2018 Golf Thread

TFP

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I’ve battled them for the last 5 years - they lie dormant for months then come out of nowhere. I’ve fixed them before and can fix them again but you’re right that abstinence is a good cure. If I had my druthers I wouldn’t play today, but can’t help the league schedule. Good news is that I’m away next weekend so I’ll have some forced time off anyway. We’ll see how it goes!
 

FL4WL3SS

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What did you change?
Short version:
Everything.

Long version:
Thanks to hockey, my golf swing was very much inside and out. In other words, I'd get the club inside on the backswing and thne up and closed at the top. The only way from there to make solid contact with the ball is to drop the club down inside and fire the hips as hard as possible. Luckily, I have great eye-hand and really fast hips. So I've worked hard on getting that "tour" backswing position so I can keep the club in front of me throughout the swing, but especially on the downswing. I had to learn an entire new swing pattern and release pattern. Basically I'm trying to not have to rely on timing and feel to play well.

For the first time in my life I'm able to show up to the range, completely cold, and make solid contact from the get-go without having to spend the first half of the range session finding something that works on that particular day. That right there is how I know the swing changes are working. I'm not terrified I'm going to lose the feeling on the way to the first tee or mid-round.
 
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TFP

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I’ve battled them for the last 5 years - they lie dormant for months then come out of nowhere. I’ve fixed them before and can fix them again but you’re right that abstinence is a good cure. If I had my druthers I wouldn’t play today, but can’t help the league schedule. Good news is that I’m away next weekend so I’ll have some forced time off anyway. We’ll see how it goes!
Update: I got there a little early so I was able to take about 20 swings at the range. Took 1/2 to 3/4 swings and hit the center of the club face every time. Maybe my best iron contact of the year.

Went out on the course and played fine. Shot a 44 in the cold rain, had a couple doubles due to some poor short game, but won my match by 2. But I also had a couple ridiculous pitches to win holes so I won’t complain. Hit most of my irons a little fat, but I was in the rough most of the time and couldn’t take easy swings. I’m ok with it. Onward from here.
 
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PedroSpecialK

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Nice - is your league through the club, or just a local league?

Big golf weekend coming up... George Wright on Friday + Saturday, Wayland on Sunday, fingers crossed the weather will cooperate.
 

TFP

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Nice - is your league through the club, or just a local league?
It’s a local/public league with my hockey buddies...at my club. We’re open to the public on Monday/Tuesday and there are a few public leagues there, this is one.
 

southshoresoxfan

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I was on fire tonight in my league. 36. Hit 7 greens. Lipped out an eagle putt and two more birdie putts. Could have easily been a red number (par on the side we played tonight is 35). Got my hips turning in my downswing and keeping my back to the target a shade longer and was striping it all night.
 

Comfortably Lomb

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My new G400 irons arrived! 5-UW (basically 23.5 degrees though 48.5). I spent some time at the range and played a quick 9 with them after work yesterday and I can’t say enough good things about them. Long and straight, straight, straight. They’ll bend a little but nothing like with my i3s and it’s not like I ever try to work the ball intentionally other than occassionally wanting to cut it slightly. They’re basically a full club longer and the dispersion is significantly better. I don’t think they look terrible for GI irons either. Subjective but it’s not like years ago when GI/SGI irons looked like battle stations from above.

I’m not seeing any of spin/stopping ability issues on greens that are mentioned online, but I do play Chrome Softs. I pulled a PW back on one hole and checked a couple mid-irons up within a yard or two on other holes. Turf interaction when chipping seems better than with my i3s too (small sample)—but those things never quite jelled for me around the greens.

I also got 19 and 22 degree G400 hybrids. Similarly wonderful, especially compared to the Bafflers they replaced. Shop had those to-spec when I was fitted a couple weeks ago. Onward!
 

Zomp

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I plan on it. It's scheduled for 6pm, I'm planning on getting there early and maybe playing 9 but at the very least hit for 30 minutes or so before it begins.
 

ezemerson

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I plan on it. It's scheduled for 6pm, I'm planning on getting there early and maybe playing 9 but at the very least hit for 30 minutes or so before it begins.
like brushing your teeth before going to the dentist
 

Zomp

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So for reference, this was my swing a few years back before I tore my labrum and my son was born forcing me to miss a few years.


Not much has changed, except I’ve gained a lot of weight and I probably don’t swing as hard.

