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My philosophy has always been "grip it and rip it". I have changed it this year to "Always 80", as in swinging at 80% on full shots; I find bad things happen when I swing at more than that. So far it has worked in the few rounds that I have played, hopefully this mentality change pays off this year, in what I think could be my best year ever.

 

Everyone has a philosophy, what's yours?

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I'm still relatively new to the game, entering my third year actually playing. So getting the fundamentals correct and learning to make shots I need is my goal.

 

That said, I'm hoping this will be the year when I can start focusing more on my score. I'm starting to like my swing more and have been practicing putting chipping every day since winter started. The courses around here have even re-opened already, so I may go out soon and see if my practice has paid off.

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My biggest focus is trying to commit to every shot and play it without any technical thoughts. Having spent a year and a half (give or take) trying to improve my swing, I'm working to transition out of that mode and get back to just hitting golf shots.

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"Hit it Good, not hard." I know it is not proper English but I played the other day with an 77 year old man, from the back tees, we get to the wide open par 5, wind behind us, a 280 carry will catch the down slope and leave you with 160 to the center, and he tees it up and says, "Hit it good, not hard." And smoked it out to the 150 marker.

 

Since then I have had that as my philosophy. And I have the mental image of this old guy taking a nice slow back swing and controlled swipe at the ball and bombing it down the fairway.

 

Also, I am trying to not worry about the score and hit each shot "good". And the score will take care of itself.

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My biggest focus is trying to commit to every shot and play it without any technical thoughts.

Thats what I have also been working on. I've scrapped all the changes that I've made over the years and just went back to swinging comfortably. As I mentioned in the 'scented grips' thread, I've been working on creating a line behind the ball to separate a "think zone" and "execution zone". When I'm in my "think zone", I take practice swings for what I think will be the perfect shot/shape/trajectory, when I cross that "line", I don't think about anything, I just hit the shot. I did this, because I was over-thinking everything, while I was at address. My cousin gave me that tip and I thought I'd give it a try, since he's a scratch golfer.

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I don't think I have the skills to plan a shot. So my philosophy is very simple:

 

1. Avoid slicing the ball OB (especially with the driver)

2. Avoid topping the ball

 

Those are my biggest problems... so if I can pull off a round without slicing the driver and without topping the ball... I could break 85! :lol:

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"Solid contact" is my in game philosophy.

 

With long irons I only think "slow". I should combine the two for "slow, solid contact"!

 

There's nothing like a jerky over quick back swing to mess up a golf swing. If I start slow I can sequence so much better which leads to better contact and often times more club head speed and better shots.

 

At the range I have too many, and that's a problem.

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I try to always pick a target and keep focused on that target. Quite often just being focused on a target makes the ball go there. Ever wonder why the ball goes in the lake when you think, "Don't hit it in the lake?" It's because that is where the mind was focused. If my mind starts thinking about a hazard, I immediately start focusing on a good target away from the hazard.

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I'm trying to teach myself to commit to each shot.

 

I like Matt's position of not trying to have technical thoughts all the time, I'm constantly seeing an error and then spend the next 9 holes trying to adjust that 1 thing!!

 

When at The Kingdom with Tony, I saw that one of the head guys with TaylorMade kept encouraging an 80% shot - saying that on a REALLY GOOD day, 100% might be great, but every day besides a solid day that 80% is what you should aim for.

 

When I swing for the fences, I lose golf balls, when I keep it sane I tend to score better and not get as frustrated, but being 100% male, I fight not unleashing everything every time.

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I am going to start a new philosophy of playing every hole like it is the last. Taking a little bit more time, I am a very fast player, so I am talking about maybe 10 more seconds, and start the round like it is the last hole. I usually birdie one of the last three holes on the front, and two or three out of the last 5 holes. But I usually start off with 4 bogeys or some double bogeys. My attitude is there is a lot of golf left, so don't worry about it. Which is true, but these holes I birdie are not because they are that much easier. It is because, I have gotten myself down in the match and I have to fight harder to win. When I do start off well, I typically screw up in the middle.

 

I often rush through the shot and forget my fundamentals. When I went to my first professional tournament 20 years ago, I was shocked at how long they took before the made the next shot. Of course, they are not playing for a dollar a hole, more like $100,000 a stroke. Most of that time was assessing the shot and options. There is no need for me to do that, chose the wrong option and pay a dollar and move on. But when they got over the ball they took time to check the fundamental.

