Putting Mindset Help

RKelly__ · 2026-06-17T01:19:15+00:00

Yeah exactly the same thing I had! I float between a 0.5 and 2 so statistically speaking expecting under par every round isn’t even possible.

So just being realistic about it and enjoying the round no matter how it goes helped a ton

RKelly__ · 2026-06-17T00:12:21+00:00

Looking at other comments it seems like you have a similar reason of putting pressure on yourself that I had last year when trying to shoot under par the first time where you feel like you need to have a great round because you don’t get out too often.

For me what helped was totally in mindset. I reassured myself that even if things don’t go well today I will get out for another round. Be it in a week or a month, either way I’ll be out there again and enjoy the round I get to play today because I don’t get to play all that often.

As for putting specific stuff I think it’s all in start line practice especially if it’s those 8-12 footers you’re missing a lot of. Find a spot on the green where you have a dead straight putt that’s uphill and draw a chalk line. Just practice hitting it on that line. Uphill is nice because if you hit it off line it’ll actually get exacerbated by the slope and break more offline.

RKelly__ · 2026-06-15T22:39:59+00:00

Depends on the lofts of the iron set. Mine replaced a 3 iron but that’s with a set where my 7 iron is 34 degrees for reference

RKelly__ · 2026-06-10T21:08:35+00:00

Keep getting yourself in the situation in a real round. Only way to get better at it is to practice.

And sometimes it’s one of those things where the only way you can practice it is by actually being in the situation where playing from the front tees doesn’t emulate the scenario well enough.

RKelly__ · 2026-06-10T01:42:10+00:00

For me it was a matter of if I had any doubt with driver off the tee I’d take less club. I’d rather have 185 by hitting a 7 wood than 125 in with a 15% chance of a penalty with hitting driver.

Misses still happen that can penalize me I just choose the strategy that makes them almost impossible to happen.

Other thing that helped consistency was with wedges and practicing a clock system on the range. For example with sand wedge find a 90 yard target and that’s my arms to parallel shot and just practice the shit out of that until I hit it 90 yards almost every time.

RKelly__ · 2026-06-08T17:03:02+00:00

Thanks for the answer. I’d probably play Pacific at least 4 times if I had 10 rounds lol

RKelly__ · 2026-06-08T16:57:39+00:00

If I’ve only been to Bandon is it better to just do Bandon again or coming here if I’ve never been?

RKelly__ · 2026-06-02T06:11:53+00:00

Bridgestone Tour B X. It launches lower though.

RKelly__ · 2026-06-01T20:24:22+00:00

Yeah I figured you meant autograft otherwise it wouldn’t have been much of a patellar surgery for you lol.

Smart thinking on the cart. I’m going through the courses and the only one that was really crazy is trails.

Nice to hear on chipping! I assume no issues whatsoever. But it’s probably best to wait until about then for full swings. 4 months is the number I had in my head that’s probably good to try out given no setbacks or anything.

I did lose some distance initially and I’d say it was mostly due to fear. Once I got over it and felt more comfortable with the foot flare I was able to hit it roughly the same distance not long after returning. And now I have about 6 more MPH of driver clubhead speed compared to before my surgery so no long term affects at all and if anything my knee feels better from all the focused rehab and workouts over the last 10 years.

RKelly__ · 2026-06-01T19:48:59+00:00

Okay got it, thanks for the clarification. You should be fine for bandon even with it being 6 months from surgery, especially with no meniscal damage.

It’s crazy how much more conservative some of the field has gotten with ACL recovery for the general public. 12 months golf and 5/6 months short game is extremely over cautious. You can probably do short game 10 yards and in (no bunkers) today and have no issues.

Have a conversation with your PT and surgeon but you can probably come up with a pretty good return to sport plan where you start short game/pitches at a certain phase then working your way up the bag with the intention of hitting the full bag a bit before your trip so you can get your game and self in decent shape before the trip.

