Today I went out and played another round.  The temperature was in the upper 50s today and may have gotten to 60 by the time I finished.  Here’s the breakdown.

Score: 79
GIR: 7/18
Putts: 32

Obviously my ball striking is still spotty if I’m only hitting 7 greens in regulation.  I experimented with something today.  I wondered what would happen if instead of going for the perfect shot (I love how well struck shots fly and approach the target), I went for an ugly looking shot that got the job done.  I did those for about 6 holes and suprisingly on those holes, my score was neither worse than usual, or better than usual, it just stayed the same.

I thought that was pretty strange.  Over the stretch I actually hit a few greens in regulation.  It was weird and unexpected.  I would have thought that my scores would have been much worse for those holes but they weren’t.

I think the only conclusion I came to is that scoring is not as much about ball striking as I thought.  If I get on the green, I’m usually not close enough to 1 putt, and if I miss the green I can usually chip it close enough to 1 putt.  I can hit a great tee shot and a decent approach shot and hit the green with usually a 15 footer at best where I will most likely 2 putt, or I can hit a bad to mediocre tee shot, hit a second shot near the green somewhere and chip to within 6 feet and usually make that putt for par.  Either way it’s a par.

So as long as my tee shot does not go into a hazard or OB I have a good shot of getting a par and at worst a bogey.  This also means that I don’t have to hit an amazing shot to get my par which should take a little bit of pressure of my long game.

The only way to get more birdies is to get my approaches closer to the pins when I hit the green or chip in a few shots.



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