Yep, this thread has the potential to get to the essence of it. There are enough good doers and thinkers here to at least get close. Great stuff.
For just about everyone here who has been playing since they were a kid this is without a doubt getting very nostalgic and very ‘Back in the Day’. Nothing wrong with that but this is all about right here, right now. The thing is when we were kids this was simple and it was fun. It was about thinking of something and then making it real. Now we’re grown up, we have our families, our careers, we’ve won some and lost some and learned a lot about a lot of things. We multi-task, we crisis-manage, keep our schedules as best we can and we do everything that needs to be done everyday. But something can very easily get lost along the way. The kid who could practice all day without any other care in the world is still there and he gets some very important stuff. That kid NEVER misses 3 footers. That kid doesn’t get stressed out from trivial matters. That kid creates. If you get out of the way that kid does amazing things.
There is so much truth on so many different levels in those last few sentences.
ITL,
So true in so many ways.
I think there’s a bunch to learn from this thread and it’s soooo not about another self-help book or attending a Tony Robbins retreat. I can almost smell the rubber meeting the road.
I am convinced scratch or plus handicappers (someone who CAN shoot a 65):
- started golf at young age (before High School at least. And pro’s all started before 10 years old) when there is unlimited time in your life to practice and your body is able to fully co-operating with the learning and cordination required.
- had basically unlimited access to FREE practice balls. Free by either some sort of junior program or well-off parents who could afford bucket after bucket of range balls/golf rounds. Ohh AND access to a real GRASS driving range or an actual golf course to hit these countless balls on.
- the desire/passion to be intrigued by the game and want to play/get world class. While most of your friends were in little league baseball/football/soccer you went to golf and stuck with it.
Sure there may be exceptions to one of these rules, as in all things.
My reasons for thinking this way are my own experiences. I started golf much later than most (late 30’s) and I imagine the road-blocks to improvement are IMMENSE at this point. I’ve been relatively athletic my whole life (won a slam dunk contest at 22yo as only white guy in contest) yet now fight my body to be able to do even little things my mind is trying to tell it to do. I get fatigued faster, am sore longer, etc. Basically I took up golf when most MLB/NBA/NFL players are contemplating retirement!
Then throw in lack of time to this mix. Improvement comes from REPS (As Tiger says). Yet work, wife and kids makes it hard to be able to just get the time to play a round once a week, let alone going to practice rest of week. I want to spend time with my kid every minute I can but also want to go practice to get better. While working I can’t help but think how nice it is outside yet got bills to pay. On and on. Now I know some here think hitting a bag 100x’s a day can replace going to hit real balls on real grass, but not as a newbie. Maybe as a “tune-up” once you have been doing this for a while and you have swing ingrained and already are a good/great ball-striker, but I need a ball to see the flight, break being ball bound, break fear of fat/thin shots, etc. We all know practice swings are perfect and much different once you are standing over a ball. I can swing like a tour pro in my garage yet shank my first few shots once I get to range.
Last is $$ factor. If you don’t have the keys to the ball machine, range balls are pricey and can add up fast. I can beat through a bucket of large balls in short time just “tinkering”. At, on average, of about $.10 a ball at most driving ranges, to hit the insane amount of balls a junior program kid, etc has to work with will be hella-expensive (would like to know how Moe Norman afforded it, living in a sand bunkers). Like I said I can do 2-3 large buckets a few times a week after work and it adds up FAST how much practice costs (and then throw in the price of a few real rounds on top). AND this is off MATS. Not all places even offer a real grass area and if they do it cost even more per ball!
OT: Mats SUCK. I can’t emphasize that enough. I am of the opinion they hurt progress with irons more than help. They almost subconsciously cause you to ingrain being a picker or flipper as your brains tries to avoid injury after time. I hurt my left wrist the other day on a well struck ball as I bounced hard off mat where a divot would have been
Very humbling sport, to say the least.
One of the things I suggest to parents who have kids that are really interested in learning the game is to suggest quality over quantity. In my opinion, it is far better for a parent to “reward” a child’s progress in school, or perhaps reward them for doing their chores properly, by letting them hit a specific number of balls versus telling them they can hit all they want for an hour.
