Weakest Part Of Your Game, And Plans To Fix It

Mine is wedges right now. It always costs me strokes each round. I need to develop a plan to be more consistent. In the back yard I hit them like a pro, but on the course not as good. I need a lot more practice on the course with them.

Off the tee is my weakest link. More range time and smarter club selection, not going with the driver as much and playing a fade as a safe shot instead of always trying to draw it off the tee.

Fairway woods. I'm not too long off the tee, and I rely on them to reach long par 4s.

Senior tees too short where I play to just change up.

And the weakness would still be there.

GIR. I need to focus on a good preshot routine and visualize my shot. It's a good thing my short game is pretty decent.

Wedge play.I can drive it fine around 280 punt get to under 100 yards with a wedge I’m struggling,either thinning it,or even occasionally shanking it,yet fine with the longer irons.

Putting. I tend to be a better than average lag putter, but I hit far too many good approach shots that give me a legit birdie look and then whiff the opportunity.

Depends on the day.

It seems if I am getting one thing working, means I am spending less time on another part.

In general I would say it is lack of focus. I always seem to have one or two shots around that cost me strokes. It might be as simple as being stuck between shots and instead of picking one and just hitting a do some hybrid swing that costs me strokes.

Normally it would be a tie between chipping and putting. I'm actually putting better after changing putters and technique. I'm using a SeeMore Si4 which is just a little shorter than the old belly putters. Combine it with a claw grip and I'm making more putts. Chipping is aggravating. The other day I was 10ft off the front of the green and shanked it down a bank. So I'm using more of a putting stroke now with an iron near the green. But chips 20-30 yards away are still a problem. Even w/o a shank(which is not a regular occurance) I simply do not get the ball close enough to the hole. Bottom line....I suck.

Losing focus on a shot or two - usually in the form of taking too aggressive a line or trying to 'press' a little too much because I'm trying to make up ground from a previous mistake. Forcing birdies usually compounds things and leads to doubles :(.

Chipping. Right now my chipping strategy is to hit 18 greens in regulation. Amazingly, this doesn't always work.

Driving it in play. I was trending in the right direction before the lockdown, but now since coming back I can't figure out how to pick up where I left off. I just never know what is going to happen when I step up there. It's terrifying.

No way to get better at it without practicing more. The more I fail the more I want to get back up and keep going.

Can I say “everything”? Just kidding, but I have to pick at least two.

Keeping tee balls out of hazards, and Putting. I never knew how bad of a putter I was until I started hitting more greens. My issue with putter is path and too much tilt. It isn’t as easy to fix as it would seem. And the tee ball issue is strange. Of the 14 tee balls not counting par 3s, I’ll look like a tour player on say 8-10 of them. But then on the other 4-6, I’ll miss either in a hazard which costs me two strokes, or in a really bad spot that ultimately costs me a stroke or two also. I’ve tried just about everything. 3 woods and / or irons off the tee. Stingers. “Go to” shots. Fades. My home course only “allows” for about 9 drivers off the tee. Otherwise you need to hit irons or woods. But I seem to get in trouble with all of them at times. I think what it really boils down to is start lines, and just fixing my path / face angles.

Anyway, It’s hard scoring when you give up about 6-8 strokes from poor tee shots and then you can’t putt. I start every round with about a 10 stroke handicap from poor tee play and poor putting and then it is a fight to play “par” from there. Oh wait...is that what the handicapping system is for? ?

For some reason I have developed chipping yips from just off the green. Last week in a a 9 hole league round I skulled not one but two chips which led to a bogey and double bogey which ruined an otherwise good round. 5 years ago when I turned 60 I bought a 49 degree Cleveland Niblick. At the time I thought in an unnecessary purchase. It was slightly used, in a nice blue color and a good price. So tomorrow it goes in the bag and using it with a putter grip we will see if it helps.

Irons and the occasional big miss with the driver. I've been working on both and can overcome those weaknesses when in mid-season form. But, early season and the occasional bad round - they crop up once again.

The thing that sucks is that I know in both cases it is largely a mental issue.

The most important part of this is the plan to fix the problem, not so much the problem itself. For me, I have two issues which are the most glaring. I have/had the chip yips, and my fairway wood game can be spotty.

