The Fairway Lounge at TeesAndCoins.com

Good luck!

Awesome goal, looking forward to your progress. I think with a good course management strategy and some added skills you will get there pretty quickly.

philipjunior Similar goal. Finished northern season at 13.9 and now at 14.3 after playing a few rounds in FL in December. Just got a driver fitting with the hopes of keeping more balls in play off the tee. Also, finally got my irons "tuned" so hopefully that helps as well. Need to commit to some lessons and practice, but I feel like I can drop some shots by being a better course manager as well.

Good luck! I think everyone is different in their "deficiencies" when it comes to their own game, but I'm with you. Driver is what dictates my scores. If I'm keeping it straight and in the fairway, I'm getting close to even par on the course. If I'm off a bit, I'm up in the 80s a lot of days. Get that swing grooved on your driver and watch that index come down quickly! Good luck.

I didn't hear you ask for advice, but here's my 2 cents, anyway. Take it for what it's worth.

GIRs go up, handicap goes down. It's a really simple equation. However, getting GIRs up from 15% typically requires fixing some swing issues first. A few lessons with a good teaching pro can likely get you going down the correct path. So, while working to correct those issues, practice, practice, practice short game.

I don't have a big game like some of the real players here. I'm more of the tortoise than the hare (so to speak) type of player. As a senior player now, with a somewhat respectable swing, I spend very little time on the range--maybe a half hour to an hour a week--but a LOT of time on chipping, pitching and putting. Every day. Partially because, my body can't take the pounding of buckets and buckets of balls anymore, but mostly because short game is the great equalizer to being competitive with guys half my age with twice my strength. Everyone can't drive the ball 300 yards, but anyone can chip and putt well with enough practice and understanding of the proper technique.

I sometimes play with young studs who can blow their drives 80 yards past mine. But, more often than not, mine are in the fairway and nearly every one of them is playable. Can't always say that for the young guns I play with. Also, the importance of managing your game and the course can not be understated. Sometimes it takes awhile to realize this critical element.

For the record, my numbers are not impressive relative to a lot of more accomplished players. FWIW, my GIR average is about 49% and my up & down average (inside 30 yards) is near 40%. I continue to play from the blue tees, though it's a stretch for me in the winter temps or when the wind is blowing. With those numbers, I'm still presently sitting at a 5.0 index. So, I have no doubt that you can get to single digits with the right approach. Just do it!

DougE thanks for the feedback. All help is appreciated. I did start this past year working with my pro focusing on my overall swing and improvements have been made.

So far it hasn’t translated very well to the driver and I have way too many holes that I don’t get an opportunity to approach the green due to drive.

My game has a lot of holes, but I am confident that if I can put in the time I can make a pretty good jump. On decent driving days I’m right around 90 and the rare solid driving day has led to low to mid 80s.

Had first lesson of the year today. Pro mentioned his goal is to be a little less technical and try to get me swinging a little freer with the driver specifically.

We started with a speed check and clocked in at an average of 101.8. Considering I'm 6'3 and I believe to be fairly athletic, there's a lot to be desired there.

The Pro is going through some of the Mach 3 training and those are the principles he's going to work with me on. We went through 3 different drills with the jetstick trying to get more speed out front. Half swings, both direction half swings focusing on using more glutes and core, and finishing with continuous full swings. We then did another speed check and clocked in at an average of 109. So had a 7% speed increase in about a 45 minute lesson.

He's going to order me my own jetstick and I'll be getting either the PRGR or Swing Caddie SC200 to do the drills a couple times a week at home. We'll check back in for the next lesson next week.

We also discussed tracking so I think I'm going to look into Golfmetrics. I've thought about Arccos as well but not sure I want to mess with the sensors.

Overall it was pretty rewarding to see some quick results to build off of.

Start speed: 101.8
Finish speed: 109
#SpeedOutFront

philipjunior The biggest thing I've found with speed is that having it allows you to throttle back for that 85% fairway finder. Once you poke a few out there and pick up distance, it's really tough to convince yourself all you need is being in the short grass, but as DougE said GIR is ultimately the litmus test for scoring well. You'll 2 putt for par substantially more than you'll get up and down, you'll make way more birdies with GIR than if you have to chip in for birdie, and the BIGGEST thing is that you'll limit the big numbers hitting greens. Golf is a game of minimizing mistakes before it's a game of hitting spectacular, low-percentage shots.

Quick update. Got my Jetstick on Tuesday, but was out of town Wednesday so only got to have one session at home with it since my last lesson.

Had my second lesson today. Started with another speed check. Clocked an average of 105.6. Down a little from the end of the last session, but still up from where I started.

We went through the routine again today and worked a little on take away and ball position. Speed check at the end was an average of 113.4 so another 7.8 increase from the beginning of the lesson. Looking forward to being able to do the drills at home a little more before my next lesson.

Overall haven't been able to do much else this month. I did play one round a week ago, but was a scramble which is what the group I played with likes to do in the winter. I also hit some 7 irons in the garage last weekend. Used the towel behind the ball to be conscious of ball striking. Ran some puts on the Birdieball as well. I've been using the small hole and trying to see how many attempts it take to make 20 from 3 feet and then working on 6 footers into the full cup.

Wife and both kid's birthdays this week so won't be getting out this weekend, but its supposed to rain anyways.

Played my first round since starting my driver lessons 2.5 weeks ago. It was also the first time I've swung not into a net since then so wasn't sure how things would go. It was cold and wet too. For the first 5 holes the driver swing seemed to work decent. After that, my feeling is I started getting to quick and lost the swing all together. Overall shot a very very poor 101 in tough conditions. I believe next lesson we will move from just hitting in the net to putting it together outside. My goal this week is to hit some balls into the net each day to help groove the swing tempo.

Score 101 SG
Fairways 2/14
GIR 2/18

Strokes Gained
Driving -8.9
Approach -4.5
Short -5.9
Putting -0.9

philipjunior Hang in there. I went through similar growing pains completely rebuilding the swing from scratch. @dphatt told me that old habits would creep in mind round and he was right. It took me 4-5 months to get even remotely close to being able to play on course with said new swing. It still isn't great but much better than what it was and when its working its very promising.

So weather wrecked the last few weeks. I did get to the range last week and focused on the driver swing. I've also started trying to implement a pre-shot routine to avoid the 1,000,000 swing thoughts going through my head as I stand over the ball. The key thought I'm taking into the swing right now is to start my hands first as otherwise my hands get stuck behind me leaving the face open resulting in the big right miss.

Snow melted and weather early in the week looked promising for Saturday. It ultimately turned out to be a very muddy walk. I feel like I drove the ball much better. I still had 4 bad driver swings where I got too quick in the transition and at least two of them I no I didn't go through the pre-shot routine. First few holes were hard pulls, but anything not right is a success for me. Overall happy with how I played on the day even though the overall driving stats weren't that much better they feel much closer. Also, had a nice birdie on the par 5 5th which always feels good.

Score 91
Fairways 2/14
GIR 2/18

Strokes Gained
Driving -7
Approach -5
Short -3.4
Putting -1

February Recap (2 rounds)
Avg Score 96
Fairway % 14%
GIR/round 2

Strokes Gained
Driving -8
Approach -4.7
Short -4.7
Putting -0.9

Weather looks like we're on the upward swing out of winter and its now posting season so hopefully can get out more.