If you tell a kid they can hit all they want for an hour, they will have a frenetic pace usually, without much thought, and will hit those things faster than downing a hotdog at a coney island restaurant. Now if you tell them then can hit only 50 balls regardless of how much time it takes, the kid will soon start to realize that each ball is real important and will practice accordingly. 
Budman every single word you wrote is absolutely correct and true as true can be. No question about it we’re not kids anymore. I’m 37 years old and I feel like I’m going on 67. Just spent over 2 weeks all but bedridden whacked out of my gord on oxycontin after a ridiculous tonsillectomy. Completely pathetic, I have never felt more frail or useless in my life. This too shall pass. It’ll take months but I’ll get myself back into shape, no question. At the same time I have my work which I’m lucky enough to be able to do from home and my own family. One son graduating from high school and another from middle school.
But at the same time I would assume that anyone involved with ABS would have two things in common, a desire to improve their skill level at the game and some amount of timeto spend in that pursuit. I may have titled this thread How to Shoot 65 but that’s just a number.it doesn’t mean anything at all. The real point of all of this is about the journey and the best parts of a great and ancient game. It doesn’t matter when you start the journey or how many thousands of hours you spend per year in your pursuit of mastery of the game, what matters is the quality of the time you do spend with the game and allowing yourself to let go of some things and open yourself to some others.
No question driving ranges are expensive. DON’T GO. Really. You don’t need to. Nobody does. Wiffle balls in the yard will do far more good than beating bucket after bucket of plastic balls off a mat. I’m gonna work on my game and I don’t need one minute on a range to do it. Be creative. Find someplace where you can practice hitting shots undisturbed for an hour. Unless your in downtown Tokyo I guarantee you can find a great place to practice early in the morning or late in the afternoon. It’s out there right now waiting for you to make it your own.
I love all the threads/topics that come up here at ABS. From technique to equipment to rules to any number of other golf-related areas… it’s really great stuff and we have an outstanding set of instructors and members participating. We likely each have different objectives for being at ABS but one of those VERY high on my list is how to shoot as low as possible as often as possible. I’ve managed to shoot 65 once on a par 72 course but it was in a non-competitive round so it’s truly “unofficial”.
As LCD says, 65 is just a number. My guess is most students here have their own “65” which may actually be 95… it doesn’t matter. But for all the technique and book study at some point you need to understand the finer points of scoring, how to prepare to do it and then how to do it. Getting the take of some of our esteemed members here that had to do (and DID it) will be invaluable stuff.
I just wanted to share that i took your advice to heart lcdv.
I found a good spot where I can practice for an hour during lunch, about 120 x 25 yards. Thanks for starting this thread!
That’s a nice location, IOZ. I just paced off my side yard–77 yards long with a slope at one end. And since I am director of lawn/tractor services, I can control the height of the grass. I’m thinking some graduated rough at one end. I’m all over this, LCDV. Thanks.
Good thread LCD. Before we leave the Smoltz thing I’d like to delve a bit deeper. Put yourself in his shoes: You practice hard leading up to this important sponsor’s exemption. This is the biggest stage in golf you’ve played on but you think you are a pretty good player and you’ve had a lot of success elsewhere in life and in the athletic arena. You play a lot and know your game pretty well.
You show up the day of the tournament and you are a bit nervous but you warm up OK and you are excited for the round to come. Eventually you tee off and spray one off the first tee. No big deal, it was the nerves. You make bogey. On the next hole you hit another bad shot and start to worry a bit. Something isn’t quite right and you can’t put your finger on it. Is it your tempo? Are you making a full turn? Too hard from the top? You continue on but the pace of play is slow and you can’t find any rythm. You are hitting first into every green. You can’t feel the clubhead much. Pretty soon you’re 4 over after 4.
How does John Smoltz save this round?
How would you?
Great pic, that’s definitely someplace I can handle practicing for a while. Right on.
