shoot a few buckets with friends for the very first time ever a few days ago.

I grew up playing hockey and other similar sports and my swing was always lefty. When I snowboard/skateboard I'm goofy so my right foot forward. When I play disc golf I'm right handed so I point my right shoulder towards the target and swing my hips with my right side body being dominant. In every single sport I've played, my right side is always facing forward.

Because something like 90% of golfers play righty, there has got to be something to it, so I decided since I'm completely brand new to golf I'm gonna commit to righty. It felt stiff and awkward and after about 50 balls of that I tried lefty, and I felt at home right away. I hit the ball on every shot, not saying they were good but it was night and day. The stance with my right side body facing forward and swinging the club felt much more natural.

I decided right there I'm gonna be a lefty moving forward, but quickly realized if you wanna buy clubs second hand on Facebook and such, being a lefty sucks.

I've only hit about 100 golf balls total in my life. Should I commit to righty moving forward and just stick with it and "it will become natural because of this and that reason" or should I simply stay lefty? What's the reason that almost all right handed people are righty? I realize how "logical" that sounds, but you're not just using your right arm, you're using both. I'd never throw a frisbee with my left hand so "being lefty" in golf can sound a bit misleading.

I uploaded a video of my lefty swing just for fun 😅 not necessarily looking for pointers because I don't really know what I'm doing at all, but it is the GolfSwing subreddit after all!

Please rate my golf swing , i shoot in the 90s
I’ve been playing for 3 years but don’t get to play much and only in the summer
Pls don’t crucify me

Learned as a seven year old with my dad but never really had real lessons. Tend to slice especially when I try to speed up my downswing. Not clearing hips? Outside in swing plane? Club head? I’m all ears.

He snap hooks 45% of the time, blocks it right 45%, hits it great 10% of the time. I’m not a swing coach so I don’t know what to tell him but his right arm seems weird and it’s a club face issue at impact.

I've been working to neutralize my swing path because I used to swing over the top badly, but seem to have a push slice now. Do I just need to square the club face? Also, please let me know anything else you see in the swing

Consistently thinning my driver, even if I make any kind of contact my shots are staying too low due to this.

Any tips?

Still fly alright distance but sometimes my expected little draw sometimes a bit straight pushy… 7i if that context is needed.

Video on left is from last week. Video on right is from today. I’ve strengthened my grip and have really been focusing on shallowing my swing and trying to hit the ball out to the right. I can still see some OTT action from today, but not quite as bad as last week? Also have been trying to initiate the downswing by pushing through my trail foot.

I’m a 30 Handicap and just want to get off the tee box in play.

Is there anything out of order or that I can fix? Ignore the strike itself since I'm mainly working on body movements

Couldn’t hit a draw oml but I focused on turning my body more and it worked out great

onto my 2nd Zero Torque putter. I may never go back