 

Earlier this week I was out practicing, and got to a hole, and was too close to the ball. When I turned my shoulders back, I lost site of the ball. What did I do? Did I stop and reset? No, I rerouted the club during the down swing and nearly took off my left leg just below the knee.

 

So, Play every hole like it is the last, Focus on the fundamentals during set up, and Hit it good, not hard.

 

Played great today though.

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I've never been one to have to swing slower to hit it straighter, and as a technical personal, wiping out swing thoughts has never been my goal either. I generally have a thought or two in mind each time I step up to the ball, and when I execute those, I generally get good results. I'm probably going to try to play in some amateur events this year, and I've had problems with "choking" in the past (not so much choking as just never playing as well as I should), so I've been reading some on the mental side of the game.

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I have mixed feelings about the whole idea of swinging at 80% or whatever it is that is not 100% for a full swing. Finding 80% of your swing one day will feel different the next day. Swinging at 100% is easier to find each day. Also the best feeling in golf is when you find the right sequencing and the faster you swing (swinging at 100%) the straighter the ball goes. Partial speed full swings are harder IMO.

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I can understand feeling possibly more consistent at 100%, but then again, I'd argue that 100% will vary day to day as well. True 100% swings might not be sustainable by a normal golfer throughout an entire round?

 

I'm thinking from this thread, we can see that everyone has a different game plan, which is probably wise as everyone's game is different.

 

Good thing is, this is all making me think, bad thing is, I struggle with too much thinking when swinging....

 

time for bed

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I have mixed feelings about the whole idea of swinging at 80% or whatever it is that is not 100% for a full swing. Finding 80% of your swing one day will feel different the next day. Swinging at 100% is easier to find each day. Also the best feeling in golf is when you find the right sequencing and the faster you swing (swinging at 100%) the straighter the ball goes. Partial speed full swings are harder IMO.

It's more of a mentality than it is a physical change. I'm still getting to parallel and I'm still hitting everything the same distance, it's just a lot more consistent, because I'm flushing everything. I'm a lot smoother and in tempo when I'm telling myself 80%.

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I don't really think my golf philosophy is really helping my game too much...

 

Basically, just have fun...

 

I try not to let bad shots bother me. As a starting golfer that works great, but I'm at the point where I need to start getting better, and I think this attitude is holding me back...

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I guess when I say 100% it's 100% of whatever energy you do have. Going less than 100% in my mind means the body has to make feel adjustments and calculate. My own problems with going less than 100% for a full swing is my hips may move at 80% but my arms still went at 100% - snap hook. Or i slow down my arms, but my hips fired at a sloghtly faster percent amd I slice it or pull it.

 

It's definitely not a professional opinion - just food for thought, but just something I read somewhere that made sense to me. I think Hogan said it somewhere. There are time when my swing is off and going at the ball with 100% is a little scary.

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  • 1 month later...

Last year the few occasions I did play I tried to work on leaving myself the 95/100 yard approach shot as much as possible knowing that a smooth 54* wedge would be bang on the money, and it really helped with course management and resulted in more solid rounds of golf. I also spent less time focusing on the safe part of the green and tried to fire it in close from every approach shot given me a greater opportunity for birdies.

 

I know that all seems pretty basic but it is easy to lose sight of something when chasing a good score or playing matchplay

 

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I used to be the "grip it and rip it" type on all my clubs, but as age and maturity came along I lost the ego and care to hit it longer, I wanted to be more accurate and consistent "Steady Eddie" so to speak. More "strategic" then I used to be when playing.

 

Course management has become a huge roll in my decision making. I look at the firmness of the green first, that will change my approach shot strategy for the hole. The approach shot strategy then will determine the right position and club selection from the tee box to get the distance / accuracy combination that I need on the hole.

 

I play the tips so from back there the course designer likes to make you think and work the ball a lot more. Here is how I think about a course before I ever play it or have a tournament on that course.

--> on pictures of each hole (a yardage book works great using light pencil marks) place the flag in different spots on the green. Then determine the best angle form the fairway into that pin location.

--> from this line you then draw a line from it to the tee box to determine a distance off the tee that gives you a good angle into the hole location and the club selection to give a good yardage into the green (mostly par 5s and layups i like to layup to 80-100 yards)

--> after you get the distance and position in the fairway that gives you the best angle into the hole location the tee shot strategy is taken care of and now you have a very fine tuned aim point.

