How many strokes do you think can be saved in a round of golf,if you had a guru type person with you,If you were able to take ,say,another 60sec to evaluate each shot.As we play the game at our local club,we tend to pretty much walk up and hit nearly straight away and really havnt put a great deal of thought or FOCUS into shot.I reckon one could save anywhere between 4-8 shots,maybe squeeze 10. Whats your opinion,,guru and dart ….your thoughts on this

How many strokes do you think can be saved in a round of golf,if you had a guru type person with you,If you were able to take ,say,another 60sec to evaluate each shot.As we play the game at our local club,we tend to pretty much walk up and hit nearly straight away and really havnt put a great deal of thought or FOCUS into shot.I reckon one could save anywhere between 4-8 shots,maybe squeeze 10. Whats your opinion,,guru and dart ….your thoughts on this

You wouldn’t want to be changing too much during your round. Bringing guru and dart would be good as they could evaluate what you are doing right/wrong and advise you after the round on what your major problem areas were and what to practice with them.

However, just making a practice swing, waggle and concentrating instead of walking up and hitting it will shave strokes off your game. I am starting to do this now. I used to walk up and hit too, a big mistake….

walking up and hitting it has it’s advantages as long as you are focused and the first and last thing you are thinking of is where you want to hit it or land it, you will be amazed if you can get this right, you don’t have time for all the negative thoughts to enter the brain.

Myself and freind decided a good way to improve our golf was to help each other, we play a round together and essentially we caddy for each other also. It takes a bit longer but its a great way to improve.

For instance my mate is a long hitter but erratic so i suggested a 3 wood on a few holes – suddenly he was parring holes

also somone to calm you when you hit a shank also helps instead of hitting another 3 or 4 shots

he saw things in putts I didnt see. Give it a go people it works.

Not sure exactly who it was, but some golfing guru believed that if you were to do everything he told you to do, down to club selection, shot type, aiming etc anyone reasonably fit and healthy could play to single figures.

I believe this, thinking back honestly over my last few rounds, most of the shots that I have left out have not necessarily been the result of a poorly executed shot, but a poorly planned shot.

eg.

Why did I play my 60* wedge when I am 25m of the front of the green with the pin 10m on and nothing but grass between me and the hole.

Why did I go for the long drive on 18 when all I needed was 2 points to finish with 40 points.

Why did I try to play a flop shot, even after admitting that I had short-sided myself and anywhere on the green would give me a reasonable chance at bogey.

Spot on Andre. You’ve got to take the time to plan and visualize the shot, otherwise you’re not playing golf, you’re just hitting balls.

yeah, I saw an intersting article, many of us practice with hitting a seond ball in practice rounds. i reckon I par the course with my second shots. The article was about hitting your second shot first, and it mostly came down to making smart decisions

why attack a narrow 300m par 4 with a driver when youre still going to be 50 meters of the green anyhow…why not hit 200 and leave yourself a pw – sw or 9 iron punch in..instead you rip the driver thinking birdie. You lose it left and loose the ball your suddenly 3 off the tee you then in anger hit bad fairway wood, hit an ordinary second shot in which catches the bunker and you duff a bunker shot

Suddenly you walk of with an 8 and your round is pretty much wrecked from mostly one bad decision to take driver.

I am sure if I had somone standing next to me they would have grabbed the drivwer out of my hands and said youre not hitting that and Its going to save you 3 or 4 shots

golf shouldnt be hard to make decisons, the ball isnt moving, theres no one trying to tackle you…..

we are just to egotistical sometimes for our own good

I’ve always wondered what golf would be like if we could nominate 3 or 4 mulligans per round. Often I’ll be +4 for my best 14 holes, then +10 for the worst 4. Aaaaargh.

Andrew, on the other hand it’s amazing how often trying to play “safe” gets me into trouble. Yep, I’ve hit my share of 60m drives when i’ve tried to get an extra 20m off the tee, etc etc.