So when I went to my lesson tonight, I told my instructor my story, so he had me hit five or so six irons, then my hybrid, then driver. First off my instructor said he was encouraged because a) I still have my swing and it wasn’t that bad and b) he saw a huge huge flaw in my swing that he said if I’ve always done it (which I have in this video) then my short game must be saving me all bunch of strokes.

I was dropping and tilting my head at impact which, because my head wasn’t in the right position, was forcing my hips to point the wrong direction (to the right of the target) and then I’d compensate. He said it was no surprise that I’d either block it or hit hooks because When I blocked the shot it was because my hands were going the right way, it was just my hips and head were off. When I hooked the ball, I was overcompensating by “flipping” the club to make it go left.

We did some really easy drills, and once I got comfortable keeping my head over the ball i was fine. There were a few shots where my head went past the ball but the pro said it was fine because it led to a decent enough miss and I have the speed when I get through the ball to catch up to my head. If I’m not explaining it as correctly as I could I’m sorry, but it was nice to see the ball travel 290 again.

I almost feel like I’m swinging all arms. I know I’m clearly not, but by not dropping my head at impact it definitely feels like there are less moving parts.

I’m playing 18 tomorrow, but knowing this game it will be my worst round yet.
 

jercra

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Golf is totally fucking weird. Got to the range early today and could not have had a worse session. Wanted to go home instead of playing. Of course, shot 71 with a 3 putt par in 18 trying to hard to shoot 69. I do t remember if I've ever actually had a clean round but today I had 1 3 putt bogey for my only bogey and lipped out 2 birdie putts. Could have cruised to an easy 67 today after hitting literally no good shots on the range. A good lesson, there's nothing predictive about the range. Next stop, seeing @FL4WL3SS game remake this weekend from what looks like a tremendous golf course. Hoping for the same putter game but early tee times are my weakness. Sea level, trees, sobriety... Could be rough.
 

Zomp

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Sympathy weight?
Ha I wish. Having labrum surgery and not being able to do sports was tough. You go from playing soccer or golf or whatever six times a week to doing nothing but you eat the same. Funny enough, the best golf I ever played was for my college team and I was bigger than I am now.
 

Koufax

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Yesterday I proved to myself that playing golf after oral surgery and high on pain-killers does not lead to good scores.
 

Byrdbrain

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Seems like an anecdote, you need more data points.

I had my second decent round of the year yesterday carding a 79 that could have easily been a 75. A big step up from most of my other rounds this year that have been around 90.
The fact that we finally have some half decent weather in So. NH certainly helps.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Played Red Tail today. What an awesome track. Wish i shot a little better (way too many three outs adjusting to those greens), but awesome layout and conditions.

One of my favorite finishing holes I’ve played. Just carried the water from 230 w a little cut hybrid and made the birdie to at least wrap up my day strong.
 
My second-round match at the Ladies Cup at Gullane was this morning. We've had amazing weather of late, loads of sun and virtually no rain over the last few weeks, but this morning we had more traditional Scottish conditions - a steady drizzle and much cooler temperatures. So we had that very rare situation of rock-hard fairways and greens with surface water resting on top of them. (The course is looking great, though - the Scottish Open should be fantastic, the week before Carnoustie and the Open Championship.)

In the first seven holes today, I did the following:

--2nd hole (par 4): cold-topped a 7-iron, then from about 80 yards hit a sand wedge that landed 30 feet short of the hole, bounced and rolled, hit the flagstick and stopped inches away for a par.
--3rd hole (par 5): half-chunked a 3-wood that could have got me home in two, but then hit another sand wedge to 15 feet and made that for birdie.
--7th hole (par 4): found a fairway bunker from the tee, laid up, and then hit a sand wedge from 80 yards that landed 50 feet short of the hole, bounced and rolled, kissed the side of the flagstick and stopped five feet away.

I was three up at the turn and feeling pretty good...but I managed to lose 10 (three from the edge), 11 (hit my best drive of the day and it rolled into a fairway bunker) and 12 (opponent hit two pretty poor shots on a par 5 and somehow wound up with a 30-foot eagle putt) to go all square. From there we went back and forth; I got up-and-down for pars with my putter from off the green on 13, 14, 16 and 17, and so we were level with one hole left. But at 18 I yanked my drive into the rough, couldn't force my second to the green, got a really bad lie in the rough and wedged through the back of the green, and made double-bogey to lose 1 up. Still, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to play beyond the third round given that I'm going to be abroad for so much of July and August, so I'm happy for my fellow Dunbar member to go through after a close match.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Friday round at George Wright started off inauspiciously, with three double bogeys to start and a +7 through 4 holes. I finished +9 on the front with a 44, and found my groove with the hybrids and the driver to get to a 38 on the back - I hit a gap wedge to 4 ft to get my only birdie of the day at 18 to finish at 82 (par 70).

