Putt and chip every day for two hours? Maybe when I retire. Like I said in my OP, I play four rounds a year,so I'm not in a position to dedicate tons of time to the silly game.

Honestly, my short game rocks. It's my approach shots that are inconsistent. I get a lot of practice from off the green. Can usually up and down, my wedge and bump shots save me.

GreenPlease,
My sincere thanks for your response.

There are a few reasons I steer clear of lessons. i guess the main one is I've seen my friends take many many lessons, and never really improve. Plus I see lessons going on at the range, and I have no confidence in what I hear from the "pros".

The obvious answer is to play more. But that's true for any sport, and I only have limited time to dedicate to golf. But I do like to swing the club in my backyard, and if there are tools or aids that helps, I'll give them a try. I think all of the aids you listed are worth looking into.

The weakest part of my game is the approach shot. I am usually in the fairway off the green, my chipping and short game is top notch, and my putting is above average. My approach shots are inconsistent since off the fairway I am the guy who hits the ball first, not behind the ball taking that clean divot the real golfers take. Which means I hit it clean, top it, or hit a big clump of earth behind the ball. Changing my long irons to hybrids helps a little, but mid irons are a crapshoot.

The device in the sharper image catalog looked so promising, it is a thing that attaches to the club head. I had expectations it would tell if my clubhead was not square at impacts, or my swing plane was off line during the back swing, or whatever. That would be very helpful intel when I'm just swinging the club in the yard. Don't always have time to go to the range. I have heard no reviews on this product, so I quess it falls under "gadget".

Thanks again.

The Tour Striker mentioned in an earlier post may be your answer. From what I can tell, it forces you to be in a good impact position to be able to hit the ball with it, which would translate to your regular irons on the course. That and some range time might be just the ticket.

drn92

Do you hit your own balls or someone else's? And I'm asuming is 'The Range' some sort of So Cali sex club.

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Depends on whether or not you've been invited to a salafist

---

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

You need to rehearse your impact position. I'll see if I can find the drills I'm thinking of on YouTube and then reply again.

Litmus test for whether or not your short game is actually solid:
-Do you ever 3-putt? If yes, short game needs work.
-Do you get up and down at least 50% of the time? If no, short game needs work.
-Do you make at least 95% of 4' putts, 90% of 5' putts, and 80% of 6' putts? Do you make at least 40% of putts between 6' and 10'?

If you have a solid short game it can often lead to better course management decisions. E.g. laying up on a long par 4, punching out strategically from the woods, etc. You'll also start to do things like think about whether you want to favor missing long, short, left, or right of the green.

That's because many who take lessons expect the improvement to happen immediately. The only path to improvement is practice but what to practice? Further ingraining bad habits makes them harder to break once you know what the problem is. Find an instructor who can work with you on one aspect of your swing. You indicate it is inconsistent ballstriking. A good is strike is ball first then ground. A perfect divot occurs after the ball is struck and should be in front of the ball. A trained eye could determine why your contact is so inconsistent. Improving contact and eliminating a two way miss are two of the most significant ways of lowering your score.

---

A false humanity is used to impose its opposite, by people whose cruelty is equalled only by their arrogance