For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Playing a round
Observations from today’s round
Oct 21st
I am pretty happy with the progress I’m making. My handicap is steadily going down, my consistency in scoring is much better, and my swing feels like it’s on solid ground. Some things to still bug me.
I don’t get up and down enough. I know that I have to improve my short game. I need to leave short game shots close enough to easily one putt but it’s tricky. This is my next challenge. I feel like I’m plateauing around the 79-81 range. And yet walking off the course I know where I left shots on the table. Today I had an 81, which is one under for my course handicap so again, it was a solid round. Although I do feel it could easily have been 4 or 5 strokes better.
I had a thought that was helpful on the golf course today. The image of the inner workings of a clock, seeing all the gears moving, synchronized, no one gear speeding up. It seemed to keep me much more synchronized and helped with the long game. I had a really good driving day and I had a lot of good shots. It does get to me when I have a wonderful tee shot, and a bad approach shot. It’s a nice drive wasted and it drives me crazy. I had two of those, with the approach shots coming up way short (I had enough club but actually hit the ball fat). I’m pretty sure that is just a mental game thing.
A couple of things were interesting. I really felt comfortable driving the ball, and I also felt really comfortable with my fairway woods. I’m not sure why that was but it was nice. On 18 I hit my drive off the toe but still got it out with pretty good distance and in the fairway. I had about 230 up hill and I hit a nice 4 wood, pin high, but in the rough on the left side of the green. I ended up 1 putting for a par 5 but could easily have had a birdie if I had chipped it close.
I burned the edge on so many putts today. Had a few of those gone in it could have been a stellar round for me. I realized that I was reading 1″ too much break on each putt. I didn’t correct that until the 17th hole but it made a difference once I figured that out.
A good fall round
Oct 20th
Another fall round today. Actually, it’s my first time on the course since last week. Anyway I posted a 79. I hit 6 GIR, 9/14 Fairways and had 32 putts. Not a bad score considering only 6 GIR. I shot par for my course handicap so I’m pretty happy with the score. I didn’t make any birdies though which was disappointing.
Overall I was pretty happy with my ball striking today. I had a couple of bad chips and a few bad putts, but as I said I felt I scored well, all things considered. I had a few errant drives, and although I hit some fades I didn’t have any big slices. I basically kept the ball in play and recovered from a couple of miscues. I know that I need to hit more greens. That will definitely lower my scores. I crushed a few drives but I’m still not sure the driver fits me totally, but it’s kind of too late in the season to change it up.
On the 9th hole, a very short par 3, I hit sand wedge from 109 yards. I landed the ball pin high (then pin was about 10 feet from the front of the green), then spun it back to about 10 feet off the green (for a total spin back of about 20 ft). That’s what happens when you’ve been playing a low spin ball and decide to switch to a tour ball. Way too much spin. I only needed some controlled spin and it just over spun on me. Oh well, at least I got up and down for par.
Use a “Personal Par” to play better golf
Oct 12th
Personal Par
I don’t worry about the par on the scorecard anymore. The truth is that it’s not really relevant. When I got back into golf 3 years ago, I was about a 26 handicap. Back then it was really not relevant.
As I get closer and closer to becoming a scratch golfer it will become more relevant but for now not worrying about it has been tremendously helpful in lowering my handicap from 26 to my current index of 9.3.
What I do care about is my personal par. The course I play has rating of 71.7 and a slope of 129. In my book that makes it a nice test. It’s not the most challenging course I play, but it’s not the easiest either. My course handicap based on the above numbers is 11. Therefore my personal par is 83. However my goal is to shoot my index or 2 strokes less. Meaning I’m satisfied with an 81 (-2) , but I want a 79 (-4).
Why I use a personal par?
Personal par allows me to gradually move to the actual par on the card as my skill improves. Without it, it’s very frustrating to look at your scorecard and think, “what an awful day, I shot 11 over par. I’m a terrible golfer.” With a personal par that conversation changes to, “Ok, not bad. I shot par. Next time I’m going one under!” However it gets really exciting when I shoot an 81. “Sweet, I shot 2 under. Awesome. Let’s get that down to 3 or 4 under. Yeah!” As my index drops, so does my personal par. An it’s even more exciting when I shoot a 77. “Holy cow! I shot 6-under. Awesome!!!!” Therefore as long as I keep improving, I’m always facing a new challenege. Something interesting also happens when your index drops. You find that a hole that you used to get a shot on, you no longer get that shot. It makes you play that hole a little bit differently, but it doesn’t change every hole right away. Therefore it’s a new challenge, and that’s pretty exciting.
Why it Works
It takes the pressure off. Starting out you’re not likely to hit a lot of greens in regulation. That is very frustrating. With your personal par some par 4s become par 5s and usually some longer par 3s become par 4s. Taking the pressure of reaching those in 2 or 1, actually makes it more likely that you will reach them in regulation. You won’t over swing as much, you’ll make better contact, and you will hit more greens both in standard regulation and of course in your regulation.
