Update on Ike?

i finished in the top 20, very pleased with my results.

some member of the press snapped this pic of me - i describe the shot in an earlier post.

"one shot i'm pretty sure i'll always remember...on the 18th i sorta thinned my 7 iron into the front right bunker after a perfect drive. i got up there and saw i was just in the bunker on the left side of it plugged. couldnt take a normal stance in the bunker and the ball was way too below me to try the shot both feet outside the bunker so i had to dig my right foot into the bunker and hit a fried egg bunker shot to a close pin with other golfers family and press watching and recording. i hit it to about 4 inches just short. easy way to end. 36 tomorrow."

Tony, nice work, congratulations. Identify any areas you need to work on?

basically i think my issues are more mental than anything else.

however, areas that need improvement for me -

7-15 foot putts
closer/more precise from 100-200 yards
driver in pressure situations

mentally, i still don't feel comfortable going low. i'll get to -2 and then start playing defensively or just not execute as well as I should. at the same time, if i'm off to a shaky start i'm getting better at playing a stretch of many holes at even or a few under.

so recently my last ten scores have been 72 73 or 74 at different courses in different weather and playing conditions and I'm just waiting for that spark for me to shoot lower scores, i really feel i'm at the cusp.

here's a snapshop of my game right now. i've gotten my putts per round to 31.5, but still clearly need to improve from here. i basically need to turn the .8 double bogies i have in a round to pars or birdies and i'm where i need to be. still struggling with approaching each shot the same regardless of my position in the round. my latest round i shot +2 but was -3 through 13. ack.

my goal is to shoot in the 60's this summer at least once.

One area where I think all poker players can improve (really any sort of performance domain) is in connecting to what they are doing. I can pretty much guarantee that the more connected you are to what you are doing the better your performance will be and therefore your results will improve. Now it is not always the case but usually in my experience anyways, that it is much easier to connect to what you are doing through Feeling as opposed to Thinking. Even if you are feeling bad it is often the case that if you focus on your feelings you can find a way to be in order to feel a little less bad. Overtime you will learn what you need to do in order to feel good more often by listening to your feelings. Plus people often tend to think too much or over think things so by focusing on your feelings you can prevent yourself from over thinking.

No matter what sport or domain you are in there is no where other then the moment where you can have the most positive impact on your performance. There is also no where that you need to be concentrating and focusing on other then in the moment in order to pick up the most information possible. I will say it again by connecting to what you are doing, it gives you the best chance for the best play to emerge from your mind(and body). It often helps to take a deep breath or close your eyes for a moment or both in order to re-engage your senses. It should help re-connect or connect deeper to what you are doing. The idea is to quiet your mind so you can connect more fully and completely to the task at hand.

In poker you want the best play to emerge from your mind.
In golf let’s say, you want to allow your mind to allow your body to make the best shot possible.
(Hint: When it feels good, your mind/body will feel totally connected)

I truly believe you can feel the difference between a good and bad shot but in order to do so you must be connected. If you are golfer you should ask yourself how you need to feel in order to consistently hit a good shot.

I am not sure I am allowed to say this but I reposted this on my blog.
http://sportwaves.wordpress.com/

I skipped some of this whole thread but saw the last two posts (with the graph and the one saying what you need to work on).

You want to work on 7-15 foot putts. I'm thinking that you should be anywhere between 20-40% on these and any better than that is asking too much. You may give them a good run if it's an easy read, but expecting to make these all the time is silly (in hindsight...of course you're expecting to make it while you're in the moment). Instead of blaming this awkward range of putts, instead blame the reason you're 7-15 feet from the cup to begin with. I'm talking about around the greens. Chip it closer. You're averaging 1.6 putts per missed green. I would like to see that number lower. 1.6 putts per missed green means you're only getting up and down 40% of the time. This needs to be higher. Getting the ball inside 5 feet from around the green will give you a much higher scrambling percentage.

(please, Ship or BO, correct me if I'm completely wrong about this percentage. I just feel that a scratch golfer should have a much better up and down percentage than 40%. I could very well be wrong.)



