You were Poles apart then? :rolleyes:

If you follow Lou, most 45 year olds shouldn’t be teeing off from the back two tees.

Golfer Stats
 

As a golfers handicap gets lower his ego gets higher. Then as he hits single digits his ego grows exponentially. For the OP to say there isn't any teacher in the Villages that can teach him anything means his balloon is a little too full. He needs to let a little air out before he can let any learning in. So, as your golf improves, be careful of this stat.. it is so spot on:loco:

I'm far from scratch. Getting that low at 70+ years old is tough. I was 5.3 when I left TV last May. I've been between 3-6 for about 15 years. I've had a nagging injury for a few months and up to around 8 now.

It's extremely tough to keep a low handicap in TV, because of the course ratings & slope. To be scratch, you'd need to shoot under par most every day, from the Blue or Gold Tees.

To give you an idea, a Scratch Player at Mallory, playing Caroline to Virginia from the Blue Tees, is playing at +4. Shooting 68 isn't easy, no matter what golf course you're playing.

Took a lesson from him. 90% of the shots were off of a mat. Does not work for me.

Most amateurs do something else wrong(like swaying to their right) which lifts their head and after missing the shot they scream I lifted my head.

There are many golfers who keep a GHIN Handicap Index yet are very liberal with their own rules (rolling the ball in the fairway, gimmees, etc.) rather than the rules of golf. BTW - the only D. Wilson listing The Villages as their home course has an H. I. of 23.6.

Sorry to hit a nerve. As a high handicapper and a finance stats guy, I find the stats very interesting, as I have no other means of analyzing golf shot data. Golf with its GHIN index, slope and rating, and Pro players, has alot of common knowledge misinformation. I wasn't suggesting his skill level or his index as anything relevant, but more as my only source of golf stats for referencing performance versus handicap.

peace out. .

Golfers always seem to have a misconception about how good they are, how good the guys on TV are, as well as the expected quality of their shots.

To throw a local connection at the wall. 1st Stage of Korn-Ferry Qualifying begins to today at the Country Club of Ocala. It was previously scheduled for 2 weeks ago, until the hurricane interrupted things. All the other 1st Stages are complete.

@SkeenJackson is competing there. Jackson is a +6.2 Index (GHIN - United States Golf Association Service). He has NO status on any Tour in the world. He's trying to make it through the 1st Stage to qualify for the Korn_Ferry Tour ... there are 2 more Stages before he makes K-F (the PGA Tour is a long way away).

So let's put things into a local perspective.

If Jackson came down to visit and played Mallory Hills (Caroline to Virginia, the tougher routing), from the BLACK Tees, he would be playing at +7. He would have to shoot 65 to "play to his handicap". 7 UNDER Par. He would have to average about 67 to maintain that handicap..

Jackson barely slips into the Top 3000 AMATEURS in the world, at #2954.

What's been happening in golf over the last 20 years of so is ... I'll use a economics description ... elasticity of the performance curve.

The very best Professionals (the guys we see on TV) have gotten significantly better than the days of Palmer & NIcklaus. Advances in equipment have allowed the Pros to distance themselves from the average players and surely from the typical "hacker". Scratch players used to watch golf on TV and think, "geez, with a few months of practice, I could play with these guys". Now? Any PGA Tour player could give the typical scratch player, 4-5 strokes a side and beat him like a drum. My club in NH has 12 guys with + handicaps.

Golfers don't realize how poorly they play, in relation to what they see on TV and end up with unrealistic expectations.

In fact, what they're watching on TV are freakishly talented professionals, that mere mortals have no hope of ever emulating.

@Loustagner is great at reminding folks of how badly they play.

Learn to read and comprehend.
Never said "there isn't any teacher in the Villages that can teach him anything."

Not me T, thanks for checking.

:loco::loco:

FUNNY, your posts, your opinions are presented as fact. chilout

Not seeing a lot of "experts" on TOTV, seeing a lot of suggestions to the OP's question.

Your 1000 different golfers, if true, is less than 1% of The Villages.
I have played with a frequent poster and he plays only Black & Gold Tees.

siBUM, don't know how many low handicappers you know ("As a golfers handicap gets lower his ego gets higher."), but the frequent poster enjoys the game, helps people if asked, laughs at himself and has no ego.

Enjoy your morning coffee.

An Index of 23.5 in The Villages, almost qualifies as a "good golfer" :1rotfl:

I have played with/against ex professionals in three different sports, a long time ago, in my 20's: actual competition, pickup and fun organized.

There is a huge/immense/ginnormous/intergalactic difference between amateurs and professionals, to which most people can't relate. There are gazillions of couch potato judgers, who can spew/type like their egos believe, but try actual competing with them sometime, and experience the differences.

they are freakishly talented, but also gives one hope that a golf shot out of the rough, or just missing the green, still making par or bogey at worst is not impossible. . . .

[QUOTE=It's Hot There;2382722]FUNNY, your posts, your opinions are presented as fact. chilout

Not seeing a lot of "experts" on TOTV, seeing a lot of suggestions to the OP's question.

Your 1000 different golfers, if true, is less than 1% of The Villages.
I have played with a frequent poster and he plays only Black & Gold Tees.

siBUM, don't know how many low handicappers you know ("As a golfers handicap gets lower his ego gets higher."), but the frequent poster enjoys the game, helps people if asked, laughs at himself and has no ego.

Enjoy your morning coffee.

[/As a golfers handicap gets lower his ego gets higher

Same goes for pickleball players, tennis players. But, that different. In golf, billiards, darts, bowling, ect… you have no one to blame but yourself. In Pickleball, tennis, baseball, football, and dozens more sports you have others to blame cause they not up to the entitled standards that lowers you play due to their inabilities.

