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Top 5 Score Killers


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I do a lot of thinking about my personal game and what I think adds the most strokes to my game. I kind of figured that some other people might have the same list if they have thought about this at all. Others this my be the first time you have thought about what adds the most strokes to your game. I think the following list fits a lot of golfers including myself. Ask yourself if these are the things that are killing your scores and how you might go about improving that area. I know that this list is the reason I stay at a 8-10 handicap and not low single digit or even a + handicap.

 

1) Poor putting

2) Poor short game (wedges)

3) Taking Penalty Strokes (PS)

4) Poor Course Management

5) Poor Mental Approach

 

 

1) The putter is the one tool that we use the most often in a round of golf besides the ball. Most people average 35 or more putts a round, I keep my hole by hole putting totals for each 9 hole and 18 hole round that I play so I can get a picture of my averages. If I see any 3 putt in a round that is one stroke added to a score. Obviously the 4 and 5 jacks are just horrific but some tour players have 4 putted before so not unheard of. How bad does it sting to hit a GIR then 3 putt bogey the hole or worse double bogey with a 4 putt?

 

2) Anything less then 100 yards and wedge in your hand is a green light scoring opportunity or at the very least where you need to save a stroke and make par. If you like NFL it is the red zone. I am looking to hole out the shot would be fantastic, 1-3 feet is perfect, 4-5 is excellent, 6-10 acceptable, 10-15 poor, greater than 15 is not acceptable result. You want to have the best opportunity to make the putt, try putting 18 putts in practice from 6-15 feet and see how many 1 putts you have, that is the % you save par from that distance or make birdie on short holes.

 

3) You just can't take a Penalty Stroke and score well for that hole, it is the one thing that brings in Double Bogey or worse fast. Lets assume that you hit one OB from the tee, hit 3 from the tee 4 into the green and hopefully you one putt for a bogey on a par 4. Most of the time you look at Double or Triple when hitting 3 from the tee. If you put the ball into a hazard then you have a slight chance at making par hitting 3 into the green but bogey is the likely result on a par 4 or double bogey even if you miss the green and fail to get up and down for a bogey. Golf is not about perfect shots it is about playable misses, kind if a lead into number 4.

 

4) It is not always a good idea to automatically pull driver off the tee. Sometimes it is a better play to use anything from a 3wood to a 5 iron from the tee on a par 4 or par 5. Lets assume you have a tight par 4 that plays short like 340 yards for example. Water left hazards, bunkers right and behind the bunkers is OB, fairway is 15yards wide to top it off not a lot of room to work with. A 250 yard drive would give you 90 yards left. Good result if you pull it off, but the risk is too high with OB and water everywhere. Pull the longest club you can find that you are sure will keep you in play on the fairway. This might leave you 150 yards out that is fine at least you eliminated the big number and can still make birdie the harder way. Protect par like it is your child first then a birdie is a good side bonus.

 

5) This goes right along with course management, how many times have you seen the tour players have a pre-shot routine and on the green a pre-putt routine? How many single digit handicaps have you played with that have one as well? I would be willing to say 99.9% possibly 100% of low single digit and better players have a set pre-shot routine of some kind. Event the higher single digits probably do as well. If you don't have one work on getting one to help your focus and picking targets on every stroke made. 'don't go into the water' is not a good positive mental picture and target, the mind thinks water and 9 out of 10 times it goes where you are thinking. Instead pick a very specific target for every shot. 'I want to start the ball at the right edge of the green and draw it left towards the left pin.' If you can visualize it standing behind the ball it is a good target selection.

My pre-shot routine for full swing goes something like this, putting is about the same little different but always have the same routine that is the important part. It helps focus on each shot and picking finite targets and good mental images

--> I get all the logical and analytical stuff done first, the math... Distance, lie of the ball, wind speed, target location, the shot I need to hit based on those conditions, club selection for all the factors. Once I have pulled the club out of the bag I am committed to my decisions.

--> I then stand behind the ball picking a target with the club in my hand picturing the ball flight, I make a couple of practice swings to feel the club head and possibly practice the shot shape swing I am trying to make. All the time picturing the ball flight. I pick a spot on the ground 3 feet in front of the ball to help align the face of the club with on my target line.

--> I walk into the ball setting the face behind the ball with my right foot as a guide, i set the face to my spot then set my shoulder perpendicular to the face and allow my feet to fall under my body for support as I look up at the target to make a couple last second feet adjustments.

--> I take a couple of waggles while looking at the target and then I look back down, tap the sole of the club and start my swing (I don't tap in bunkers or hazards obviously)

--> the last thought that goes into my head before a swing is tempo based, smooth is my key word.

 

 

Let me know what you all think about this. Do you have the same list as me or is it different?

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Callaway MD5 Raw 55-13 X-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

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Golf Swing & Putting -- Bruce Rearick (Burnt Edges Consulting)

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If this is your first time thinking about your weakest part of your game then start to keep track of the following stats on the score card per hole.

I just use a check mark or an X in the box with that hole number for GIR, FIR, U&D, Sand Saves. Normally combine Sand and Up & Downs putting a C or a S in the box to tell me which it was along with a check or x.

