24 handicap and I just shot an 86. AMA
I’m a 53yr old man with a few minor back procedures/surgeries under my belt. I’ve played for almost 30 years but never practiced, just a round or two every couple of years. I drank as many beers as balls I lost. One summer I had a group of guys and we played every weekend. I was shooting low 90s. But other than that one summer, I couldn’t post a real score because of all the Milligan’s.
Last fall, I decided to really focus. Deep dives on different swing philosophies, 1-3 practice sessions a week and a weekend round with zero mulligans or foot wedges. Once the GHIN app opened the handicap season, I started keeping score. It was a great day if I broke 100.
A couple weeks ago, I hurt my wrist. I stopped practicing for a week, didn’t play for two weekends and then lightly picked up practice. Was hitting ok, but it’s not like I magically got “good”.
So my Saturday 18 came around and all I was focused on was staying relaxed. I played real golf with real rules and never lost a ball. Here are what I think are the keys to such a dramatic improvement.
-Drives have always been the bane of my existence. All that practice finally paid off. Lots of playable 220-250 drives. I did shank a few but not into water of OB. I’ve always struggled getting my drives airborne so I got fitted for a PXG 16 degree driver a couple months ago. World of difference.
-After my bad shots, I didn’t panic or try to hit a hero shot to make up for it. Every shot was intentional and a good choice. There was one dogleg left par 5 where I toe’d the drive short right. I toe’d my next shot short right and had an awkward lie with the ball on a hill about thigh high, one foot in the sand and one of the hill. Smacked it straight about 100 yards (putting it in play and not trying to hole out) but ended up on a hill in the rough. At this point I’m lying 3 and 150 out, on an uphill lie with tall trees in front of me. My 8i is my 150 club but knew the uphill lie would add loft. I pulled my 7i out and launched a beautiful high shot to about 10 feet from the hole. Bogey, even with 3 not great shots.
-I’ve been working on chipping a lot. The day before I spent about 1.5 hours on that. Holy shit did that pay off. I had a lot of chips and pitches that left me with easy 2 putts and a few long single putts that dropped.
-Tried a new putting technique that absolutely works. I only had one 3 putt all day.
-Or maybe it was the edible I had on the 2nd tee box. 😎
I don’t know if I can consistently break 90 now but I do know that my round wasn’t luck.
I posted here because I’m just a weekend golfer and figured other weekend guys would understand, and if I posted to r/golf I’d get roasted and told to take lessons and suck less. 🤣
Oh, and if you made it this far… I played the black tees on the Denver Kennedy course, Babe Lind then Creek. I shot par on the two hardest holes! Babe #6 and Creek #9!