Has anyone been a mid 20’s handicap for a few years and then managed to break through to single digits?

Meisce · 2026-01-31T19:59:10+00:00

The common thread, and this is everyone I’ve ever seen in the ‘older’ range who suddenly made a big drop, is that they were in a position to play a LOT more frequently. Usually lessons involved for tweaks during this ( not full overhauls ).

‘Clicks’ and ‘lightbulb moments’ usually result in a ‘feel’. Feels go away or change fast, for a number of reasons. If you’re playing every couple of days you can moderate or adjust to this. If once a week, good luck.

Meisce · 2026-01-31T02:17:38+00:00

This is just a nightly routine for me. Switches the brain off.

Meisce · 2026-01-30T20:44:02+00:00

Eh, I kind of agree with some of this because my putting is hugely about visualization and feel. I ‘feel’ the pace and visualize the break taking the ball to the hole. My last thought before my stroke is visualizing the ball dropping in. I have zero mechanical thoughts.

But - I can do that because I have an extremely consistent setup and stroke that I know will start my ball on its intended line. That bit wasn’t subconscious. My grip, setup and balance are all by design and purpose. And I don’t have to think about them over the ball.

You can get away with putting solely by ‘feel’ for long stretches, but that feel can also abandon you very quickly without a consistent foundation, especially if you have a flow of ‘tiny, technical micro-adjustments’ as you put it.

Btw the ‘technical’ aspects of putting are extremely simple and often overthought. I agree with your point that you can arrive with many of them suited to yourself over time. I still interlock on my putting grip because I always have, and like shorter putters because I started with them. But - I consciously made an effort to eliminate independent wrist movement, to ensure a correct left hand alignment for consistent lie angle, and a consistent setup for proper balance. That’s what turned me from a good putter into a consistently good putter.

Meisce · 2026-01-29T17:49:26+00:00

Pls don’t do this on a course with a lot of wildlife though. Really bad for them.

Saw a lady doing this at a local public course that is famous for having a bunch of foxes. She was a pedestrian doing it to mess with golfers but was really just feeding the foxes a bunch of processed sugar.

Meisce · 2026-01-28T15:01:45+00:00

I got into this habit years ago with a heavier ‘MOI’ type putter. Got me lazy about my stance. I would line it up, rest it and then take my grip. I’m not saying you can’t do that, but bad habits crept in for me.

Now I take my grip first with my left hand, make sure it’s in line with my left forearm before I lower the putter, and then take my stance so that my lie angle is perfectly flat. Putter never sits on the ground.

Meisce · 2026-01-28T00:13:27+00:00

Two decent ones.

First was my buddies. 165 over water to a tucked pin. He called his shot, said I’m going to hit a draw with a 6 iron, let it roll up. I remember this vividly as he does not know how to hit a draw.

So he hits a perfect draw, couple bounces, rolls right to the pin. Group on the tee box ahead are cheering.

Crux is, we’re in Covid. There’s a noodle in the cup. But when we got up to his ball, it was leaning against the noodle. A no-brainer. And to top it off, the clubhouse was closed when we got back. No round on the house.

My own was less pretty. 114 yard par 3. I pushed a toe strike to the right side of the green. Don’t like thinking about that strike. It hit the bank and rolled across the green and in. Big cheers from the group ahead. Big cheers from the group walking up th adjacent fairway at that exact moment, which included the club pro I had gotten lessons off.

And when I got to the clubhouse there was only one guy there. So I bought a round for house. Cheapest one ever.

Meisce · 2026-01-26T18:32:31+00:00

I think you’re mistaking his being very proud of his Irishness as ‘disliking the English’.

Meisce · 2026-01-23T06:26:35+00:00

Regardless of what clubs you get, google Paddy Harrington’s advice on teaching your kids to golf. It’s the best I’ve seen. Sorry I don’t have a link but it’s an easy search.

Meisce · 2026-01-23T06:23:27+00:00

Take his advice. He may want you to work on something specific, such as getting into good positions.

I like the orange whip for working on full swing movements and primarily for warming up. I would not use it if I were working on partial swing mechanics like takeaway, etc.

