Forum > Technique, Tips & Tuition

Steve Cowle

I recently read an article from a PGA Pro saying...

"most golfers reach a certain level and never improve beyond that point. One study found that the average golfer reached this level after only 3 years of playing"

Let me know your experiences as far as golf improvement is concerned.

Did you get to this level after 3 years? 5, 10? Are you still improving? Are you still trying to improve?

I look forward to your replies.

SteveCowleGolf

P.S. I still have a few spots remaining for a free trial of my online golf membership so send me a private message if you are interested.

Paul Hindmarsh

Christopher Watmore

Steve, your statement definitely describes me. I started playing Golf in May 2005, in just under 2 years was down to 12-14 handicap. Now move forward I'm still in the 12-14 range. I can't seem to get any better, despite feeling I'm a better and smarter golfer now and have a far better and more consistant swing. I just can't seem to score the correct scores when it matters.

 Was talking to my boss on Friday when we went round the course moving the holes and tidying up the bunkers ready for the weekend. Had a lengthy chat where he pretty much more less said he was disappointed I wasn't much lower so could have a chance of becoming a proper Assistant and doing my PGA Training. That conversation gave me a real confidence dilemma, spent the next few days on the range and practice ground trying to hit the ball like a scratch player, trying to increase my distances so I feel I can compete on the longer courses I play my golf at, and basically I've messed myself up and have taken a further knock in confidence.

Got a competition Saturday Morning, then a League Match in the afternoon. For the 1st time in so long I'm bricking myself at the thought of playing. I'm 0.1 away from getting a 15 handicap back and I've lost my 3 handicap partner for this week's league match, who has inspired me to some great matchplay performances far better then what my handicap suggests I should be capable of.

Jay Colman

I've been playing for over 10 years and for the last 7 nearly once a week without fail, I personally feel I can get to be a lot better (down from 18 to 10) if I can get to play more than once a week. The problem with playing once a week you forget the things you find work and don't work the week before

Martin Pearce

Chris Perry

I've been playing four and a half years but started nearly 5 years ago.  I had a series of six lessons mixed with lots of range practice before I went out on the course.  In fact, it was 5 months between my first lesson and me having my first forays onto a course!

My handicap didn't really start coming down until I had been playing for a couple of years.  I tend to measure where I am at the end of the season (although I play all year round) and my handicap at the end of the season has been as folows: -

• 2006 - 28
• 2007 - 27
• 2008 - 23
• 2009 - 18
• Current 16

I think this shows I'm still progressing and my target is to get to a playing handicap of 14 this year (a push but I think I can get there).  Whether I am capable of getting down to single figures I don't know, but my longer term goal is to get below the 'teens'. 

John Pettitt

I honestly believe that if one is going to be a good player then it will be achieved sooner, rather than later.

Having the ability to produce the right kind of shot for the occasion is paramount, but this means moving away from the current methods of teaching and reverting back to clubs that are more receptive to the variations that can be applied to a golf swing.

Chris Perry

I agree with you John.  When I do practice (like you I would prefer to play) I spend time practicing how to create shots as much as hitting it straight.  I don't see the point in just banging ball after ball straight(ish) down the range.  There is much more benefit to practice creating a draw, fade, punch or high shot as these are needed on the course.  i also spend at least 25% of my practice time on shorter shots, practicing a high flop, chip, bump and run, etc

I think that my ability to create some of these shots on demand, along with an improvement in my short game, has been the reason my handicap has started to fall again

John Pettitt

Chris Perry

I'm a long way off being a better player than you John.  I just have a few years and the ability to hit the ball further than you on my side.  If you offered to play me off my tee shot, I'd just give you the money and stay in the clubhouse.

The rounds I have played with you have taught me much about the importance of good course management, the correct club and shot selection and a decent short game.  That has been a big contribution in the reduction of my handicap

John Pettitt

John Flood

I would say that I'm not one of these.

