Course Management Experiment

Tiger

Tiger

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rub-of-the-green.blogspot.com
Calling all gamers.

I recently asked your opinions on how I could improve my course management and a lot of you said it was something you learnt from experience rather than being taught.

I imagine its taken some of you years of playing to play enough rounds to improve how you think round a course. So that got me thinking about how I could speed up the process.

One of my recent musings on the blog has been whether taking a real world golf approach to Tiger Woods 2010 can help improve course management. Any willing guinea pigs (preferably with the Wii version) want to give it a go?

Theory is:
select the clubs in the game to be the same as your bag
ramp up the difficulty settings
make the conditions reflect your local course (e.g. wind, fairway hardness, rough length, green speed etc)
turn the stupid spin option off

Now play the game, using 'feel' rather than the preview to gauge how far to swing on partial shots. Let me know if you think it helps improve your course management by commenting here or on the blog.

http://www.projectscratch.co.uk/living-room-golf

Ta muchly,

T
 
Tiger

I'm sorry but I saw this on the blog last night and laughed. I don't think there is any way you can get any constructive feedback on your swing and course management from a Wii game. It's just not sophisticated enough and isn't capable of processing your swing/conditions accurately enough. It just doesn't have the processing power of a proper golf simulator. I think its a pointless exercise. If you want to learn how to deal with situations or think your way around a course get out there and do it.
 
Can't see it personally. Not the emotional attachment involved with playing a medal for real and every shot counting. Add in good/bad breaks, a good or bad hole changing your whole persona, pressure if a cut is imminent, trying to close the round out to win and these are all things that need to be experienced first hand.

I just think all it can teach you is how to control yourself in front of a computer game.
 
Hi,
Dont think it will work tiger but u should be spending all your time down the range this year not in front of the tv have u taken any lessons yet and how much are u getting to the range.
Mike
 
Mike, had 8 lessons so far next one is on Saturday. Visit the range twice a week, go over the Heath to practice short game twice a week and practice putting most evenings. Weather impacted a bit at the beginning of the month but getting back into my stride.

Homer can see the puzzled, perplexed expression etched all over your face! I'm assuming you've not played Tiger Woods. Before every hole there's a fly by, much the same as tv coverage, talking about where to place your shot and why. Found it really interesting because on loads of holes I'd have played it differently and stitched myself up on second shot.

Anyway Wii is just a substitute for when I can't do the real thing. Promise :D
 
Can't see it personally. Not the emotional attachment involved with playing a medal for real and every shot counting. Add in good/bad breaks, a good or bad hole changing your whole persona, pressure if a cut is imminent, trying to close the round out to win and these are all things that need to be experienced first hand.
Click to expand...

Would you not say the same of a session at the range homer???
 
I know TW and have been addicted to it on the XBox and the PS2 before that for years. I understand where you are coming from on this but in reality there isn't going to be the same overhead view on the real course and so its about learning your own strengths and weaknesses and playing to them, especially in a medal, if you want to meet your handicap goal for the year.
 
Not really. At least on the range the same mechanics are being applied and proper equipment used so it bears a much greater likeness to hitting a shot for real. There is more feedback hitting a ball, even a range one. Also, the range is the place to work on the swing itself so that when you step onto the first tee you can have confidence in what you are doing
 
I agree with what your saying homer but i was making reference to the emotional attachment and the goood and bad brakes that you dont get on the range either!!!
 
I think where the TW would definitely come in useful is in helping with visualisation. Most experts agree that visualisation is one of the essential mental skills to master.
Now call me sad, but I "play" my course just about every night trying to get to sleep!! :o (better than counting sheep).
I play it different ways, sometimes laying up on par 5's and sometimes going for it. I am convinced that this has helped my course management, and this is without touching a club.

Surely playing TW is just a different form of visualisation?
 
I see what you are saying. However I do try an create some emotional attachment to each shot at the range and go through the motions of treating every shot the same as I would on the course. I step off the mat after every shot so I try and treat each one as an individual shot.

The only time I don't do this is when I'm working on something after a lesson. Even then I'll make sure I check my setup on every shot.

Visualisation is one of the main things Rotella talks about and advocates it as a means of focussing purely on the here and now. Its a great thing to be able to do but something that is a lot harder to achieve than it sounds. It actually takes a fair bit of practice to be able to do it especially on a course with other distractions (Smiffy, wildlife, the weather etc)
 
I used to use visualisation techniques when teaching sailboat racing and windsurfing. It only really works on certain types of people. But is a very powerful tool to those that work that way. It has to be said that it generally worked better with males than with females.

As for the Wii. I have TW on it and I can go round in 7 under! So nothing like real life then! Howeve, if it gets you thinking about course stratergy, then it can't be a bad thing. Though it isn't real of course. There is no substitute for getting out there and doing it.
 
Now call me sad, but I "play" my course just about every night trying to get to sleep!! :o (better than counting sheep).
I play it different ways, sometimes laying up on par 5's and sometimes going for it.
Click to expand...

That's not sad - that's what i do too! Though often I'm replaying my last round and wondering where i could have done better, why I chose the shot I did. :D
 
As for the Wii. I have TW on it and I can go round in 7 under!
Click to expand...

I know not of this TW & Wii that you speak of, but when you say you "can" go round in 7 under does that mean pretty much every time, or if everything goes right?

If it's the latter then I think it could be a useful exercise in course management. If the 7 under is going for every tough pin, carrying drives over doglegs etc, but doubles appear if it goes pear-shaped then maybe it's worth seeing what score you get if you play safer. Boring maybe, but more applicable to a real round where those decisions can affect your score and there's no restart button :)
 
As for the Wii. I have TW on it and I can go round in 7 under!
Click to expand...

I know not of this TW & Wii that you speak of, but when you say you "can" go round in 7 under does that mean pretty much every time, or if everything goes right?

If it's the latter then I think it could be a useful exercise in course management. If the 7 under is going for every tough pin, carrying drives over doglegs etc, but doubles appear if it goes pear-shaped then maybe it's worth seeing what score you get if you play safer. Boring maybe, but more applicable to a real round where those decisions can affect your score and there's no restart button :)
Click to expand...

played 36 hole tournament last night got off to a flyer -3 after 4 holes. Game got cavalier finished round Even par. Played second round much more conservative, learnt from my errors first time out hit -4. Ball striking is taken out of the equation in terms of clean connections but an unwanted fade/draw with the driver can stitch you right up.
 
It seems that Tiger and some others quite like the analytical approach that Dave Pelz offers. As such I came across this book in my local library earlier. It looks like a typical Pelz book and scientifically looks at getting put of trouble

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dave-Pelzs-Damag...9903&sr=1-3

Not sure if anyone has tried it out. I'm thinking about getting it out if its still on the shelf on Saturday.
 
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