 

Most PGA Pros play to 1/2 or even 1/4 of the fairway for this reason, to get the best angle they can into the green and the hole location. If the feel that layup is best option on a Par 5 then they will do it to 70-100 yards whatever is a good wedge for them.

 

Honestly what separates good players from great ones is normally course management, short game (

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I'm trying to teach myself to commit to each shot.

 

I like Matt's position of not trying to have technical thoughts all the time, I'm constantly seeing an error and then spend the next 9 holes trying to adjust that 1 thing!!

 

When at The Kingdom with Tony, I saw that one of the head guys with TaylorMade kept encouraging an 80% shot - saying that on a REALLY GOOD day, 100% might be great, but every day besides a solid day that 80% is what you should aim for.

 

When I swing for the fences, I lose golf balls, when I keep it sane I tend to score better and not get as frustrated, but being 100% male, I fight not unleashing everything every time.

 

Ha. Every time I swing a fairway wood now I hear TO telling me 80%. Of course, 1st round of the season I had a shot where 80% wouldn't get it done, and I figured wtf...this is the RocketBallz dammit. Gave it a mighty whack from 255 out from a spot on the course I wouldn't ever have tried the shot from if money was on the line (water carry, light rough, along the treeline). It took a lucky bounce, but on in two and putting for eagle is always good. Missed the putt by 6 inches, but on slow shaggy greens I'll take a tap in birdie.

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I don't think I have the skills to plan a shot. So my philosophy is very simple:

 

1. Avoid slicing the ball OB (especially with the driver)

2. Avoid topping the ball

 

Those are my biggest problems... so if I can pull off a round without slicing the driver and without topping the ball... I could break 85! :lol:

 

 

Steven, this came up again on the current list and I was rereading this and yours stood out more than the others for one reason. You said what you were not going to do rather than what you were going to do. I hope this is just the way you wrote it and your true philosophy is to focus more on proper set up and tempo. These two things will help you avoid a slice and topping the ball.

 

Last season, I was playing in a couples scramble tournament with my wife. I hit the perfect tee shot and was exactly where I wanted to be in the spot on the fairway 130 yards out where I had the length of the green to work with . My wife had hit over on the left side to where the green was narrower and at an angle. And she was 40 yards shorter than me. I did not ask her which one to hit, I drove up and picked up her ball and drove to mine. I dropped hers beside mine and she said, "I am not going to hit because I do not like to hit over the water. I wanted to play the other one." To be honest, the water was not even a consideration. We were 20 yards from the water and there was 70 yards of fairway on the other side of it. It comes into play on the drive forcing a layup but to me it made no difference on the second shot. I was not happy with her attitude and got over the ball and proceeded to hit the ball right into the middle of the lake. She then said, "I told you so." I nearly threw her into the lake.

 

She then said she would hit it in the lake also so I told her to putt the ball a few feet to the left and they I could hit my third shot from there rather than hit my fourth from a drop. She did and I put the third shot a few feet from the pin and we made par. But the point is when you think of negative things they tend to happen.

 

A simular thing happened last Friday when I started out par, par, birdie, birdie, eagle and was 60 yards from the flag intending to aim for the center of the fairway when my partner says, "there is no way you will even finish this hole because of the way you have been playing." I double bogied it and was furious for him coming over and saying that, and even more up set for letting him get to me.

 

So what ever your philosophy is, think about what you need to do, not what you do not need to do.

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Steven, this came up again on the current list and I was rereading this and yours stood out more than the others for one reason. You said what you were not going to do rather than what you were going to do. I hope this is just the way you wrote it and your true philosophy is to focus more on proper set up and tempo. These two things will help you avoid a slice and topping the ball.

 

Last season, I was playing in a couples scramble tournament with my wife. I hit the perfect tee shot and was exactly where I wanted to be in the spot on the fairway 130 yards out where I had the length of the green to work with . My wife had hit over on the left side to where the green was narrower and at an angle. And she was 40 yards shorter than me. I did not ask her which one to hit, I drove up and picked up her ball and drove to mine. I dropped hers beside mine and she said, "I am not going to hit because I do not like to hit over the water. I wanted to play the other one." To be honest, the water was not even a consideration. We were 20 yards from the water and there was 70 yards of fairway on the other side of it. It comes into play on the drive forcing a layup but to me it made no difference on the second shot. I was not happy with her attitude and got over the ball and proceeded to hit the ball right into the middle of the lake. She then said, "I told you so." I nearly threw her into the lake.