Saturday's round at Brookmeadow was one to forget. Allergies started hitting me for what felt like the first time in my life, with all my energy feeling like it was sapped. This led to a whole host of issues - poor iron play, poor wedge play around the green, lazy swings on fairway woods for some bad hooks... just ugly. Went 46-41 for an 87 and that was probably better than I deserved.

Sunday's round was... interesting. Played Wayland for $48 prepaid including a cart, which should've been a tip that it was too good to be true. We had to delay our tee off until some carts could be returned, as apparently they were all out on the course. First 3-4 holes went fine, then after that it was a 5-10 minute wait per hole, with a slow 40 group scramble holding up the course (they didn't shotgun start it). In terms of play, I actually pulled out a pretty solid round, granted it's a ~110 slope course and conditions were pretty ideal. I holed out a couple of lucky putts on the front, and grinded it out on the back to finish 36 + 41 for a 77.

Tangentially related to the round itself - one of the last scramble groups on the course was playing 13, parallel to my group playing 12. As the rest of his group (one man, two women) began to walk out of the bunker towards the green after they'd all hit out of there, this guy began raking the bunker. After a few seconds, he yelled after them "I gotta clean up after you guys? What do I look, Hispanic or something?" - I am far from a confrontational person, but I asked him to repeat what he said. He hesitated (could see the wheels turning a bit) and said "oh come on, it's a joke" - we exchanged more pleasantries and moved along, but it bugged me the rest of the round.

The guy's comment, and moreover his blasé 'oh well sorry if you were offended' bullshit kind of embodied what I haven't been able to reconcile with golf culture - 99 times out of a 100, at least at the courses I go to, I doubt anyone bats an eye at someone saying that. And that just sucks. /end diatribe

In brighter news, the new clubs have been outstanding - it is more liberating than I expected to be able to rely on a club to go 200 in the air with relative accuracy, and even though I'm not hitting 290+ consistently with the new driver, having a reliably accurate 260+ is tough to complain about.
 

Zomp

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Ugh on both accounts of racism and slow play.

One of the things I like most about joining a private club is the pace of play. Our goal for a foursome is 3 hours and 57 minutes. If I play just my dad and I we'll do it in about 2:45 if no one is in front of us and my dad doesn't hit it longer than 180 yards.

I wish I could say racism doesn't go on at private clubs but my fear, even though mine is pretty tame, is it is a lot worse.
 

TFP

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Wayland is notorious for slow play. They put their tee times 7 mins apart and there are 3 par threes and a short par 4 in the first 8 holes. It's horrendous.

The racism there doesn't exactly surprise me either.
 

4 6 3 DP

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Shot 79 at Cape Club of Sharon yesterday. Fun round, second time under 80, play off an 11 or so, so a welcome experience. 4 birdies, 2 doubles, 5 pars, 7 bogies. Actually wasn't great off the tee all day but worked around it.
 

FL4WL3SS

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I have a pretty funny similar story (and I say funny because it's pretty ironic and it's also hard to offend me and my wife). My wife is bi-racial half white/half Mexicana, but doesn't look very Mexican. We were out at some chain restaurant a few years ago (think it was Champps) and the waitress kept messing up and by the third time my wife just casually informed her that she had forgotten something. So the waitress disappeared and came back 5 minutes later with the dish and said to my wife "sorry about that, the kitchen keeps messing up, they just hired a bunch of Mexicans" with a little smirk like "lol right?"

Like I said, we're pretty hard to offend and I love a good racist joke to keep everyone in their toes, but it was pretty uncalled for. My wife decided later to call the manager just to let them know that they have someone on staff saying racist things to customers. The manager says "blond girl with the short hair? I'll take care of it" probably not the first time this had happened.
 

southshoresoxfan

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First off, f*ck racism.

Secondly anyone ever try the putt rite speed trainer? My buddy gave me one over the weekend. Pretty interesting tool. I’ve always been a charge putter but I practiced for an hour with it yesterday and I think I’m going to try die putting. At the very least it will eliminate some three putts.
 

Zomp

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Assuming you mean you're aggressive with putts and you're going to try having the putts die at the hole, you'll become a much better putter. If you play on fast greens, thats the only way to play.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Assuming you mean you're aggressive with putts and you're going to try having the putts die at the hole, you'll become a much better putter. If you play on fast greens, thats the only way to play.
Yeah it’s a little plastic lid that sits in the hole. If you don’t die it perfect speed it will lip out. Increases the size of the hole or something.

