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Easy game to lower your scores


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Lately, I've implementing a betting game with my main playing partner. We usually bet anyway, so this is just a small side game. We play $1 a hole and the premise is simple. It's like skins, but whoever hits the green in the least amount of strokes wins. That's it. No putting, we don't care what the score on the hole is. Just hit the green. We call it Greenies. 


And I'm telling you, we are both shooting low, low scores. He broke 80 for the first time. I've been under 75 my last few times out and haven't shot over 80. Both of our caps are falling.

Why? Turns out all the things you already know are true. Take more club, aim to the center of the green, get in play off the tee, don't try to be a hero.  The game forces you to play into all of the great rules of golf that are so easy to ignore. First, you have to play from the green back and the sole purpose of your tee shot is to set yourself up for a GIR. Distance is an advantage like always, but there is more strategy than gripping and ripping the driver. If you find trees, water, fairway bunkers, your dead. Might as well just open your wallet. And the approach shot dictates a super safe play to the green. You end up playing to the widest part of the green. There is no flag hunting, in fact you don't really care where the flag is. Often you play to the back center to make sure you don't come up short. There is no thought of the perfect shot, just playing safe and making sure you hit the green to win, tie, or put pressure on your partner. 


And you become a par machine. Maybe boring golf, but raking in the pars. And I really thought I would make less birdies, but I am making more. The more chances the better, even if they are from 20 feet. 


None of this is ground breaking. It's widely known that increasing your GIR is one of the best ways to drop your score. I believe it is Mike Small, college golf coach at Illinois, that has his players practice without flags in the green so the approach focus is just on hitting greens. Lowest score wins, decade, all of these stats support hitting the longest ball that keeps you in play, and then hitting greens above all else. Stats on the tour show that guys that hit to or past the hole score better than those who come up to or short of the hole. 
The problem is, when you try to implement what you have heard and often what you know, it's easy to fall off the wagon. You try to commit yourself to only aiming at the back center of the green, and you miss the first two greens and on the par 3 third, you hit the green but end up further away than everyone else in your group and you abandon ship. It doesn't seem to be working.

That's the beauty of Greenies. It's a golf game within a game, and it is so obvious. If you reduce your number of strokes to the green, you will reduce your total number of strokes - guaranteed. 
 

GARSEN GRIP TESTER

  • Driver: PING G400 MAX, Ventus Blue 6x
  • Woods: COBRA F6 Baffler AD DI 8S
  • Hybrid: CALLAWAY Apex Pro, Ventus Blue 8s
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13 hours ago, scooterhd2 said:

Lately, I've implementing a betting game with my main playing partner. We usually bet anyway, so this is just a small side game. We play $1 a hole and the premise is simple. It's like skins, but whoever hits the green in the least amount of strokes wins. That's it. No putting, we don't care what the score on the hole is. Just hit the green. We call it Greenies. 


And I'm telling you, we are both shooting low, low scores. He broke 80 for the first time. I've been under 75 my last few times out and haven't shot over 80. Both of our caps are falling.

Why? Turns out all the things you already know are true. Take more club, aim to the center of the green, get in play off the tee, don't try to be a hero.  The game forces you to play into all of the great rules of golf that are so easy to ignore. First, you have to play from the green back and the sole purpose of your tee shot is to set yourself up for a GIR. Distance is an advantage like always, but there is more strategy than gripping and ripping the driver. If you find trees, water, fairway bunkers, your dead. Might as well just open your wallet. And the approach shot dictates a super safe play to the green. You end up playing to the widest part of the green. There is no flag hunting, in fact you don't really care where the flag is. Often you play to the back center to make sure you don't come up short. There is no thought of the perfect shot, just playing safe and making sure you hit the green to win, tie, or put pressure on your partner. 


And you become a par machine. Maybe boring golf, but raking in the pars. And I really thought I would make less birdies, but I am making more. The more chances the better, even if they are from 20 feet. 


None of this is ground breaking. It's widely known that increasing your GIR is one of the best ways to drop your score. I believe it is Mike Small, college golf coach at Illinois, that has his players practice without flags in the green so the approach focus is just on hitting greens. Lowest score wins, decade, all of these stats support hitting the longest ball that keeps you in play, and then hitting greens above all else. Stats on the tour show that guys that hit to or past the hole score better than those who come up to or short of the hole. 
The problem is, when you try to implement what you have heard and often what you know, it's easy to fall off the wagon. You try to commit yourself to only aiming at the back center of the green, and you miss the first two greens and on the par 3 third, you hit the green but end up further away than everyone else in your group and you abandon ship. It doesn't seem to be working.

That's the beauty of Greenies. It's a golf game within a game, and it is so obvious. If you reduce your number of strokes to the green, you will reduce your total number of strokes - guaranteed. 
 

For me it’s all about walking. If you hit bad shots, play a little left to right golf while carrying your clubs you’re gonna pay for it with all the extra work. I pay a little less attention in the cart and don’t feel like I’ve accomplished as much playing a full round compared to walking. Plus my scores are much better walking vs a cart

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:vokey-small: SM8 54 and 58deg Dynamic Gold Wedge Flex

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  • 3 weeks later...

I need to find a golf buddy willing to try. I broke the 80 barrier this past year and now am trying to do it more consistently. 

I wonder if folks here would be up for a little virtual scoreboard/competition? Sure courses and such won't make it apples to apples, but playing for a bit of forum bragging rights and working on our games could be fun. 

Swing away!

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