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Ric Flair

Golf

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Firstly Molinari was absolutely brilliant, to card no bogeys over the weekend is absurd, particularly at Carnoustie in the Open, it's just ridiculous how hard that is. 

 

But this is why year on year the Open is the best major, an absolute pleasure to watch the final day again. 

 

The course is set up fantastically by the R&A, they are played on courses that are superb tests of ability and time and time again we get drama on the final day. The conversation afterwards will always be about superb play, not farcical course set ups or rulings or nonsense. 

 

The USGA are light years away from the R&A, many think they are outdated but they are very much the best tournament hosts time and time again. 

 

The last 3 Opens we have had some real treats, today's royal rumble like final round where 10 different players could've won. The previous year was Spieth's ridiculous finish to beat Kuchar and the year before was Stenson and Mickelson's birdie fest.

 

Who says golf is boring to watch? Roll on the Ryder Cup!

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My 7 year old is interested in playing. She's had a few lessons while on holiday and loved it. Any tips on teaching kids golf? What clubs should we look at? What should I ask the instructor?

 

We'll obviously be somewhat restricted in what we can access. But the local club looks alright.

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7 hours ago, Merging Cultures said:

My 7 year old is interested in playing. She's had a few lessons while on holiday and loved it. Any tips on teaching kids golf? What clubs should we look at? What should I ask the instructor?

 

We'll obviously be somewhat restricted in what we can access. But the local club looks alright.

I started playing at around that age. My dad had my mom's clubs cut down and re-gripped(she hated golf ;)). I'm sure there's a lot better options club wise nowadays.

 

Keep your eye on the ball and have fun! Sorry, that's all the advice I have lol

 

Good luck to her :)

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3 hours ago, spacemunky said:

I started playing at around that age. My dad had my mom's clubs cut down and re-gripped(she hated golf ;)). I'm sure there's a lot better options club wise nowadays.

 

Keep your eye on the ball and have fun! Sorry, that's all the advice I have lol

 

Good luck to her :)

I think it's helpful! She has already been telling me off for lecturing her!! I need to keep the fun part in mind!!

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7 minutes ago, Merging Cultures said:

I think it's helpful! She has already been telling me off for lecturing her!! I need to keep the fun part in mind!!

I got to a point where it wasn't fun anymore. Well I was a teen and at that time golf was not cool(pre Tiger). Golfing with your dad was even uncooler lol

 

Got back into it later on and had more fun with it.

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21 minutes ago, spacemunky said:

I got to a point where it wasn't fun anymore. Well I was a teen and at that time golf was not cool(pre Tiger). Golfing with your dad was even uncooler lol

 

Got back into it later on and had more fun with it.

Haha!

 

I'd sometimes go to the range with my Dad or do 9 with my little bro as well. Fun times. I'll have some lessons now though so I don't embarrass her.

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19 hours ago, Merging Cultures said:

My 7 year old is interested in playing. She's had a few lessons while on holiday and loved it. Any tips on teaching kids golf? What clubs should we look at? What should I ask the instructor?

 

We'll obviously be somewhat restricted in what we can access. But the local club looks alright.

I'd say whilst she is only 7 just keep making sure she attends group coaching, it's a great way to meet other children interested too and make friends. I attended group coaching for years and loved it. 

 

I am not a parent myself yet so perhaps take my advice with a pinch of salt, but I'd say if you were teaching her just let her play and don't get bogged down in technique or technical aspects of the game. Generally the coaches that are regularly teaching kids are very good at this, ensuring that things are simplistic and just letting the kids enjoy themselves.

 

Pick up a cheap junior set, perhaps off eBay and just let her use it. Until she takes it up on any kind of permanent basis a junior set is plenty good enough for now and will be for the next few years or so I'd imagine. If she's taking it more seriously you can upgrade her to a better set and if she drops it you've not had a great cost outlay. 

 

Driving range is obviously the one people naturally are drawn to as a starting point, but you are generally hitting at nothing or targets that are not reachable at that age for kids just starting out (i.e 100 yards+). 

 

I believe someone has mentioned it but make sure it is fun, if I were you I'd get her around a chipping/putting area and just set challenges for her with a reward at the end. Probably end up caving and give her the reward anyway, even if she doesn't win but you might not be as soft as me. 

