How a high handicapper bogeys a long par four.

[Neil20]

I'm talentless.

I doubt many new posters open up with that without it being a sympathy hunt. The difference is I'm talentless and proud.
There's no point rueing the fact, it won't change my level of talent.

A quick intro then into what the post is about, I won't bore you for long.

I took up golf just under two years ago. I don't know why it took me so long, but anyway.
A year ago I started playing on a regular basis with someone from this forum, I think it's the sort of place where you can name names, but I won't just in case. He's free to chime in. Most of my musings on golf come as a direct result of the fact he's helped with my game, although the musings are often my own.

There's also no chance I'd have ever broken 90 without his help as I doubt many pros would have the patience to understand my approach, and I doubt I'd have had the patience to listen to most pros.

I'm not conventional in my approach to golf, but then I'm talentless, so being conventional would just result in me being bad. More bad that is.

So, I recently got cut to 19.5 by breaking 90 for the first time and it occured to me that us high handicappers think about golf backwards.
So, to the 20+'s out there, think about how you bogey a 420 yard par four for a moment, then scroll down to how I think about it.


1) Tee shot.....

Aha, you're thinking about the tee shot. Well it appears to come first so that is no surprise.
I feel that this is going to lead to a lot of pressure on the range. Where is that tee shot going? Infinite distance?
Is 240 yards enough? What about 200? Hey, I can do 200, what about 205?

Sod the tee shot. Let's play the hole backwards.

Shot 5: 3 foot putt holed.

What a lovely easy way to finish a hole. Not only that but I can practise this for free, without using any energy and it doesn't have to take a lot of time.
Is it boring? Sure it is! But I'm talentless, do you really want me not to work at my game as well?

Shot 4: 25 foot putt to 3 feet.

This doesn't seem to be asking a great deal, especially as I know I can make the one back as I've practised the hell out of 3 footers (see above). It's not the world's greatest achievement to knock a putt 22-28 feet in a straightish line is it?

Shot 3: 60 yard chip to somewhere on the green.

7 iron and flat? Wedge and high? Actually, who cares, do what feels right when you get there. It's 60 yards, even those of us with no ability can hit a ball 60 yards plus or minus 10 yards. Especially with a lot of practise.

Shot 2: 170 yard shot to 60 yards

It might require a higher club than someone who can play golf, but for those of us who merely attempt to, it should still be possible to hit a ball 170, roughly straight, especially as we're counting roll, bounces, dry fairways, course knowledge, no attention to distance control and all manner of other things we're not supposed to really quote. Hell, if it goes 170 that'll do just fine, who cares if it does it on the carry - we're not getting on the green anyway at this nasty SI 1, so stuff the distance control!
Even better, because Shot 3 can probably be anything from 30 to 80 yards, there's no pressure to muller this down the fairway, just a nice swing - well not a nice swing, but let's call it a steady one - and off it goes. Watch that ball scuttle along the floor!

Shot 1: Tee shot 190 yards.

190? With roll? Stop laughing please. I'm playing off 20 here with a gameplan.
Sure, I can hit it 220 on my day, and more with wind assistance or when I hit it nice, but 190 is just fine to get to shot 2.

I could work really hard here and get more yardage, of course I could, but the gameplan doesn't require it at the moment. I just made a great bogey and 3 points without it with a plan that has plenty of room for error and rescue.


Now, onto the 360 yard dogleg...

Let's open up with a 3 foot putt....

You know, I think I can par this!

 

[PhilTheFragger]

I have way less talent than you
Actually it is an interesting approach

say on a par 5. I used to hit my first 2 shots as far as i could and then see how far I was from the green .

Now I plan to be 100 yards from the green in 2, knowing that a half decent PW will put me near the flag

Doesnt always work, but getting there.

Also when I am at a hole where I get 2 shots (SI 1 - 5)
I seem to tense up and duff 2 or 3 shots and often walk off with 7 for 1 or a blob., whereas on higher SI holes, i sometimes par or at least have a long putt for birdie.

Its all in the mind

And I dont know what mine is doing!!
Fragger

 

[Neil20]

Just to be clear on this, I've broken 90 once and once only.

What I've found though is the number of truly bad shots have gone right down thanks to learning to putt from 3 feet and taking the pressure off the rest of the game.

Before I'd be sweating on "I'd better get this close" at each stage. Putting from 20 feet is a lot easier if you're not trying to stiff it to 10 inches for your two putt!

Also finding that I play for bogey and not for par, but it's amazing how many pars find their way onto the card when one part of the plan gets bypassed by a particularly good shot.

Of course, the plan above doesn't allow for water, horrible shots, bad lies, huge wind, etc, but I'm pretty sure that it all starts (for me) with the 3 footer and not over-pushing myself to do things I'm simply not capable of.

I will designate some rounds as "fun" rounds, on those days I'm free to take the 3 wood off the fairway and try to reach the green 200 yards away, or really lay into a driver and take the 50% chance of smashing it 240 yards 45 degrees to the fairway. Those are the days I improve my skill level (not to be confused with talent level, which I think of as a maximum on my skill level)

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Interesting thought process. I think irrespective of your leve you are always trying to go lower. For me it is breaking 80 regularly again but I still look at it from the tee onwards. It makes not difference what you do if you don't get the ball into play and are playing 3 off the tee or coming out of trouble

 

[leaney]

Best post I've seen yet.

 

[Neil20]

Agree that I'll never give up wanting to go lower, in fact somewhere in the back of my mind is the notion that I'll one day (I'm late 30s already) get to single figures.

