Scoring: The Bottom Line.

[MS256]

Originally Posted by saevel25

He's an outlier then, and shouldn't be ruining his putter, but actually practicing putting.

Ha ha! Now there I'll agree with you. He IS an "outlier", or more like a savant of some sort with every club except a putter.

He was playing in the Pro-Am at the Chattanooga classic last year and while they were warming up the pro he was playing with asked him if he wanted to play closest to the pin at the 100 yard flag for $1. After he won the first 5 shots the pro asked him how long he could do that and he said "until you run out of dollars".

He can 3 putt from 6 feet at any given time but on those rare days when he does make putts it's lights out, party's over. Nobody is going to beat him.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by MS256

No. He wouldn't.

Yeah, I read that one wrong/backwards. I read it as if you were saying putting was the main reason his handicap was as good as it was, not that it was the worst thing holding him back as a + handicap.

[BostonBrew]

I voted "short game around the green." But after reading the other posts and thinking about it, I believe that's just my obstacle to scoring better. Ball striking would definitely be the reason most people don't score better. Hard to even have a shot at par when you're hitting fat shots, topping the ball, or slicing and hooking.

[MS256]

Originally Posted by iacas

Yeah, I read that one wrong/backwards. I read it as if you were saying putting was the main reason his handicap was as good as it was, not that it was the worst thing holding him back as a + handicap.

If anybody else had his ability to hit the ball accurately, or if he had anybody's ability to make a putt now and then, either would have been on Tour years ago.

I even tried to help him with putting but it was useless. He hits so many irons to tap in range that he's still one of the best players around here.

I'll try to remember to get a video of his swing and post it. It would be interesting to see why people would think he is so ridiculously accurate. I had his video one time but all it looked like to me was a pretty good swing, but nothing out of the ordinary.

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

I can tell you that for me, the main problem occurs off the tee. If I can get my tee shot into the fairway at a reasonable distance, I can make par, or bogey at worst. The issues arise when I 'miss' off the tee. Most of the time, hitting into trouble off the tee will only lead to bogey, double, or worse. Very seldom will I hit the fairway off the tee, and make a double.

[GaijinGolfer]

Of the choices, its off the tee.  However, Id say the biggest thing holding me back in my 2nd shot.  If I had a consistent, reliable 2nd shot that got me onto the green or within 100 yards of the green and in the fairway, Id be able to score better.

My driver can be suspect too but on days when its misbehaving, I simply hit 3-wood off the tee.  My short irons, wedges and putter are really the strength of my game and are what allow me to still put up pretty respectable scores with mediocre ballstriking.

[MS256]

Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer

Of the choices, its off the tee.  However, Id say the biggest thing holding me back in my 2nd shot.  If I had a consistent, reliable 2nd shot that got me onto the green or within 100 yards of the green and in the fairway, Id be able to score better.

My driver can be suspect too but on days when its misbehaving, I simply hit 3-wood off the tee.  My short irons, wedges and putter are really the strength of my game and are what allow me to still put up pretty respectable scores with mediocre ballstriking.

Hmmm. I thought the second shot was covered with "Missing the greens too badly to get up and down".

I started to put second shot but I tried to cover par 5s too. Sorry about that.

[GaijinGolfer]

Originally Posted by MS256

Hmmm. I thought the second shot was covered with "Missing the greens too badly to get up and down".

I started to put second shot but I tried to cover par 5s too. Sorry about that.

No worries, just the wording wasnt how I would have done it.  To me, that means poor accuracy or struggling to make good contact with my irons; which isnt exactly what my issue is.

[MS256]

Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer

No worries, just the wording wasnt how I would have done it.  To me, that means poor accuracy or struggling to make good contact with my irons; which isnt exactly what my issue is.

Sometimes the "Southern-Hillbilly" that I speak doesn't translate the best in the world to "English".

[MS256]

Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer

No worries, just the wording wasnt how I would have done it.  To me, that means poor accuracy or struggling to make good contact with my irons; which isnt exactly what my issue is.

Sometimes the "Southern-Hillbilly" that I speak doesn't translate the best in the world to "English".

[amac]

After reading all the posts, I feel my answer of "mental mistakes" leads to bad drives, poor ball striking, missed puts and quite simply all the dumb mistakes we make as weekend warriors that cost us several strokes per round.  I've been playing for a while and have noticed over the years that most golfers just get up to the ball and hit it.  No practice swings, no alignment checks, no visualizations, no pre-shot routine whatsoever.  I see this all the way up to putting.  I don't play slow, but I do take my time.  Why not take a second to line up some writing on your golf ball with the putting line you want to roll the ball on?  So many golfers don't take the time to apply the mental aspect of swinging, hitting and scoring in golf to understand the impact this will have on the outcome of the shot.

For me, sticking to my pre-shot routine is paramount to executing each shot.  Playing with people I don't know makes me self-conscious about the "appearance" of taking too much time to hit a shot.  Therefore, I rush the shot and or the routine.  I can hit the ball like a pro on the driving range, but my mental lapse on the course is what's costing me anywhere from 3-6 strokes a round.

Who supposedly has the strongest mental game in golf?  TW.  Who's the number one golfer in the world?  TW.  Who's mental game has cost him at least two US Open's?  Phil.  Rory's mental game has cost him the number one spot and may have ruined his 2013 season.  Just saying, all these pro's are excellent ball strikers.  It's their mental mistakes that makes the difference.

