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MissySki's Golf Journey

MissySki

Angel Diva
I decided to move my accounts from my first lessons to this new thread and will post my progress here in case anyone is interested in learning golf from scratch as an adult. Figured the more seasoned golfers might prefer to have different types of conversation in the main golf thread.


Recap
I've never played golf on an actual course before. The extent of my past experience has been some sporadic driving range visits growing up (of which I had no idea what I was doing), mini golf which I love but am horrible at, and a 1 hour group lesson on swinging last September at a work event. I signed up for lessons in a women's group recently, this will go on indefinitely I guess. The lesson cadence is every Thursday and then every other Monday we get instruction while playing some holes on the course. You pay on a monthly basis, so I assume I'll just keep going throughout the season but we'll see. I preferred this option to others where it's just a set 4 or 5 lessons which is what I've seen the most options for. It feels like I'll need way more than that to really get going.


Lesson #1
It turned out to be a beautiful day to be outside, finally! Class was fun, we worked on putting and chipping. I need a lot of practice, I’m surely not a natural. :rotf: IT was like I got worse the more I tried chipping. To start I was getting the balls up in the air and into the target nets, and then it all fell apart and I kept grounding them..

There were 9 women in my class and 2 instructors. We were only on the putting green today, but even that is picturesque. I look forward to when I get to see more of the course. Next week we’ll be on the driving range.


Lesson #2
We were on the driving range this time and worked with a 9 iron, a 7 iron, and a driver. I loved my driver, it was so much fun when I’d get a good straight shot with it. That definitely wasn’t all of them, but a few in particular felt so nice! I most often was hitting right and the tiniest turn of my club to square it up would make all the difference. Shocked me every time. The irons were much more finicky for me, I was having issues with hitting the ground instead of my ball. It’s amazing how tiny little tweaks can make a huge difference in how you hit the ball and where it goes. I see much practice in my future.. it’s nice having someone right there in class to breakdown what you’re doing after each swing. I plan to start using my net at home too, so we’ll see how that goes.

My Thursday classes are supposed to be an hour, but so far we’ve gone long each time. It’s great, though my hands get a bit sore from gripping for so long. My left hand was fine with a glove today, but one finger on my right hand was starting to blister. I’m hoping that’s something that goes away with time and practice.

Monday we’re going to have instruction on a couple of holes on the course, super excited for that. I’ve never been on a real course before. I wonder how long it’ll be until I feel ready to play 9 holes etc.

I think I’m already hooked..

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At Home Practice Setup
I bought a really cheap, but very popular, putting green on Amazon to play with at home. I also had someone give me a net (along with a ton of balls, tees, and a ball picker upper contraption that I'm now very thankful for) for outside and I purchased a small hitting mat so our grass doesn't meet the same fate as the grass at the driving range haha. The net is especially fun, it'll be a great lunchtime activity working from home and allows me a lot more practice time than if I had to drive to the range constantly.

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Course Instruction #1
Yesterday we went on the course for the first time. We broke into 2 groups of 4 ladies and 1 instructor and off we went. Right from the get go I was happy to be doing this for the things you don't necessarily think about, for example I now know how to strap my golf bag to a cart and how to drive said cart every which way you can over a course it seems. I also know that the pub onsite will give people adult beverages in a lidded cup to take out on the course, though I didn't partake this time haha. Seriously though, I can't imagine going on the course to start without someone really experienced to guide you, but that might just be me. I much prefer to have someone hold my hand to start things like this to get comfortable. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, and having instruction and feedback for each shot along with suggestions on clubs and swing choice was super valuable to me. I also had the opportunity to ask a lot of questions on both technique and how people play together.