 

She then said she would hit it in the lake also so I told her to putt the ball a few feet to the left and they I could hit my third shot from there rather than hit my fourth from a drop. She did and I put the third shot a few feet from the pin and we made par. But the point is when you think of negative things they tend to happen.

 

A simular thing happened last Friday when I started out par, par, birdie, birdie, eagle and was 60 yards from the flag intending to aim for the center of the fairway when my partner says, "there is no way you will even finish this hole because of the way you have been playing." I double bogied it and was furious for him coming over and saying that, and even more up set for letting him get to me.

 

So what ever your philosophy is, think about what you need to do, not what you do not need to do.

 

Great points Rick. The easiest way to drive the ball into the woods is to tell yourself not to hit the ball into the woods (the same is true of fairway bunkers and water hazards).

 

Conversely, the best shots I hit are the ones where I've managed to convince myself that the ball is going to go exactly where I want it to. Last season I found myself about 30 yards off the green of a relatively easy par 4 that absolutely gives me fits (worst score to par of any hole on my home course). Historically I put the ball in the woods, behind trees, everywhere but the fairway. When I do get around the greens I flub chips and blade wedges.

 

This time I told my buddy, "I'm going to land the ball about 8 inches to left of your ball, and watch it trickle down, turn right, and fall into the hole". Damned if I didn't execute it exactly like I said I would - birdie. Problem is, as much as I try, so far I haven't been able to teach myself to do the same thing before every shot.

 

At the opposite end of the spectrum...playing with Tim before the PGA show I stepped to the tee of a water-carry par 3 that looked nearly identical to a par 3 at a course I played shortly after taking up the game. I can't count the number of balls I fatted into the water. Sure enough, the first thought I had was "this hole looks like that hole, I'm going to hit into the damn water". Sure enough...I did just that. Only ball I lost in 36 holes (actually...it was the only ball I lost over what would have become a 49 hole streak.

 

 

 

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Great points Rick. The easiest way to drive the ball into the woods is to tell yourself not to hit the ball into the woods (the same is true of fairway bunkers and water hazards).

 

Conversely, the best shots I hit are the ones where I've managed to convince myself that the ball is going to go exactly where I want it to. Last season I found myself about 30 yards off the green of a relatively easy par 4 that absolutely gives me fits (worst score to par of any hole on my home course). Historically I put the ball in the woods, behind trees, everywhere but the fairway. When I do get around the greens I flub chips and blade wedges.

 

This time I told my buddy, "I'm going to land the ball about 8 inches to left of your ball, and watch it trickle down, turn right, and fall into the hole". Damned if I didn't execute it exactly like I said I would - birdie. Problem is, as much as I try, so far I haven't been able to teach myself to do the same thing before every shot.

 

At the opposite end of the spectrum...playing with Tim before the PGA show I stepped to the tee of a water-carry par 3 that looked nearly identical to a par 3 at a course I played shortly after taking up the game. I can't count the number of balls I fatted into the water. Sure enough, the first thought I had was "this hole looks like that hole, I'm going to hit into the damn water". Sure enough...I did just that. Only ball I lost in 36 holes (actually...it was the only ball I lost over what would have become a 49 hole streak.

 

I've been trying to tell myself the water in front of me is just a fairway. It's a lot less imposing when you go into it thinking that even a bad shot can be recovered easily.

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Great point RoverRick,

 

I like to tell my friends that know me well 'nice shot' when I hear them say 'DO NOT go in the water' and it ends up in the water.

This is because their body hit the shot their brain was telling them to hit. No one can process the negative part of a statement. All of our brains only process positive side of the statement so it heard 'go in the water'. In this case the player executed the shot they told the brain so it is a 'nice shot'.