My home course greens are a 10-11 consistently. So not lightning but pretty fast.
 

Zomp

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On our putting green at my course we have regulation size holes and then we have extra small holes that are about a ball and a half in diameter. I love using the small holes as my last few 3-6 ft putts before a round.
 

jercra

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Just passing it along in case anyone was looking to try out any of the Bombtech golf stuff that they are having a 30% off everything sale with the coupon code "Dad" until Sunday night. I'd be shopping myself, but I already have all of their clubs.

Also, I got a bunch of the Snell MTB Red balls and played my first round with them last week. What a great ball. I usually play ProV1 but have played a bunch with Vice (also good) and Kirkland (also good) but nothing has made me think I'll really switch away from ProV1 in tourney play until the Red ball. Playing them again today and over 3 rounds this weekend so I'll get a real good feel for if it was a fluke or not last round.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Just passing it along in case anyone was looking to try out any of the Bombtech golf stuff that they are having a 30% off everything sale with the coupon code "Dad" until Sunday night. I'd be shopping myself, but I already have all of their clubs.

Also, I got a bunch of the Snell MTB Red balls and played my first round with them last week. What a great ball. I usually play ProV1 but have played a bunch with Vice (also good) and Kirkland (also good) but nothing has made me think I'll really switch away from ProV1 in tourney play until the Red ball. Playing them again today and over 3 rounds this weekend so I'll get a real good feel for if it was a fluke or not last round.
Have their 3W and hybrid set. The 3W is an absolute missile launcher.
 

TFP

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Heading down to Nashville tomorrow night to play in my buddy’s member guest at the Governor’s Club. 72+ holes of golf, free booze and food, and a shitload of gambling is on the agenda. Add in the US Open and it’s going to be an unbelievable weekend.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

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Heading down to Nashville tomorrow night to play in my buddy’s member guest at the Governor’s Club. 72+ holes of golf, free booze and food, and a shitload of gambling is on the agenda. Add in the US Open and it’s going to be an unbelievable weekend.
Have a fantastic weekend. It sounds awesome.
 

FL4WL3SS

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Just passing it along in case anyone was looking to try out any of the Bombtech golf stuff that they are having a 30% off everything sale with the coupon code "Dad" until Sunday night. I'd be shopping myself, but I already have all of their clubs.

Also, I got a bunch of the Snell MTB Red balls and played my first round with them last week. What a great ball. I usually play ProV1 but have played a bunch with Vice (also good) and Kirkland (also good) but nothing has made me think I'll really switch away from ProV1 in tourney play until the Red ball. Playing them again today and over 3 rounds this weekend so I'll get a real good feel for if it was a fluke or not last round.
Three more days! Course is in amazing shape. Greens are as good as I've seen them.
 

jercra

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Three more days! Course is in amazing shape. Greens are as good as I've seen them.
That's awesome to hear. I played today in a final tune-up before heading out west and tell greens were punched and sanded and had granular black fertilizer pellets on them. In fucking June. In Colorado! Total bullshit. I played fine but any putt over 3 feet was impossible. Add to that just bullshit lie after bullshit lie and it adds up to a 77. I did have a drive gps measured to 402 though, down hill, down wind and in denver, but hey, 400+ is still 400+. Of course, I still parred by missing a 10 footer through the sand. Whatever. Really looking forward to racist jokes, golf and Red Sox baseball with you in Seattle!
 

Zomp

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Lesson number 2 last night. The pro was pleased with my head movement so we moved onto trying to eliminate the thrust in my down swing. Instead of turning and firing my hips, I basically thrust toward the ball which blocks my arms from coming around so, again, its either a block right or a hook because I try to overcompensate.

We were having a bit of difficulty coming to an understanding on what I should concentrate on to not thrust. I mean, he can say to me all lesson "turn those hips" but it wasn't connecting. Finally, towards the end of the lesson, it clicked. He basically told me that I need to get my hips out of the way to let me arms do the work. I was worried that it would produce a bigger block but he said no way because my arms are fast enough to catch up. He said, "You've probably been told your whole life that you swing too fast? (I have) You don't. You just move the wrong parts to fast."

