Hi dagolfdoc & others.
I am a golfer from down under (tasmania - Australia) who also enjoys the odd game of poker & I stumbled on this site approx 1 week ago.
I should have stumbled on this site years ago & perhaps my golf handicap would have been alot lower by now ( currently 14) and my poker winnings higher
In regards to golf I had a fair idea of my weaknesses already (putting & approach shots). My aim is to be able to consistently break eighty, my best score in competetion is 82 (with 41 @#$ing putts!!!)
I do practise 2-3 nights per week + play 18 holes most Saturdays. When I can get this routine down to 3 hours I know I must be improving.
I ave only 4 GIR per round with 66% Fairway hit - I don't hit a long driver though (only 220 yards carry & xxx roll depending on time of year)
I ave 4.5 up & downs per round & 33 putts with sand saves @ 18%
These stats alone show that I have too many 3 putts per round.
I am now 90% through program (only 5irons & Driver to go)
Time taken so far approx 4 hours
2 hours putting - the 25 three footers in a row & the 45 foot lag but took multiple tries with failiure at 23rd 3 footer & 19th lag putt causing several nasty words to pass my lips.
1 hour wedges - I got chipping 30m & 50m first go ( I do practise my wedges alot already though )
- I could get through this quicker but I was hitting only 3 balls at a time & walking up to green & retrieving to make sure I didn't start "beating balls" and thus straying from my routine)
30 min bunkers - 10 out of 10 2nd go ( I duffed the 9th shot) and 4th go for 6 shots within the flagstick
30 min 9 iron & 7 iron - I got both first go
The 5 iron will take some time though no doubt.
I have since attempted 25 in a row twice - but I tried from 2 foot to get throught it quicker - or so I thought.... After several false starts (misses) I knuckled down and concentrated taking aim properly and going through my full routine, the one's I missed was were I rushed the putt. I then sunk 50 in a row from 2 foot and was a very happy chappy indeed.
I was also reading the post re
course managment and I took on board the shaping of the ball into green towards the middle rather than trying to hit the straight shot.
I can hit the ball either way with a tendancy to draw my better hit shots, so my focus was the right hand edge of green and drawing back to middle picturing a triangle for the shot shape, I then hit 8 out of 10 with the 9 iron from 130 yards and 6 out of 10 from 155 yards with the 7 iron, and best of all all my misses were right due to a straight ball flight and only just off the green. These results were fast making a mockery of my weak GIR stats.
I guess this proves that the hardest shot to hit is the straight one, whilst I had read about this in the past I had never given it much thought.
So a big thanks to Dagold doc & ship ... this + others for I now have two thoughts impanted in my brain
I got to do the hard yards on
ALL my scoring game to get to single figures and not just practise the things I like - in my case chipping & small picth shots
Don't try and hit the hardest shot in golf -a straight one - shape it and give yourself more room to stuff it up and get away with it.
I look forward to posting more updates and once again thankyou Doc and others for
No Nonsense Golf Advice that gets to the heart of the game improvement - improving one's scoring game !!!
Cheers
Steve