--> Fairway in Regulation (FIR)

--> Green in Regulation (GIR)

--> Number of Putts

--> Sand Saves

--> Up & Downs (other then bunkers)

--> Penalty Strokes

--> Driving Distance (I don't keep this one but some people will)

 

Gives you a great idea as to what your percentages are on average. If you would like some tools to keep stats online here are some links

--> Mobile Golf Stats (free): http://www.mobilegolfstats.com/

--> NetHandicap ($25 a year + official USGA handicap): http://www.nethandicap.com/content/index.html

--> check with your local club that is your 'home course' to see if they have a handicap software that keeps stats.

 

Non-Handicap related stats keeping on the expensive side of things.

--> http://www.shotbyshot.com/

Callaway Epic Max 12.0 (-1/N) @ 44.50" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-7 Stiff

Callaway Epic Speed 18.0* @ 42.75" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-8 Stiff

Callaway Mavrik Pro 23.0* @ 40.00" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 95 HYB Stiff

Sub-70 639 Combo (5-P) w/ Nippon Modus 3 125 Stiff, Standard Length, Weak Lofts (27-47, 4* gaps)

Callaway MD5 Raw 51-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 55-13 X-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 59-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 63-09 C-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Golf Swing & Putting -- Bruce Rearick (Burnt Edges Consulting)

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I would probably rate poor driving as the #1 cause of a bad round/bad score for me. It can be penalty shots or just bad positions (in trees, etc), but either way it makes it hard to score. #2 would probably be short game: I don't blame the putter for not saving par if I hit it to 10' instead of 5'. Putting would be #3.

 

I would say that I generally have good course management and a good mental approach. I think execution is to course management what great players are to a coach: if you pull it off, it's genius, if it doesn't work, you're a moron. Example: hit 5I off the tee instead of driver. If you hit a good shot and then make par/birdie, you look smart. If you hit a bad 5I and make bogey, you look like a dope. I'm aware that it's all about playing the percentages, it's just funny to me that any plan can look great if you pull it off.

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I love this thread already. Writing down what I need to work on helps me focus on it so much more and it's always neat to see how people's games are different. I personally have three area's that kill me

 

#1: Tee/mental game off the tee

- I still have an issue with a late release so my driver and even my fairway can be suspect when I'm having a bad day and lead to a lot of penatly shots. JMiller, that hole you described in #4, well I see a lot of holes like that. I'm far to caught up with trying to match or out do people or just hit what they hit from the tee.

 

#2: Chipping

- When I started playing my first instructor was always of the opinion that chipping was just to get it on the green. Once you hit the green at all, then you could worry about the putt and it's something I've focused on too much. Sure, hitting the green is just fine when you missed but leaving yourself a near unmakeable 50 foot putt really isn't a good out come of said chip. I need to pay more attention to where I want to chip the ball to make an easier putt. Sometimes that's near the cup, sometimes it's not.

 

#3: Putting Time

- I'm so worried about getting off the greens as fast as possible for people that I barely take any time to read the line or the putt. This means things I never thought would happen in terms of break or distance occur a fair bit. One does not need to be molasses on the green to still get a good read to execute upon.

I laught at your claims to fight a zombie apocalypse when most of you can't stand up to a Spider

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I would probably rate poor driving as the #1 cause of a bad round/bad score for me. It can be penalty shots or just bad positions (in trees, etc), but either way it makes it hard to score. #2 would probably be short game: I don't blame the putter for not saving par if I hit it to 10' instead of 5'. Putting would be #3.

 

I would say that I generally have good course management and a good mental approach. I think execution is to course management what great players are to a coach: if you pull it off, it's genius, if it doesn't work, you're a moron. Example: hit 5I off the tee instead of driver. If you hit a good shot and then make par/birdie, you look smart. If you hit a bad 5I and make bogey, you look like a dope. I'm aware that it's all about playing the percentages, it's just funny to me that any plan can look great if you pull it off.

 

really my plan is to hopefully pull something off but keep it in play if i miss that doesn't happen very often however. Majority of PS i have been taking lately are from sloppy Tee shots just killing my round completely.

 

Yesterday I played 9 holes shot 43 on par 36. Could have been a ton worse once I start to break this down a little.

I took 3 Penalty Strokes (One was bad position drive punch into a hazard, Second was a block into a hazard trying to play a hook, Third was a hook into the wood double crossed my fade) they resulted int Triple, Double, Double respectively... Hmm I finished 7 over without any birdies so guess what killed my round from being maybe 2 over :)

 

I look at it that I had a lack of focus on my shots that caused me PS and a lack of playing a shot that would result in a good miss. I think that the difference between a scratch golfer and a high single digit is a lot of times Putting, short game, PS in a round. Then tweak it even more into course management and mental approach to the game for the low single to plus handicaps.