My handicap was tumbling about 4 years ago & then I joined a private course where my handicap is based on playing from the competition tees so my handicap actually went up by about 2 shots in the 1st year & then it has gradually starting coming down again.

The problem is that I only actually get chance to play off the comp tees in a comp so it's hard to get any momentum going.

Also I find that I am never firing on all cylinders in a medal, either my driving is good & everything else is ok or vice versa!

Ian Poole

I picked up a golf club for the first time 8 years ago at the grand old age of 50. A couple of years later I joined a golf club and my official handicap quickly tumbled to 18 (16 handicap on here). My problem is that for the past 4 years I have been stuck on this 18 even though I am now playing fare better golf and my ball striking is a lot more consistent. My stats show that I hit over 50% of fairways from the tee and average 240yds with my driver. The problem is that I hit only 15% of greens in reg and I then convert only 2 out of 3 of these into pars. I must admit I get really frustrated by this as I feel that as I now strike the ball really well I should be making more than 3 or 4 pars a round.

Ian

Jon Williams

I've been playing 5 years and have improved year on year. I tend to measure my improvement by my average round score for the year rather than handicap as handicaps tend to react to odd freak scores rather than consistency.  My average scores have been:

120

108

103

101

98 so far this year.

So far I have only concentrated on consistency, course management and my short game.  If I ever get my average down below 95 I might think about trying to improve the length of my long game and shaping shots.

Steve Cowle

Some very interesting comments, Christopher, you stated that you were "bricking it" before your game this weekend and lo and behold you played poorly, whether that was pressure from not wanting to go up .1 or losing your partner in the match, probably both, but what are you going to do about it?

I want you all to take a look at the attachment and tell me what is the most important aspect from the list that will help you reach your golfing goals.

http://www.stevecowlegolf.co.uk/golfimprovementfocus-mindmap.pdf

Christopher Watmore

I think I became victim at the weekend to inevitable reality. With my game in its current state, I knew there was no way I could avoid the 0.1 increase. I knew with my poor consistancy playing to my bufferzone was going to be near impossible. As it turned out my fears became reality. A couple of bad holes derailed me early, I tried to fight back and when I thought I was doing well, suddenly got a really bad hole and from there I quit. I NR'd. The first time in a long time I've done that, but I reached the stage where I just didn't want to play anymore.

 In the league matches its been great for me playing with a 3 handicap player who was a former assitant pro in his early years. He has a lot of experience he can pass onto me, he allows me to enjoy the matches with little pressure on me personally. I can chham & egg where I have to, if I have a bad hole its not normally fatal as he's steady enough to match the opponents or get the hole himself. Its allowed me to sometimes open up and be attacking and pinch some holes myself, knowing he's matching the opposition. Just a good combination. So this week losing that reasurrance and having the expectation of fellow teams members on me to still deliver a win, despite being matched against a +2 handicap golfer was too much for me to handle at this stage in my golf career. Matches are a learning curve for me as I've only started playing them this year. Obviously having the setback of the morning NR carried on into the match. If I couldn't hit the ball well what chance did I have against a +2 Golfer who doesn't do anything but hit the ball well? 

David Preston

I think age does come into this equation.

I for one am not quite as supple as i was a few years ago.

The body stiffens up as we get older, which makes it more difficult to rotate at the speeds required.

However the other side of this is maturity, like John although he admits to not hitting the ball long.

His abillity to, if you like read the game is far beter than most young guns coming through.

A massive factor to improving anyones golf is how often you are able to play.

Play 2 to 3 imes a week & you will improve.

A few lessons will also help a lot of golfers improve.

In my case difficult to play as often as I would like. I know I could drop several shots off of my handicap with more practice.

Quite simply the more you play the better & more confident you become!

