Ball impact

Actually, I was thinking abt the difference between Sg golfers and golfers in Aust and USA.

Is the lack of ability to hit the ball 1st before taking a divot due to the fact that Sg and other countries all have golfers practice off mats instead of grass?

This doesn't really place a premium on 'ball before turf' for the majority of golfers. Worse, depending on which driving range, some mats are more forgiving than others. U can take a chop 6" behind the ball and it will still fly decent. Try that on grass all the time and that ball is going nowhere.

Right on the money S70B. Its almost paramount that the impact sequence be ball then turf playing off grass.

As most of SG's ranges are played off mats, a good portion of our golfers aren't exactly pre-tuned to the necessity of taking the divot after, except from when we find that out on the courses.

Good point here mate

Here is where we will disagree, I find nothing wrong with practicing off mats, whether the ball flies or not, YOU still no if you have hit a good shot or not..

If people go the range with the express intent of "positive practice" that is drills to improve, not just to donate money to the range, the ball getting off the ground after a bad hit is irrelevant because you should be focusing on impact and mechanics...

If you are making positive changes to your swing, it is unlikey the ball will fly properly anyway. If it does then you dont need to make changes...

my 2 cents is, its 50/50 whether the range mat/turf is a factor... 50% range mat factor/50% mental.. as a newbie/high hcp, all u wanna do is launch the ball... therefore, the tendency is to "lift" the ball with the iron, rather than "hit down" on the ball.. not knowing or forgetting that the loft on the club will do its job... from then on, the (bad) habit develop, and bcos you are able to hit the ball after that.. i think the range mat factor comes in from a visual perspective, even if u are able to "take a divot", u can't really tell if you did...

p.s. btw, im one of those guilty of "lifting" the ball... trying to fix that!

wow, this is new one to me, now the mat is to be blamed.

the mat may be forgiving but i don think it's fair to say tht it prevents others learning to compress the ball properly. the majority of the golfers out there have problem swinging consistently let alone working on a specific ball flight or spin. i don think we should preoccupied with taking the divot, that will come once you develop a sound swing later.

i say a lot of the time, i don even pay attention to where the balls land on the range when I was practising on my swing. The sound of ball impact and the feedback will tell me if I hav hit a good shot or not.

just my humble opinion.

Good, we have a point to disagree to then.

Also, how one practices differs from individual. I grew up practicing off mats since young and I dun think I have a problem creating lag and the problem of striking ground before ball. I never learnt from anyone much about how to do it as I was basically self-taught in my early years.

With all due respect to my wife TSL, I will use her as example too:

Prior to coming over to US with me, she was happily practicing off mats in Sg. It sounded like decent contact but when we got to the course and ranges here, she hit a lot of balls fat initially. Slow mo video shows her unhinging her wrists right at the downswing.

Her swing now after practicing off grass ranges has helped a little with the lag problem. I'm not saying she is sergio-like now but videoing her swing again on the range, her unhinging is still happening too early but its later on in the downswing. The way she strikes the ball also sounds more crisp. I have oni mentioned it to her why she hits the ball fat sometimes. She did the correction on her own.

Ironhead, its the 4th of Dec here. I dun remember reading alot of posts from the 6 days u were here that u have mentioned 'alot of times' on how u practice. Maybe I just wasn't paying enuff attention then.

Some people starting out is oni learning to just get the ball airborne, some are trying to be more consistent with hitting the sweetspot. Not everyone is blessed with inner knowledge on how to practice productively or listen to the sound of impact till much later in their golfing life. Everyone has a different learning curve and its best not to expect too much from those that just starts out in the game.

i think you have misread my post...i agree tht each practices in their own way. if your wife benefit fr practising on the grass, by all mean, carry on. I am only glad that she play well and carry on improving. I am of the view tht 'whatever it takes to play better'

when i said 'I say a lot of the time ' I meant "I, a lot of the time.....". apologies if you misunderstood me.

No worries Ironhead, we just have differing views thats all.

Nobody learns golf exactly the same way. Thats why we all have our unique DNA in our swings.

My comments initially is based on results conclusive to what I've experienced and watchin my wife play. Improvement in our games is still a long way off.

Good discussion.

ironhead wrote:

The sound of ball impact and the feedback will tell me if I hav hit a good shot or not.

Agree.... plus you can see the club hitting behind the ball "scuffing" the mat. If you were to watch flight you would see it does not travel as far as a solid shot, which is the same as off the grass... a fat shot will get up but not go anywhere..

My opinion is that people go to the range to improve... no ones says "let go to the range to get worse" so even if they are absolute beginners and the whole goal is just to get the ball up, then they are working on something..

But it does not matter if you are hitting off a mat, the grass or a table top you know if the shot was solid or not....

I think the oz/usa reason for better striking is the fact that courses are cheaper and there are more of them so people can play more... the best way to improve is to play.....

My opinion only.....

shorthitter wrote:

ironhead wrote:

The sound of ball impact and the feedback will tell me if I hav hit a good shot or not.

Agree.... plus you can see the club hitting behind the ball "scuffing" the mat. If you were to watch flight you would see it does not travel as far as a solid shot, which is the same as off the grass... a fat shot will get up but not go anywhere..

My opinion is that people go to the range to improve... no ones says "let go to the range to get worse" so even if they are absolute beginners and the whole goal is just to get the ball up, then they are working on something..

But it does not matter if you are hitting off a mat, the grass or a table top you know if the shot was solid or not....

I think the oz/usa reason for better striking is the fact that courses are cheaper and there are more of them so people can play more... the best way to improve is to play.....

My opinion only.....

The great thing about impact compared to any part of the golf swing is that the feedback it gives you tells you whether you have achieved a correct position or not. The best way to achieve the desired sound and feel consistently is to learn, understand and practice impact. Not many golfers know how impact should or feel like.

Good that you brought that up Allen. Most people think by bashing balls all day they are gonna go from a 20 to a 10 overnight. It's difficult to play golf better when one just spends his time on the range. It's amazing how so many people are caught up with hitting golf balls and it's really because in Singapore a driving range is a lot more accessible than a golf course or a good short game facility.

However some people need to hit more balls than others depending on what their game requires.

Ball striking is important and it does make the game easier when you hit fairways and greens all day but, what happens when you dont?

Practice the right stuff the right way and better golf would soon follow=)

jhan18 wrote:

Practice the right stuff the right way and better golf would soon follow=)

are u saying the more u bet, the better golfer u will become......

slinger wrote:

jhan18 wrote:

Practice the right stuff the right way and better golf would soon follow=)

are u saying the more u bet, the better golfer u will become......

not true leh, i tried tht....

the more i bet, the poorer i become....

jaketang wrote:

slinger wrote:

jhan18 wrote:

Practice the right stuff the right way and better golf would soon follow=)

are u saying the more u bet, the better golfer u will become......

not true leh, i tried tht....

the more i bet, the poorer i become....

that y we playing thurs.......

to make me poorer? omg....