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Okay, so time for a new thread here at the new digs.
I have been listening to the Chasing Scratch podcast and, in honour of our new home here, I want to press reboot and see if I can challenge myself to really make some movement on my handicap over the next 12 months.
So the last year has been okay, but there has not been a lot of handicap movement in the right direction. I started 2019 with my GA handicap at 14.8 and ended up at 15.3. I got down to 14.3 several times during the year which in itself makes it a better year than 2018. The last time I was lower than 14.3 was in September 2017, which was just after I reached my PB of 12.6 in April 2017. So my best point in 2019 and 2018 is just under 2 shots over my PB which is several years past now. So, while I have been successful in improving my handicap to a certain level, it hasn’t pushed further.
I would like to get to single figures or lower, but I wouldn’t need to get that much down there.
Interestingly enough, looking back over my game thread on Iseek, in April/May 2017 I started looking to get some more distance in order to try and take my handicap lower. That was when I had a brief honeymoon period with Supercoach, and I acheived some good results. However, it was also the start of really struggling to keep driver in the fairway, which is something that I have probably spent the last several years progressively working on – how do I keep the improvements in my swing which are giving me more distance and giving me the chance to score better, without losing control of the driver?
So where am I now?
In the last 6 months I feel like I have finally started to get on top of the problem with the driver. Some intensive work on the swing followed by being fitted for and buying Dwayne have really made a difference. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. When I hit it well, I end up trying to hit it too hard or quick, which reintroduces the problem. But I started to see a pattern – my best drives with the new swing were often those where I felt like I was hitting it about 75%. Rather than sacrificing distance by slowing it down, I was making the best contact and getting the best run, as well as seeing the shot shape that Coach had been working on with me. So today’s round was a little experiment – no trying to hit it hard or fast with driver. Slow controlled takeaway and focus on tempo with the swing.
I don’t have fast swing anyway and I never get caught trying to hit my irons or fairway woods too hard, so no reason why I should rush things with driver. And sure enough, I hit some lovely long drives. Not every ball was on the fairway, but they were all a reasonable distance and only one drive of the day required a chip out (which was on the second). If I can do that or better every round, then driver will no longer be the thing that is costing me strokes. So hopefully that is the swing thought that will help me going forward. I don’t need to be the best driver on the planet to improve my scoring. I just need to hit it a good distance and have it not get me into trouble.
If its in the open and I can see it, then it’s okay.
The challenge.
In order to get to 9.9, I need to drop 5.4 shots from my best rounds. That seems to me to be screamingly doable by the end of December 2020. I know based on my own performance it is harder than that, but I just need to score one shot better on a third of my holes. To get to 12.5 as a new PB, I just need to drop 2.8 (let’s call it 3) shots from my best rounds. That is just playing one shot better every 6 holes. When I say it like that I know that I leave at least 3 shots out there a round, even on my good rounds.
The starting point
2019 average stats (from gamegolf)
FW hit – 63%
Average driving distance – 148 metres
GIR – 19%
Putts per hole – 2.1
Scrambling – 11%
Sand saves – 12%Some interesting observations. Gamegolf says that Dwayne hits 61% of fairways but my old driver was down to 56% for the last 12 months. If my thoughts are right, then I should hope to improve my driving stats. The putts per hole rate is pretty poor – just bringing it down to 36 putts per round would give me 1.8 shots back per round. If I could consistently get it to 34 putts then that would be 3.8 shots per round – and I would be below my PB.
However, when I use gamegolf’s strokes gained information and compare myself to a 10 handicapper, the strokes gained by the 10 handicapper against me are as follows:
Off the tee – 3.21
Approach – 5.53
Short game – 4.36
Putting – 1.63Unfortunately the strokes gained from gamegolf is missing something reasonably important – I can’t filter by gender. So I can’t compare myself to other people who have comparable basic tools to improve their game. So I will use these stats for my month to month or quarter to quarter assessment, but I think I need to gather some more information.
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More information
So I am going to start by trying to gather some more information to make a more targeted plan for improvement. I stopped keeping my own stats when I started using game golf becuase it was telling me distances and typical misses with clubs and so on. But that is not really giving me proper information about what errors are causing me to lose the most shots. Today, for example, there was only one drive which caused me to lose a shot – where I had to chip out. I still find it helpful to track these lost shots against nett par rather than gross par, given my goal is handicap related.
What I want to do for each round is to record the errors which cost or contribute to costing a shot from nett par.