The first tee off my instructor recommended a wood or hybrid club, I hadn't yet even used any of my hybrids but decided to try out my 5. That's the only time I hit with it, but I got a great hit and it went straight and a good distance so I was pleased. I also broke my first tee, which I'm told will happen a great deal more as we go on. Now I understand why people have so many tees, previously I was like why do I need more than 1 or 2??? After that it was a lot of chipping and putting it seemed, none of which I did great at. I had one or two chip shots that I liked a lot and then a bunch not so much. We did one tee off also with drivers and that wasn't my best. It was at a spot where we were on the downhill side of a slope hitting up to the green, and I ended up hitting the ground before my ball. That's something I noticed a lot yesterday, the course is such a different beast than the putting green and driving range where things are pretty flat and consistent. Out on the course there is suddenly taller grass and hills and tiny slopes around the hole that I have a really hard time discerning but make a big difference on how the ball rolls etc. There are just SO MANY variables to the terrain, never mind the very long way I have to go before I wrap my head around my swing.

All in all it was really fun though, and somehow both harder and easier than I'd imagined to start playing.. if that makes sense. I didn't lose any balls or end up in any traps, learned a lot about strategy, rules, etiquette on the course, and had a few good shots.. all positives. Oh and some spots on the course are really beautiful. I didn't get to take them in much because I was so focused on what we were doing, but I do look forward to enjoying that part of golf courses more someday. Negative was that I had some really crappy shots and I can definitely see how it will be a really frustrating game just like everyone says! lol I have so so much to learn. I love learning new things in general it's kind of an addiction of mine I think, but it also conflicts with my desire to already be proficient at my new hobby so I can just enjoy it without floundering so much.

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Iwannaski

Angel Diva
@MissySki - that’s awesome. Great points about the things that someone with no experience might not know.

FWIW, I find a beer relaxes me and makes my swing better. ;)
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Thanks for sharing your experiences!

I also broke my first tee, which I'm told will happen a great deal more as we go on. Now I understand why people have so many tees, previously I was like why do I need more than 1 or 2???
Boy, does that bring back memories! After a while I started experimenting with different length tees, including some really long ones. Also learned to place a tee in the ground more consistently.

All in all it was really fun though, and somehow both harder and easier than I'd imagined to start playing.. if that makes sense. I didn't lose any balls or end up in any traps, learned a lot about strategy, rules, etiquette on the course, and had a few good shots.. all positives. Oh and some spots on the course are really beautiful. I didn't get to take them in much because I was so focused on what we were doing, but I do look forward to enjoying that part of golf courses more someday. Negative was that I had some really crappy shots and I can definitely see how it will be a really frustrating game just like everyone says! lol I have so so much to learn. I love learning new things in general it's kind of an addiction of mine I think, but it also conflicts with my desire to already be proficient at my new hobby so I can just enjoy it without floundering so much.
When actually playing on a golf course, it helps to not care too much when one aspect of your game is off. Could be the tee shot, could be dealing with a pitching wedge, could be putting. Getting all the shots to be perfect for one hole is . . . like catching a midweek powder day without having looked at the weather forecast in advance. :smile:

Part of what I learned playing 9 holes with women who were good golfers was when to just pick up a ball and play from the same spot someone else had already reached. That was the Nine-After-5 program organized by EWGA, which has evolved into the LPGA Amateur program. The good golfers didn't even bother to keep score for those rounds. Being able to see how they made decisions when playing a hole was very helpful. Especially after I got to know the course better.
 

elemmac

Angel Diva
When actually playing on a golf course, it helps to not care too much when one aspect of your game is off. Could be the tee shot, could be dealing with a pitching wedge, could be putting. Getting all the shots to be perfect for one hole is . . . like catching a midweek powder day without having looked at the weather forecast in advance, in June. :smile:

Modified for my experience ^
 

SkiBam

Angel Diva
Played this morning with my ladies group. Very hot day (29-30 C) and I was SO thankful to have my umbrella that fits onto my cart. This is a great three-wheeled cart that I bought for $10 at a flea market a couple of years ago - and it's the best $10 I ever spent! Just to say, though, that an umbrella (parasol?) is invaluable on a hot sunny day. Makes it bearable for me. (And handy too if it rains.) And, by the way, I think my golf is improving!!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Played this morning with my ladies group. Very hot day (29-30 C) and I was SO thankful to have my umbrella that fits onto my cart. This is a great three-wheeled cart that I bought for $10 at a flea market a couple of years ago - and it's the best $10 I ever spent! Just to say, though, that an umbrella (parasol?) is invaluable on a hot sunny day. Makes it bearable for me. (And handy too if it rains.) And, by the way, I think my golf is improving!!