[MS256]

Originally Posted by amac

After reading all the posts, I feel my answer of "mental mistakes" leads to bad drives, poor ball striking, missed puts and quite simply all the dumb mistakes we make as weekend warriors that cost us several strokes per round.  I've been playing for a while and have noticed over the years that most golfers just get up to the ball and hit it.  No practice swings, no alignment checks, no visualizations, no pre-shot routine whatsoever.  I see this all the way up to putting.  I don't play slow, but I do take my time.  Why not take a second to line up some writing on your golf ball with the putting line you want to roll the ball on?  So many golfers don't take the time to apply the mental aspect of swinging, hitting and scoring in golf to understand the impact this will have on the outcome of the shot.

For me, sticking to my pre-shot routine is paramount to executing each shot.  Playing with people I don't know makes me self-conscious about the "appearance" of taking too much time to hit a shot.  Therefore, I rush the shot and or the routine.  I can hit the ball like a pro on the driving range, but my mental lapse on the course is what's costing me anywhere from 3-6 strokes a round.

Who supposedly has the strongest mental game in golf?  TW.  Who's the number one golfer in the world?  TW.  Who's mental game has cost him at least two US Open's?  Phil.  Rory's mental game has cost him the number one spot and may have ruined his 2013 season.  Just saying, all these pro's are excellent ball strikers.  It's their mental mistakes that makes the difference.

Even a few years ago "Mental mistakes" would have been number 1 for me (and I don't think it was a close race). Way too many times my goal was to get as close as possible off of the tee and it rarely occurred to me that laying up might leave an easier shot from a level lie. I also made mental mistakes on certain flops and chips where I was making something hard out of something easy too many times.

I still ride that line between tee shots and mental mistakes and take some gambles, but I think tee shots are solidly number 1 now. When they are good the game is easy, and when they are bad it's a dogfight, but at least I think about where I want to hit my next shot from and don't mess up many short game opportunities.

Of course it can be argued (as Eric did) that better ball striking would take care of almost all of it, and I can't argue with that. I wasn't a very good ball striker then or now so I have to score with what I've got (unless I improve which isn't too likely).

[Peak2Creek]

Not focusing as much as I should. I play regularly with the same group and I'm typically lowest scorer. I need to put myself in situations where I get my ass kicked more often to get the competitive juices going.

[Roblar]

All of the above wasn't an option....  so I picked 'Trouble off the tee'.

[Golfingdad]

I voted "trouble off the tee" and it's really not close.  If I had a reliable driver (let's say mvmac reliable ;)) and changed nothing else, I'm pretty confident I would be no worse than about a 2 handicap.  And it's starting to get to the point where I'm developing a phobia of woods. :(  So it's like a never-ending downward spiral of suckitude:

Bad driving begets a lack of confidence in driving ... which begets worse driving ... which begets even lower confidence ... etc, etc.

One of these days I'm confident I'll work it out ... but in the meantime, I'm hitting a lot of 4 irons off the tee. :)

[Hacker James]

This is not easy to answer for me. Like a lot of people, I have different problems on different days. As has been stated numerous times, sometimes I can drive exceptionally well,(for my ability),  use fairway woods pretty good, but can not seem to hit an iron. Next time out, the exact opposite.  As far as scoring goes, I would have to say not hitting that many GIR, but on those occasions I write down a better score it is usually due to my having a good short game (for that day), or a lot of 1 or 2 putts.  I seldom reach a green in 2, but not always because of distance. Accuracy comes into play or hitting out of trouble. I notice this most often after hitting a good drive, that the next shot is "wasted" maybe because of anxiety to "do it again", rush myself, or whatever. I find that on those occasions I am waiting for the group on the green to clear, if the wait is not excessive, it gives me pause and time to settle down and I can usually pull off a decent shot. I used to shoot better when I walked as it gave me time to visualize the next shot better. Nowadays I find I am too fatigued and probably need to ride. Age seems to slow one down a bit. (under statement).  I am trying to employ better course strategy these days and even use backwards club selection, such as wedge or mid iron to start, followed by longer iron or wood even depending on how a particular hole is set up. A couple of times, I even elected to use a "1" iron from the fairway much to the puzzled looks on others, only because for some reason or another, "It felt right".  Although.........there were times I regretted that decision.  I guess its like the proverbial "blind squirrel".

[PirateJim]

I chose #1, missing the green "badly" so an up and down becomes too problematic.  When this happens it is surely a matter of poor ball-striking in the final analysis, and of course means I'm not making GIR as IACAS suggested.

Originally Posted by MS256

......

I'm just not sure they know that the reason they shot a 95 was that they didn't know when to lay up, and when it's worth a risk to go for it.

I am still working on my accuracy with my long irons, hybrids and fairways, but there currently are a lot of holes where I choose to lay up with a seven iron and have a nice pitch to the green from the fairway rather than risking one of the nasty hooks that my hybrids spring on me from time to time.  If I hit the green with that hybrid, I'm likely to still be faced with a long lag putt.  If I miss the green, the best case scenarios leave me no better off than I would be laying up, and the scenarios get worse fast since there is both water and deep rough/OB nearby to many greens where I play. You never get to put for a birdie that way, but par is pretty doable.

[Meltdwhiskey]

Yeah, as most have said it is a combo of 1 and 2.  I voted tee shot - which is maybe not entirely true.  I actually hit a bunch of fairways, but it is probably because I tee off with a hybrid most of the time.  Sometimes 3-wood, never driver - don't even carry one.

So this often leaves me with a 4 or 5 iron approach shot.  Bogey golfers don't green many from 4-iron distance.  So while it would seem that #2 is actually happening - which it is - it is really set up more by sacrificing tee distance in favor of accuracy.

Having said that - leaving the driver at home has been the best thing I ever did for my scoring.  A good drive might shave a stroke, but a bad one can add three.