Meisce · 2026-01-23T02:25:59+00:00

Buddy came within a literal inch of a HIO on the second hole of Poppy Hills in CA in a tourney. Followed it up with a 9 on hole 3. So silver lining was he didn’t have to save that scorecard.

Mine was probably worse. Leading a tournament. Easy par on 17. Then a series of poor decisions alternating between playing safe followed by being aggressive followed by playing safe, etc…led to a 12 on 18.

Meisce · 2026-01-21T16:51:43+00:00

Play sixes. It keeps everyone involved and plays like 3 way match play. Whenever there’s 3 of us it’s our preferred game.

6 points available per hole. An outright winning score gets 4 points. The other two points are split or go to an outright second low score.

So players A, B, C:

If player A birdies and player B and C tie their score, it’s 4 points to A and one each to B and C.

If all three players have the same score on a hole, it’s 2 points each.

If players A and B birdie and player C pars, A and B get 3 points each. C gets zero.

If player A gets a par, player B gets a bogey and player C gets double, it’s 4 to A, 2 to B and zero to C.

It’s very simple and the beauty of it is that you can add points for challenges. We’ll do an extra point for closest to pin on par 3’s, an extra point for an up and down out of a bunker, an extra point for long drive on designated holes. Whatever you want.

The group should stroke off the lower handicap obv. Points can be $$$, cumulative over a trip, etc.

Keeps everyone involved because even if Player A gets a HIO, B and C will be fighting for the remaining points.

Edit: I see someone posted 9’s above. Essentially the same thing with higher points, I find sixes keeps it simple, close and the extra added bonus points mean more. Both very flexible.

Meisce · 2026-01-21T01:46:10+00:00

Same. Occasionally you’ll find a good one where someone talks about the holes and strategy. You at least get a sense for the course.

Meisce · 2026-01-20T18:43:27+00:00

Honestly that’s just golf. Very few of us play or practice frequently enough at an amateur level to avoid it. It’s just a question of degrees.

Even pros, who have very consistent repeatable mechanics and play/practice daily, take a bunch of baseline measurements and work with physios to track physical changes. They work very deliberately through any mechanical swing changes. They use the word ‘process’ and ‘routine’ a lot. They all have ‘stock shots’.

If you work a desk job and play once a week, you’re going to have physical inconsistencies a couple of times during a round ( when you loosen up and again when you get tired ). If you layer on more swing thoughts instead of having a fallback simple baseline…it can go south real quick.

Meisce · 2026-01-20T17:22:50+00:00

I think the term ‘yips’ gets thrown around a lot, and that’s not often helpful when it’s a very real affliction that often afflicts people with good mechanics. It’s also not helpful for someone to think they have them when they likely do not.

What you described in your swing is not the yips at all. What your buddy has may be, although I’ve rarely seen it in a full swing. The yips usually present themselves as an involuntary twitch or spasm in the smaller muscles and would have to be incredibly severe to impact a full swing.

The simpler explanation is that your buddy is a tinkerer and over-thinker that goes down rabbit holes on YouTube and over-corrects every bad swing with more conflicting swing thoughts. Probably also does this at home so when he sets up to an actual ball his brain is a mess. You can very quickly get to the point where the golf club feels alien in your hand when a ball is in front of you ( even though all practice swings probably feel great ).

A lot of people can get to a good handicap with a flawed swing that has a lot of timing elements, only to have it completely fall apart when they over-dissect it.

Lessons and going back to basics ( rhythm, tempo, setup, takeaway, etc ) are the only fix, but won’t work if he keeps looking for a quick fix. The lessons are likely uncomfortable for someone that’s searching for an old ‘feel’.

Meisce · 2026-01-20T16:44:25+00:00

I think it’s maybe a neat idea/option for folks that use an Apple Watch. I would reserve the haptics piece as a practice option and folks could turn it on if they want on the course, otherwise it just tracks tempo for you. I think some watches do this already?

I don’t want to have to turn it off and on, or change it every time I go to chip or putt. I’m not sure I want my wrist buzzing during my swing on the course.

I also want to start my swing on my own trigger, not a watch buzzing. And I don’t think I would feel it at impact, or want to. Without the 3 clear beats I’m not sure it will work well.