Great tip on the umbrella, I’m not much for heat so that sounds like a good idea.

And yay for improving and having fun on the course!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Well, it's been awhile since I provided an update so I figured I should. I've still been going to group lessons weekly and then bi-weekly we have a course lesson for a few holes. I think next week will make 2 months.

So I started out well overall as previously noted and then had a few weeks where I was completely horrible on everything. That's why I didn't really update I guess, I wanted to see where things would go and didn't have any good reasoning for my struggles. It was the inconsistency of my swing that was making things extremely difficult. Fix one thing and another would go wrong. I was either hitting the ground behind the ball with my irons or whiffing completely and my driver and hybrid work went to hell and I couldn't make contact. It was so frustrating because I started out making good contact as a complete newbie and then I couldn't do anything right on the range or on the course. I had one course day that was HORRIBLE while everyone else seemed to have a spectacular day so I was pretty bummed. The only bright light was my putting and a lucky chip that day.

I'm happy to say that the last couple of weeks have been a major improvement though! It's funny how one focus or another finally just really clicks and makes everything else work better. One of the instructors noticed my frustrations and focused on me a lot when I wasn't coming out of my struggles. What helped me so much was when I was told and demonstrated on video that I was swaying my body too much when shifting my weight. That caused the majority of my issues with horrible ball contact I was having. Though I can't blame my instructors for my prolonged struggles because it seemed I'd fix one thing and immediately mess something else up during that time! lol Having really zoned in on my weight shift and not swaying my body has improved the consistency with which I can make contact tremendously. I mean, I still have A LOT of work to do on my swing, but at least it seems to be moving in the right direction now.

So once the range hitting was going better we took a break from that last week and worked on chipping and then some work in the bunker (my first time). Subtle changes in my chipping went well and then the sand work was really fun. For some reason I took to the bunker really well, I guess just everything was easier once correcting the weight shift thing in my swing. We were actually instructed to pre-weight the front foot in the bunker and that made everything so much easier. We'll see when I ever need to use this skill down the road on the course haha. What a mess though, I left that day absolutely covered in sand! Some was from me because the wind was blowing sand back at me on some of the shots, but a bunch was from those around me practicing too. I would highly recommend always wearing sunglasses when working in the bunker!

Yesterday was our latest course day and I was a bit nervous for how that would go after the previous time was such a disaster for me. IT was also extremely windy! However, it actually went quite well, or maybe it just seemed that way because this time I was happy with my performance and others seemed to have a bad day. So we switched from last time. We play best ball so it really is low pressure, but still discouraging if you are having a bad day. Everyone is really supportive though, we always cheer for each other and I love that about women's groups for instruction. I hit 3 shots with my driver that were in the air and really nice and straight, one made it just outside the green for the first time which was exciting. Mind you, we sometimes have a bad swing and miss and get to swing until we make contact so not saying the first swing was always on point there. I also had a few really good chip shots where my instructor made me the demonstrator and putting went well. I did have a couple of crappy shots where I topped the ball with an iron when the ball was lower than my feet from standing up too much. Ohh and I'm told I turn over my right wrist pretty regularly so I need to work on that as I can't always feel when it happens. Overall though, this was the most fun I've had on the course so far, so I was happy.