 

This might help with the putting thing being number one, majority of golfers don't 1 putt enough and tend to 3 putt too often. When something that accounts for almost 1/2 of the strokes in the round I rate it pretty high on the list :)

Putting PGA Avg. (Percent 1 Putt)
1 - 3 feet ~ 99%
4 - 5 feet ~ 84%
6 - 10 feet ~ 50%
11 - 15 feet ~ 31%
16 - 20 feet ~ 17%
21 - 30 feet ~ 10%
31 - 50 feet ~ 3%

Putting PGA Avg. (Percent 3 Putt)
1 - 10 feet ~ never
11 - 20 feet ~ 2%
21 - 30 feet ~ 4%
31 - 40 feet ~ 5%
41 - 50 feet ~ 20%
51 - 99 feet ~ 16%

 

EDIT

This is a book that has drills and more importantly a practice routine suggestion. It also has a way to score yourself and give various parts of your short game a handicap. I find those useful honestly because it shows weakness from 100 yards and in on every aspect. Gives you drills to practice the suggested stuff in the book.

Golf's Red Zone Challenge --> http://www.amazon.com/Golfs-Red-Zone-Challenge-Significantly/dp/1572437200

Callaway Epic Max 12.0 (-1/N) @ 44.50" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-7 Stiff

Callaway Epic Speed 18.0* @ 42.75" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-8 Stiff

Callaway Mavrik Pro 23.0* @ 40.00" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 95 HYB Stiff

Sub-70 639 Combo (5-P) w/ Nippon Modus 3 125 Stiff, Standard Length, Weak Lofts (27-47, 4* gaps)

Callaway MD5 Raw 51-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 55-13 X-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 59-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 63-09 C-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Golf Swing & Putting -- Bruce Rearick (Burnt Edges Consulting)

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I'm have absolutely no doubt what my score killer is.....missing fairways. I don't just miss fairways, I like to hit it behind trees, so that I have to punch out or lay up. Luckily my putting is on, so I'm saving a lot of pars, but sooner or later those 15-20' par putts are going to stop falling.

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I love this thread already. Writing down what I need to work on helps me focus on it so much more and it's always neat to see how people's games are different. I personally have three area's that kill me

 

#1: Tee/mental game off the tee

- I still have an issue with a late release so my driver and even my fairway can be suspect when I'm having a bad day and lead to a lot of penatly shots. JMiller, that hole you described in #4, well I see a lot of holes like that. I'm far to caught up with trying to match or out do people or just hit what they hit from the tee.

 

#2: Chipping

- When I started playing my first instructor was always of the opinion that chipping was just to get it on the green. Once you hit the green at all, then you could worry about the putt and it's something I've focused on too much. Sure, hitting the green is just fine when you missed but leaving yourself a near unmakeable 50 foot putt really isn't a good out come of said chip. I need to pay more attention to where I want to chip the ball to make an easier putt. Sometimes that's near the cup, sometimes it's not.

 

#3: Putting Time

- I'm so worried about getting off the greens as fast as possible for people that I barely take any time to read the line or the putt. This means things I never thought would happen in terms of break or distance occur a fair bit. One does not need to be molasses on the green to still get a good read to execute upon.

 

I figured this might spark some interesting discussions for some of the single digit guys around here and I hope that it helps some of hte mid- high handicap guys peak into the minds of some better players and start thinking about there own game what needs the most focus.

 

Putting by no means am I suggesting to take 5 minutes a putt like on the PGA Tour, but at the very least walk up to the hole and see what is happening directly around the hole as the ball slows this is where most break will come in. I typically walk up from my ball to pull the pin anyways playing by myself, while another person is preparing to putt be reading you putt from ball to hole then after they are done finish the rest or the routine by walking around to the back of the hole to read that side the entire process might take about 30-45 seconds honestly If you do a majority of your reads while other people putt just stop what you are doing when they are about to make the stroke to be kind to them.

 

SBS offers target stats to +1 to +3 handicaps and +4 to +6 handicaps I have the +1 to +3 data and here it is, I would assume +4 to +6 would have less error %, more % hit to 5 feet, short putting distance average, and a higher save % around 70-80% saved for both

bunkers and chip / pitch, plus obviously about 4 to 6 attempts total between the two they average 12-14 GIR

Short Game (Chip/Pitch)
# attempts per round ~ 5
percent hit to 5ft ~ 49%
Avg Putting Distance ~ 8.0ft
% Errors ~ 4%
% Saved ~ 63%

Short Game (Sand Target)
# of Attempts Per Round ~ 1
Percent Hit to 8ft ~ 50%
Average Putting Distance ~ 10.0ft
% Errors ~ 8%
% Saved ~ 48%

Callaway Epic Max 12.0 (-1/N) @ 44.50" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-7 Stiff

Callaway Epic Speed 18.0* @ 42.75" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-8 Stiff

Callaway Mavrik Pro 23.0* @ 40.00" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 95 HYB Stiff

Sub-70 639 Combo (5-P) w/ Nippon Modus 3 125 Stiff, Standard Length, Weak Lofts (27-47, 4* gaps)

Callaway MD5 Raw 51-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 55-13 X-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 59-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 63-09 C-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Golf Swing & Putting -- Bruce Rearick (Burnt Edges Consulting)

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I'm have absolutely no doubt what my score killer is.....missing fairways. I don't just miss fairways, I like to hit it behind trees, so that I have to punch out or lay up. Luckily my putting is on, so I'm saving a lot of pars, but sooner or later those 15-20' par putts are going to stop falling.

