Re: Is it too late to try to turn pro?

Ricky,

I never said you couldn't make it! I said that I disagreed with your comments about biggaryt78 as you said HE wouldn't make it. You didn't like it when you thought you were being put down so I suggest you treat everyone else the same.

treat others the same you wish to be treated

Re: Is it too late to try to turn pro?

No offense Ricky, I've seen your swing, and yes it does look like you have talent. And I also realize you are young, and may not know better, but...allowing yourself to be humble is not a bad thing. Can you picture Tiger back in his early teens trying to pump himself up on a message board? My guess is that he would be out on the course improving his game as much as possible, and letting his results speak for themselves. I only bring this up because of a common flavor to a lot of your posts. If you have 'frightening' talent, then so be it. But telling us that fact is just going to lead to you becomming content in the fact that someone has faith in you, and won't drive you to be the best you can. Just my two cents.

Re: Is it too late to try to turn pro?

LOL!! burn. ricky you're too young to know when to quit.

Re: Is it too late to try to turn pro?

Guys,
Thanks all for all your advices, opinions, ideas. It will certainly take a lot of effort, dedication and $$ to get there.
Here are some responses:

Greg - Thanks for your input. I will definitely have to be confident and believe in my ability. Will try to put myself into more realistic pressure situation.

Nick - I think I have average tour pro distance. My clubhead speed is about 110miles/h for driver. I can consistently hit my drives 270-280yards and my 5 irons is about 195yards. I can go for it a bit more but then loses out on the consistency. Maybe with more practice, I can increase another consistent 10 yards to each club.
My short game is definitely not crash hot at the moment. but I blame that purely on not being able to practice it living here in Tokyo. Right now, I only go to the driving range close by to my house on the weekends and its only good for full swing shots since its only 60 yards long with no distance markers (welcome to Japan). I dont like practicing wedges off the mats since I feel that the distance changes completely when actually hitting on turf. I still do try to practice it though for direction control. When I putt, the actual line itself is good but I really struggle to get the distances of my putts right especially from long putts (and I do tend to leave myself a lot of long putts since my approaches are not quite laser like right now). However, my chipping around the green is quite good and I am usually confident that I can get up and down. I think it was because when I was younger and did practice, I practiced fullshots and chipping mainly.

Ricky - I play off 3 but I think its purely because I dont practice as much as I should. I dont have any coaches to tell me that i have the potential. Right now, it is just a believe within myself so hopefully I can maintain that.

I finally did get a chance to play a couple of rounds last weekend and unfortunately didnt do so well and felt like I hacked it around at times. Shot an 83 (been a while since I shot over 80 but had 4OBs!) on the first day and 76 on the second day. Both days had 33-36 putts respectively. On top of those wild shots and bad putts, the most frustrating thing to me is when you hit the drives 300yards, have about 80-90 yards left only to see your approach go nowhere near the pin for a good birdie look. Anyway, not to go on and tell the whole round, I definitely came out dissapointed not to shoot a much better score. I usually get about 3 birdies per round but feel like I could do a lot more if I could tidy up those approaches. (Had 5 on the second day with 4 3-putts!)

Anyway, I am still confident as I can see myself hitting better shots and will have to get rid of those wild shots and try to practice my short game more somehow....

Re: Is it too late to try to turn pro?

Nice bit of info. Something that I have to work on.


http://www.golfweb.com/u/ce/multi/0,...665108,00.html

Re: Is it too late to try to turn pro?

piny08 - well that swing speed is about Michelle Wie speed and she can certainly hit it far enough to play on the PGA tour. Its very possible that if you went and had your clubs fitted and tuned to your swing like the pro's do, you could pick up more yards without changing your swing.

Sounds like the short game practise is the problem for you out in Japan. Guess you'll have to find somewhere else to practise other than the driving range if that's possible. I struggle with short game practise here mainly because I find it incredibly boring!! But if I had one golf wish it would be to have tigers short game!

apatriot - John certainly hasn't putted well this year! what about that tiddler he missed to gift Tiger the tournament? Even so his short game is amazing and I saw a playing lessons where he was knocking putts in one handed! I just feel if he took a touch more time over the ball he might have more luck! I am an unashamed JD fan - he has all the talent in the world but not the mental edge needed to be one of or even the best.

nick

Re: Is it too late to try to turn pro?

I will definitely go and get some clubs custom fitted eventually. I went to Fujikura shaft fitting center the other day and they recommended two shafts that were suitable for me. One is actually the same one that Michelle Wie is using which is the Speeder 757. I actually ended up buying a new driver with it (Titleist 905T 8.5deg Speeder 757 X 44.5inch). It just arrived at my house today and am really itching to go and try it out.

I didnt use to like practicing my short game much either when I was younger and just wanted to bash balls. But for some unknown reason, that has changed and I really do enjoy it now when I get the chance. Tiger Woods has a great short game and I think it mentioned somewhere that when he was young, he would just practice chipping/pitching/putting around the house.

As for John Daly, I think he has a great short game. This is one thing that people dont take much notice about him. It was a pity that he missed that 4 footer but I am pretty sure pressure had a lot to do with it. I think Daly is someone who is naturally gifted and didnt have to work as hard to be where he is now. If only he had a better work ethic (I think) and a more steady lifestyle, he would certainly be even more awesome.

Anyway, I will try to post some more videos of my swing. Have been working on a couple of things to allow me to be confident and just firing through the ball without having to worry about those pulls that are mainly my bad shots.