i think i'm finally committed to trying to shoot lower scores as opposed to having fun (hit driver all the time, try to hit amazing shots all the time etc.)..

i had been thinking about this some and then i stumbled onto this article about scott fawcett, a former NCAA player and a contributor to this forum. i did know scott was doing this but hadn't read about this for a long time.

https://practical-golf.com/decade-scott-fawcett/

anyway, it looks like it has worked out extremely well for him.......

his system probably has lots of elements but the one thing i read through the publicity on his system is not short siding yourself. and really figuring out where you want your ball to land.

i haven't looked at scott's stuff specifically but just reading a little stuff about it got me on the road to looking at alot of stuff myself.

some things i am doing:

1) focus more on lagging putts more even from moderate distances.

2) learn to play wedges that don't fly to hole. let them release to hole alot of the time. usually lesser swing with more club. and with practice, far fewer fat shots (i'm in wet PNW so it's a big issue)........ some of this on pitches/chips too

3) for very difficult shots, manage your miss instead of whaling away at hero shot. people tend to think of hero shot as trying to get through gap in trees. but i also thinking 180 yards from medium rough can qualify too, you can have horrible misses. so now i try to make sure the shot will ok directionally not matter what.

4) make the decision to tee off with mid-iron on hole you can't make in 2. mostly par 5's but sometimes layout long par 4's just don't work for me unless i can hit hard draw off tee.

5) if there is death trouble and moderate trouble, i basically aim for the moderate trouble (take some thought to my misses too). but get much more comfortable aiming into an area with a few trees on one side and avoid OB on the other side.

anyway, just my thoughts for now..... but reading about Scott's system was real motivation for me on this....... FYI, i only knew of Scott from this forum. so this is arms-length post

i should note i'd seen other articles about scott recently. i'm not sure that's the best one.

but it's been an overwhelming success........

and apparently, much of this lower risk thinking applies to the highest levels of golf. of course, then there are situational exceptions.

I subscribed to DECADE for a while, it’s definitely good stuff.

I've been following Scott on twitter. One of my highlights from last year was getting blocked by an assumedly tipsy Peter Kessler during a discussion.