Low-Event vs. High-Event Players

[iacas]

There's a whole thread there, so please click that link and read it.

Good golf is often boring golf.

Give yourself birdie putts and shorter par putts from nGIR and you'll be a good golfer.

[Bonvivant]

Does this translate the same for higher handicap players? I think that over the last 2 years my to-par variance has gone down. Carding fewer doubles and worse than before, but maybe not making quite as many pars or bogeys.

[iacas]

3 hours ago, Bonvivant said:

Does this translate the same for higher handicap players? I think that over the last 2 years my to-par variance has gone down. Carding fewer doubles and worse than before, but maybe not making quite as many pars or bogeys.

Yes.

Especially older golfers who can’t always reach greens. Bogeys and pars are good and steady for them.

[billchao]

I think I’m a fairly low event golfer. I’m just not good. I don’t make a lot of birdies and I don’t have too many blow up holes, either. Most of my bad holes are the result of a single bad shot, usually off the tee.

[Bonvivant]

10 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yes.

Especially older golfers who can’t always reach greens. Bogeys and pars are good and steady for them.

I'm a very short hitter for my age (31 and only 220ish off the tee), so it is good to know I am on the right track. I really need to gain distance though. When I don't hit down on the ball and low on the face, my drives are around 250, but I have a hard time keeping that in the bag when I am playing and not practicing much. Obviously this is a flaw in my game, but I don't have tons of time, and like playing so much that it is hard to take a range day instead of a round.

2 minutes ago, billchao said:

I think I’m a fairly low event golfer. I’m just not good. I don’t make a lot of birdies and I don’t have too many blow up holes, either. Most of my bad holes are the result of a single bad shot, usually off the tee.

Cool to see someone's results on this.

[djake]

23 minutes ago, billchao said:

I think I’m a fairly low event golfer. I’m just not good. I don’t make a lot of birdies and I don’t have too many blow up holes, either. Most of my bad holes are the result of a single bad shot, usually off the tee.

Please stop saying your not good.  Ok.  You are an above average Golfer, that means you ARE good.

Golf is one massive psychological war.  Win that war @billchao and you will experience fewer and fewer of those blow up holes

[jamo]

If I had to guess, I'd say that my numbers aren't quite that extreme (I don't often make 5+ birdies in a round, certainly not enough to establish a trend), but I probably have the same trend. When I shoot around or under par, it's usually just because I made a huge amount of pars and peppered in a birdie or two. 

(As I'm typing this, I'm realizing my numbers are probably just a few strokes higher across the board, rather than less extreme.)

[saevel25]

When my short game is going good then I am definitely a low event golfer. I can go on a stretch of 8-9 pars in a row that is very boring golf. 

 

[billchao]

4 hours ago, djake said:

Please stop saying your not good.  Ok.  You are an above average Golfer, that means you ARE good.

Nah. Mediocre at best. I’m decent on my good days.

4 hours ago, djake said:

Golf is one massive psychological war.  Win that war @billchao and you will experience fewer and fewer of those blow up holes

I can’t agree with this. I have some mental lapses when I’m aiming too far right and don’t realize it, but it’s 95% execution for me. The swing goes awry, the ballstriking goes south, and then bogey is the best case scenario.

[HJJ003]

I’m a mid event golfer lol. I am actually a recovering high event golfer that is learning to make better decisions and actually utilize my shot zones instead of just talking about it...still work to do but I look at my bets rounds over the last year or so and yeah most people would say that was boring golf. I need more boring. 

[djake]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Nah. Mediocre at best. I’m decent on my good days.

I can’t agree with this. I have some mental lapses when I’m aiming too far right and don’t realize it, but it’s 95% execution for me. The swing goes awry, the ballstriking goes south, and then bogey is the best case scenario.

I understand.  Lost the last 2 years of golf and now, when it gets ugly it gets real ugly. 

The alignment is off when I crush one.  The alignment is on and the swing is off.  I can't string enough good shots together on a hole.

Par 3, knock it on the green then 3 putt.

Par 5, great Drive, great 2nd shot 50 yard wedge in and blam 40 yards into a trap.

Bad drive bad 2nd shot great Wedge play and putting.

Taking lessons again and practicing non stop. Scores are sky rocketing but I am still really enjoying playing. 

Well thank you @billchao for letting dump that in your lap.  I enjoy your thoughts on this site 

[Shindig]

I strive to be a low event player -- this is what the #DeadCenter rule helps me with.  I hit 9 GIR + 2 fringes in my round today, shot an 81 (good for a 9.9 differential;  for reference, that's 2-3 below my handicap).  My one birdie was a poor approach:  I had a forward pin, added some yardage for purposes of choosing a club, and then hit it a little poorly, resulting in the ball finishing right near the pin for a short birdie attempt, which I made. 

I've had two rounds in my life with three birdies (and never had more) -- one was I think a 90, and I was already in the low teens as  handicap so that wasn't a great score.  My other was my first ever sub-80 round, but I know I wasn't aiming at pins that day -- I got lucky a few times with approaches finishing near pins and I ran in a long one at one point. 

I wonder if, on the PGA Tour, birdies on non-par5s have any correlation with scoring.  

[Big C]

Intuitively, this makes no sense whatsoever. And unlike some things that seem surprising at first glance, but come together once you start to dig a bit deeper, I am having trouble connecting the dots on this. 

This Coach is saying that as his players' total number of birdies increases, their scores also rise? Is this just an anecdotal comment, or does he have actual data to back it up?

[iacas]

Actual data. Did you read the whole Twitter thread? There are several posts.

[boogielicious]

15 hours ago, jamo said:

If I had to guess, I'd say that my numbers aren't quite that extreme (I don't often make 5+ birdies in a round, certainly not enough to establish a trend), but I probably have the same trend. When I shoot around or under par, it's usually just because I made a huge amount of pars and peppered in a birdie or two. 

(As I'm typing this, I'm realizing my numbers are probably just a few strokes higher across the board, rather than less extreme.)

You play very smart and I’ve rarely seen you get worse than bogey.

[Shindig]

8 hours ago, Big C said:

Intuitively, this makes no sense whatsoever. And unlike some things that seem surprising at first glance, but come together once you start to dig a bit deeper, I am having trouble connecting the dots on this. 

Look at it this way:  suppose you played a round of golf optimizing for number of birdies (not total score).  I would bet you're capable of choosing an approach shot strategy on every hole that gives you the best chance of birdie -- in most cases, this is probably aiming at the pin and, if you pull it off, leaving yourself a short putt. 

I would also bet that your score for the round would be higher than your usual -- you'd find yourself in trouble positions when, had you been optimizing for score, you'd have picked a different line for the approach and ended up on the green away from the pin.

Yesterday I had my third-best differential ever with an 81 (differential 9.9).  9 GIRs + 2 fringes definitely played into it that score.   Two of my birdie putt attempts were from within 15' :  one was from hitting a half wedge for my third shot on a par-5 and the other was from aiming for the middle of the green, hitting the ball worse than my usual, and it ending up closer to the pin (which was forward).   I had several birdie attempts from outside of 30', averaging somewhere between 2 and 3 strokes to get down, better than I would likely have chipping.