"I AM A GOOD BALL STRIKER"

[MadGolfer76]

[quote name='Rock Chalk Jayhawk' timestamp='1335300541' post='4782548']
[quote name='MadGolfer76' timestamp='1335298576' post='4782374']
If someone gives me two more +1's in this thread, my WRX rep will go over 200.


Just saying...
[/quote]

I wish I could give you negative rep for the shameless plug.
[/quote]

I know, in hindsight that was pretty bad.

[ssp]

[quote name='ram01002' timestamp='1335197029' post='4773662']
I have never seen a good ball striker who wasn't a plus handicap.
[/quote]
I was thinking along these lines. What is the handicap threshold that one CANNOT call themself a good ball striker?


My opinion ... i have never played with anyone above a 5 that I would classify as a good ball striker.

[bmellisen]

I currently suscribe to Bubba Watsons style of good ball striking. I think it was Saturday at the masters, 13 or 15, he crushed it into the trees on the right. As it sails away he goes " oh no......I killed it though".

[AFatMonkey]

[quote name='bmellisen' timestamp='1335310632' post='4783424']
I currently suscribe to Bubba Watsons style of good ball striking. I think it was Saturday at the masters, 13 or 15, he crushed it into the trees on the right. As it sails away he goes " oh no......I killed it though".
[/quote]

I say that when it goes in the lake

[Emthree]

I'd say having full control of your flight, high/low/left/right is what i'd call a good ballstriker. Also, i'll say from experience, you can hit 16/18 greens, not have a putt longer than 20 feet and still only shoot to your handicap.

[MtlJeff]

[quote name='ssp' timestamp='1335302311' post='4782680']
[quote name='ram01002' timestamp='1335197029' post='4773662']
I have never seen a good ball striker who wasn't a plus handicap.
[/quote]
I was thinking along these lines. What is the handicap threshold that one CANNOT call themself a good ball striker?


My opinion ... i have never played with anyone above a 5 that I would classify as a good ball striker.
[/quote]

for some reason i see a 3 handicap as my barometer. Maybe because i've played with 4's who i didn't think hit it that great, but i've never played with a 3 that couldn't do some things with his golf ball

[Petter Player]

I'm a decent ball striker, drives average around 270 - 300 y, but they were all ovor the place untill two years back, now my long time (165 stats rounds) is 50+% fwys hit, but I miss greens regularly averagin only about 7 greens a round, Putting average is about 33, sometimes, 27 sometimes 40 putts. The funny thing is, that when I'm in trouble after missing the fairway I seem to get the ball onto the green in regulation more often than from the fairway....

However I never played well in tournaments nor practice rounds until last spring my pro told me, that your swing is excellent and that I could shoot in the high sixties - got stunned and had my "what the hell are you talking about"-glared face. He then said, that now you must start playing the ball and put it into the hole.

That's what I did and broke my all-time lows many times last summer, but still have par and 70 to break.

My point being, if you get too analytic and try to grind your perfect swing, you'll never get there and never go low. Instead at some point you must start playing the game and stop worrying about how your posture, swing mechanics work and how you strike the ball.

Even Bob Rotella says swing perfection is a chimera, there is no such, but a swing confidence, the confidence to believe you can put the ball near or even into the hole, and putt into the hole even when the swing isn't right where you want it to be.

I think you could call it scoring confidence, in which you believe you can shoot par on every hole despite the mechanical flaws in your execution.

[Thrillhouse]

I was a good ball striker on sunday, I just couldn't putt.

 

I was a horrendous ball striker on monday, I still couldn't putt.

 

[Desert Golf]

[quote name='MadGolfer76' timestamp='1335298576' post='4782374']
If someone gives me two more +1's in this thread, my WRX rep will go over 200.


Just saying...
[/quote]


Done and done!

[bunter101]

First off, there has to be a distinction between, great, very good and just 'good' like the subject matter.

 

Great.... Well, if the man considered to be the best ball striker of all time thought three perfect shots a round meant he had a good round. Surely some of the parameters being banded about on this thread should be forgotten about? You could probably count on your fingers and toes players that could be called great ball strikers.

 

Very Good.... I don't really want to put handicaps on this but i'll say below 'great' to scratch. But I think that there will be a few above scratch that are V. good ball strikers but aren't lower due to other reasons. I'll also say that very good ball strikers are very consistent 'good' ball strikers and have good swings/technique

 

Ok now on to 'good' ballstriking.

It seems a lot of people are confusing being a good golfer and being a good ball striker.

Golf is about how many not about how.

Distance is about SS as well as how you hit it. So good ball strikers are going to hit it all sorts of different distances.

Good ball striking does not equate to good putting, good short game, good course management, the ability to shape shots. etc

On a single shot, does ball striking = the result or... Does ball striking+setup+technique = the result? i.e. can you strike the ball well but turn it over with the wind and it becomes a bad strike?

 

Scenario of yesterdays round not exact percentages, 30 putts and 5 from just around the green and another that basically sat 6" behind a tree. so 38 shots are being discussed...

If I said I thought that 85% of my iron shots yesterday were good ball striking, of that 20% i felt were as good as i can generally hit it and also 2 shots of that were what a pro would be very happy with.

 

I'd say the 6 shots that were poorish... a couple were due to bad lies the others a flubbed chip and 3 were digging too much with short irons.

 

So what percentage of shots constitutes a good ball striker? 80/90/100?

 

I'd call myself a decent ball striker... good but inconsistent. streaky off the tee with a short game that comes and goes and a fairly good putter. Last three rounds 77, 75, 74........ What's my cap?

[Hacker#5252]

I'm a 22.5 so I'm not very good at anything really. Though I can have a good ball striking day, meaning on that day, I hit the ball better than usual. That doesn't mean I hit it as good as Luke Donald and nothing in that comment suggests that.

Also, one can't tell people to stop being apologetic when talking about one's game, and then proceed to explain that this issue isn't bothersome to any great extent, after writing a long post into which, obviously, some thought was put into it. If that's not contradictory, I don't know what is.

What'S bothersome to me is my ability to see through the rhetoric, or, in other words, BS.

[allegrolink]

[quote name='Rock Chalk Jayhawk' timestamp='1335210271' post='4775112']

[b]We are members at Prairie Dunes[/b]. His game has diminished with age a bit, but he is a better ball striker than me, and I am above average. By the transitive property, I consider him a good ball striker.
[/quote]
I'd be happy to observe your dad's game up close as your guest -- then I could report back.

[crapula]

[size="3"][color="#454545"]Ball striking is in reference to full shots. Nothing to do with short game.[/color][/size][size="3"][color="#454545"]
[/color][/size][size="3"][color="#454545"]But what is bad, good, and great?[/color][/size][size="3"][color="#454545"]
[/color][/size][size="3"][color="#454545"]If the best ball striker of all time still has to putt and chip and flop and pitch, then is that person really a "good" ball striker? They still save par, hit from trees, 2 putt pars, 1 putt bogeys, hit balls OB, etc.[/color][/size][size="3"][color="#454545"]
[/color][/size][size="3"][color="#454545"]Is good 50% of the time the ball goes exactly where you planned? What if you are 5 yards off? Is that still "good"?[/color][/size][color="#454545"][size=2]
[/size][/color][color="#454545"][size=2]The 100% ball striker wouldn't need a putter, in the hole every time[/size][/color]

[HackerVance]

I'm pretty sure that I will never utter those words.