Everyone has a miss off the tee, a miss into the green, a miss when putting. Find your misses, address them with a fitting or coaching and plan for them. Watching the misses of your biddies helps too.
I'm a senior who shoots either side of bogey golf. Most important to me is to minimize the doubles and REALLY avoid anything worse! If i can get close to the green in regulation, I have a fighting chance at a par, and a bogey at worst. More than half the strokes are from 40 yards in!
Haha, I hear that. On my last nine holes, I shot 43 with 21 putts and 4 short pitches, so 58% of my shots were from 40 yards in. Cut those putts to a reasonable number and I played well enough to shoot 38.
Love these course management videos. Most amateurs get too consumed with gear and swing mechanics and forget how to manager their way around the course!
Working on improving my game and strategy content like this is helping me to make better decisions on the course! And my HCP is dropping as a result! Thanks!
Hmm... There is something here for everyone. Some of these I am doing well already, but I see that that I'm missing far more fairways to the left than the right, so I can try to adjust that. I need to hit more greens in regulation, but that's more a matter of avoiding random bad shots than strategy. Consecutive bogeys I don't have data on, but I bet I'm too high because I often get into a rut where I shoot bogey after bogey. My three-putt percentage is also way too high, but it's more a matter of me not making 3-6 foot followup putts, rather than from really bad first putts. As for #7, I have that one covered. I love my ShotScope V5. Thanks for giving me some things to think about.
Enjoyed the video and found the various stats interesting as a general measure against my own scores, but how do you calculate the consecutive bogeys percentage?
I think it's important to be honest with yourself about your ability. If you carry your 3-wood 200 yards 1 out of 10 times on average it's probably not a good decision to pull it out when you find yourself having to carry 200 yards to clear a hazard of some sort.
In the short term i agree, i had a slice and did this, then got lessons and put efforts in to correct it (my playing partners just bought new drivers), i now hit driver straighter with a slight draw and 50 yards longer…my playing partners still hit slices 😉
That works ok if you have a consistent shot shape. If you allow for a fade/slice and then pull it you're in trouble. Also aiming right (im left handed) to allow for a slice can increase the likeliehood of the slice becoming more pronounced!! 😮
In my opinion, here's a better list of strategies that can help anyone: 1. WARM UP!!! You can't show up at the last minute, put your first tee in the ground on the first hole, and reasonably expect to hit it well. If you're not warming up for at least 30 minutes, stop complaining about bad scores. That includes at least 15 minutes of putting and chipping. 2. Spend at least as much time practicing chipping as you do on the range when you warm up or practice. You're losing a ton of strokes if you have to chip twice on most holes or if your chips leave you with > 20' putts. 3. This video is dead on when it says to play away from trouble, even if it means playing a little away from the green. If you're bad out of the sand, avoid the sand at all cost. 4. Avoiding trouble on approach shots doesn't just mean left to right. It also means front to back. If there are more bunkers in the front of the green, take enough club to reach the back of the green (or further if there is no trouble back there). 5. This video is also dead on regarding taking your medicine when you hit it into trouble. As much as we all love the hero shot, the chance of hitting it is slim. Get it back into play, but take the club and swing that gives you the best chance to do that. 6. I completely disagree with hitting it as close to the green on your second shot as you can, especially for lower handicaps. You're much more likely to get a double bogey if you're hitting it to 30-60 yards if you pretty consistently chunk it or skull it from that distance because you tend to leave yourself ANOTHER shot from that same distance. If you tend to hit a great pitching wedge, for example, why wouldn't you hit it to your PW distance? 7. Most amateur golfers don't hit it as far on a regular basis as they think they do (data proves this). We tend to remember the perfect shots that we only hit 10% of the time. We forget about the other 90% of the time where we're 5-15 yards shorter than that because we don't hit the center of the face or we under-club. Unless there is more trouble behind the green than in front, take one more club than you need to reach the center of the green on EVERY shot the next time you play, and see if you don't score better. If you're between clubs, take the higher one....EVERY....SINGLE....TIME. 8. Don't feel like you have to get there in two if you hit a poor tee shot on a par 4 or even a good tee shot on a very long par 4, and you leave yourself just at or outside of your farthest range. If there is trouble around the green, you're FAR better off treating it like a par 5, laying up to a good distance, and hoping for a par but limiting your chance for higher than bogey. 9. Stop caring what your playing partners think about you or how far they hit the ball. Embrace being that short guy who hits it straight because you'll get the last laugh when you take their money.
One thing I hadn't considered, that in hindsight I know I'm guilty of, is to consider your typical shot shape. As he stated in the video if you tend to hit left to right shots it's not a good idea to tee it up on the left if trees line the left side of the fairway. I've "clipped" my fair share of trees that if they hadn't been there my drive would have curved it's way back into the fairway.
I have a couple of problems with this content.... 1. I'm not sure what stats you're seeing that suggest getting the ball as close to the green on a par 5 is better than laying up to a "good shot" distance. That might work for pros, but for amateurs, it's almost always best to lay up to a comfortable club distance. For instance, my brother-in-law is deadly from about 110 yards, but he's constantly hitting his layups to 30-50 yards, and he's terrible from there. Must times he'll chunk it and leave another 20-30 yard shot where he's still terrible. Yes, if there is trouble at your favorite layup distance, don't hit it there, but have a second favorite distance that works. 2. Um, how are bogey golfers NOT supposed to follow up bogeys with other bogeys? That stat should really be consecutive double bogey avoidance when you're talking about 15+ handicaps.
Pros make double bogeys,or worse, for high hcap 20 golfer will get shot on a long par 4, so personal par is 6, 7 is a bogey 8 is out. As acsinglevfigure player i get 1 shot on hardest 9 holes ie parv4 410y long, is a par 5 so on for 3 and 2 putt. A 6 on this hole still gets a stableford point. 7 is out.