 

Good luck! 

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On ‎27‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 05:01, Merging Cultures said:

My 7 year old is interested in playing. She's had a few lessons while on holiday and loved it. Any tips on teaching kids golf? What clubs should we look at? What should I ask the instructor?

 

We'll obviously be somewhat restricted in what we can access. But the local club looks alright.

Ive just come back into playing after a long time off with yips. I was formerly a decent player, I was a 2 handicap and played a little county stuff, but the yips took hold and over the past 4 years or so, ive played probably less than 10 rounds. However, I am back and im seeing progress even if my scores aren't showing it the way they used to just yet.

 

Its really good to see that you have a daughter who is interested in playing. Its a sport you can take up at 7 and still have a passion for at 70, and there are so few sports where people of all ages and skill levels can compete somewhat evenly.

 

My advice from growing up playing the game and being interested from a young age would be:

 

1) Don't get too technical too early for obvious reasons, but one thing that will absolutely help, is learning a good golf grip from an early age. This could perhaps be combined with meeting other interested kids at fun lessons for example, there are also grips that you can put on a club that guide your hands into a good position. There may be a childrens version of this, but id say don't get too technical, but definitely make sure your child has a fundamentally decent grip. Her grip can be slightly STRONG if its going to be away from neutral, neutral is ideal of course but if you had a choice between weaker than neutral or stronger than neutral, stronger than neutral will be better.

 

2) Encourage the learning of the game from green back to the tee. Start with putting, as it provides immediate feedback as to how well someone is doing and they can see this themselves and enjoy it. A child can putt just as well as an adult can, challenge her to a friendly putt off around the practice green over 9 holes, and set her goals that she can achieve, but as she becomes more and more proficient, make the goal slightly harder. Say.....finish 9 holes on the putting green in maybe 18 strokes at first, so 2 putts on each hole. if that's too tough, make it a bit easier at first.

 

Give her the sense that she is getting better but can beat the friendly goal you set.

 

3) Pitch and putt courses are far more enjoyable and beneficial. You and your child could nip around a pitch and putt in an hour together, and with the holes being close to the tees, there is a good chance she will be able to reach one or two of the greens, but if not, she will feel like she is close to the hole. There are several benefits of taking this approach I feel; it will help build her short game, which is the most heavily used part of the game for all players, so itll help with the visualisation of chips and pitches and lofted shots, and therefore itll also help her as she grows up and gets out onto the course. Itll also get her used to making some small swings at the ball, and to hit the ball from some new situations. Also, its a quick game, so itll hold her attention more rather than walking around for 4 hours with you and only spending about 3 minutes of that 4 hours actually hitting the ball.

 

If you put your daughter onto the first hole of a golf course and it measured 420 yards, there would be nothing she could do. She could hit some lovely shots and end up walking off with an 8 without doing anything wrong, when she is "supposed" to have taken 4. Its a deflating feeling. Pitch and putt will allow her to maybe even make the odd 2 as she progresses.

 

4) Depending just how seriously your daughter shows ambitions, and just how much talent she really seems to have, I wouldn't cut adult clubs down in length. This will throw all the swing weights off in the set, plus if they are adult clubs they will have heavy, stiff feeling shafts. By trimming the butt end of the iron, this will make the club play even stiffer in your childs hands, and itll make it a lot harder to hit good shots. She would probably end up with a squirty low ball flight, and clubs that feel quite dead at impact.

 

These kind of adjustments at too early and age will give her compensations that might end up sticking. John Daly for example has a big overswing as a result of swinging a heavy, long, adult driver as a child. Now of course, he has a talent to make that work, but it could hamper your daughter.

 

Of course, at first, a cut down club is ok just to swing something, but id consider proper childs clubs, just a half set would be fine, but having clubs that are light enough to swing, the right length for your child to make solid contact, and grips that aren't too thick.