The other thing that stands out to me is that you're only 50% in fairways hit. I'm sure you're better from 160 in the fairway than you are from 140 in the rough. Hit 3 wood from time to time off the tee. Keep it in the short grass! Unless you're playing a really really long course, there should be at least a few par 4's where hitting the fairway using a 3 wood or hybrid is a decent option.




One last thing that I thought about when reading your thoughts on being -3 after 13 and ending at +2. Nerves play a great part in this, but also be honest with yourself that maybe your golf course has a very strong finishing few holes, or perhaps they do not play to your strong suits. I think it would be a good exercise to make some course management decisions for the last few holes BEFORE YOU TEE OFF NUMBER ONE, and commit to those decisions and try to execute them as you planned. Having a strategy before hand will keep you from second guessing yourself and playing defensively when you get to 17 and you're 3 under.

You are of course correct, 40% is terrible, especially at a course you play all the time.

There are three things to work on to improve this number, the first two are obvious, chipping and putting. The third part is where you miss the green at. We all know if you short side yourself it's a much tougher up and down. Be more proactive in where your misses go and it puts less pressure on your short game.

BO

you are both absolutely right...40% is awful. what number do you think i should be shooting for on the scrambling putts?

it's ironic i guess that in the first round of the big tournament I played recently i shot +2 (a much better +2...tournament conditions, tough pins etc) hitting 5 greens with 25 putts. i was getting it up and in from everywhere - not because i was making 7-15 footers - i was chipping to <5 feet every time.

i will really start working on getting the chips closer- and start looking into if i'm short siding myself.

as far as driving accuracy, i already hit 3 wood certain holes that are tight or visually demanding. my course has 8 doglegs out of 11 4 pars, and on some holes i'll hit it over a tree or cut a dogleg which will make the hole much easier for me but leave me in the rough a fair amount of time. if i got my fairways to 55 or 60% i might be able lower my scores a bit.

I think Bob Rotella would say focus more on "rhythm and less on technique." maybe his not exact words but i think you get the point. Sure you need to practice things like keeping your head down or whatever but you also need to practice not thinking about technique when you play an actual round of golf. Simple reminders (key words) are one thing, over-thinking about your technique each shot can't be good.

I also agree with what the other poster said, stick to plan, commit to a shot, and then focus on executing each shot to the best of your ability. It seems to me from reading your posts that you might be over-analysing things (course management etc.) and forgetting that golf is a game. Games are supposed to be fun

You might find some good free articles here about sport psychology
http://www.zoneofexcellence.ca/Journal.html

This is a really good post imo. To a random hacker like me, a lot of the numbers Tony is showing in that spreadsheet didn't really mean much to me or signify what leaks he might have but you put them into perspective pretty nicely.

golf is fun, i love it. breaking it down into a spreadsheet and analyzing what's going on doesnt take any of the fun away for me.

unfortunately, i think i am somewhere around 15-30% in the awkward 7-15' range. it's probably the single worst chunk of golf you can find in my game i think. we all want to make more of these putts...i think i need to make more in this range just to get closer to my peer group at this level.

i'll think about the plan the last couple holes before the round idea. thanks.

Tour pros make 50% of their 6 footers. Expecting to make more than 20-25% at an average 12 feet is expecting a lot. I think you're beating yourself up over nothing. Once you start chipping it closer, the days you are on the good side of variance and you make these 7-15 foot putts are the days you shoot 65. The days you miss them all, you'll shoot 74. These are not the putts that are keeping you from breaking 70. If you make them all as you are playing at the moment, you might break 70, but I would imagine that you're close to having the long game to be able to break 70 on a consistent basis.

Basically, to put it in a terrible poker analogy, you're looking to hit all your 2 outers to win the tournament (break 70) when all you have to do is tighten up your fundamentals a bit and you'll coast to the final table.

you're not understanding what i'm saying, but i appreciate the help anyway.

maybe i make 6% of my 12 footers. should i still ignore this part of my game?