David Ferris

well i started playing in 1996 but tbh i was a fair weather golfer and if i went out 6 or 7 times a year that was it so i never improved. last year almost a year to today i joined my local golf course as i decided i was sick of being rubbish and i had taken a real interest in golf as both a means of real enjoyment and also a good way to keep active.

in the just under a year ive gone from not even being able to play to a 36 standard to being a 10 standard around my local course which i know well and am currently playing off 18 given by my golf society from playing bigger and strange courses ive never played before so my improvement has been immense compared to my expectation. and as ive just found 40 yards in the last week and 75 in the last year i anticipate that handicap to fall further very quickly as the only thing holding me back on the courses we play with the golf society aside from not knowing them was not being able to reach quite a few of the greens in reg even if i played perfect shots. now with my new distance i dont see that being such an issue and also with getting much closer i can have approach shots with shorter irons so i would say that i can turn my average 7 pars per round into twice that as the shortness of my long game has forced me to compensate with a fairly good short game which rarely sees me 3 putt on any green and allows me to get up and down often if i miss the green.

i play a minimum of 3 days per weeks and most weeks 6 or 7 days plus ive recently started to go out and hit about 150 balls with different clubs every 2 days. also i practice my putting even in the living room. tbh im determined im not going to stop improving and have even started doing fitness work to improved my game.

i cant wait to master my new grip better as that is the source of my extra distance and even before used it i went to allen park golf course last week and scored 44 points off 18 with 22 on each 9 and 12 pars (my best round) and at the time i was hitting my drives just over 200 and my 4 iron only 150 and its a fairly long course at 6683 yards so im thinking with the way i was striking the ball on the day what standard would i have played to if id been able to reach most of the greens in reg instead of relying on putting my third near the pin from about 70 yards short of a lot of the greens.

im determined to be the best i can become and if it means more practice then that what ill be doing cos i just love playing

Paul Hindmarsh

David Homer

I would say i'm one of these golfers at the moment. Dropped to about 18 after a couple of years and although my technique and understanding are better, scores are not doing what they should.

My goal is 15 by the end of the year.  (20 at the moment!!! doh).

James Illsley

I played golf in my teens, with my lowest handicap being 19.  i didn't really play throughout my 20s and started again about 3 years ago off 21.  I managed to get this down to 18 reasonably quickly, which is where it stayed for about 18 months.

Anyway, I took my first ever set of lessons over the winter and started striking the ball much better.  I was still playing to a handicap of 18.6 back in April and got some more advice during a round with Wayne and a visit to Jeremy Dale's Scoring School in London.  Since then I've been on fire with rounds in the 80s becoming more frequent, ending with a 79 gross last night which included four birdies!  I've moved from 18.6 to 14.2 in the space of two months and nine rounds.  It's fair to say i'm rather pleased with my game at the moment!

Peter Bedwell

some interesting postings about how people have improved, I'm 53 and after two years playing 4-5 games a year with a golf society and not even playing to 36 decided to take it a bit more seriously at the end of last year. I've now taken about 10 lessons and I'm lucky in that a decent driving range is just round the corner from me so i can sneak in a bucket of balls on the way home from the office a couple of times most weeks.

along with getting at least one 18 holes and often 2 18 holes and a 9 hole or two a week has brought my handicap down fairly rapidly. I've found having regular lessons very helpful indeed, the instructor has been very good at not trying to change everything at once and I've found in the last couple of months a lot of the lessons seem to have clicked and I've now just posted my first sub 90 score (89) when before April/May I'd never been below 100.

another side benefit of my improving handicap is that I recently won a competition organised by me brother in laws work where they insisted on giving me a 28 handicap as I'd only taken it up recently and I repayed them by getting well over 40 points in the competition. Needless to say they won't be so generous next year.

I'm interested in seeing how I can maintain my improvement, I appreciate it won't be as rapid as it has been for the last 8 months but would like to see if I can eventually get to single figures even with my late start.

 seems like constant practice and lessons as well as playing every week is the way forward

first time I've posted on these forums, will be interested to read a lot more of the comments

cheers

pete