Ok, what do you do when the wheels start to loosen? Simplify, simplify simplify. Keep it simple keep focusing on something positive ands keep moving forward. You need a safety valve shot. Mine is a 3/4 low block cut. I can hit this shot in my sleep. There’s almost no arm swing back or through and it’s something I can hit hard through the zone and still control. I’m gonna hit all 3 woods and irons off the deck on the tee shots, start them up the left side and let them bleed into the fat part of the hole. Into the greens same exact thing, the pin doesn’t even exist, I’m just bleeding into the fat part where I can lag it up & get outta Dodge. I’m gonna keep doing this, hitting the same simple shot aggressively and keep the ball going somewhere I can find it & play from until I settle into the round. It’s not pretty or ideal for every shot but I can make do with it and keep within shouting distance of the pace. Unless you’re at a qualifier it’s a marathon., not a sprint. Everyone is gonna have one bad day, if yours is close to par your ahead of the field.
L,
Is the low cutter the “go-to safety shot” of the majority (or all) pro’s? I’m just curious if anyone ever goes to a low draw for that shot?
When do you make the decision to start and stop using the safety shot? Is it a feeling you get once on the course that trips the switch to go to it, or do you endure a few misses first? Do you then get a feeling of confidence at some point and go back to your “normal” pattern at that point?
robbo
I know Daly’s safety is a pull hook, go figure… A lot of guys will go for a trap block draw, Faldo comes to mind ripping pins out of the ground with it, just depends on what you do naturally.
I ALWAYS go by my eye & my gut. There’s just shots on every course that look awful, some for no no real reason. You gotta hit something that won’t go off the grid. That’s when you use the safety shot. And if you got nerves jumping the first few holes, there’s nothing wrong with dinking it around the first couple holes until you get your feet underneath you, it’s a lot better than digging a hole right of the bat. Eye and feel, a lot of what we’ll get into are training exercises for the eye of the shot and training yourself to look at the shot and the proper miss backwards. When you can see the shot coming down intuitively it totally changes the way you play.
I hear so much from better players and pro’s I know about how a hole “looks to the eye” and “the lines”. I’ll be the first to say that I do an abysmal job of recognizing those things and end up trying to fight thru it with lousy results.
The last hole at my home course has NEVER suited my eye. I’ll get “bitch-pressed” virtually every round I play by guys I’m clobbering in a match and I give it all back most of the time as I try and overcome a tee shot that feels way uncomfortable. 
Describe the hole if you would
Par 4 around 400 yards long…very slight r-to-l dogleg. Lake to the right but you can’t see it (you just know it’s there) and the bank is shaved so anything within 10 yards of it will roll in. Big trees left and the fairway is a “shelf” about 40 yards wide with the left side of the shelf about 20 yards right of the trees. If you don’t hit it far enough right the ball will bounce off the left side of the shelf which usually leaves a punch shot under a large tree thats on the left side of the fairway 70 yards from the green. Oh yeah - a water hazard runs across the fairway 100 yards from the hole.
Lots of guys just blow it over the top of the trees left toward hole #1’s tee box. It’s a “safe” play off the tee but then you’re hitting out of the rough which can get quite deep by June. I just hate to play the hole that way so I continue to try and hit the fairway. Sometimes I’ll hit hybrid at the fairway but it’ll leave me more than I want into the green. I’ve hit it into the lake with driver 2 of the last 3 times I played it. The low cutter doesn’t work due to the trees left. I’ve had some success with the high cut but it feels too random.
Best advice for now would be to try spot aiming it left center and hit hard driver without ever looking down the hole. It’s a little different but don’t let the shot get in your eye in the firs place. Just hit a shot over your spot and hit it hard. Your best bet is always to go after it rather than a steer job, those never do any good.
LCD, I had to finish a match in darkness the other day, I reverted to the ‘little arm movement’ but ‘maximum forearm rotation’ motion to get me round and place me safely in the fairway…it was astonishing to see how accurate my shots were even though I could hardly see the ball at address much less where it was going.
Its quite a lot of pressure knowing that you have to find the fairway or green otherwise its all over, ball lost.
It made me reflect that I actually played those last three holes in darkness better than I normally play! 
Obviously this was a one off anecdote but food for thought nonetheless.
Jack Nicklaus’ son Jackie told me once that when he was caddying for dad in the 86 Masters, he handed Jack Sr a driver on #10, and Jack handed it back to Jackie and said… “no give me a 3 wood, let’s stay aggressive”