The Blue Board

Makes sense. Basically stop before backswing and before follow thru?

Thanks. I'm going to play a nice course w/ a friend next Saturday, so I wanted to hit the DR at least 3 times between now and then. I'm not easily embarrassed, but I'd hate to know I was holding up a group behind me while I take 4 drops.

Good advice. I have considered hitting a smaller club off the tee just to get in the fairway. Most holes, a 180-200 yard drive will still give you at minimum an easy layup for a 3rd shot to the green. Would you agree 180 in the fairway is better than dropping at 260?

I did that the first time I ever played golf when I was a teenager. Very, very shitty course. Guy had a trailer across the street from the first hole fairway. I sliced the hell out of it, hit the front of his trailer like a mortar round. Ball was still in his front yard, so I went over to retrieve it. He came storming out screaming about all these "Goldarn kids hittin my traila and then trespassin to get dere balls back". I told him he should consider relocating, and that it shouldn't be difficult since his house has wheels. My friends practically drug me out of there. Probably saved my life.

Slow your swing down half speed

Absolutely. A couple of years ago I got outp[layed by a 76 year old man who couldn't hit a drive farther than 180 yards. The thing is he hit every club straight and had that old man accuracy on the greens. Meanwhile, I hit a few beautiful (if i say so myself) drives in the 240-260 range, all with nice draws. I also hit a few soaring apprach shots and putted for birdie. The problem was i also had a few double a triple bogey holes b/c some of those drives ended up in the woods and I had a couple of those dreaded 3-putt greens. All the friendly old fella could talk about was how much he enjoyed watching me hit the ball. I shot an 86, he shot an 83.

never knew that - good advice and i am going to try it next time out ; i hit all my shots way too high b/c i literally pick the ball off the ground on the upswing i guess

The way to get the most height on an iron shot is to hit DOWN on the ball. If you're hitting the ball on the upswing with your irons, I don't think there's any way you're hitting the ball way too high.

Btw - you're probably hitting it thin a lot. On your downswing, holding that wrist cocked as long as possible will help you hit down on it and also add a ton of distance.

I really do appreciate ya'll helping me out. Going to the range tomorrow afternoon and will try a couple of these things. Particularly having my hands in front of the clubhead at impact and working on half swings without power to gain consistency. I'm out for the night most likely, but I'll check back in tomorrow.

Prior to even hitting a ball do some practice swings. Take the club to the top and stop. Deliberately turn your hips/belt buckle toward your target before bringing club downwards (yes, you are overexageratting at this point). Some call this "uncoiling". Keep right elbow tucked. This will promote an "inside-out" swing which generates power on it's own. It will also help extinguish the slice. Also exagerrate following thru to negate the Arnold Palmer effect.

I read these tips in Golf Digest many years ago. They actually recommended buying a bag of the whiffle golf balls and doing the drill in the back yard with a 7 iron in order to groove the swing. The whiffle balls will spin like a real ball and give you an idea on how you are "shaping" the shot.

You always want to go full speed, go as hard as you can until you lose balance from your swing, tone it down 5% and always swing at that speed. Because when you do get your swing worked out and you amp up your swing speed, you're going to end up having to relearn your swing.

But like others have suggested, practice, practice, practice. Look up some swing vision videos of some pros, and try and mimmick what they do. At first just work on your grip, stance and keeping your swing on plane. Start ggoing 1/2 swing until you start getting a consistent solid contact on the ball from your 9 iron, to your 5 woods. Then amp it up to 75%, repeat, then full swing. Then start using your 3 woods, get that to solid contact, then move up to your driver. I wouldn't even carry a 1/3 Wood until you get a consistent good swing with the rest of your clubs.

If you can, put a video on Youtube and I can analyze the swing for you and tell what you need fix, and drills you can do to fix it. If you really want to get good, practice the he'll out of your short game, everything 100 yards and in. If you're playing a empty course. Everytime I get into 100 yards, I will play 4+ balls, for the practice.

These are great tips, forgot about wiffle balls. These will give a much better indication of how much bad spin you're actually putting on the ball. As range balls wont give you as much feedback as a normal golf ball would, as generally they are very crappy balls. Balls you would maybe pay $5/dozen.