Anyway, that's the last month or so in a nutshell. How is everyone else doing who started lessons this year? Maybe someday I'll feel confident enough to play for real and with people outside of my class. Not quite there yet, we'll see if it happens this summer or not. For right now I'm really liking golf overall and it's fun meeting other women who are pretty close to my ability level (though a few are far beyond it, but we all have our good and bad days which makes it feel more even than it probably is). Hope I can keep progressing over the summer, I plan to just keep up with it as I've been as the lessons are so valuable.
 

vickie

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I started golf lessons this season too. I have played on courses before, but at a level where I did not keep score and I would just pick the ball up and walk to the next tee if I was starting into a frustration spiral. And that was 30 years ago, so I assumed I'd be in a beginner class. Ha!

There's a pro here who uses a different format for learning. It's called Operation 36. You start at 25 yards. When you can make par (36) from there, you move back to 50 yards. And so on. That sounded like an interesting way to learn. Unfortunately, it slipped my mind until the classes were already full. That pro referred me to a colleague who follows a more traditional approach.

My class is on Fridays ... two weeks, so far. I want to say it's a mixed bag of abilities. I think I am the only one who is not on a league or playing on courses. But so far, I don't feel behind.

Week 1 ... we started with long putts off the fringe, then went to chipping and bump-and-run, then to the sand trap. For all of these, we used a basic putting motion with arms essentially locked. I think that's why we did those -- we weren't getting into real swings, just learning to hit the ball in different situations but with one basic motion. Interestingly, there is no focus on grip or stance unless someone needs to change something. It seems that we're starting with what is natural for us and building from there. Very different from the instruction I had years ago, both from a pro and from my ex on the course.

Week 2 ... Putting. Nothing but putting. The instructor had rings and squares he put out and he had rules for how we played each game and we competed with each other. One was Putt-Tac-Toe ... a tic-tac-toe board made from surveyor tape. They were good exercises. At the end, he talked about how people on the course will putt the ball past the hole in one direction, then past the hole from the other direction and said that's more like ping-pong, not golf. And he said "no more 4-putts" and talked about what we should expect of ourselves and how to practice. It was an interesting mix of "let's have fun" and "let's get serious".

I go to the course to practice about 4 times a week. He sees me there so he knows I'm serious about learning. The class is 6 weeks long, only an hour for each class. If he offers another class right after this one, I'll take that too. It will probably be a repeat in terms of content, but having him oversee my progress will be good for me. I expect to have stuck points and plan to take a private lesson to break through those if necessary.

As I read your posts, @MissySki, I thought how nice it would be with us being taught from different approaches, if we could get together between classes and share info and tips on a not-busy course! Hopefully we will each meet people to start playing with, whether this season or next.

This Friday, we leave the practice greens and head to the range.
 

Iwannaski

Angel Diva
@MissySki … what you’re describing is something I think a lot of people go through. The sway is also a balance thing. So, think about your advantage in being a skier and your ability to manage dynamic balance. When I had contact issues, an instructor would sometimes make me do the driving range with a ball under my left toes to force better balance (if that makes sense). It would keep me better grounded.

In hindsight, I think just imagining myself pushing shins into boots might have accomplished the same, but this was ~20 years ago. ;)

All that to say, the frustration is part of the journey…

Congratulations on moving along your path!
 

elemmac

Angel Diva
There's a pro here who uses a different format for learning. It's called Operation 36. You start at 25 yards. When you can make par (36) from there, you move back to 50 yards. And so on. That sounded like an interesting way to learn. Unfortunately, it slipped my mind until the classes were already full. That pro referred me to a colleague who follows a more traditional approach.