 

Trust me I am there right now, used to have a wicked short game that got me down to a 1.1 only hitting 6 GIR on average, I was getting up and down a ton back then. Now I hit more greens and don't score as well thanks to putting, short game touch, and PS mostly. That is part of the reason I started this topic :)

 

Like my example with the 43 I shot yesterday 7 over and all 7 strokes came from the three holes that i had PS on, round killer 101.

 

When I was playing around with the SBS software (2008) I had a +6 in chip/pitch and a +8 in bunker play, +4 putting, 4 long game over a 5 round sample, small obviously. But just goes to show what a great short game can do for you.

Callaway Epic Max 12.0 (-1/N) @ 44.50" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-7 Stiff

Callaway Epic Speed 18.0* @ 42.75" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-8 Stiff

Callaway Mavrik Pro 23.0* @ 40.00" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 95 HYB Stiff

Sub-70 639 Combo (5-P) w/ Nippon Modus 3 125 Stiff, Standard Length, Weak Lofts (27-47, 4* gaps)

Callaway MD5 Raw 51-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 55-13 X-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 59-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 63-09 C-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Golf Swing & Putting -- Bruce Rearick (Burnt Edges Consulting)

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I figured this might spark some interesting discussions for some of the single digit guys around here and I hope that it helps some of hte mid- high handicap guys peak into the minds of some better players and start thinking about there own game what needs the most focus.

 

There are many many things wrong with my game :D.

 

Right now, I need to regain my consistency. Over the winter I've added a lot of swing speed practicing my form, and that's probably messed me up a bit. I have been reading these forums and posts like these and trying to adapt it to my game, especially the mental aspects.

 

Honestly, I try to keep things simple and work at one thing at a time. I know my course well enough that there's not much need to plan ahead and penalty shots are a symptom of bad ball striking. My putting needs work too, but the greens still aren't great, so I'm not worried about that right now. Once the pitch and putt opens, I'll focus my attention on my short game. My goal this year is to hit in the 80s on a regular basis and maybe break 80.

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A classic example of negative thinking happened today. On my nemesis par 5 today, I hit an unusually great drive. I was 190 yards from the green. Me and another guy were swinging 3 guys in $2/2 Down. My partner and I were the only ones in the fairway, and it was obvious that two pars was going to win both balls. So I stood there and thought, don't do anything stupid, get your par and move on. I pulled out the hybrid and thought, nice and easy and don't hit it out of bounds, and hit the damned thing nice and easy out of bounds. Dropped for 3 and hit 4 and put it on the green, made the putt for a 5. Won the hole but turned an eagle into a par with negative thinking.

 

 

 

This should probably be under the gambling thread, but for those that do not know, 2 guys swinging 3 guys on a bet works like this. Eugene and I were partners. There were three other guys, James, Jerry. and Bob. So it was us vs. James and Jerry, Jerry and Bob, Bob and James. $2/2 Downs means that once a team wins two holes, you start another bet. It takes an advanced accounting degree to see who owes what but at the end of the nine holes we split $16.

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1) Poor putting

2) Poor short game (wedges)

3) Taking Penalty Strokes (PS)

4) Poor Course Management

5) Poor Mental Approach

 

 

 

 

Yep, this is my game. Actually, I do not do these on every hole, but there are almost always something that happens a few times during the round. You make a couple of poor putts, or good putts but some mis-reads and it cost strokes. While today I went OB I have avoided that mostly throgh better course management.

 

I see a lot of guys saying that they miss fairways and have trouble. Except for par 3's the tee shot is the least important shot in golf. On the second par 5 today, I hit a horrible drive, clipped the top of a tree and put me in the rough 290 yards from the green. I hit 7 iron to the center of the fairway and hit 8 iron to 8 feet from the flag, best iron shot of the day. The next hole, I hit it into the woods, I putted it out with my driver and left myself 70 yards to the flag. Pitched to about 6 feet and made the par, with was huge. These guys had written me off and were looking forward to the easy win on the two ball, when I stuck it close to the flag. Now all of a sudden, they were scrambling to make par to keep up which they did not.

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Yep, this is my game. Actually, I do not do these on every hole, but there are almost always something that happens a few times during the round. You make a couple of poor putts, or good putts but some mis-reads and it cost strokes. While today I went OB I have avoided that mostly throgh better course management.

 

I see a lot of guys saying that they miss fairways and have trouble. Except for par 3's the tee shot is the least important shot in golf. On the second par 5 today, I hit a horrible drive, clipped the top of a tree and put me in the rough 290 yards from the green. I hit 7 iron to the center of the fairway and hit 8 iron to 8 feet from the flag, best iron shot of the day. The next hole, I hit it into the woods, I putted it out with my driver and left myself 70 yards to the flag. Pitched to about 6 feet and made the par, with was huge. These guys had written me off and were looking forward to the easy win on the two ball, when I stuck it close to the flag. Now all of a sudden, they were scrambling to make par to keep up which they did not.

