Quote:I am a golf nut, absolutely love the game.  I shoot in the 80's consistently but am looking to lower that to 78-82 range this year.

 

The biggest thing I need to work on is putting.  I will shoot in the low 80's with close to 40 putts, I hate it.  I can read the green well and can lag putt pretty good but I never make any putts unless they are pretty much gimme distance.  Just changed my putting stroke and seem to be hitting them on the line that I want however I am in the process of calibrating the touch now.  It's always something.

 

The other part of my game that I need to work on is getting a repeatable swing.  I have only taken one lesson in my life so am pretty much self taught, just tinkering with different aspects as I go.  Really need to breakdown and take a series of lessons to get a nice repeatable swing down.

 

I usually only play the courses in Clay County and the west side, any suggestions elsewhere around town?  Have recently played North Hampton and loved it, Julington Creek not so much nothing special in my eyes.

 

My bucket list is to play as many courses on the top 100 that I can, in addition to heading to St. Andrews one day and playing the Old Course.  I was able to go to Streamsong in January and Bandon in February, both are unreal.  I could go on for days about courses and golf in general.

 

I was watching a video of Gary Player, and he has played with thousands of amateurs in his life, and he said the one thing they do causes them to putt poorly is head movement.  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UDPEcB4u28

 

I used to not be able to make putts in the 3 to 4 foot range, but I started practicing not moving my head, even after I have hit the putt.   I don't even move my eyeballs to follow the ball.   It really helps.   The other part is the alignment of the face of the putter when it hits the ball.  So I tried not "stroking" the short putts, but more "tapping" them, just making sure the face is square when I hit the putt. 

 

I'm in pretty much the same situation as you.   I can shoot in the 80s, mostly upper 80s.   I recently knocked about 10 strokes off my average score by working on my short game.    A couple of weeks ago I had a minor back injury, so all I can do right now is chip and putt.    I played with some old guy a few months ago, and I was outdriving him by 50 yards a hole, but he beat me by 10 strokes by chipping and putting.   It made me realize, only about 30% of my shots are full swings, the rest are pitching, chipping, and putting.   Why was I going to the range and pounding golf balls to the exclusion of chipping and putting?   So I got a chipping lesson from a pro.   The main thing I learned from that chipping lesson was that, just like in my putting, my chipping problems mainly related to head movement.   I was anticipating where the ball was going, and moving my head to follow the ball as it came off the club.   The very next time I played with my usual golf buddies, I noticed how many bad shots they hit because they aren't actually looking at the ball when they hit it.   Practice swing, practice swing, line up to the ball, and chunk the shot, top the ball, or hit it fat, because they're looking at the flagstick when they hit the ball!  

 

I don't have any courses to recommend.  I usually play Hyde Park or Bent Creek.  I played Eagle Harbor recently.  That's a nice course.   I played Fleming Island last year, had a real bad round, lost a bunch of balls.   We used to play all over the place when we were younger.   We used to love to play Fort George, but that was closed a long time ago.  Fernandina is still open, but I haven't played there in years.   They have 27 holes, each 9 having a different character.   I recently played the King and the Bear at the World Golf Village.   That course is way overpriced.   We played because a friend had a discount coupon.   I played a couple of courses in North Carolina last year.   I love mountain golf.   It's very scenic.  

 

Writing this is giving me the fever.   I can't wait for my back soreness to go away so I can play.  

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