I like that! That sounds really interesting, and makes a lot of sense in theory. I suspect it's pretty solid in reality as well, considering the class sells out.
 

vickie

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
After a while I started experimenting with different length tees, including some really long ones.
I was surprised at how long tees have gotten. Last week, I asked the instructor what length I should buy. He said it depends on the club, that the top of, say, the driver should be at the midline of the ball. Wasn't it back in the 90s when Big Bertha came out? I assume it's the much larger club head that led to much longer tees. I bought 2 3/4" and 3 1/4", figuring I will hit woods other than the driver off the tee as well.
 

elemmac

Angel Diva
I was surprised at how long tees have gotten. Last week, I asked the instructor what length I should buy. He said it depends on the club, that the top of, say, the driver should be at the midline of the ball. Wasn't it back in the 90s when Big Bertha came out? I assume it's the much larger club head that led to much longer tees. I bought 2 3/4" and 3 1/4", figuring I will hit woods other than the driver off the tee as well.
I've gone with the mentality that you can always push the tee farther into the ground if you want a shorter one. So I buy the longest that I think I'll use, and modify the distance I push it in. I'm not sure if there's any downside of having the tee go into the ground 1/2" vs. 1".
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
I've gone with the mentality that you can always push the tee farther into the ground if you want a shorter one. So I buy the longest that I think I'll use, and modify the distance I push it in. I'm not sure if there's any downside of having the tee go into the ground 1/2" vs. 1".
This is my logic.. I like the long striped ones so you can see how far they are going in to be consistent too.

The only exception is that I've gotten some ultra short ones for when I'm teeing off with an iron. But this year I forgot to put them in my bag and it turns out the XL ones I use with my driver are the same when pushed all the way down....
 

vickie

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@MissySki ~~ What has your instructor said about how tightly/loosely to grip a club?

I just started tinkering with loosening my grip in what we have worked on so far -- putting, bump and run, and sand shots. I feel like it's helping -- my swing, as short as it is, feels looser -- but I don't have enough time with this to be sure. Logic says if my hands are tensed, it's going to run up and down the whole chain and may limit even rotation with longer clubs.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
So I need to come back to this thread in general later on, but wanted to give what I thought was an interesting tid bit from my lesson yesterday. We were at the driving range and started with irons and then went to drivers. I had some really good hits with my irons and some frustration too. I was coming up a bit sometimes (why some and not others I really couldn't tell you) and we also adjusted my grip a bit to try and stop my right wrist from turning over and sending my ball left (which I also can't feel when it happens). Still felt pretty good overall.

Went to my driver and I was making good contact every time but my ball was staying really low a lot. We were trying to get me to hit more under the ball but it would only happen sporadically. One instructor has a flight scope and is really into all of the metrics and analysis, so he decided we should set it up for me because he wanted to see more specifically how my club face was hitting the ball. I hit some pretty good balls consistently somehow, but the loft angle was not where we wanted it no matter what I did. He decided to demonstrate with my driver and then started examining it becoming convinced that the loft angle looked very wrong for a women's driver. We looked up my set seeing that it should have 12 degrees and he vehemently says there is no way that's the case, he estimates it at 8-9 degrees which he says is ridiculous for a women's driver and somewhat less than his own even. (mind you I have no idea what all of this means really and wasn't really seeing why a few degrees would make much difference either way. So he gets his wife's driver out that is this fabulous Callaway Maverick, as soon as I grip it I'm like oh okay now I see.. I then proceeded to hit awesome shot after awesome shot straight and high into the air like I've never been able to with my own driver. I got around 40 more yards out of it according to the flight scope. So then he pulls over the other pro and they decide they are going to contact the Callaway rep to see if he'll check out my driver because they think it was a quality defect that made it out. He says if that's the case they'll replace it or even upgrade me to a better model since they usually don't have the full kit clubs as singles. So we'll see. If they don't agree there is something wrong with my driver he suggests I buy a new driver at some point.

So THAT was not what I expected starting out yesterday, but it was quite interesting and REALLY fun to hit with a top notch driver. The thing that didn't improve was my swing speed, with both my driver and the Maverick I'm like 69mph and he wants to get that up to get more distance. So that'll be a work in progress. I did get 167 yards once with the Maverick which he said was quite good regardless of my swing speed. I didn't think I'd be able to tell the difference, but it was immediately night and day.. so interesting! I'll keep updating on how it goes with Callaway.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Nothing like validation when it IS the gear and not you! :smile:

I barely know what that means either. One round of golf with my league earlier this season - the two guys I was playing with were debating loft angle and one of them was adjusting things out on the course (which cannot be a good idea, but they were struggling with drives badly enough that apparently that made sense to them...), and I was like I have NO CLUE what mine is set at. I do remember my instructor adjusting it once and I've never messed with it since. But since my drives were all nice and straight (or at least... generally as straight as I aimed them...) they rolled their eyes and were like yeah - it doesn't matter. You don't touch that EVER - whatever it is is right. Hah.