 

I've got to disagree with you about this. You cite a couple instances where you demonstrated substantial skill to recover from a bad shot, and that's fine for someone with a low single digit handicap. For the vast majority of people, if they drive it in the trees (assuming they're smart): it's two back in the fairway, three misses the green, pitch/chip, two putt.

 

I think you could argue that a bad drive is the easiest shot to recover from because you have the rest of the hole left, but it's not the least important by a long shot.

 

Someone summed up scoring really well: the putter dictates how low you can go, the driver dictates how high you can go.

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I've got to disagree with you about this. You cite a couple instances where you demonstrated substantial skill to recover from a bad shot, and that's fine for someone with a low single digit handicap. For the vast majority of people, if they drive it in the trees (assuming they're smart): it's two back in the fairway, three misses the green, pitch/chip, two putt.

 

I think you could argue that a bad drive is the easiest shot to recover from because you have the rest of the hole left, but it's not the least important by a long shot.

 

Someone summed up scoring really well: the putter dictates how low you can go, the driver dictates how high you can go.

 

 

The best two iron shots of the day were these two I described. I saved par both times with great shots, however, there were plenty of times where I had a great drive, missed the green, chipped on, putted, putted again. In order of importance, Putting, putting and putting and chipping, irons, and then driver. I know an 88 year old man who can beat most golfer out there.

 

His mantra is good enough. He will hit it right down the middle about 200 yards, maybe less. He will bounce the next ball onto the green. And he will putt the ball next to the hole. Then walk up an tap it in. And he will do this 16 times a round. Twice he will miss the green and have to chip.

 

He does not try to kill the ball. He only needs to hit the driver "Good Enough".

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Driver, 3w, 3H are JumboMax JMX UltraLite XS 

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The best two iron shots of the day were these two I described. I saved par both times with great shots, however, there were plenty of times where I had a great drive, missed the green, chipped on, putted, putted again. In order of importance, Putting, putting and putting and chipping, irons, and then driver. I know an 88 year old man who can beat most golfer out there.

 

His mantra is good enough. He will hit it right down the middle about 200 yards, maybe less. He will bounce the next ball onto the green. And he will putt the ball next to the hole. Then walk up an tap it in. And he will do this 16 times a round. Twice he will miss the green and have to chip.

 

He does not try to kill the ball. He only needs to hit the driver "Good Enough".

 

I think we're talking past each other. I'm not arguing that a great driving round will lead to a great scoring round. I am arguing that a bad driving round (bad meaning trees, OB, etc) will be a bad scoring round.

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I think we're talking past each other. I'm not arguing that a great driving round will lead to a great scoring round. I am arguing that a bad driving round (bad meaning trees, OB, etc) will be a bad scoring round.

 

 

Nope, I understood what your were saying, I was just saying that those two iron shots were not indicative of how I hit the irons all day. Those were two great shots, and the rest were mediocre. I probably hit them better because I got in trouble off of the tee.

 

 

I was also trying to drive home the fact that there are hundreds of old men out there that play everyday that have never been able to hit the ball far, but they hit it straight which is much more important than long.

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I love it guys good stuff!

 

I completely agree with you that the Driver sets up a tone, Matt I know you are in the golf business at least I think you are. I have a 10 step process for taking someone that has never played the game into a single digit handicap in a short amount of time assuming they practice regularly for the first month or so then start playing regularly. I feel too many people start them game then learn the wrong way to lowering scores the fastest way possible.

 

This is sort of my process with someone before they ever putt a tee in the ground on a golf course. Maybe someone else can talk on if they feel this is a good process or if they think it is counter initiative. I feel that starting small then working to a larger scale works really well.

 

I feel that too many people try to run before they crawl when it comes to golf, getting into bad habits early in their golf career. Having a poor tempo and bad mechanics can be hard to break later on down the road for a person that starts taking their game more seriously. If I were to go back and learn about golf with what I know now I would stress mechanics and tempo over everything. Distance means nothing if you are not in a good position.

 

This is my process in teaching a beginner to be a better player, and improve faster then other beginners.

1) Putting getting a feel for a consistent stroke and reading the greens.

 

2) Short game

 

3) Short Game 50 - 100 yards (partial wedges), 9/3 drills basically for partial length swings this starts to build the full swing mechanics, The techniques used in 4,5,6,7,8 are started to learn here.

 

4) 9i, 7i, 4i full swing (backswing only) just getting them to turn the shoulders more form the 9/3 drill to get to 12 o'clock position, sometime having less wrist hing in the long irons helps a lot letting the weight of those club hinge the wrists.

 

5) 9i, 7i, 4i Full Swing (transition only) starting the swing from the ground up, some swing key based on side dominance (I am right side dominant so my swing key is bumping the right knee towards the target to start the down swing)

 

6) 9i, 7i, 4i Full swing (downswing / release) should already be good from the 9/3 drill somewhat this is more of a fine tuning.

 

7) Once we get this done then we go into fairway woods making sure to not try to 'kill it' swinging with the same tempo as the irons on full swings.