 

When I was talking about 'planning' your shots from the green back this will always give you a positive finite target, some courses have posts marking 150 yards stare at that post and focus only on that post. More times then not you will probably be really close to finishing on that line. If there is not a clear line of play off the tee then pick something in the distance on the ground or a tree that you want the ball to finish at. You might even pick something that is 3 or 5 feet in front of you ball that you can see from the side position when aligning the face of the club. For example I was on the practice tee one time talking to my 'better half' next to an instructor giving a lesson to i think 3 young females. I told my her (my better half) 'I want to start the ball at the tree just right of that house then draw it toward that house, could you let me know the shot shape of this drive and if it does what I am wanting it to?'. Not shortly after that I heard the instructor tell his students to pick a target that doesn't have to be that close to them.

 

A side note: I love your strategy in scrambles. I hate it when my scramble group always picks the closest shot to the green that is the wrong answer. You need to pick the shot that gives you the best angle to the pin and the most green to work with even if that shot is longer approach shot. If you have 2 or 4 people at a good angle on the approach one of you should hit the green in the center then the others can play more aggressively and try to get on closer, take the pressure off the rest of the group.

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A side note: I love your strategy in scrambles. I hate it when my scramble group always picks the closest shot to the green that is the wrong answer. You need to pick the shot that gives you the best angle to the pin and the most green to work with even if that shot is longer approach shot. If you have 2 or 4 people at a good angle on the approach one of you should hit the green in the center then the others can play more aggressively and try to get on closer, take the pressure off the rest of the group.

 

 

 

There will not be much bump and run today, 3 inches of rain the last 24 hours. But I can pitch with up to a 5 iron and 130 yards. It is sort of like throwing a hackey sack up on the green. I will be there a few hours early to work on this stroke but it is a killer.

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For me, a 300 yard drive doesn't make a great hole, I have to learn not to be greedy and be happy with a 200 ish drive on the fairway.

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RR, you are totally right. I have changed my mentality.

That post was referring to my golf game last season (I wrote it when it was still winter here).

No matter what I tweaked my swing or how hard I tried, I was topping and slicing like crazy.

 

I've been to the range like 3 times and twice on the course in the past 2 weeks and I realized my approach is more like the way you suggest.

 

After reading jmiller's tip about increasing SS, I put it into practice and I didn't slice the ball at all and only missed 1 fairway. With my new Mizuno MP59, I feel the head is so much smaller than what I'm used to so I force myself to do a smooth focused swing with the proper weight transfer.

 

I think it's normal for your mental approach and philosophy to change between the off-season and the season and sometimes even by the end of the season. For you low handicappers maybe not so much, since your foundations are solid enough. For us high handicappers, things might change on a daily basis, so we simply have to adjust.

 

I'm sure by the end of 2012, I'll be having a different philosophy about some part of game that needs to be tuned.

 

Oh and I love playing courses full of water hazards. I wish there was water in every hole and I had to carry over them all the time!

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I think it's normal for your mental approach and philosophy to change between the off-season and the season and sometimes even by the end of the season. For you low handicappers maybe not so much, since your foundations are solid enough. For us high handicappers, things might change on a daily basis, so we simply have to adjust.

 

 

Even if your foundation is strong, there is always plenty in golf to work on. Arnold Palmer was saying today that his grandson, Sam Saunders, who is on the PGA Tour and playing in today's tournament (no surprise he recieved an invitation), has all the shots and Arnold is trying to teach hin to play golf. And then talked about course management problems that Sam had. When this tread first came up I was talking about taking more time and getting into a proper preshot routine,

 

It has been a few weeks and I have done that and my scores are down a couple of strokes per round. Now I have philosophy having to do with course management and short game. I also am spending more time working at specific ranges. Different ranges than I was working on a few weeks ago

 

But I guess that is not really a philosohy, if I had to put into terms of a philosophy, I would say my philosophy de jour or semaine since it changes weekly, not to think about the final score until I walk off the 18th green, and focus on the shot at hand.

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As they say the difference between a lot of 0-5 handicap golfers and a tour player are

--> Short Game (anything inside 100 yards not on the green)

--> Putting (Whoever putts the best that week normally wins)

--> Course Preparation / Management (Strategy before a round, handling the shots that don't fit into your strategy)

 

Ben Hogan used to say that he would only hit 4 or 5 perfect shots in a round where he scored 68. Obviously that's probably where the following quotes came from. It is not a game of perfection but one of managing the imperfect shots and having playable misses.

 

This is a game of misses. The guy who misses the best is going to win. ~ Ben Hogan

Placing the ball in the right position for the next shot is eighty percent of winning golf. ~ Ben Hogan

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