r/golf

For instance, there was a user who showed how to do a fairly neutral grip.

A majority of the comments are literally whining about how it's wrong or that they can't do that grip because it's uncomfortable.

No shit it's uncomfortable because your current grip and golf game is trash and anything that is proper will feel wrong to your high handicap habits.

Over the last three years I have put a lot of time into my golf game. This is by no mean a definitive guide and there may be disagreement on my approach... but I wanted to give some advice to people struggling to improve or just starting out.

1. Your Swing. Your swing is always going to be a work in progress. But to me step one is to get your swing to the point where you can consistently advance the ball without taking penalty strokes. To get to an sub-18 handicap you don't have to be that great of a ball striker. If you are still consistently chunking, topping and slicing the ball all over - this should be focus number one.
2. Swallow your pride. You may not be able to keep your driver in play right away. Do not be afraid to hit a wood, hybrid of even iron off of the tee if it means keeping the ball in play. Similarly you should probably be hitting a club above what you think you should. If you have 140 to the hole and you hit your 8 iron 140 sometimes? Odds are you should just hit your 7 until your swing gets better. If you struggle with chipping then putt from off the green. Learn to do the things you can to lower your score. EDIT: As a note on the swallowing of pride (and to swallow some of my own)... the advice to bag the driver until you figure it out via practice came from a scratch golfer I know and I implemented it. It ended up working out great for me... but there is a +1 in here disagreeing and saying that most people around that skill level would agree. That you should just keep swinging the driver until you figure it out as the benefits far outweigh the potential immediate gain in strokes. Despite this advice coming from a scratch golfer, the +1 is such a degree better than I am that you may be wise to heed his advice in this regard. 😂
3. Lessons. If you are struggling to keep the ball in play or not to top it/chunk it constantly based off YouTube videos and basic advice... then you need lessons. You should probably get lessons anyways. I have only taken three, but I know I would benefit from more. If you take a couple with someone and notice no improvement, go to a different coach. The first guy I went to wanted to completely change everything I did all at once and it genuinely made me worse. I tried another pro and the guy took the swing I had and tailored my lessons to it... making one or two tweaks at a time rather than trying to completely change me all at once.
4. Practice. You are going to have to sink some time into the game if you want to improve. But practice can also be done wrong. My advice to players seeking to improve would be to practice a handful of clubs rather than hitting your whole bag. Hit you tee club, a club you think you can hit 180+, a club you can hit 150, a club you can hit 100 and a club you can hit 50. Then just practice those. For me at first this was 3 hybrid, 6 hybrid, approach wedge and 56 degree. I practiced 200, 150, 100 and 50 yard shots over and over... and this helped a ton. Now it is still those clubs, plus driver. Those are basically the only clubs I hit at the range and I lean on them heavily when I play rounds.
5. Practice - Part 2. Never practice when you are playing a round. Don't try to make a bunch of changes or 'work on your chipping' when you are on the course. When you are playing a round, do what you are most comfortable with. Work on the things you need to improve when you are actually practicing.
6. Course Management. You practice 200, 150, 100, 50... so consider that when hitting your shots. Try to leave the ball those distances away from the green. Avoid hazards and out of bounds. Keep the ball in play and focus on putting yourself in spots you are comfortable. Watch YouTube videos for advice on this subject as they are extremely helpful.
7. Bad Advice. Do not learn to 'play to the glitches in your swing'. If you legitimately slice the ball, then you need lessons... you do not need to just aim 20 yards left of the fairway. This is different than playing a little natural draw or fade, which is fine.
8. Shift Focus. Once your swing allows you to advance the ball toward the hole consistently without hitting it out of bounds, it should stop being the focus. It is something you should practice - but your ball striking is rarely going to be the thing that helps you improve a ton. You shouldn't be trying to lock in perfect distances, work on shot shaping or any of that other stuff. You should be focused heavily on your short game. You are going to improve your handicap rapidly if you improve within 100 yards and on the green. Work from close to the hole and then out. Putting is most important, then chipping, then pitch shots. Buy a putting mat, take short game lessons, spend more time on the chipping/putting greens than on the range... and when on the range be practicing those 50 to 100 yard shots more than you are practicing the stuff 100+. This is without a doubt where you will start to see the most rapid improvement.
9. One at a time. If you are trying to make more than one change to your swing at a time it is going to be hard to make anything work. Work on a single thing at a time and once you feel comfortable with it, look for a new 'swing thought' or 'focus' when you play. For a long time for me this was my take away. I had to practice and focus on taking the club straight back.
10. Understand. As you get better try to consider what you are have done along the way. Write down what things worked, what certain things did and stuff like that. Because your swing will get messed up. Your short game will falter... and if you can go back and remember what you did, you can start going through step-by-step to figure out what is wrong.
11. Be Honest. You are never going to improve if you lie to yourself. If you shoot an 8 on a hole, take your snowman. Record your actual score, even if it is really high. If you are shooting 120-130... then you should be proud of improving to starting to score 100-110. Then you will feel a sense of actual achievement when you get down to 90-100. If you aren't giving yourself a clear picture of where you at, then the road forward is difficult.
12. Optional - But Useful. You may have a weakness in your game that you don't realize. Having an app or just writing down where your strokes are coming from is really useful. When I first started a was losing a TON of strokes to pitching and chipping - more than I even realized. So it gave me a good idea of what to work on first.

I am a 20 hdcp looking to drop 10 strokes and I’m considering spending a couple grand do have lessons every week with a PGA pro for the rest of the season, but I’m just curious at what point do regular lessons have diminishing returns? I can imagine it’s some ratio of lessons and intentional practice to actually get good. I’m wondering if I might be overdoing it with the lessons, but of course the pro would not tell me to book less 😂

I, for one, am shocked.

I married a Japanese woman, we go once a year with our kids. It is such an amazing country, but I always thought it would be hard to add golf into a trip, especially a family trip. I wanted to give unsolicited advice: it is not.

Japan has amazing golf courses, but I couldn't imagine lugging a bag on the trip. And renting clubs sucks. Last time I went, I discovered they have courrier services that take your clubs from the airport to your hotel or directly to the course, then ship them back so they’re waiting for you at the airport when you leave. For about $20.

As for courses, I played Kawana Fuji Course last time, and that’s the one I’d put at the top of the list if you’re trying to build a golf day into a Japan itinerary. Very easy from either Tokyo or Kyoto and one of the coolest golf experiences I’ve had anywhere. Cliffside holes, wild elevation changes, old-school routing, and amazing views. The caddie experience is phenomenal as well.

Anyways, I know no one asked, but I felt the need to share.

https://preview.redd.it/3g120a8h152h1.jpg?width=2802&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa2fa42797d246d3e51ee1f2b3961711dd70a086