 

8) Then lastly the big stick comes out, making dang sure to swing in tempo and not out of their shoes. Stressing accuracy over length.

 

9) mental approach to focus and pre-shot routine for full swing and putting to gain better alignment (really I do that in step 1 for putting and steps 4 through 8 a little just make sure they make it habit here)

 

10) course management, not pulling driver ever par 4 / par 5 unless needed for length reasons.

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I played 54 holes yesterday, 27 holes were pretty intense, and was still feeling it today. Today, we divided into two teams. The best two golfers, and worst two golfers verses the middle four golfers. I felt like the pressure was really on me and Chad to play well. On the third hole with a strong wind behind me, I overswung trying to kill it, and caught it on the heal of the driver and rolled it about 80 yards down the left side into some trees. Instead throwing my driver like I wanted to I said, "That's ok, That's ok." the other good play said, what the hell is ok about that? I said it is ok because I can at least hit it for my second shot and not having to drop out of the hazard or from out of bounds. I said at least I can still hit it twice and get it on the green and have a birdie putt or a par. I got a par. On the fifth hole, one of the high handicappers, had a poor drive. And they all mocked me saying,"That's Ok, that's ok." I joined in and said yes, now all you have to do is hit a good 3 wood and then a good iron shot and then have a birdie putt. Well, he did, and made par. Through out the day, when someone hit a bad shot, I would hear them say that's ok, that's ok. Both of them shot much better than they have been. I felt like I had a pretty lackluster day. I parred 3-14 and while 11 oars in a row is nothing to sneeze at and had some great recovery shots, but I should have not needed them. There were tons, of wasted opportunities. But I just felt worn out.

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I tend to use the line "well that's a playable miss" I like the "that's okay, that's okay" works as well it gives positive thinking rather then negative thinking after a poor shot. I had my playing partner, a good friend of mine madder then heck after one of my drives on number 12 Saturday.

 

He ripped a drive and he was cracking jokes that normally they can build a Walmert between my drives and his. I tried to kill one and pull / duck hooked it thought it was gonna be a total of 220-250 yards left. in trees, we make it up there and I out drove him by 5 yards because it caught the cart path on the left an bounced right out in to the left fairway. I was laughing so hard and had to twist the needle in a little and went 'dude my duke hook is a bigger drive then your busted pure shots!' the response was 'f** you that is such bulls***'. It was just a funny interchange of events I don't really care if he out drives me or not, we just like giving each other crap and joke around in some cases.

 

My game was OFF on the front 9 Saturday, WAY too fast with the upper body and hands cause a lot of pull hooks. Finally got into the groove of feeling like I was swinging 50% of what I wanted to to get my tempo back. Went 46 Front, 39 back par 70 6700 yards roughly. Had a couple PS during the round that helped bloat my score a lot.

 

Oh well helps me get more strokes in money play :)

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I FOUND MY SWING FLAW YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yes, I'm that excited) I'm going to start another thread about how and what I found, but I see a lot more fairways in my future and much lower scores. Hell, I don't even need to hit more fairways, just keeping the ball out of the trees will work.

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Good luck fixing your swing flaw, I know what mine is, yet I still do it. I come over the top and pull the irons left. I can either quit it, or aim far right. I am getting better because at one time I was 40 yards left of the green. Now I am 10. And also I do not do it very hole. And honestly, yesterday, I had 11 GIR in a row and two eagle putts, 11 birdie putts, and made 11 par putts.

 

Edit: I do not mean I made the two eagles. or birdies.

On the two par 5's I did not have eagle putts, I had to hit the green for over 200 yards out after a horribe drive on one and a miserable second shot on the other.

 

 

Before you automatically conclude that I am a horrible putter, we got a new course superintendant last week. He actually has been a member of our club for a couple of years, and played there on the weekend but worked at another (nicer and fancier) club not far from here. He told the guy who cutts the holes to go ahead and use more of the green in stead of those few areas. He placed these cups on ridges and near the edges and on slopes. These were crazy placements, but we did not change them. It was kind of fun, but if golf were always that hard.

 

On one hole I remember I was discussing it with my partner who was right beside me and I said, according to the sky caddie were 150 to the front of the green, he said according to the laser were are 149 to the flag, and I said, well, that does not surprise me, the hole is 1 yard this side of the green. I said I think the next flag is floating on a raft in the lake.

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Good luck fixing your swing flaw, I know what mine is, yet I still do it. I come over the top and pull the irons left. I can either quit it, or aim far right. I am getting better because at one time I was 40 yards left of the green. Now I am 10. And also I do not do it very hole. And honestly, yesterday, I had 11 GIR in a row and two eagle putts, 11 birdie putts, and made 11 par putts.

 

Before you automatically conclude that I am a horrible putter, we got a new course superintendant last week. He actually has been a member of our club for a couple of years, and played there on the weekend but worked at another (nicer and fancier) club not far from here. He told the guy who cutts the holes to go ahead and use more of the green in stead of those few areas. He placed these cups on ridges and near the edges and on slopes. These were crazy placements, but we did not change them. It was kind of fun, but if golf were always that hard.

