Golf

Coverage guide for the open. From @NoLayingUp on Twitter

How to watch The Open (times Eastern):

Thu/Fri: 1:30-4AM: Peacock

4AM-3PM: USA

3-4PM: Peacock

Sat:

5-7AM: USA

7AM-3PM: NBC

Sun:

4-7AM: USA

7AM-2PM: NBC

Don’t care too much, but the defending champion should be featured. I think he’s got a right to be upset.

I'll start: Rickie.

Darkhorse winner: Yannik Paul

First birdie ever after (embarrassingly enough) 6 months of playing. It was on the first hole too so it was all downhill from there but I’m still over the moon about it :)

New to golf and practicing at the range. I hit my first 15 balls exactly how I wanted to and then on the 16th I clipped the ball and hit the barrier separating the stalls.

I got nervous and it was all down hill from there.

I thought about changing stalls because I was face to face (lefty) to people. But there was a little girl practicing on the left edges and that even made me more nervous. Lol

Anyways, I’ll be back at it tomorrow.

Has anyone used these guys? I’ve seen them promoted on some YouTube channels. I’m a big fan of lessons but they are obviously expensive and the teaching pros at my club kinda are geared towards getting you to single digit HCP whereas I’m around a 17.

Thoughts?

Today, after 3 months of golf, I hit my first Birdie on our local par 3 course!

What a feeling!

I've recently gotten back into golf after taking about a decade off. I've taken some lessons, but still feel like I need some time out on the course alone to do some fine tuning and gain some confidence being out there. I've never gone out alone before, but definitely think it would be helpful before meeting up with friends and family for a round. Does anyone on here golf alone? I've been hesitant to book a tee time, because I really don't want to be paired up with a group and negatively impact their game. Any tips or words of encouragement would be appreciated! Although I did golf in the past, I would definitely consider myself a beginner, especially after my lessons revealed a lifetime of bad habits I'm working against.

I've attached a picture that hopefully illustrates the situation I often find myself in. I'm still quite a beginner at golf.

I'm in the rough outside of the bunker, but I have to chip over the bunker to a nearside pin. Bonus jank if the green runs downhill.

I feel essentially incapable of getting the ball close to the pin. I just have to settle for ending up on the far side of the green, 30-50 feet away or whatever. Then I have at least two putts to get it down, so this shot feels super score-inflating.

In a perfect world I wouldn't be in this situation, but I'm not good enough to avoid it.

Ideally I would like to get more loft and just barely plop it on the other side of the bunker and roll to the pin. Is that essentially the ideal play? Any general tips on achieving this?

So today, I felt like I was going to play lights out and started off with a birdie. That’s when it all fell apart until hole 16 where I finally discovered what I was doing that felt so different and proceeded to finish birdie, birdie, birdie…

47 on the front and 40 on the back with a quadruple bogey…

Ever have rounds like that and tips to avoid it?

Title

Also, the last 3 pairings tomorrow are STACKED with great player. Gonna be awesome.

There are zero posts in this community, so I figured I would start it off with the best advice that can be given to a beginner.

Get a lesson!

Don't read articles. Don't take swing advice from randos on the internet. And for the love of God don't watch YouTube videos. They will ruin your swing if you don't know what you're doing (which you don't because you're a beginner).

I spent years working with a bad, inconsistent swing. One, 1 hour session with a local instructor for $125 fixed it so that I'm consistently flushing all of my clubs, and hitting with a slight draw. And I gained 10-15 yards on every club, despite that not being my goal at all. I genuinely would have paid double or triple the price if I knew how much better it would make me.

So why did it take me so long to get a lesson? I think there are a few errors in thought that cause people to avoid taking a lesson (or at least did with me):

1. You just genuinely think you can work it out by yourself, and taking a lesson feels almost like cheating. Or maybe your ego is preventing you from taking a lesson. - Drop the ego, and realize that most people who are any good at golf have probably had a lesson at some point. Golf is hard, and without a professional it's hard to know if what you're changing in your swing is helping or hurting (more on this later).

2. You think that for some reason your swing is the exception, and they won't be able to fix it. - This is just categorically wrong. There is nothing special about your swing. Any instructor worth their salt can suss out your issues pretty quickly, and give you drills and advice to work through them. My instructor found four major problems with my swing within the first seven balls I hit.

3. It's too expensive/isn't worth the money. - If $125 is too expensive, then you're playing the wrong sport. Skip a few rounds and you'll have enough money for a lesson. Trust me it's worth it. One side of this is the thought that if you can fix it for free via YouTube/Articles, then its better than paying for it. This is something that's true in theory, but almost impossible in practice. Without immediate feedback it's incredibly difficult to apply advice you get from YouTube/Articles. Not to mention that everyone is different, and what works for someone else might not work for you. An instructor can give you immediate advice, tailored to your peculiarities. And you KNOW the advice is correct, and will work if you keep practicing it. What's more, the instructor will give you specific drills to work on exactly where your issues lie. There's huge peace of mind in knowing that what you're doing is eventually going to help, rather than constantly second guessing any advice you've received from the internet. Trust the process.

Everyone who gets a lesson says the exact same thing, "I wish I had done this sooner." Get the lesson sooner rather than later, and get those good habits ingrained early. Professionals are professionals for a reason.

Get a lesson!