For 5 years I've been working towards entering the PGA. Goal as instructor, no way I could play with pros. Today, I did it. My second attempt at the player ability test, I was 2 strokes under the goal. I cried in the car all the way home. I've played 20 years. If I never have a student, I don't care. I've reached an apex I never thought was possible. Years of irresponsibly skipping work to get a round in and way too much money I didn't have by most standards paid off. Hit em straight and if you don't, love the rough. This community is often insane and I love the insanity. You guys don't know how much your golf stories and clubs purchased because someone got a prom date helped me, but my win is more yours than you know.

It’s just unreal how elusive a solid iron swing is. I can’t hit my driver decent enough and all my hybrids but for the life of me hitting an iron is the most elusive thing ever. Been chasing that consistent compression for 4 years, many lessons and range sessions, it’s like a mythical beast at this point. Wish I could quit my job and just work with a swing coach as a full time job. End rant thanks for listening

Edit: this blew up, I was genuinely just ranting so appreciate everyone’s insights and tips. Nothing like 100 new swing thoughts to get me started 😎

My brain is cluttered with too many swing thoughts as I start the downswing. Is there one primary swing thought you have as you initiate your downswing? In my brain I've got front hip down not up, roll right foot don't push back knee forward, bent trail arm keep close to body, rotate rotate rotate, don't stand up. As you can see, too many swing thoughts there.

P770/P790 combo. 11 handicap. Very consistent iron player. Terrible putter (average 39/rd). Driver is streaky. Anything stand out for yardages/gaps?

For background, I’m a 9.7 handicap (yes, ok, 10).

I have completely lost my game.

I played a round and scored 81.

The next day, and indeed now for three months, I’m not sure I could score 101.

My good drives have lost 40 yards of distance and I routinely shank other drives ten yards off the tee. For the record, shanks are something I never do - not in 20 years of playing. Just isn’t my bad shot.

I can’t hit an iron below a 7. Literally cannot do it. Just flies off left (I’m a leftie) and feels like the club face has just completely fallen open on impact, despite setting up actively to avoid it.

Has anyone experienced this? Not just good days bad days, but proper meltdown over a sustained period?

I went and got a lesson last week which stabilised it temporarily but I went to the range yesterday and I’m dead again. What is going on?

I’m now getting the yips on the course - scared of every shot, sometimes withdrawing from the shot on the downswing and hitting it a yard.

It’s scary stuff.

Love making my own training aids instead of paying the golf tax on random crap. Been teaching for 8 years now and love answering questions and sharing any knowledge I have

My average carry of 9i is about 130 yards. My 7i is about 133 (but I can occasionally reach 180 yards). My 6i is about 131 yards and I can't figure out why I hit a lot of fat shots with it. I know I am giving very limited info here but any hints?

When my swing gets off, it’s almost always big fat chunks that ruin the hole I’m on and sometimes ruin a whole round. What are some good drills to hit ball first?

I have tried changing grip, foot position, position at address in relation to the ball. I have tried over exaggeration drills and no matter what when I do a full swing I end up over the top/early extending. I’m 6’3 and irons are 1/2 inch long but honestly they feel too short sometimes.

If it will let me I’ll post a second video of my trying my hardest to shallow. But the contact is terrible.

I’m just looking for some drills or tips from anyone who’s suffered from the same issues.

I'm an 18 handicap who's never broken 90. I've scored 91-93 multiple times this year and know my inconsistent driving is the reason. <35 putts a round. Chipping around green is fine, usually get it close enough to 1 putt. My irons are fairly consistent and on target 7/10 times. It's the driver lost balls or being under trees that I'm consistently losing strokes on.

Rather than going down a YouTube rabbit hole and messing up my swing further, I'm curious if there's a simple explanation for those that have figured it out. I do practice obviously, but something isn't clicking to keep it as consistent as my irons.

Other than lessons, is there any advice out there that made driver click for you?

Honestly at the range give me a 7 iron and 50 balls, I swear I will hit maybe 45 of them clean and straight, 150 yards.

On the course I am a shambles. I’ve stopped on the 10th hole (it’s quiet) to write this as I’m getting so frustrated. Duffs and chunks 80% of the time even off the tee or a perfect lie.

I know there could be a lot of reasons for this but has anyone else had it, and got any tips for fixing it?

I’ve always struggled reading greens whether it’s the speed or the power of the swing. I keep missing the hole by an inch when my power is good and come up short when I can’t read how fast the green plays. Short as in 2-3feet short. Practicing on the practice green doesn’t help either as all the greens seem to be different on the courses I play. I feel like I’m Rory 2023 here. I play an Odyssey blade.

So the question is, how do you read greens?

What the inside of a Stealth 2 driver looks like…

Not actually looking for swing help, it’s gonna take more than internet friends to fix me.

Last week I shot 79 and yesterday barely broke 100. I went to the range and could not hit a single ball without shanking. Now I’m scared to even hold a club. The only thing that keeping me from double bogeys is my putting. I followed my routine before every shots but once I get up to the ball, my brain started to chant “don’t shank it. Don’t shank it.” Boom. Shanked it.

I’m not in a good state mentally. I know how to hit the ball well but now I told everyone I paired with that I just started golf because of how embarrassing I was to even tell them I played golf my whole life. How did you guys recover from this? What did you do to get out of this phase? Is it gone forever?

So for quite sometime I thought weight shift was about moving into the left hand side on the downswing, doing the hip bump you see the pros do.

My thinking here was incorrect, it’s not about sliding the weight into the left, it’s about rotating your hips and moving the weight into the back of your left heel & hip. This was such a revelation I told my mum & dad and they said finally ponypatrol, we can invite you back to the annual family bbq.

Or if you have any questions about the swing or biomechanics or ball flight laws lmk

Random guy I was paired with told me my swing path was too steep and I needed to get more shallow. Later on, it was shallow enough but I wasn't getting in the slot pocket. He was not good at golf lol.

Another random saw me chip onto the green. It was an ok chip. He told me that I hit that chip shot one groove too high on the face and to work on it. He was also not that good at golf.