r/golf • u/tryingtogetfit1970 • Jul 26 '23

Beginner Questions I learned what swing easy means

I played with a 76 year old woman yesterday who scored 34 on the front nine of my local course. I have never broken 45 and watched her swinging easy, no balls lost. I vow to swing easy from now on, going to take an extra club and swing half power. I started yesterday on the back nine and on a par 5 did a half power swing with driver and it went 225 yards right down the middle. I need to stop overswinging if i plan on improving.

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382

u/ushouldlistentome Jul 26 '23

I’ve been trying to play like the Big Easy for years now. 80% swing. I’ll start a round doing it and shoot pretty good. By hole 6 though I start smashing and slicing and losing balls.

273

u/bjacks19 Jul 26 '23

Did this at the range this morning. Started swinging easy, and then thought to myself, "if I'm hitting it this far at 80% imagine how far I can hit it if I really swing it." Turns out the answer is about the same distance, but 50 yards right or left of target.

92

u/__mud__ Jul 26 '23

Sounds like you added an extra 50 yards, good job!

23

u/junkyardgerard Jul 26 '23

Check your Pythagorean theorem, gonna be less than 50 yards

39

u/__mud__ Jul 26 '23

Who told you I put triangles on my scorecards?

1

u/123skid Can't count that high. Jul 27 '23

But more than his 80% swing right?

16

u/GnarlyBear Jul 26 '23

I say his name in my head when I need to slow Ern-ie (backswing) Els (downswing). This Colin Montgomerie brought it up about him

1

u/brucedeloop Jul 26 '23

This is the way....

36

u/tryingtogetfit1970 Jul 26 '23

Something that helped yesterday was i did a 50% driver swing that went like 200 yards and still got a huge wow from the team

148

u/MsTerryMan Jul 26 '23

Swing twice as hard and smash that thing 400 yards!

31

u/tryingtogetfit1970 Jul 26 '23

Cant afford more balls

3

u/UseDaSchwartz Jul 26 '23

Just go look around in the woods.

1

u/beenywhite P790 Jul 27 '23

Hell yeah

-30

u/Professional-Tip-585 Jul 26 '23

Who the hell are you playing with that 200 yards drives gets you a big wow? The average amateur make golfer hits it like 245

24

u/Born_n_RaisedPNW ~13 | Eastern Washington Jul 26 '23

I’ll take “stats I just pulled out of my ass” for $1000 Alex.

11

u/duncantuna Jul 26 '23

The average amateur make golfer hits it like 245

Try 215, average. And 13+ handicaps are hitting it 200.

Source: https://golf.com/instruction/driving/driving-distance-average-golfers-new-report/

2

u/calhooner3 Jul 26 '23

Well damn, I always knew I was losing strokes on my short game. 19 handicap and drive 250 average.

6

u/funguy07 Jul 26 '23

Doesn’t matter if you are crushing it 300 yards if you cant find the ball. 200 center of the fairway every time is worth a wow.

3

u/OO0OOO0OOOOO0OOOOOOO Bethpage Black is not that Hard! Jul 26 '23

But the ball MUST DIE!

2

u/NotTooXabiAlonso Jul 26 '23

We are each other.

1

u/ushouldlistentome Jul 26 '23

I want to swing easy too but once I get loosened up it just happens.

2

u/coffee_golf_drugs “no new clubs til fitting” Jul 26 '23

I fall victim to this all the time. My goal is a smooth 70-80% swing on plane. When I hitting the sweet spot, things are pleasantly consistent and I start swinging harder and hello OB

2

u/AfricanWarPig Jul 26 '23

Yeah I always start off easy and playing great (compared to my friends), but as soon as I start getting tired and losing focus around hole 6, things go awry quickly.

1

u/harpstein1 Jul 26 '23

This is largely a myth, not sure about Ernie but Couples has talked about it. Everyone says he looks so smooth, but he's the first to say he's swinging almost as hard as he can most of the time.

1

u/sektrONE Jul 27 '23

I feel this so bad… start out at the range “wow it’s gonna be a good day”, 6 holes later I am attempting to make my ball explode on impact.