 

On one hole I remember I was discussing it with my partner who was right beside me and I said, according to the sky caddie were 150 to the front of the green, he said according to the laser were are 149 to the flag, and I said, well, that does not surprise me, the hole is 1 yard this side of the green. I said I think the next flag is floating on a raft in the lake.

 

My swing flaw is when I get lazy or try to hit the ball too hard from the top with my shoulders and upper body (think a lot of people do this). My right shoulder starts the downswing coming around the spine, causing all sorts of bad things to happen. To fix it i think about bumping my right knee towards the target sort of pushing off the inside right foot towards my left side leaving my shoulders alone. When I do this I can just feel like I am swinging 20% of full power with my body (it works more then that obviously) and get straighter longer results then when trying to kill it.

 

Basically make you body feel like it is doing 20% of the work and let the hands and club weight do the work feels like effortless power. Take Freddie Couples or Ernie Els for examples, lazy looking swings but bomb it.

 

 

In terms of top 5 score killers a swing flaw can lead to Penalty Strokes off the tee and missed Greens to put a lot of pressure on your short game. The hardest part when you find hte flaw is to correct it and keep the correction not have the 'old swing' creep in on you in the middle of a round.

 

Look at Tiger for example working with Foley, took him a long time to make the Foley swing work under pressure still doesn't have it perfect.

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Yesterday I got a sad reminder about how my game USED to be. My buddies and I used to play "Pick Up Sticks" all the time (the game where your opponent gets to take a club away from you after winning a hole). We used to play everyone against me, as I was a much lower handicap than everyone else. They used to take away my driver first, because I hit it so much longer than they did. Yesterday my buddy says "you remember when we used to play PUS and we would take your driver away first? Now thats the last club I'd take." Ouch, talk about a punch in the gut. Pretty much explains the state of my game right now. I debated taking the driver out all together, but instead I decided to go a different direction. I cut my driver down to 44", which is 1/2" longer than my 3W. I figure if I hit my 3W in the fairway 75% of the time, then I should be able to do it with a driver of about the same length. We'll find out next time I actually get to play.

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Yesterday I got a sad reminder about how my game USED to be. My buddies and I used to play "Pick Up Sticks" all the time (the game where your opponent gets to take a club away from you after winning a hole). We used to play everyone against me, as I was a much lower handicap than everyone else. They used to take away my driver first, because I hit it so much longer than they did. Yesterday my buddy says "you remember when we used to play PUS and we would take your driver away first? Now thats the last club I'd take." Ouch, talk about a punch in the gut. Pretty much explains the state of my game right now. I debated taking the driver out all together, but instead I decided to go a different direction. I cut my driver down to 44", which is 1/2" longer than my 3W. I figure if I hit my 3W in the fairway 75% of the time, then I should be able to do it with a driver of about the same length. We'll find out next time I actually get to play.

 

It is actually really common for Tour players to have Drivers at 44.75" or 44.50" you just don't read about it too often as OEMs want to sell distance instead of control. I look at the length of my Driver being the length that allows me to find the center of the face the most often.

 

I was taking about this in a different thread and i promise to get back on topic more with score killers after I say this.

 

Ball speed translates to distance more then swing speed. You can hit a driver with a 1.40 smash factor at 100mph SS which is about 140mph Ball speed. The same driver at 98mph with a 1.45 smash factor will create a ball speed of 145mph. It is roughly 2 yards of carry per 1mph of ball speed. It is FAR more important to find the sweet spot on a golf club then swinging it fast when it comes to driving or any shot it will take less effort to get longer, straighter, more consistent results.

 

I played 9 holes yesterday and wow Penalty Strokes chewed me alive. All of them were from the tee which is not a good thing, Was supper sloppy in my swing yesterday. Felt like I was swinging like a 30 handicap, scored more around a 12-15 handicap however thanks to good putting and an average short game. Took 6 PS in 9 holes think that is my record since keeping stats. Thinking about my game too much need to just get back to swinging freely and not worrying about results.

 

I guess that was my big error yesterday, the logical part of your brain is a lousy golfer and not a good athlete :)

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Basically make you body feel like it is doing 20% of the work and let the hands and club weight do the work feels like effortless power. Take Freddie Couples or Ernie Els for examples, lazy looking swings but bomb it.

 

Look at Tiger for example working with Foley, took him a long time to make the Foley swing work under pressure still doesn't have it perfect.

 

The guys give me a very hard time saying that I am making up my back problems. Since November, I have been very much been trying to emulate Fred Couples swing. I probably should not admit this but I even bought Ashworth Cardiff golf shoes so that everytime I looked down at the ball I would see those shoes and it would be a trigger to make the proper swing. The funny thing is for the last month and a half I am driving the ball better than I ever have in my life. Everytime I rip one right down the middle there are comments about the supposed back problems. I feel as if I am trying to hit one just over second base and it is going over the center field fence.

 

I totally understand what Tiger is going through, I can swing effortlessly all week long and then get on the back 9 on Saturday or Sunday and revert back to the old ways. Saturday, on 16 with $100 bill on the line I swung like I did not even know how to spell golf.