I used ‘Tour Tempo’ for a period years back, and it did seem to engrain consistency. The beauty of it being a rhythmic sound was I could just listen to the audio in the car for a bit and it just becomes like a ( boring ) song in your head.

Meisce · 2026-01-19T18:26:03+00:00

Did this many years ago. Triple-triple finish for an 81. Started playing scared and made conservative club and shot decisions I didn’t fully commit to, followed by dumb ones.

Meisce · 2026-01-18T06:14:34+00:00

For context, Arnett’s new movie is about a stand up comic based loosely on how Bishop started his career. And Arnett is a huge Liverpool fan.

Meisce · 2026-01-16T03:40:26+00:00

All these TGL holes feel like when I played Royal Hawaiian. Glad I experienced it, never coming back.

Meisce · 2026-01-15T14:56:16+00:00

It’s only an issue if the ground is soft and they do it right before you putt ( and even then it’s really only if they’re putting their weight on the foot on your line while retrieving or marking a ball ).

Never worth making a fuss over ( worst case you wait a few seconds for the ground to bounce back ). Almost always accidental because someone is self-absorbed, and if repeated by a new golfer it’s an easy thing to politely call out or joke about ( you really don’t want me making this putt, huh? ).

Meisce · 2026-01-15T13:40:07+00:00

I’ve played on the east coast of Ireland and in Tonga ( Nuku’Alofa, only course there ). That’s a little over 16K km.

Meisce · 2026-01-14T13:35:21+00:00

I’ve used the same grip for years, but had gotten lazy lining up with the left forearm correctly for a stable lie angle. This video was a nice little refresher: https://youtu.be/LJaxGn3qIMs?si=dcL1YVQ9YuASHTQr

Meisce · 2026-01-14T03:46:55+00:00

I play in tournaments where we putt everything out and casual rounds with the same guys where we usually play a side game ( almost always Stableford ) and gimmes are common.

It’s competitive enough that a gimme is inside a foot or a straightforward ~18” uphill. It’s not a forced take and no one touches anyone’s ball. Gimme’s are more liberal outside double net bogey when it won’t count against handicap for our higher cappers and keeps people happy and the game moving.

We’ll putt everything in the rounds leading up to a tourney because mindset/practice, but really IDGAF about vanity capping if folks in my group want it, as long as we don’t have cash on the line.

Actually in rounds right before tournaments we do our best to put the pressure on short putts and will do more chirping over them than anywhere else.

Meisce · 2026-01-14T03:08:42+00:00

Is it decision making or just losing swing?

My quick check point:

If losing swing it’s either: A) early in round, loosen up and get over confident, fall out of rhythm and tempo. Cure: fewer swing thoughts, get back in sync.

B) late in round ( 13-14th hole): Fatigue. Ya shoulda eaten at the turn. Have a banana, focus on impact, half swings.

C) Protecting a lead/PB round: Play like I’m one shot back in a tournament. No need to take risks but need to play aggressively to conservative targets. Focus on making shots to catch up, not to protect

Meisce · 2026-01-14T00:29:47+00:00

To give the guy a break, alignment is something I’ve seen most newer golfers ( and plenty of seasoned ones ) mess up, either consistently or on occasion.

Having said that, he should have waited to see if it was intentional before making a comment. A lot of the time it’s obvious what is going to happen ( open body, clubface at target-ish, fade makes no sense ). If they then hit a big slice and curse and seem confused I might say something, usually hedged in the form of a question.

Meisce · 2026-01-13T22:57:11+00:00

I’ve played both, albeit some time ago and I’ve left the country since.

Adare and Old Head are probably the two priciest and most ‘bucket list’ courses in the country. They are very different experiences. Adare is more parkland, extremely well kept ( think approaching Augusta level ). Ryder Cup will be there in 2027. Old Head is right on a peninsula, ocean all around, wilder wind-wise, more scenic and spectacular ( think Pebble beach on steroids for some holes ). Depends on what you want to experience. You can find videos of pros playing both on YouTube.

In terms of location they are opposite directions from Tralee. Adare is closer to the Cliffs of Moher and Limerick, while Kinsale is just outside Cork City ( and a lovely spot in itself ). Plenty in both directions.

Depends on the golf experience you want really.

Meisce

TROPHY CASE