But sometimes the 7 iron running shot instead of the lob wedge comes unstuck – I don’t have to hit the ball as hard, so I relax mentally… and chunk it / thin it… Bad technique, true, but sometimes a positive albeit risky shot makes me play more positively with a smaller target in mind. I have often hit absolute shockers swinging at 75% with my 3 wood on a tight hole, because my timing and mechanics go completely out of kilter.

Unless you practice these kind of “safe” shots, or you know they are your bread and butter, they can be just as dangerous IMHO.

A useful rule of thumb for me is – What is the most likely “bad” outcome of my next shot? i.e. coming up short of an elevated green. With that in mind I try to reduce that risk while still playing a positive shot, i.e. pick a club to get me to the back of the green rather than pin high. Often the extra club doesn’t go quite as far as expected anyway.

Slightly contradictory, but I have a knack for hitting long 3-irons off the tee (I played without any woods for a few years when I started.) I left the woods out of my bag for a few rounds last year and actually had a series of sub-handicap scores. Being 40m shorter off the tee but on the fairway more than made up for the number of times I’m normally blocked out in the trees by a wayward drive. But then, part of the thrill of playing is launching the big dog – even if it isn’t the percentage play.

I’ll stop talking now.

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Not sure exactly who it was, but some golfing guru believed that if you were to do everything he told you to do, down to club selection, shot type, aiming etc anyone reasonably fit and healthy could play to single figures.

I believe this, thinking back honestly over my last few rounds, most of the shots that I have left out have not necessarily been the result of a poorly executed shot, but a poorly planned shot.

eg.

Why did I play my 60* wedge when I am 25m of the front of the green with the pin 10m on and nothing but grass between me and the hole.

Why did I go for the long drive on 18 when all I needed was 2 points to finish with 40 points.

Why did I try to play a flop shot, even after admitting that I had short-sided myself and anywhere on the green would give me a reasonable chance at bogey.

This is so true…

ARRGH,FOCUS GRASSHOPPER,some really good threads here,anyone think about focus,I dont mean just looking,but,REALLY focus

Focus ? Or just choose shots that are within our abilities and reduce risk ?

Or choose the appropriate shot and the tool and then go do it on auto-pilot knowing it will work because of learned skills which have become habitual motions.

I know one cool shrink who would ask “what is focus”.

Andrew, on the other hand it’s amazing how often trying to play “safe” gets me into trouble.

Yep, know that one…it is about concentrating. If you are hitting 3 iron off the tee for safety pick a specifc spot on the fairway, don’t think “I can’t miss that with a 3 iron” and just aim in the general direction.

Same with a chip out from trees, how many people try a simple chip out sideways to the fairway and duff it. Again pick a specific shot and concentrate on the shot at hand.

Toolish,spot on,Leith Wastle told me to start focus on a spot either fairway or green,not look at it but really focus,envisage the shot and simply hit shot with full intention to land on that spot,sure its not going to land there all the time but on average your ball should start going in the right places much more often,and it works. As we are just weekend golfers,we are not able to take the time the pros do as we have to keep moving along,ther are steps we can take to help us along the way,one is ,as we are approaching our ball,walk directly behind it and pick out general line before we even get to ball.There must be some other shortcuts we could employ,what do you think

Shouldn’t all this be a part of the pre-shot routine?

I think that some mid-high handicappers could easily shave a couple of stokes off their score by setting AND maintaining a pre-shot routine. What do you say, Guru?

Nice in an ideal world. How long do pros take to play a round? And that is taking 18 fewer shots then me per round.

They have caddies feeding them ideas and yardages, giving them second and third opinions on putts…

In a round with mates / associates, you have to remember to be sociable and not completely lost in your own little zone. I play with someone with a handicap a little lower than mine and he’s always taking ages with his pre-shot routine… there is a balance to be struck between playing well and observing reasonable etiquette -

a pre-shot routine doesn’t stop you from attempting to play the wrong shot btw

Too true Muntz.