From my general observation of what tends to shit me during a round, the following may well be candidates:
* three putts (3P)
* missed short putt (MSP)
* double “chips” – where a bunker, chip or pitch within 25 metres does not hit the green, and I would like to record whether the error was a pitch, chip or bunker. So for my recording it will be 2Pi, 2Ch, 2B – regardless of what the second ‘chip’ is. Though an error with the second ‘chip’ will also be recorded in the corresponding fashion
* driver error (D)
* Club selection error (CS)
* Shot selection error (SS)Who knows, there might be more. After a few rounds, I want to see if there are certain types of errors that are costing me more shots overall than others. Hitlers shit me, but they may not cost me that many shots overall if my course management keeps me out of bunkers.
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Strategy/course management
I also want to gather some data to see, for me, whether it is better for my scoring to be agressive and go for it, or whether it is better to layup. I am not in range of a lot of greens, and when I am, I might have a long club in my hand. There is a school of thought that at some point, you are better off to lay up to a safe distance and wedge on rather than trying to go for it. My perception (and, frankly, enjoyment), suggests that I am better off going for the green with a fairway wood and trying to get it as close as I can, even if that might leave me in a bunker or similar.
I am not talking about the times that I am 70m out and wipe the hole (that should be an unforced shot error (UE) which I will add to the recording above). But more when I go for it instead of doing the sensible course management thing. So I am going to try to record holes where I have that sort of option – so let’s say where I have more than 130 metres to the hole (which would put a fairway wood in my hand) and I have 4 shots left to nett par – record whether I lay up or whether I go for it and whether I managed to get out in nett par, worse or better. I should then be able to figure out whether I do better on average when I lay up or when I play agressively. Here’s barracking for agressive winning out.
The plan
So I will review the elements of the plan as we go, but here they are:
Advice
- * no taking advice from anyone unless I pay them – no helpful tips, no magazines, no youtube.
* at least 6 lessons over the course of the year
* always be working on somethingFitness
- * already working on improving health, weight, strength and fitness this in other areas and this is to continue
Headcase
- * Read at least 6 books over the course of the year to help with the mental game, course management or strategy type stuff.
Practice
Do some practice of something every week. This is hard for me so I am allowing myself to include range time before the round so long as it hits all areas of the warmup – range, putting, bunkers, chipping – if I sleep in and don’t get all four elements in, I have to make it up somewhere else.All in all this becomes PHAF – Practice Headspace Advice Fitness which will help me to remember it.
Summary
As you can guess, this is all largely for my own purposes to try and document this and see what works and what doesn’t. So if you have managed to wade through the Wall o text, then thank you.
I don’t know whether I will be able to make significant impact on the handicap by the end of the year, but I think trying to be a little intentional about it has more chance than just showing up to play and hoping that things go in the right direction.
Deege
Some great insight. Have you done any ‘on course’ type lessons before? Playing lesson with a pro etc
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Deege
Some great insight. Have you done any ‘on course’ type lessons before? Playing lesson with a pro etc
No, admittedly I haven’t, though if I get my 6 lessons this year as planned, I might give myself one as a Christmas present, or talk to Coach Matt about it.
Deege
Some great insight. Have you done any ‘on course’ type lessons before? Playing lesson with a pro etc
No, admittedly I haven’t, though if I get my 6 lessons this year as planned, I might give myself one as a Christmas present, or talk to Coach Matt about it.
So much can be learned on the course in real situations. Strategy to play a hole, mental strength etc
Keep working at it you will get there
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I’m happy to give you advice.
And for you to pay me.
You’re welcome.
Winner Moonah Legends 2013 Nationals
Winner The National 2013 Nationals
Winner 4BBB 2013 Nationals
Winner Stink's 3 Club Challenge 2015
Winner C grade OOM The Sands 2016
Hole-in-one Growling Frog 14/1/17 5th hole 137m TM RBZ 5 hybrid, Srixon AD333 ball
Growling Frog GC Matchplay Champion 2017
Winner B grade OOM Curlewis 2018
Winner Yering Meadows Monthly Medal Dec 2020Low Handicap point 12.7 9/4/16
Finally...and most importantly...
Smoldy....when only the best will doMaybe play a practice round with couple of balls. One ball you consistently go for it. The other you consistently lay up. See which scores better. Even have a third in between sensible but not overly safe ball too. My understanding is that this third ball is often the best.
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Good stuff Deege
I love some golf stats!
It will be interesting to see how the course management test pans out, – Piggy and I had a good chat about that subject a little while ago and it’s an interesting one
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