Comments on: Guest blog from Stuart Hamilton, aka Goal Guru

By: Austin Bustamante

Austin Bustamante — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 03:37:00 +0000

^^So very well said

By: JR

JR — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 08:44:00 +0000

Give up – you will never make it and trust me my honesty is not in anyway intended to offend. My extensive experience and knowledge of the game as a Cat1 golfer for the past 20 years playing at courses playing at 7,000 yards at sea level, a spell Caddying and playing on Mini Tours. Why? 2 significant factors – At your age your clubhead speed will not improve enough for you to be a Tour Pro currently just over 100mph – needs to be at least 112-116.
Finally, all the pros on tour have played competitive golf from an early age. The mental game is huge in golf – go ask Dr Bob in my opinion you need 10,000 hrs of that which by the time you do it you’ll be heading for the senior tour – which is a more realistic aim! Good luck and see you there!

By: jackinlondon

jackinlondon — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 04:47:00 +0000

@Dan, I agree that there needs to be a mix of both. I don’t know if Dan is simply waiting until he feels that his game is solid enough to enter into tournaments, but I think that you’re totally correct – there is a difference between playing a casual round, a practice round and a tournament. That kind of pressure is tough to replicate.
BTW congrats on your own quite-remarkable achievement!

By: DanGreiner

DanGreiner — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 18:15:00 +0000

Sorry if this posts twice- Also, if Dan wants to come play in a few tournaments I would be happy to help arrange things.

Dan needs to play tournament golf- its the only way to get to the next level. Practice rounds become practice rounds and tournament rounds become important, meaningful rounds to see where you are really at. I am on a pretty fast track myself and check on this site from time to time. I picked up a club at the age of 20; 2 years out of high school. NEVER had I played in high school, NEVER had I touched a club but to go see who hits the long ball Happy Gilmore style at the range.

Long story short, I played a scramble, fell in love, practiced for an entire year, walked on to a D3 college program, played tournament golf(not very well), ended my collegiate career with a highest place of 2nd on a one day tournament with a 78 in the rain(not a great score I know).

Fast forward to now at the age of 26(this is my 6th year playing. I have a full time job, 2 kids, dedicate as much time as possible to golf as I still have the drive and feel I can go somewhere with it. I have lowered my tournament average of strokes by 11.83 over the last 4 years and have a handicap of +0.1 currently. Practice rounds do NOTHING for me and it is mentally hard to follow through with a good score. I look EVERYWHERE for individual stroke play competitions to get into any chance I get. This is going to be a big year for me as I will be playing 30-34 tournament rounds.

Also- I have never had a lesson or a swing coach. I do my best to understand the swing itself and learn how to correct my swing. Practice time is important to me, practice rounds aren’t as fun anymore but important to mentally get ready for making a lot of pars, and individual tournaments are what I play for now. My goal this year is to get ranked on the WAGR(world amateur ranking) even if it is 5000th, its better than where I sit today. My goal is to see how good I can get by age 30 and see if I will pursue it after that age. I love golf and it really pulled me through college and life in general from where I was sitting at age 20. I have learned so much from the game and it is a true passion for me- I think the drive and understanding and non-stop work ethic on getting better. I am open to instructional videos, I watch as many as I can. Because I know my swing, I pick out very few things that I think could help and I write them down. The #1 thing is work on ONE THING AT A TIME. One little baby step. That is the most efficient way to build a swing- one little thing at a time IMO.

By: DanGreiner

DanGreiner — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 17:25:00 +0000

By: Richard Chen

Richard Chen — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:17:00 +0000

The all importance of having squared clubface angle at impact can be demonstrated with the two following experiments.

(1) Set up a short putt of four to five feet with the putter face pointing away off of the hole, and try to make the putt by using various stroke paths to overcome the none square putter face. It is impossible to use stroke-path to overcome a none square putter face. Try it. It is impossible.

(2) Set up a short putt with the clubface square, but make the stroke path off away from the hole, even by a wide margin. The putt can still be made with the stroke path being widely off, as long as the putter face is squared at impact.

The conclusion of the above simple experiment is that it is not possible to make a straight putt on even and smooth surface without the clubface being squared at impact, no matter what the stroke path is. A good stroke-path cannot overcome any bad clubface angle.

Thus clubface angle is everything for the short clubs, as long as the stroke path is not off enough to put a lot of side spin on the ball, which can happen on longer pitches, and the full short irons.

To get clubface angle deviation to less than half a degree to less than a tenth of a degree is precision work. Usually, in performing precision work, the head tends to keep still like in threading a needle. In putting, the leading elbow is often bend somewhat at setup, and may even bend greatly at setup for some with the leading elbow pointing in the direction of the hole. The top of the putter handle is flat, as a guide to increasing clubface angle control. The hands grip the putter so that they are locked in sync with a square putter face, as if the hands and the putter face are one.

By: jackinlondon

jackinlondon — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 05:18:00 +0000

Brian, I agree – very difficult – not impossible.
Again, I think if the practice is structured correctly and he has the right motivation and the right coaching, I do believe he has a good shot at competing at a professional level. Scientific studies have proven that we continue to produce myelin, the stuff that helps our brain learn and solidify new skills until they become completely ingrained, well into adulthood. While I do agree that starting at a younger age is a lot easier, and skills would come much faster, I do not agree that it cannot be done.
As someone else here said, 10,000 hours is a starting point. I think the difficulty with starting later in life is it is more difficult to get in those 10,000 + hours. But I do believe that if Dan is able to get daily coaching with the RIGHT coach (and that’s a subject I haven’t even touched on) he can do it.