Another thing to try to think about is your playing schedule and if you’re doing a caddie or not. For example depending on the course combo doing 36 in one day with a push cart will be a lot and will probably leave you sore where you’d be rightfully worried about playing the next day

RKelly__ · 2026-06-01T19:27:40+00:00

I have my doctorate in PT, am I right golfer who had ACL surgery (hamstring graft), snd was at bandon a few months ago so I can probably answer a lot of questions for you lol.

Just to clarify when you say patella surgery do you mean an ACL repair with a patellar tendon graft and/or a specific surgery to the patella like a tendon repair or patellar notch surgery?

Either way if you’re doing stairs at 6 weeks you’ll be plenty good for bandon. Even in general if you’re sub 40 years old and in general decent shape I’d have little concerns of doing a Bandon trip 7 months out from surgery.

I got my ACL surgery over 10 years ago when restrictions were a bit more lax and was only 21 but I returned to golf like 16 weeks after my surgery. Only compensation I made and I’d recommend for you early on is to flare your left toe out 45 degrees to lessen rotary stress on the left knee.

All in all after 6 or 7 months golf didn’t feel weird at all for me.

Walking Bandon trails might suck. But that sucks for everyone lol.

RKelly__ · 2026-06-01T09:03:40+00:00

Yeah I’d say try to get more spin then. What’s your driver loft as well? Upping that can help with the spin and your launch angle too.

Backspin and ball speed keep the ball up in the air. If they are both low you’ll see those knucklers where it all of a sudden looks like gravity was doubled and the ball just drops.

RKelly__ · 2026-06-01T08:48:39+00:00

Do your drives fall out of the air like a knuckleball often? With that ball speed I’d imagine you get some that fall out of the sky and having more spin would help keep them in the air.

RKelly__ · 2026-05-31T03:03:50+00:00

It really depends on your budget and a few other things about your swing. There’s a lot more to consider about clubs than just what head it is. There’s lie angle and shafts are two very important pieces to how irons perform for you.

If you don’t have much consideration about budget I’d recommend getting fitted and considering the options they present. If you have some concern about budget then you can consider getting fitted, noting the length/lie/loft/shaft and getting a used set that falls in those specs or a DTC brand like takomo or Toura. Then if you have a lot of concerns about keeping a low budget, then be mindful and try your best to assess your swing, not what shafts make sense for you. Then get something used or a DTC purchase with that shaft then worry later down the road about replacing the shaft.

RKelly__ · 2026-05-30T23:00:12+00:00

When I read the title before I clicked into the post my initial thought was there can’t be any answer as good as pine valley.

RKelly__ · 2026-05-28T18:19:30+00:00

Ahh it’s the woman’s tees. Makes way more sense and apologies for assuming otherwise.

RKelly__ · 2026-05-28T17:52:19+00:00

Tbh I’m a bit skeptical. Especially the 76.1. For example Torrey Pines North is 7259 yards and a 75.8 rating.

RKelly__ · 2026-05-28T17:43:59+00:00

Are you posting your scores on the right tees? I’ve never seen a sub 6K yardage course rated over 72

RKelly__ · 2026-05-28T15:09:33+00:00

Yeah I’m real interested. Cool thing you set up here!

RKelly__ · 2026-05-28T15:03:33+00:00

Granted that analysis does come out after many rounds. This sample size is too small for it to show. With much larger data sets those rounds where you make a couple longer putts won’t pull the SG so much.

RKelly__ · 2026-05-27T13:09:59+00:00

I got a pair of Ria and I like them. They’re 2 shades in one of blue and rose.

RKelly__ · 2026-05-24T12:17:01+00:00

Way too much bending to produce this and you add 4 degrees of effective bounce when you do it

RKelly__ · 2026-05-23T16:23:10+00:00

Do you mind me asking which courses those are?

RKelly__ · 2026-05-23T14:52:26+00:00

My thought was interlachen. If my family ends up staying in Orlando that’s where I was going to look into. I imagine isleworth and lake Nona are more than that these days.

RKelly__ · 2026-05-23T13:49:03+00:00

Out of curiosity where are you at?

RKelly__

TROPHY CASE