 

5) ENJOYMENT is the key. its not necessarily about being technically brilliant or supremely talented. Don't be pushy, but let her enjoy the game. Embrace the fact that you are spending time doing something you both like together, being outdoors on nice golf courses. If your child is talented, they THEMSELVES will initiate getting more and more serious. You cant push your child to make them get better, they will have an inbuilt desire to get better if THEY want to. they will intuitively figure things out, intuitively watch pros on tv and copy and adjust. Let that happen. Your daughter may never go below say, 20 handicap, but still love to play. Some people enjoy the journey of improvement with little intermediate goals.

 

6) When it finally comes to the longer clubs, hit the ball as hard as possible whilst in balance. Don't worry so much about direction, but hit it hard. Its much easier to learn control, than it is to get faster as you get older. One of the key ingredients to being good at golf is distance. its what makes up the majority of the difficulty scale when the EGU measure golf courses for their scratch scores (difficulty level). So theres nothing wrong with giving it a good bash as a child, even if that means the ball goes off into a lake.

 

Obviously some of these points come further down the line, but those would be my thoughts for now. Keep us updated, would love to hear more

 

Edited by Donut
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I've been toying with getting into golf for ages and finally bought a set of clubs last month. Had my first ever go out on the course on Friday after a few sessions on the driving range and hit 100 so really pleased with that for a first go. Hit two pars on par 3s but generally it was double bogeys for the majority!

 

Itching to get out there again and try and improve on that as there were a few times when I went to try and reach the green and ended up mishitting from trying to generate too much power. A bit of common sense needed and to think more about laying it up and leaving an easier pitch rather than trying to blast it and leaving myself lodged in a bunker! 

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19 hours ago, syston_fox said:

I've been toying with getting into golf for ages and finally bought a set of clubs last month. Had my first ever go out on the course on Friday after a few sessions on the driving range and hit 100 so really pleased with that for a first go. Hit two pars on par 3s but generally it was double bogeys for the majority!

 

Itching to get out there again and try and improve on that as there were a few times when I went to try and reach the green and ended up mishitting from trying to generate too much power. A bit of common sense needed and to think more about laying it up and leaving an easier pitch rather than trying to blast it and leaving myself lodged in a bunker! 

Sounds like you've caught the golfing bug mate!

 

Shooting 100 on your first go is pretty good. I know blokes who've been playing years and still can't break 100.

 

I know what you mean about wanting to blast it everywhere. You'll soon learn your limitations and how sensible course management is the quickest way to shave shots off your score. It's all about 'taking your medicine' when getting into trouble rather than trying to pull off the 1/100 miracle shot I reckon.

 

Hope you keep improving and enjoying it mate :thumbup:

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4 hours ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

Sounds like you've caught the golfing bug mate!

 

Shooting 100 on your first go is pretty good. I know blokes who've been playing years and still can't break 100.

 

I know what you mean about wanting to blast it everywhere. You'll soon learn your limitations and how sensible course management is the quickest way to shave shots off your score. It's all about 'taking your medicine' when getting into trouble rather than trying to pull off the 1/100 miracle shot I reckon.

 

Hope you keep improving and enjoying it mate :thumbup:

 

It was only at Humberstone Heights which is quite forgiving I think as really big fairways to aim at and the bunkers aren't too deep - a perfect beginner course really. 

 

The real frustration was when you follow up a great drive with an awful second shot. There was one shorter par 4 where I hit a perfect drive to leave me thinking of a pitch and putt and my first birdie on my first round...... obviously getting carried away as then well over hit my second shot over the green, then a bad third shot to try and recover followed by three putting to go from the birdie I had been visualising to a double bogey!! Learnt a big lesson on that hole that you need to work on making sure you're getting pars and bogeys before even thinking of birdies. 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, lildave3 said:

I've only ever played on pitch and putt courses, just bought myself a set of clubs though. 

 

Yes! Get yourself down the driving range and then we'll go for a round. You're paying. 

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8 minutes ago, syston_fox said:

 

It was only at Humberstone Heights which is quite forgiving I think as really big fairways to aim at and the bunkers aren't too deep - a perfect beginner course really. 

 

The real frustration was when you follow up a great drive with an awful second shot. There was one shorter par 4 where I hit a perfect drive to leave me thinking of a pitch and putt and my first birdie on my first round...... obviously getting carried away as then well over hit my second shot over the green, then a bad third shot to try and recover followed by three putting to go from the birdie I had been visualising to a double bogey!! Learnt a big lesson on that hole that you need to work on making sure you're getting pars and bogeys before even thinking of birdies. 