Another reason it works is that unless you’re a scratch golfer or close to it, you’re game is so different that it’s not even fair trying to compare them. Measuring your results against a score card designed for a scratch golfer is downright frustrating when you’re not a scratch golfer. But some of you are thinking, “Won’t this lead to complacency and mediocrity?” No. It won’t. It won’t because it becomes addictive to score par, even if its your par. You’ll want to do it again and again. And that encourages you to practice. To take lessons, or to just get better. As you see your personal par go down, that also motivates you to do better.
How to Do It
“So how do I go about using this wonderful personal par?”
- Get a handicap. You’ll need your index to calculate it.
- Figure out your course handicap based on your index and slope rating for the tees that you play. Use this calculator .
- Add your course handicap to the par on the scorecard.
- Add strokes to each hole based on the handicap rating for each hole. If your course handicap is 18 each hole will get a stroke. If it’s 11, only the 11 hardest holes will get a stroke.
- Enjoy the round.
If you have a sky caddie, they have upgraded their software to caluculate “My Par”. It rocks.
Ben Hogan helping with the OTT issue
Oct 1st
Today I had a very good ball striking and ended up hitting a lot of greens. Here’s what I did that I believe made a huge difference.
In “5 Lessons” Ben Hogan writes about keeping the left arm tight to the chest on the downswing.
So I started playing around with this. How tight do I keep it there? What’s the best way to do that?
One of the reasons I thought to do this was that I noticed on my OTT actual swings that the arms begin racing towards the ball. And I thought, hmm, if I keep my left arm tight to the chest as long as possible, then the arms can’t race ahead.
So I videotaped some swings then I went to bed last night.
This morning I got up to play around. The course I went to had no driving range, so I couldn’t warm up the swing that way, but I knew the one swing thought that I would keep in mind througout the round. Keep the left arm tight to the chest. I used a little visualization on my swings, almost feeling as if the left arm got superglued to my body at the top of the backswing.
I felt super-connected throughout the swing, and even though I had my share of errant shots, I was striking the ball more solid than usual, especially with the driver where I hit a few enourmous drives on a cold day into the wind a lot of the time. My irons were really crisp and I felt the way I did on my practice swings. I meant to do the post swing analysis where I rated the shots on how close they were to my practice swing, but I forgot to do that.
Tomorrow I will go to the range with the camera and hit some balls like this, but I have a feeling that it will be good news.
Today’s round
Sep 30th
Today I had an intersting round. I started off on the first hole with a tee shot that almost went OB, left me with a 180 yd shot to the green, hit a five iron to about 12 feet and sank the putt for birdie.
I proceeded to have a bit of an up and down day with my ball striking, but my putting was pretty good. I only needed 29 putts today, and I sank several 10 -15 foot putts to save par.
I had a few shots where I really felt that I was able to match my actual swing with my practice swing, and on those I hit the ball as pure as winter snow. Throughout the round, after hitting each shot I would rate it on a scale of 1 to 5, to how closely the actual swing matched the practice swing, with 1 being the most different and 5 being an exact match. I had my fair share of 1s and 2s, but I noticed that anything at 3 or above was always a good shot. On the 7th hole, I had a 145 yards to a back pin, with a slight uphill lie in the rough behind a bunker, and an elevated green. I took my practice swing with an 8-iron, and it felt just right. I was able to match the swing perfectly, and ended up 4 feet from the cup for birdie, and I sank the putt.
On a few holes early in the back 9 I got a bit out of synch and it showed. I sprayed some shots and got very frustrated for about 3 holes.
I shortened up my backswing, and I was able to get some 3s and 4s and right the ship. I came to 17, which required a carry of about 210, to a back pin at about 223. Into the wind I hit my 2 hybrid, and got on the green in regulation. It was a pretty pure shot that managed to hold the right side of the green. I gave that shot a 4. I hit a poor putt that left me with about 12 feet to go. But I was able sink hat 12-footer for my par. A 3 is always a good score on that tough hole.
On 18, after a poor drive, I was in the rough on the right side, roughly 250 from the green (par 5). I hit a decent 2 hybrid but ended up in the fairway bunker, with about 120 into the wind for my 3rd shot. I shanked the bunker shot and ended up about 30 yards right of the green. I needed a 5 in order to get up and down from there. I took my 60 degree lob wedge, and took a nice short practice swing. It felt right. I did the exact same swing when I hit the ball and I ended up about 10 feet from the pin with a downhill putt. I sank the putt to finish with a par.
I wanted to write about these shots because they showcase what I’m trying to achieve with the practice swing and actual swing challenge. Up above you can see why I believe that retraining the hit impulse, and becoming consitent with having my actual swing match my practice swing is a game changer.
