Lessons Learned While Playing

[DrvFrShow]

Share what lessons you've learned while playing. Breaking 100 is the first milestone in golf. Shooting 90 is the second. I've done it before. I've broken 90. I shot a 43 on the back 9 of this round which tied my PB. And the way my back was feeling it was a bloody miracle. I could have beaten it if I didn't 3 putt 17. That said I shot a 90. I had 6 pars and a birdie. What does that tell you about the rest of the round? Yesterday I learned how bad one plays to shoot 90. I once celebrated this as a job well done, but the way I played yesterday took the blinders off. A par is three lousy shots and a putt, and if you miss the putt you get a bogey. Shooting 90 is a mindset - get it on the green. Up and down for par. But you know you'll be too far away from the flag to pull off that. So after your tee shot went awry, you go into the mindset of "this just turned into a par 5." Get it on the green, two putt, and move on, and a few times I bogeyed that for a DB, and then it snowed in June. I learned nothing new - my ball striking was terrible, but I kept grinding. So... that's how bad one plays to shoot a 90. 

I guess I should be happy about getting 6 pars and birdie. Don't get me wrong. This was liberating. 

Over 18 holes: 2 FIRs 💩; 7 GIRs; 37 putts (or 36 if you are going to split hairs and call that one use of the putter from the fringe on the 4th hole a chip rather than a putt).

But it was a nice day. In the 80s and sunny. Can't beat that, can you? 

I'd be interested in hearing from those who are getting to their milestones. 

[dennyjones]

1 hour ago, DrvFrShow said:

I guess I should be happy about getting 6 pars and birdie. Don't get me wrong. This was liberating. 

Over 18 holes: 2 FIRs 💩; 7 GIRs;

You should be celebrating.    Each time you achieve at least this it becomes easier.   But continue to focus on the basics.   That's what will get you the GIR and pars.

 

One of many lessons I've learned while playing was to trust the club to do for what it was designed.   It doesn't need my help, I just need to make sure to put it in a position to achieve.   

One shot at a time.  Forget the previous shot, good or bad.

I've learned that Aimpoint has helped me significantly reading greens.   I took a lesson to learn Aimpoint but it didn't come to fruition until I started using it while playing.  I still am a work in progress but reading greens almost seems easy.

Of course I'm still learning from Erik and Dave's book and videos "Lowest Score Wins" plus the 30 day Covid-19 challenge  

[DrvFrShow]

One thing I learned from LSW was about sucker pins and going for the fat part of the green. I haven't taken aimpoint, but I get the idea. I'm pretty good at reading how a green breaks. Yesterday I had a number that were "I thought that was going to go" but it missed by a couple inches, but I left myself a 3' coming back. Good thing I can make those. I need to put some time in on lagging and putting. On my full swing, I need to work on not coming in too shallow and trying to save the shot which ends up in a disastrous hook... because if I don't save it, it ends up in a block. But the driving ranges just opened a couple weeks ago, so that's something I can work on.

[shanksalot]

The most important thing I learned was game management. I hit a lot of fairways, but I no longer have the distance to hit all the greens. I learned how to managed this problem by trial and error. If I know I can't reach the green in regulation I decide where the best place is to lay up. I don't  hit it as far as I can unless there is no hazards or bunkers in play. Then I try not to hit a hero shot anymore as it leads to trouble most of the time. I try to hit the green on most short shots and not try to always hit it close unless I know it is safe to do that. I rarely play aggressively and just try to get the ball on the green in the fewest shots as possible while avoided the big number. I can't hit more than 4/5 greens in regulation these days, but I still can shoot in the 80's. 

[Shindig]

One of the key lessons, to me at least, of Erik's "no sixes" challenge isn't that a round where you shoot 5 on every hole is good for everyone.  The lesson is that someone of a mid-teens handicap or better should be able to take advantage of the par 5s ("advantage" here means par, not that you need to birdie all of them or anything), not put up a big score on a par-4, and should remember that par-3s are hard.