This was the case in the past, but I was thinking that number has gone up significantly in the last couple of years. I could be wrong and someone else can check the official numbers.

BO

on pgatour.com they have % made stats from every foot up to about 12 feet.

i drew the curves for a few of the top putting stat players and a few randoms and it's significantly higher than 50%. i think the 50% of their six footers is an average for all pros. iirc the top ones in this area are about 70-75% from 6'.

According to p.89 of the August, 2010 Golf Digest:

"In a 1989 study conducted by the PGA Tour, the average success rate on six-foot putts was 54%.
In 2009, it was 69%."

Well I am not a golfer but I really think knowing you have to make 60% of your 12 foot puts or whatever a valid statistic is, has almost no usefulness in actually making one individual 12 foot put.

I have a friend who use to play University basketball and she was a shooting guard. She drove herself crazy telling herself she had to be a 60% shooter or whatever from the field. Each shot she took she would work out her average. The thing is if she missed the first few she knew she had to make more of the rest, which put more pressure on her which just made her shoot worse. At some point she just decided she would count how many shots she was focused and shot freely, in other words she just counted how often she gave herself the best chance to make each shot.

Statisitc are okay if you use them over the longterm, in the short term i think they can really be a distraction from swinging relaxed and focused.

Tony, one thing I would try to do, is find someone really good to play with. Think of this person as a rabbit for racers. If this guy can go out and shoot low, in order for you to keep up with him, you'll have to go low. Perhaps focusing on your match, and having no choice but to go under par, will help you get there.

you're making a good point here. i actually dont keep a scorecard when i play. when i return home, i recreate my round and see what my stats were. that being said, i am pretty aware of where i am score wise in my round.

last time i played (the -3 thru 14 round) i had just birdied the 6th and 7th to go to 2 under and one of the guys in the foursome said wow tony you are two under! so i said jeez dan thanks for jinxing me! then i went and birdied the 8th hole which was sort of a mental victory. tough that i bogied the 9th to tie my 9 hole record of 33 instead of breaking it.

now, i definitely don't measure the length of putts i'm missing, and have some sort of loop in my head that's like okay i need to make 2 of the next 5 to get back within my desired percentage on the 7-15 footers. i just have an awareness that i am generally pretty poor from this distance and need to improve from here. i think the change i'm thinking of leads to me making about 1.5 more of these putts per round. (probably most of the makes will cluster closer to the 7 foot range...i'm not crazy and don't think i'm gonna make so many of my 15 footers)

rereading this thread, i saw i posted something along the lines of "it's frustrating how many 10-15 foot putts i am sure are going to miss from right off the putter face." this is exactly what i'm talking about. i don't give enough putts a chance to go in...need to work on this.

unfortunately, there arent that many good golfers at my club. my last round we had a foursome of the runner up of last year's club championship, another solid club player (bout a 6 handicap) a scratch golfer i used to play junior golf with and me. i agree though, hard to stay as focused as you need to be when you're playing with Mr. and Mrs. Havisham (that's a peach hun...)

in two weeks, i'm playing in a pretty cool tournament. it's a pro scratch format with a decent prize pool. the pro i'm playing with is an assistant pro at my club (just married the head pro's daughter...booyah) and he just won the NY State Open and competed (along with my club's head pro) at the PGA Championship last year. First time ever that two teaching pros from the same club qualified for the event. will post tr.

Great post. I agree with all of it.
An example (that includes a brag and a beat):

(brag) I played shortstop for my High School when I was in the 8th grade (we sucked).

But I started the season off horribly offensively. Didn't get a hit in the first 4 games. And I was hearing it. And was feeling the pressure.
Finally I got a weak single in the 5th game. When I made it back to the dugout, feeling great, I told the coach,
"I guess that'll help my average."
His reply, in front of everyone, (beat)
"No, son. That'll give you an average."

i have improved somewhat with my putting this year.

in my first 15 rounds tracked, i averaged 1.67 three putts per round. in the last 8 i've averaged 0.25.

also have gotten my putts per round down to 31.5 from about 32.5 earlier in the summer. still think i can take another .5 to 1 stroke off with more focused practice.