Not impressed
 

What type of instructor appeals to you? How often do you get lessons? What are your goals? What technologies do you prefer?

I used to play golf a couple of times a week, with a guy who had an MBA from Harvard and consulted to major corporations around the world. He also happened to be a former All American Defensive Back.

He loved to play golf. 4-5 times a week, at an expensive private club. Never kept score. He has no idea of what his scores were. He enjoyed the 1 or 2 shots he hit pure every round and that's what it was all about for him. I often don't keep score. I only count how many Pars or Birdies for the day.

I would be in the low 80's average if I didn't blow up 3-4 holes, so I also just count pars and bogeys. . . this year was my first for eagle opportunities with two. . however, with longer season and more practice opportunities in TV, I am hoping to shoot my age decade someday. . including the cattail pitch and putt. . : :jester:

Folks who are fairly new at golf, are often confused by the "goal". Golf is not (at this level) about making good shots ... it's a game of minimizing your bad shots.

Want to try an experiment (I stole it from Tom Watson, so I don't want credit if it works)?

Everyone has a club or 2, they love and seem to hit well most of the time. Go play some day and just use that club, unless you're in the sand or around the green. Use it (or one of 2) for every shot. I'll bet you $5 you'll shoot your best round ever.

It's a tough game. Jackson Skeen shot 84 today, in the 2nd round of 1st Stage at CC of Ocala.
First Stage- FL 1 - First Stage Leaderboard | Korn Ferry Tour Q-School

It will probably take a score of -11 or -12 to make it through 1st Stage. He's probably out of it (no cut at Q School). Golf is hard.

Only trouble with that is, those two clubs aren't always the same (for me anyway). But that aside, that's a pretty good idea and would be an interesting thing to try sometime.

You're not Wallinkoski? Could of fooled me. 🙂🙃🙂

You may have just saved my game! 😯🤔🤐

Just a thought after reading an article about balls. I mean golf balls. It got me thinking how technology is constantly improving equipment and how those improvements alter training, playing, range, etc, and ultimately the game itself. As a pro, you compete with others for the "prize". With sponsors designing equipment for you, specifically. As amateurs, we don't have that luxury. As amateurs, we also are told we are competing with ourselves (who am I kidding). Being our best. For low handicap players, it might not be anything wrong with your game, but a change in equipment that will move you up the ranks.
Just the meandering mind of an old guy that loves the game, even though I was never any good at it.

Equipment is nearly irrelevant for the vast majority of golfers. Unless you have physical characteristics that are vastly different than the average person, changing balls or clubs, isn't going to do anything significant to help (or hurt) your game.

About 7-8 years ago, I conducted a "golf ball test". (the entire story is posted on GolfWRX, same user name).

I played 10 rounds with Titleist Pro V1's. Average score was 80.3. Course Rating 71.2, Slope 133.

I played 10 rounds with balls I found in the woods. I only played balls that were in good condition and I would NOT play any top line balls (No Pro V1's, no Srixon Z-Stars, no Taylormade TP's). My average score with the "found in the woods" balls, was 79.8.

All 20 rounds at the same golf course.

For the average golfer, there's not a whit of proof, that "fitting" produces any significant and sustained improvement in score.

Years ago, a guy name Dick Weiss came up with a process called "SST Pure" shaft alignment ((Shaft Stability Technology Precision Unifying and Resonance Enhancing). It was in theory, an improvement of the old "spine align" process and supposed set the shaft in the most "stable" position. 100,000's of clubs have had this process completed, for about $50/shaft, in the hopes that they would become better golfers.

Dick hired a friend of mine to get USGA approval for SST Pure. His analysis proved that there was no inherent improvement in shot dispersion, using SST Pure. At best, it could identify "outlier" shafts that had manufacturing defects. The USGA approved the process. Now a days, shaft manufacturing has improved to the point that there are very few outlier shafts.

It's the Indian, not the Arrow.

I conducted the same test this summer, though not intentionally. . .:rant-rave:

Playing in Scotland this past summer, I brought one box of high end balls, and lots of cheap balls, some used. I started playing with the high end balls on each course, but after I lost a sleeve of balls by hole number 2, i switched to the cheap Top Elite balls, and lost a sleeve by hole 12. . . or so depending upon the wind and the course.

but the courses had beautiful scenery. . . and i had a couple of pars by the end of the day. none of these were high end courses. . except one. . . a british open qualifier links course where I lost about 2 boxes in the heather




. .

I can't think of another consumer product, more driven by ego, than golf balls. I know plenty of guys who can't break 90, who insist they NEED $55/Dozen Titleist Pro V1's to "play their best game". Nonsense.

If you can't break 80, no golf ball is going to mean more than a stroke or 2 to your average.

My average from the Blue Tees in TV last winter, was around 74-75. I won't pay more than $25/Dozen. I just bought 8 Dozen Maxfli Tours for $22.50 a Dozen ... I should make it January!

Yep, I dig the Maxfli tours. Or find logo overruns on golfballsdotcom for a good price for anyone who ‘needs’ more well known balls. I liked Vice, but it seems to me their prices have creeped up.

My favorite golf ball is the Vice Pro Plus, but as you noted, the price has gone up significantly, in the last year or so. $32.99 for quantities of 6+ dozen isn't much of a deal.

That was the one I liked as well. Still okay compared to the big guys, but getting to be more than I can justify when I can get Maxfli for much less and comparable ‘performance’.

You may want to stock up. $110 for 4 Dozen. Site Maintenance

The MSRP on the 2024 Model is now $39.95 ... more than the Vice. Site Maintenance