Trying to break 100- The 3 Goals Method

[ScienceBoy]

So recently I have been playing with a guy who wants to break 100. He is really struggling and goes round in between 100 and 120.

His putting and short game a good enough but the frustration of the rest of his game makes him three putt a lot and get in a mess.

While playing with him last time I made an observation that he was always taking on the most high tariff shots, nearly every time he got himself into trouble, behind a tree, in a bunker etc

I took one of my personal philosophies and explained it to him in a way I had not ever done before:

The Three Goals

We stood on a tee, any tee and I said from here there are three goals to achieve before most players play the shots that make or break their score. Find the fairway, get inside 150, get on the green.


Goal 1- Find the fairway

Pretty simple, play a tee shot which finds the fairway, if you fail to do that play the next shot to achieve this goal and nothing else.

Notes Remember to give yourself nice wide margins for error from the tee or if you miss it and are playing your second, the fairway is a nice big target so don't make it smaller!


Goal 2- Get inside the 150

Once you have done goal 1 move on to this, play your next shot to get inside the 150. It doesn't matter if you get inside by 1 inch or 50 yards, once done the goal is made.

Notes

1. You can achieve goals 1 and 2 in one shot if you are good enough or on a short par 4 but you don't have too.
2. On some par 5s you cannot do goal 2 with your second, instead look to get into a place to ensure you can get inside it with your next shot.
3. If you come up just short or are inside but cannot reach the green then look to lay up in a place to make goal 3 REALLY easy. (we saw this as a nice luxury when it happened rather than a bad thing)
4. KEY POINT If you hit a bad tee shot but achieve goal 2 with your second shot then the bad tee shot DOES NOT MATTER!
5. KEY POINT If there is trouble around the green you cannot fly look to lay up in a place that makes goal 3 really easy.
6. On par 3s you can achieve goals 2 and two in 1 shot, try and leave yourself in a good place to achieve goal 3.

Goal 3- Get on the green

Once inside 150 look how to get safely on the green. This may be via a layup to a safe area and a chip/pitch on.

Notes If you have missed the fairway doing goal 2, cant make the green or there are lots of hazards then play to get into a place to make goal 3 easier and nothing more.


Summary

We started this after holes one and two where he scored two 9s. From then his worst score was one 7 and the rest were 6 or better. He lost most of his shots to putting or duffed chips and we barely looked in a bush or tree for his ball again bar one hole.

Previously he was trying to bash 3 woods and hybrids off the fairway, now he was hitting 6 and 5 irons to achieve each goal one by one. It did mean taking irons or hybrids off some difficult tees to achieve goal 1 rather than goal 1 and 2 together. He also only used the driver twice when normally it would have come out on every hole bar two par 3s.


I play to this same game plan and I shot 87 with two lost balls and no driver in the bag. Like him from hole 2 my lost shots were do to bad swings and not bad game plans. I also managed to make two pars after duffed tee shots!

I do know this game plan probably only works down to about a 12 handicap as you need to be a little more aggressive to score better unless you can confidently get up and down from 60 yards and in on a regular basis.

I thought this was really key, the biggest difference was not in his scores but in his attitude, he celebrated reaching each goal, if he hit a bad shot but could still make goal 2 with his second then the first shot DID NOT MATTER. He used to beat himself up about the bad shots but now he doesn't if he still makes the goals in the lowest possible number of shots.

He will now be using this every round and hopefully he can make his goal soon!

 

[Scadge]

Very good advice. Even if it isn't the most perfect plan/strategy having any plan is better than none at all. The key will be sticking to it over a period of time

 

[ScienceBoy]

Very good advice. Even if it isn't the most perfect plan/strategy having any plan is better than none at all.

Exactly what I told him, he had no game plan at all, just bash away and see what happens.

I agree also its far from ideal for shooting level par golf but works for anyone wanting to get into the 90s. I use it to play into the 80s but only because I can combine goals a lot of the time. In other words this is my exact game plan for difficult holes or when go WRONG, so I can have a chance at par or bogey.

If I duff a tee shot, find water or a bad lie then this is my game plan, if all goes well then I try and do more than one goal at once WHILE understanding my ability. I tend to find myself hitting a 7, 6 or 5 iron as my second shot on par 5s, even if I boom a tee shot.

I am just not good enough yet to hit greens from 180+ yards so instead I look to get myself in an easy place to get up and down. My strengths are in my putting and short game so I devised this method to allow me to make full use of them.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

Exactly what I told him, he had no game plan at all, just bash away and see what happens.

I agree also its far from ideal for shooting level par golf but works for anyone wanting to get into the 90s. I use it to play into the 80s but only because I can combine goals a lot of the time. In other words this is my exact game plan for difficult holes or when go WRONG, so I can have a chance at par or bogey.

If I duff a tee shot, find water or a bad lie then this is my game plan, if all goes well then I try and do more than one goal at once WHILE understanding my ability. I tend to find myself hitting a 7, 6 or 5 iron as my second shot on par 5s, even if I boom a tee shot.

I am just not good enough yet to hit greens from 180+ yards so instead I look to get myself in an easy place to get up and down. My strengths are in my putting and short game so I devised this method to allow me to make full use of them.

This is really good advice.

I had a poor round at the weekend without really feeling like I played too bad. However, looking back, it's clear to see where I went wrong - I hit about 3 fairways all day! I missed greens (not short of the green but always in the rough or a bunker), and I left myself several downhill putts.