After that I was concentrating on staying back, and thus not thrusting, and thus turning more towards the ball. I finally got it down with the last 10 swings or so, and I hit more balls at the range. Last lesson, however, I did the same thing and the next round of golf I played I forgot everything I learned. So this time at 7:30 at night with no one on the course, I took 5 balls and went out to each tee on the front 9 and hit tee shots. I think I needed to see it work on the course, so I wanted to actually see what the shots would produce when I do them right.

I still missed my driver a few times, but the 3 wood were lasers. 245 on misses and 265 or so on good swings. One hole is down hill but it's 350 and after my 3 wood I had 42 yards to the pin.

I took my clubs home this week since I won't be playing in the member/member, but I'm going to try and get out at a few ranges and maybe one round of public golf to try and keep the momentum going.
 

TFP

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Not a good practice round this morning. Was losing everything left (I’m a lefty), just wasn’t turning or releasing the clubhead. Started to figure it out on the back 9, made a birdie and a couple pars. Didn’t really keep score after the first few holes because I was truly practicing.

Greens are rolling fast, probably 12.5 on the stimp here. Gonna be a fun afternoon.
 

Zomp

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I'm not playing in my member-member this year so tomorrow I have to go play golf elsewhere.

I found a tee time on golf now for Acushnet River Valley. Anyone play there?
 

TFP

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So the member guest was awesome. This was my first one so I have no comparison, but everything was first class. You keep your clubs in the same cart all weekend and they clean them every night, the food was all top notch, drinks were free and plentiful, and everything was organized, on time, and no detail overlooked. 5 9 hole matches plus a par 3 scramble challenge made for a ton of golf. We were at the club every day at 7:30am and didn't leave until at least 6pm every day - it was a long weekend.

Results wise, we played so-so. I never had my swing the whole weekend, so I was grinding out EVERYTHING. Working hard for bogeys so my partner could go for par, hoping to chip in for par to win a hole here and there, etc. We played good team golf in a bad flight, but came up a couple points short of winning the flight. We were in it until the last few holes of the last match Saturday when the 18 handicap in the other group drop a 25 footer for par on top of my par to close us out. I made 3 pars in the match and lost 1 and halved 2, that about summed it up. We came in 3rd in our flight, but are mad because we definitely should have won if we had played well. I think I shot 47, 44, 48, 51, 45 which clearly isn't good enough and frankly isn't even reflective since they included gimme putts that didn't affect the match, etc.

So I'm getting a lesson this week to figure things out. My club face is wide open at impact and I'm swaying my hips forward before the swing, leading to flared/pushed shots and shanks. I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it though, I tried everything I could during the matches. And the frustrating part is that on the range during warmups I was fine, just couldn't translate it to the course. Hopefully I can identify some drills, some swing thoughts, and some changes that will help get things back on track.

Golf is a ton of fun but man is it an exercise in frustration sometimes.
 
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Light-Tower-Power

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I think I've gotten into the habit of "flipping" at impact which is leading to a lot of pathetically high and short iron shots that flare to the right. 170 yard par 3 and I'm coming up 20 yards short with a 6-iron. It is absolutely killing my game and I can't figure it out. Golf is frustrating indeed.
 

TFP

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You should remove the last word in your post.
Very true. Although for those who've played with me in the last few years, you'd know my short game was awful. Chunking chips, blading them over the greens, etc. Now my short game is my greatest strength, I feel like I can get up and down from anywhere and I was even getting complimented by other teams on my chipping. Which blows my mind that I could figure that out and lose every other part of my game. Golf is weird.

I think I've gotten into the habit of "flipping" at impact which is leading to a lot of pathetically high and short iron shots that flare to the right. 170 yard par 3 and I'm coming up 20 yards short with a 6-iron. It is absolutely killing my game and I can't figure it out. Golf is frustrating indeed.
This is exactly what's happening to me too. I don't know if it's because of flipping, but coming up 2-3 clubs short when I hit it solid is something I can relate to.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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Very true. Although for those who've played with me in the last few years, you'd know my short game was awful. Chunking chips, blading them over the greens, etc. Now my short game is my greatest strength, I feel like I can get up and down from anywhere and I was even getting complimented by other teams on my chipping. Which blows my mind that I could figure that out and lose every other part of my game. Golf is weird.


This is exactly what's happening to me too. I don't know if it's because of flipping, but coming up 2-3 clubs short when I hit it solid is something I can relate to.
Yep. It is borderline demoralizing. Nothing like ripping a 5-iron, feeling solid contact, knowing that it should be going at least 200, only to watch it go up and then fall out of the sky like a dying quail about 165 yards away at best.