 

 

If you can do your best to 'keep a 6 off your scorecard' you won't go far wrong. My iron/approach play is the weakest part of my game so I've learnt to lay up on long par 4's and take my bogey 5. These are usually the lowest stroke index holes so I still get a shot and 2 stableford points. 

 

And tbh golf's all about chipping and putting anyway. At our level we'll miss most greens in regulation so the ability to 'get up and down' is key. If we can also minimise the 3 putts it makes a huge difference to the overall score.

 

And over time you'll get to know how far you hit each club and then your distance control will become better.

 

We'll never master this game but it's good fun trying :)

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8 minutes ago, Spiritwalker said:

Finally cracked 100 on Sunday. Needed a 6 on the par5 18th and got it.

Two weeks ago I teed off on the same hole with the same score ( 93)  and

took 11 for 104.?

We've all done it mate lol

 

In the last medal I played, one of the young guns who plays off 2 h'cap teed off the last level par and then took a 12.

 

It can happen to even the best of players!

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Assuming you are playing to the rules and taking proper drops etc, Breaking 100 is a big milestone, so anyone just picking up the game and shooting in the 90s, that's good going.

 

Some things at this stage will help you quickly become better:

 

1) Try and take out all the penalty shots, like going into water, out of bounds etc. This will obviously happen some of the time, but really try and minimise these shots as theyre just a waste and if you can take 3 penalty shots off your score, theres 3 shots saved without really doing anything.

 

2) Really work on your putting so you keep 3 putts to an absolute minimum. Of course again, sometimes youll be faced with a 50ft putt with several slopes along the way, this will be tough for anyone. But if you can really eliminate three putts on the flatter greens and from inside say, 20ft, youll save a lot of shots

 

3) Try not to compound one error with another. How often does someone play a shot that lands them in trouble, then tries to recover by hitting a banana around a tree, or a shot that would require a very high level of skill to pull off. Sometimes, the best thing to do is chip it out sideways and play for a bogey, which can actually be a good score on some holes

 

4) When you go to the range, practice the things you aren't good at. Its easy to stand at the range on a flat mat with a bucket of balls and hit some nice 7 or 8 irons. But this doesn't really do much for your game except massage your ego. Practice hitting those 80 yard pitch shots that are so important to your score. Ideally, chuck some balls down around your practice green and chip away. Also, practice punch shots too, deliberately hitting the ball lower than normal. On a day where things are going wrong, punch shots usually keep you straighter and under control, and of course, are useful for when you are in trouble.

 

5) Try and work out how far each of your clubs goes on a nice hit. Not your absolute sunday best hit, but your average distances. Use these to plot your way around the course but don't fall into the amateur trap of over-estimating how far you hit the ball. what can be absolutely invaluable if you know someone who has one, or maybe your pro can let you borrow one for an afternoon, is a GPS device like skycaddie which can measure how far your shots are going, and then you can work out what distances you are comfortable with, and how this can help your course management.

 

On ‎07‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 13:15, syston_fox said:

 

It was only at Humberstone Heights which is quite forgiving I think as really big fairways to aim at and the bunkers aren't too deep - a perfect beginner course really. 

 

The real frustration was when you follow up a great drive with an awful second shot. There was one shorter par 4 where I hit a perfect drive to leave me thinking of a pitch and putt and my first birdie on my first round...... obviously getting carried away as then well over hit my second shot over the green, then a bad third shot to try and recover followed by three putting to go from the birdie I had been visualising to a double bogey!! Learnt a big lesson on that hole that you need to work on making sure you're getting pars and bogeys before even thinking of birdies. 

 

 

 

 

Yes! Get yourself down the driving range and then we'll go for a round. You're paying. 

 

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14 hours ago, Donut said:

Its a strange view point to take, as the PGA of America inviting the worlds top 100 should give the strongest field of all four majors.
 

 

Moving it to May is definitely a good shout and should improve coverage and build up but still I bet if you asked any pro which major they wanted they wouldn't respond the USPGA Championship.

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