A bit of course management would have turned my 103 into a 95 for sure.

This post has really focussed my mind - thanks!

 

[ScienceBoy]

This is really good advice.

This post has really focussed my mind - thanks!

Maybe I should write a book!

 

[Marshy77]

Great advice - obvious as we all know we should do this but never the less great advice.

I'm currently playing around 100 - 108 and in my mind I think I can achieve 95-100 per round consistantly but then do the stupid shots like you say - of the fairway trying to hit through a foot gap inbetween trees or hit a shot instead of taking my medicine and finding the fairway.

What I've done which I think was talked about on here a while ago is I play my own game. Last weekend I played with 2 mates and for example on a par 3 145 over water they hit a 6 and 5 iron each, I hit a 21 hybrid and was closer to the pin than both of them. Think you need to realise your distances and hit the right club no matter what other players are playing.

 

[ScienceBoy]

Another thing we noted playing this, if he hit a great tee shot but thinned the second, as long as it achieved the goal he intended it didn't matter.

His biggest problem was one of his playing partners who only accepted a shot was good if it was what I would class as "perfect".

Really we did two things with this game plan, we redefined a "good shot" to anything that achieves the intended goal and got out of trouble by selecting the route with the biggest margin for error.

 

[mcbroon]

Another thing we noted playing this, if he hit a great tee shot but thinned the second, as long as it achieved the goal he intended it didn't matter.

His biggest problem was one of his playing partners who only accepted a shot was good if it was what I would class as "perfect".

Really we did two things with this game plan, we redefined a "good shot" to anything that achieves the intended goal and got out of trouble by selecting the route with the biggest margin for error.

This is important. Playing at the weekend, I hit a horrible, thinned 3-wood off our 10th tee and it absolutely split the fairway. If I could have walked down and placed my ball, I would have put it exactly where I ended up. My mate hit a great shot but went too far, ran through the fairway and into a bunker. He made 5 from a lovely shot. I made 4 from a horrible shot.

 

[Curls]

All sound advice Science boy, Patrick Cohn may have got there before you on the book though

He explains that goals should be related to processes, rather than score. So you go out to hit 10 fairways out of 14, or you aim to leave yourself a set distance to approach from, and that way the holes played or those yet to play are irrelevant to the achievement of the goal. I'm a big fan of this, the process is all you can control, so think your method above makes perfect sense. If more people played like this there would be far less 8s and 9s signed for, hope he keeps it up!

For the coming season I've taken our course planner and put little stickers on it, each relating to a specific side of the fairway or quadrant of the green to aim for. Its not that Im good enough to hit them, but a smaller target focusses the mind. Too many times I've hit a good drive and short-sided myself on the approach, or left a nasty downhiller when I could just as easily been below the hole with a better club choice. Of course on the day wind, lie and pin position come into it, but at least I have a set of goals not related to the score to play to, so if I do make a horror score I just pull out the planner and start again.

We'll see how it goes!

 

[HawkeyeMS]

I like that, it's good advice for anyone trying to break 100. To break 80, you pretty much just need to drop "Goal 2" unless messing up "Goal 1" makes "Goal 3" impossible.

 

[JustOne]

Sounds like you're describing the difference between stroke play and match play where every shot in match play is erm,.. ship or bust.

 

[virtuocity]

Good post ScienceBoy. Too often I leave myself 170 yards short and pull out the long hybrid and eye up the flag in the distance, when a 7 iron to within 30 yards would be the better shot. I have zero game plan based on my ability (or lack of!) when it should be on the forefront of my mind.

PLUS (as you allude to), if I reach my mini goals on a particular hole, it will help with momentum and positive attitude.

 

[Matty]

This is a great approach to try out and I'll definitely be giving it a try. I suspect it makes you focus solely on the shot you are about to play with the single aim of making the next shot easy.

 

[ScienceBoy]

Sounds like you're describing the difference between stroke play and match play where every shot in match play is erm,.. ship or bust.

Nope, this is about getting under the 100 barrier for my friend. He had no game plan at all so I gave him mine.

 

[gripitripit]

Love to have a round with you at NM someting ScienceBoy and you could put your advice into practice with me.

 

[ScienceBoy]

Love to have a round with you at NM someting ScienceBoy and you could put your advice into practice with me.

Currently free every single day! Feel free to suggest a couple of dates and times!


Just waiting now to see how people get on with this idea as so many seem to like it. Please report back if you do try it and give feedback.

Maybe it might even make its way into a few peoples sigs on here or am I getting ahead of myself?

 

[JustOne]

Nope, this is about getting under the 100 barrier for my friend. He had no game plan at all so I gave him mine.

I was implying that he was playing as if every hole was match play, 100% or nothing, and you've introduced a plan that is more akin to posting a score in numbers (stroke play).

 

[ScienceBoy]

I was implying that he was playing as if every hole was match play, 100% or nothing, and you've introduced a plan that is more akin to posting a score in numbers (stroke play).

He was trying to make a good score by playing high tariff shots, I would not even do that in match play and I just think he was trying to play the golf he saw on TV or what his usual playing partner expected, which was "perfect" golf.

And we all know golf is not a game of perfect.

 

[Khamelion]

I may give this a go, for goal 1 at the very least, in that I can drive a ball straight, but I'm to inconsistant and sometimes slice into the cabbage, if i was to take my 3 instead of my driver I may hit more fairways and acheive goal 1

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I'm tying to crack 90 - does the same approach still apply? Or should I modify it in someway?