My Golf History and Where My Game Is Now

My journey in golf started much later in life. I spent my whole childhood playing baseball and continued this until I finished off my mediocre career at Sonoma State. In 2021, a couple of my buddies took me out to play for the first time and I enjoyed it. For the next two years, I only played maybe 2-3 times a year and never took it seriously. My final semester of college, I met a guy in a business class that was really good. Looking back, he was probably a 3-4 handicap then and had a competitive playing background. He began to really teach me how to play and although I was still garbage, I saw a bit of improvement (shoutout Kevin). We graduated, moved to Southern California for grad school, and took a break from playing.

Fast forward 5 months and I am studying sport and performance psychology. I fully believe I will eventually get a job in professional baseball and live the rest of my life around that game. I then got an opportunity to do internship hours with a collegiate golf team. I instantly took to it, and began doing everything I could to improve my own game.

My research then started revolving around biofeedback and trying to measure physiological markers in golfers. The other main thing I realized was that golfers actually cared about these things, and I found myself passionate about the subject. Fast forward, I meet some amazing people, run my own private practice, and get to do amazing things in this beautiful game.

So now that you have a background, where is my game now? I am officially down to a 10.3 which is the lowest it's ever been. My swing, however, is one of the worst places it's ever been. Usually these two things don't go together, but I have worked really hard separating my mechanical swing work from just playing the game.

I am going to walk you through what I am currently working on in my swing and game.

Takeaway: Keeping the club outside the hand with smooth-feeling wrists

Backswing: Club face is square at the top, and my arm is just above the pec.

Downswing: Hold on and go for a ride while the head is still

Lower body: Front hip is traveling up a concrete wall instead of spinning out.

Problems that I am actively trying to fix:
My club face always wants to open. In the downswing, this causes me to have to close it all at once and flip..
Every round I play is determined by whether I am timing this up properly that day.
This is why I can truly shoot 80 or 92 any given day.

So what systems am I using for my pitching, chipping, and putting? Let's start with pitching:

I am using what is called a wedge table. Depending on what type of thinker you are, you can frame it for yourself in different ways. Analytical players tend to gravitate toward a clock system or percentages, while feel players like using body-position references such as waist, shoulder, and full. Spend the time to make one of these for yourself. I promise that your game will get better from 40-135 yards (depending on how far your P wedge goes).

For my chipping, I am using Dan Grieve's 3 Release system. You can read my article on it HERE. I would also highly recommend buying his book. It was one of the most influential books I have ever read for my golf game. If you're interested, check it out in the PRO SHOP.

Things I struggle with and am actively working on include:

Release 1: When addressing the ball, I love to close down the face. I am working on keeping everything more square even if the face feels open to me.

Release 2: I am working on landing softer and higher. I really struggle just letting the club release itself.

Release 3: I am still struggling with bunker shots, as I always get too much ball contact no matter how much I think about splashing.

Putting:

I have greatly simplified my putting system. I used to use a full aim point system, but now I have gone to a bit of a hybrid system. This includes using my feet to feel break, using a line on the ball to set my point, feeling speed by looking at my point, and then executing the stroke.

I have gone back and forth between claw grip and left hand low. Really committing to one is something that I am going to do over the course of the next month. Left hand low has given me a lot of success, but speed occasionally gets out of whack... Claw grip, I feel better about my speed, but the stroke just looks so bad, and for some reason my follow-through after ball contact is so long. We will keep experimenting. Thanks everyone, and I will continue to update.

Please leave some comments about your own golf game!