I do have a pre-shot routine – but it doesn’t take me ages to play and I’m not anti-social. There’s plenty of time to socialize when walking between shots, but once I get to my ball it’s “game time”. Quick check of the distance, work out the club given wind, etc, pick the club, then get into the “routine” . I stand a yard or 2 behind the ball for a few seconds and visualise my shot. It’s then a quick walk to the ball, grip, stance, check alignment, pull trigger.

Agreed, it doesn’t mean that I won’t play the wrong shot, but I’m not spending ages chosing my club, or messing around with my partners when I should be ready to play.

There was another thread about “how long is too long” to play a round of golf that I’ve been meaning to rant in about people dawdling down the fairway in the opposite direction to their ball – standing over a shot for what seems like forever before hitting the ball – not know approx. how far they hit their shots and so never knowing what club to hit etc. etc. I’ll think I’ll go there now!

Too true Muntz.

I do have a pre-shot routine – but it doesn’t take me ages to play and I’m not anti-social. There’s plenty of time to socialize when walking between shots, but once I get to my ball it’s “game time”. Quick check of the distance, work out the club given wind, etc, pick the club, then get into the “routine” . I stand a yard or 2 behind the ball for a few seconds and visualise my shot. It’s then a quick walk to the ball, grip, stance, check alignment, pull trigger.

Agreed, it doesn’t mean that I won’t play the wrong shot, but I’m not spending ages chosing my club, or messing around with my partners when I should be ready to play.

There was another thread about “how long is too long” to play a round of golf that I’ve been meaning to rant in about people dawdling down the fairway in the opposite direction to their ball – standing over a shot for what seems like forever before hitting the ball – not know approx. how far they hit their shots and so never knowing what club to hit etc. etc. I’ll think I’ll go there now!

Good advice about the pre shot routine. Keep it short but consistant. Great tip for good timing, hit shots with your left arm parallel to the ground. It feels like a 3/4 shot. Practice with a 7iron and see how well a 3/4 shot goes. The same distance if not more than a full shot. Watch someone like Ernie Els.

something I have started to do in practice rounds is take notes and stats (GIR, Putts saves Faiways hit)

I also write down dumb mistakes I made like tring to reach that short par 4 with a boomer instead of finding the short stuff.

Analayes missed putts and which way they broke. I see golf as a hobby as well as a sport if that makes sense.

Shouldn’t all this be a part of the pre-shot routine?

I think that some mid-high handicappers could easily shave a couple of stokes off their score by setting AND maintaining a pre-shot routine. What do you say, Guru?

Preshot includes in my book both the mental and mechanical get ready get set and if using a clear key the go just happens somewhere in there.

The idea of focus on a target sets the brains chatter box going. Once you know where the ball has to go (what most call the target) the mechanics of the shot need the thought process flowed by the real target which is the ball (or its aiming point) to allow the mechanics to function to get the ball to the end goal.

I have enjoyed reading this thread as it seems to describe all the processes associated with the bad rounds of golf (ie: the things I don’t do) and all the things I seem to remember when I have a good to great round of golf. For the record, I have been out and shot sub 80 rounds six weeks in a row and then had a similar run of barely breaking 90….

Yesterday at Paradise Palms was a disaster….. I have (or thought I had) been learning lately to leave my ego in the car park and bring a wise golfing brain with me. I had been making sensible decisions on the course for a change; this had included leaving the driver in the bag when the risk associated with a sprayed or even just not quite perfect drive was too high and playing the approach shot which if I didn’t quite hit right left me with the comfortable bump & run up to the pin. Well, that was until yesterday when I got my ego and my sensible golf brain confused and left the wrong one in the car park. I will leave you to guess which one came out on course with me….

Lets put it this way…. at hole three I got on a double bogey train and just could not for the life of me get off it….. stupid thing was I was only one over after three and feeling pretty good…. now wasn’t that a little premature:):) Why am I such a slow learner….??

Now, where the hell did I put that sensible golf brain I have to find it before tomorrow’s monthly medal….

Cheers

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