When I was a solid player, my Achilles heal was short putting. In fact, I was at times a "yipper". For all I know b1s2 is the greatest 18 handicapper at short putting, but I sincerely doubt it. It's kinda funny that he decided he was now going to try his hand at bs'ing golf, but it's not going too well for him.
Not to mention those long drives that get him close enough to use "a high loft iron". He's deadly there too. Hitting those "small greens" for the one putts... and the occasional two putt. Mine was the sand. Huge mental block I guess, but I never improved and it always wound up ugly. Not a problem on an easy course ya know, but on a real course... pfff.... you can't miss those traps. And they ruin everything. At least for me they did. Thats why I have so much respect for the touring pros. Even the guys who barely or seldom make the cut. They are on a level that is several orders of magnitude higher than even most college players. Its an exponential jump to get to that level.
Absolutely. Growing up I played every day with a guy who wound up spending about 7-8 years on the mini-tours in South Florida. He had the ability to shoot in the mid-60's, but seemed to always have a bad round over a four round event. Great swing, solid putter, etc. It was just crystal clear that no matter how much I practiced, played I'd never get to that level because there is an extra gear that these guys have. The other aspect of pro's, whether mini tour or PGA Tour, is that they just think aggressively. They don't start playing defense when they get to -1 to -3 under thru the first few holes, they think 63. If I got under par, I'd start thinking "well I've got those strokes to protect me from the bogies" lol. Just an entirely different mindset coupled with extraordinary talent.
Good News!! I got cleared to hit driver and play today instead of Monday. I'll have updates on my progress as I go. I'll start slow and work my swing speed back up to where it needs to be for the distance I need. Before my surgeries, I had been working extensively on grip and lead arm straightness for accuracy and so the speed and accuracy together should help get me to my goal. My putting is above average and so not too worried about that.----Talk to you soon---
That's good to hear B1. And hey... finally... you just wrote something that is in fact extremely important and its good to know you are aware and working on it. Your grip. Man getting that right is a biggie. Its near the top. If its wrong, nothing else is gonna work. Thats for sure. In all this banter I forgot about that. Sounds gross... but I always battled sweaty palms lol... and you can't "choke the black out of the grip" as the old saying goes. Your hands have to be relaxed or your whole arm will be tense, plus you gotta have that feel. I must have re-gripped my first set of decent clubs I don't know how many times in search of the perfect grip for me. Glove was of little help honestly. ***So this is funny. I just tried to do a search for a picture to show you what kind of grips I ultimately settled on and never changed over the years. Put em on every set. It appears they now have their own name in our era of everything E-commerce. "Arthritis Grips". I'll be damned. What can I say lol... they worked for me and my sweaty palms. https://tinyurl.com/yxmdljex Don't have a heat stroke this weekend B1... its gonna be brutal out there. This place wouldn't be quite right without you.
Put that thing on an old 7-iron or something. Practice with that consistently and train the muscle memory.
I wen out to the range this weekend and since I have been cleared for driver, I took the whole bag of clubs. Started with sand wedge and worked my way up to finally driver. I started in the 80 mph swing speed area and gradually worked the drive up to 92-96 mph. I think that is pretty good for being 30 days into hip replacement recovery. ( I had the mini posterior approach on both hips). I believe that I am up to walking 18 but will start with 9 later this week. --all good news.