I always found the putting stats to be pressure relievers. Putting has always been my trouble spot. Once I realized that from outside about 8 feet you are going to miss more than you make I found it relaxing. Then you can hit the putt with no expectations but putting a good roll on it. I always liked to think of a hurricane track for my putts. The longer the putt the wider the track gets around the hole and thus less chance of the putt going in. The closer you get the tighter the track becomes around the hole and thus make more. But having proper speed on every putt is the main thing that really needs to happen for the greatest expectation. Once you have read the putt, addressed and lined up the putt there really is nothing left to do but put the right pace on the putt. When people say they got line locked on that putt I don't really understand how that happens, aside from ADD. Are they saying that as they were stroking the putt they were focused on line? That obviously isn't the time or place for that.

Outside of 20 feet you really aren't going to make very many so having the proper speed to get the hurricane track to at least get to the hole instead of just short is the key to making more 25 footers. I really believe the reason it seems (or seemed) like Tiger makes so many bombs is that he doesn't leave any short. That doesn't mean he crushes it by, but he has virtually perfect speed on 95% of his putts.

Obviously in Tony's post above dropping the 3 putts is what has led to 1 less putt per round. Is that due to speed control or better short putting? Also, I spoke to Tony on the phone this morning to ask him a few questions about Forex trading and I can assure you his spreadsheeting makes the game more fun for him. It is his personality and it does not make him over mental about his game while in the heat of the battle. He just likes to analyze data and find leaks.

As to the up and down percentage, I don't know that a scratch would have much better than a 40% success rate. If it were higher where would the extra strokes come from to get to +3-6? It really is all just math. If the Nationwide average is 55.84% right now and they are probably +5-6's on average I think somebody who is 5 shots worse would be probably averaging 35-40% for saves. I'm not saying that the Nationwide guys short games aren't but 15% better than a scratch, they are averaging 55% under MUCH harder conditions (firmness, speed, pin positions, nerves, etc). I am just saying from a scoring perspective the average wouldn't dictate that a scratch is averaging over 40%. When I am at home playing I would think my U&D rate is 70% but it isn't that in Nationwide events.

I made a spreadsheet similar to Tony's in 2008 while playing amateur events. I had a column of goal percentages for GIR, Putts/GIR, scrambling, 3 putts and putts from 5-10 and inside 5. It would then take my actual score and combine with actual stats and adjust it based on my goal stats were and give me a predicted "best" effort day. I used that to track what I considered to be my potential if I could get my real stats inline with my goals. I believe at the end of the summer my actual scoring average was 70.5 and "potential" was 68.5. So I knew if I could get my stats where I wanted what my average would then be. At the highest level it is such a small amount you can actually improve that I found this method helpful for practice time to get the highest yield out of effort. I was working full-time, playing amateur golf, and thinking of entering Tour school as an amateur so I didn't have much time to waste on what I perceived to be my biggest leak.

One other stat that I tracked that I believed transformed my game was the mental scorecard I have detailed somewhere here before. It is a yes or no question after each shot of "was I committed to what I was trying to do there and was I thinking of anything else while executing?" The first time I tracked that at the Texas state am in 2008 and I think my % was about 80%. The goal for a professional would be over 95% committed. I had the word "Acknowledge" written on my ball as my mark last year on the Nationwide Tour and it served as a reminder to "Acknowledge the thought and let it go" if I was not focused on the task at hand. THAT IS THE WAY TO DROP YOUR HANDICAP 10-20% IN A MONTH OR LESS.

Maybe.

Some great post above.

Tony and other golfers, I am curious do you beleive that let's say 99% of puts are within your control of making? (Which of course is very different then saying you should expect to make 99% of your puts)

To me there is a big difference if you approach a put saying I CAN make this put vs I MIGHT/COULD/SHOULD make this put.