Chip yips, for about 3 years I have had them while I worked on trying to change trajectory and spin which I believe caused me to not believe in the shot before pulling the trigger. Soon it was so far in my kitchen i was putting from 20 yards and in. I ground it out on the chipping green starting in the bunker (where i had no issues) to the deep rough, to the shorter rough, etc until i was on the fairway grass just working on getting my chest to the target. I feel as though i am mostly past them and my handicap has dropped from a high of 7 last year to a 2.7 as of this post.

I think my issue with the fairway woods was the AUG (all you got) mentality and not being happy with the comfortable distance and trying to squeeze a little more out of it. One friend described it as me trying to kill a snake before it got away. When i am just playing for fun/practice, i play from the forward tees and drop the ball on the tee box and use my fairway wood exclusively. I have gained confidence, and the shorter distance permits me to focus on path and contact which has worked wonders for my long game. Now my FW are no longer costing me strokes because even my misses are much better than they were.

These were my fixes, and I feel much more confident over the ball when i used to be mortified. Of course, i still screw them up, but it is no longer the deep mental dive. I am able to see them as an anomaly and go about my game with minimal mental disruption unlike before. Hopefully this post helps those with similar afflictions. I would like to say it can be done.

If I could make everything inside 10 feet I'd be close to scratch.

Approaches into par 5's with hyrbid/fairway. Only shot I have any kind of nerves over (cuz I never hit it). For the last year I've been recovering from an injury and I've been playing conservative. Basically if I can't hit an iron to the green - I lay up to my strength and hit a wedge. As you can imagine I'm making more pars - but fewer birdies this way. But there are times when I should be more aggressive - so that's my goal this year.

I removed a 3w and replaced it with a 5w. The added height and spin gives me more confidence going into a green. It has "maxed out" my approach distance though. The most I can carry that 5w is 260 - so my rule is anything more than that - and I lay up. The average 5's I play are typically in the 540-580 length so this puts me pretty much right in the middle with my current distance off the tee.

Fundamentally I'm working on double checking my ball position with longer clubs. I have a tendency to play it a little too far back at times (being used to playing in the wind here it's a habit). On top of that slower takeaway with more shoulder turn are making a difference

I'm forcing myself to hit more of these shots on course. that's the only way you build confidence with it. Sometimes I even hit less club off the tee to make sure I have to hit a fairway wood into the green to get the reps.

I really need to stop trying to hit "High, Nasty,BOmbs" because they lead to High, nasty lies. I need to forget about distance gains and play to my strengths, boring the the golf course with pars to death.

basically i need to work on a simple Fairway Finder drive and keep using it. Just keep it in the short grass with the driver would be huge for me taking friends coin on the golf course.

It's the basic stuff that's hurting me, as my ball striking has been for the most part really good.

Alignment and distance control I would like to get down. Its frustrating when I pure an approach shot, only to have it go right or left of the green, or short or long.

The next part I need to get better at is chipping. After the shots above I always find myself chipping, but I'm not getting as close to the cup as I would like. Mainly it's distance control for me, just need a lot more practice chipping.

My swing is my weakest link but I'm looking at Bobby Jones as a tempo model and Ben Hogan as a mechanics model.

using the Grint to view my stats I would say it's a combo of course management and shot accuracy. The phone app will say if your stats are in range of your handicap. I only hit 31% of my fairways and 11% of my greens averaging 5% on par 3's over the last 10 rounds vs 23% of par 5's. Penalties is also also a killer averaging 6.6 drops per round. Putting and par / bogey saves I am above average which makes up for the above.

Course management wise I need to make tee selections better, not necessarily hitting more fairways but less drops.

Accuracy wise I was in the middle of a lesson package with my coach when the virus hit. We both were in a good place with my backswing position. Just trying to work the transition sequence properly, I have a tendency to slide forward first instead of turning, which result in me coming in with my arms steep and flipping to save the shot. been working on the feeling of starting the transition with a squat and turning around my left leg. When I get it right it's amazing, when I don't well I shot a 96 last week with 4 pars and a birdie, so you can see the ups and down of my game.

10-50 yards out, I need to be more consistent and versatile to help myself out. Too often I feel underpracticed with what I am trying to do. Also want to work on fairway bunker shots.

Could list a lot of things here lol.

My GIR percentage has got to go up. I have an above average short game, but it gets old trying to get up and down for par on several holes per round when I miss the green.

I’m a big fan of Dave Pelz’s Shortgame Bible. I read it several years ago and still go back to it and use his method for distance control.

I have a game today and was in the yard working on the 58* lob wedge. I do great in the yard, well maybe okay, but at the course ughh! Hopefully it will come around and show up at the course.