Anyway - Fingers crossed you get a nice new driver out of that!! :smile:


My thing that I learned golfing last night is to be patient. I think that is seriously my biggest problem - I will have a shot where I'm at an odd angle and am still mentally debating if my body angles are right when my feet aren't on level ground or my grip doesn't feel perfect, but I start feeling self conscious that I'm taking too long and need to GO... and those shots are universally a disaster. My partner totally agreed - her problem is that she hits one bad shot and then is just wanting to get the hole over with and it spirals out of control because she's not setting up properly.

I mean - there is some limit there, and there is the 45 second guideline for how long your setup should take, but I don't think I'm really approaching that - it's more that I'm putting unnecessary pressure on myself and rushing. Not only that but last night we were a twosome and kept catching up to the foursome in front of us and there was NO ONE behind us, so my need to rush was truly inexplicable. The one element I'm FINALLY starting to get better at is taking off my glove for putting and actually putting it back on before I go to take a shot and realize I forgot about it... Sigh.
 

SkiBam

Angel Diva
I'm enjoying this golf discussion. This year I've really been putting some effort into improvement - not just playing once a week with no practice between games. I'm very small and very not young, so hitting very long (and anything very exciting) probably isn't in the cards - at least for the near future. I've decided my aim is to be consistently, even boringly, adequate. To keep flubs to an absolute minimum.

Played with our ladies group this morning and I felt like I was making progress toward this modest goal. Feeling more confident and feeling that I'm holding my own with the group. So much of this is in the head and not getting flustered by what's going on.

Hmm, never thought about taking my glove off. I know the pros do it, but what's the actual purpose? Do you putt better (god knows I could use help in that department)?
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
I'm enjoying this golf discussion. This year I've really been putting some effort into improvement - not just playing once a week with no practice between games. I'm very small and very not young, so hitting very long (and anything very exciting) probably isn't in the cards - at least for the near future. I've decided my aim is to be consistently, even boringly, adequate. To keep flubs to an absolute minimum.

Played with our ladies group this morning and I felt like I was making progress toward this modest goal. Feeling more confident and feeling that I'm holding my own with the group. So much of this is in the head and not getting flustered by what's going on.

Hmm, never thought about taking my glove off. I know the pros do it, but what's the actual purpose? Do you putt better (god knows I could use help in that department)?

Really - for me it's just that all 3 of my instructors have insisted that it improves feel and is what I should just get in the habit of doing.

In reality - at this point it's mainly that if I forget, it's in my head that I'm doing this THING differently and I start wondering if it's going to be an issue instead of just focusing on the putting. I'm not sure that it makes that much difference in my performance as it's in my head that I didn't set up "right" - or at least the way I'm used to. I'd say I'm consistently worse putting with the glove on, but that's because my focus ends up on the wrong thing.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Modified for my experience ^
I missed that the first glance through this thread but seriously...

I went through this phase of thinking I was going to keep improving on some steady curve with practice and let's be real... golf is notoriously a game of frustration. And in my experience, that is not without cause.

And almost everyone I've talked to is like - you get just enough good shots in to reel you in. When it works, it's so lovely and you think "I've got the hang of this now!"... but there are a million and one factors that can change on your next attempt, so... haha, good luck with that. It takes a massive amount of consistent practice to really get things dialed.

I think for most humans.... all you can do is just learn to enjoy the things that go right, let go of the things that go wrong, and enjoy the outdoors and (hopefully) good company while you're out there.
 

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