I'm thinking more about how to use my practise time though. Obviously the correct answer is to practise everything, a lot... however I think that if I can get the ball in play a couple hundred yards down the fairway, then maintaining that level is fine for the time being.

Far more important for that third (or on occasion second) shot to find the green and to two putt that.

An extra 10 yards off the tee would pretty much get lost in the blur of all the other stuff - at least until my distance control becomes much better and the club less into the green (My club onto the green is invariably from 3-50 yards at the moment) becomes far more relevant. At the moment, the six iron from 150 ish is going to land somewhere near the green and on occasion stay there, just as is the seven iron from 140 ish.

I'm currently mainly concentrating on three main things:

1) Getting closer than 12 feet with short range chipping.

The difference from the 12 feet my body seems to want to leave a ball from the hole and the 6 feet I'll attain with practise is a huge number of shots per round.
If I hole 15% of 12 footers and 40% of 6 footers (Numbers very random to make it easier) Then I'm saving a shot every four chip tries... and at my level there's a lot of tries per round.

2) The dreaded distance control.

I waste the occasional good drive I hit by then missing the green from 150-160, and a lot of that is club selection and consistency (Though I'm sure someone will be along later to correctly add that I need work on alignment)

3) Putting from 3 feet.

Despite all the work I put into this, I'm still only in the low 80%s from that distance (and I keep track). I won't be happy until that's 90+

 

[G_Mulligan]

good post and good tactics. I did read a while back that it was a good idea to walk the whole course backwards when it is quiet to really get a feel for where you need to be and what shots you should be playing to get to those positions.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Jeez I wish people wouldn't post long posts when I'm pi££ed

 

[Blunty]

Great way of looking at things, an excellent post.

Only looked in on the forums as I was sat reading my copy of Golf Monthly instead of being out playing golf, tore the ligaments in my right ankle at work just over a week ago and suffering serious golf withdrawl at the moment.

Seems like a great place for some top advice and info

 

[G_Mulligan]

Seems like a great place for some top advice and info

there is the odd piece here and there if you are willing to wade through all the guff and put up with the abuse disguised as banter.

Welcome along injury sounds nasty hope there is some compo coming your way, where there is blame and all that.

 

[goldenbare]

it should still be possible to hit a ball 170, roughly straight, especially as we're counting roll, bounces, dry fairways, course knowledge, no attention to distance control and all manner of other things we're not supposed to really quote.

If I knew this was going to happen at every par 3 that I came across, I would expect to be make regular pars on them...I dont
and I'd use a similar shot on short par 4s from the tee

How roughly is roughly straight anyway ??

 

[RGDave]

I like this post. Most that know me will guess why instantly.

There is a weakness to the whole process though, one that rears it's ugly face from time to time.

I might discuss it a length later on......people to see, money to be made, food to eat.

 

[goldenbare]

I like this post. Most that know me will guess why instantly.

There is a weakness to the whole process though, one that rears it's ugly face from time to time.

I might discuss it a length later on......people to see, money to be made, food to eat.

Is the weakness assuming that we can all it a 170yd shot straight (roughly)

 

[ademac]

If you can hit a ball 190yds off the tee, hit an iron 170yds straightish, then chip on and two putt then you are far from talentless!!!!!!!

 

[ScienceBoy]

A 210 yard drive and a straight 150 yard shot is more realistic I would say, even a 220 with modern drivers.

I have generally seen all handicapper levels hit those big headed things 200 at least when they hit them straight, its not technique, its technology.

 

[RGDave]

I like this post. Most that know me will guess why instantly.

There is a weakness to the whole process though, one that rears it's ugly face from time to time.

I might discuss it a length later on......people to see, money to be made, food to eat.

Is the weakness assuming that we can all it a 170yd shot straight (roughly)

It's a great guess, but not what I was thinking.

 

[HickoryShaft]

Great post but definitely not talentless - this shows you are thinking your way round which is a big step.

I found that my best rounds of late have been due to the fact that I have planned my round and shots far better than before - come to think about it I didn't plan before and that was the trouble....hit and hope.

The plan needs to be flexible for us high handicappers to allow for the errant shots in there and 'take your medicine' is the best advice I have had from partners - you can't win a game on one hole but you sure can loose it if you have a 'mare'.

But plan your way round and be realistic and you will certainly improve the tally. No point at all hitting a 4 iron out of the thick rough if you can't get to the green anyway - better to hit a steady 7 or 8 down the fairway and leave a chip in. Follow the game plan and the odd par or even birdie will come every now and again.

Really enjoyed the post

 

[TheClaw]

Is this really that far from what most people try? The problems for me come when I hit a tee shot into trees etc. Then it's quite easy to end up with a 6...

 

[Robobum]

Talentless, too harsh on yourself there.

Flip side of your scenario to let you know that bad scores aren't exclusive: Cat1 golfer makes double on same hole.

Drive
Absolutely nutted, couldn't hit a better one and has gone 270yds in the centre stripe of the fairway.

Approach
Well now, is it a big 9? A smooth 8 or a knock down 7?? I pick the 8 but don't commit to it high floater going right.

Greenside bunker
Take my medicine, out to 12feet with a nice chance of par.

12 foot putt
I've got this. A ball of right to left break and I'll save my par which is the least to expect after that drive.
BANG!!!! Smash it through any break.

4feet come back
Weak little stab that dribbles across the hole after being a bit scared of the pace.

Tap in double.

Helicopter putter to next tee.

Sh!te game matey, it grabs everyone!!