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I totally understand what Tiger is going through, I can swing effortlessly all week long and then get on the back 9 on Saturday or Sunday and revert back to the old ways. Saturday, on 16 with $100 bill on the line I swung like I did not even know how to spell golf.

 

LOL that is hilarious...

 

The logical part of my brain is a terrible golfer, just need to get good mental picture and swing, normally good things happen when you are not thinking 20 things on swing keys on the golf course. I re-learned that lesson the hard way yesterday.

 

TIP for high handicappers and mid handicappers, do not think about anything on the course other then good smooth tempo, swing thoughts and swing keys should be on the practice tee :)

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LOL that is hilarious...

 

TIP for high handicappers and mid handicappers, do not think about anything on the course other then good smooth tempo, swing thoughts and swing keys should be on the practice tee :)

 

This is not exclusive to high or mid handicappers! I worked with a player yesterday who has a very good swing, but does not know how to turn off his mind. We spent the entire lesson working on being target oriented over the ball. I told him that he could have swing thoughts and practice swings when he was 3 feet behind the ball, but once he got over it he could only think about the target.

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This is not exclusive to high or mid handicappers! I worked with a player yesterday who has a very good swing, but does not know how to turn off his mind. We spent the entire lesson working on being target oriented over the ball. I told him that he could have swing thoughts and practice swings when he was 3 feet behind the ball, but once he got over it he could only think about the target.

 

Obviously I am completely guilty of this, and how it got brought up so no it's not always just high handicappers and mid handicappers that have this problem. I'm a single digit (My current starting this season is 9.2, I switched handicap services and only reported the scores so far for this season) with the issue from time to time. Just really wanting something too badly or thinking too much about poor shots etc, bad mental approach basically thus why it is number 4 on my list when for a lot of people it could be number 1.

 

I think that they were talking about how Hunter Mahan started to just play golf not let bad shots effect him mentally and is starting to play really really good golf lately. Easiest way to beat a personal best regardless of whom you are is just let it happen.

 

Here is the article on Hunter and his mental approach --> http://www.chron.com/sports/article/Mahan-s-newfound-mental-approach-yields-SHO-3451714.php

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So I finally got around to viewing this topic today. Yesterday I did one thing that changed my scores DRASTICALLY. I took matts advice and didn't think of swing keys over the ball I did them from behind the ball as part of my pre-shot routine.

 

WOW results were great, On Tue i shot 54 on the front nine from the gold tees (one in front of the tips), yesterday I shot 40 from the tips, dropped 14 strokes from one day to the next just having a better mental approach over the ball. Beat my personal low score for that 9 by one stroke of 41 to 40, was really happy with my tempo and swing all around. Still took one hole that was a Trip Bogey PS, but eliminate that and sub 40 nine holes without blinking.

 

Thanks Matt for the reminder on that little key.

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I played today using a phone app, seeing if I would like that better than the sky caddie, it gave me the option of using there game tracking software so I thought I was using that apparently I was not because at the end of the round I looked at the score card and found it blank. But because I thought I had the phone tracking it for me I did not keep track on the scorecard with pencil. And i did not look at it until the end. Since it was blank I did not have the fairways and greens and putts and stuff I normally track. But I did recount my score. It eas pretty easy, bogey, seven pars, bogey, par, birdie, two pars, birdie, three pars and a bogey. Total all that up and you get 73.

 

Monday, I walked and played a three club match. The walking absolutely killed my back. Weather was too bad yesterday to play and probably could not anyway. Back was really bad today and was 30 to 40 yards shorter off the tee but still hit the irons ok. Chipped and putted great which makes all the difference.

 

Actually, what made all the difference was not thinking about anything but that shot. You can not birdie the hole from the tee box or the fairway. You can only make a birdie from on the green (yes you can chip in but that is the exception not the rule.)(but I almost did on 8 but had a 3 inch par putt instead.) Once you are on the green you can make a putt for birdie but there is no reason to think about that putt until you have it.

 

We played a 9 hole scramble tonight, there were four of us on the team, all four of these guys were bombers so I decided they could drive and I would only drive if they all got into trouble, they never did. I made a number of short shots and a bunch of putts. We were 9 under par.. Missed an eagle putt and missed a par but we made the rest. Played 9 hole scramble, ate dinner,

and still made $31.

:ping-small:G430LST 10.5° on     T P T    POWER 18 Hi Driver 

:ping-small:G430MAX 3w  on     T P T    POWER 18 Hi Fairway 

:ping-small:G425 3H on     T P T    POWER 18 Hi Hybrid 

:taylormade-small:P790 Black 4-A 
on :kbs: TGI 80S
 

:mizuno-small: ES21 54-8° & 58-12° on :kbs: Hi Rev

:L.A.B.:DF2.1 on :accra: White

:titelist-small: ProV1  

:918457628_PrecisionPro: Precision Pro  NX7 Pro

All Iron grips are BestGrips Micro-Perforated Mid

Driver, 3w, 3H are JumboMax JMX UltraLite XS 

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