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[Killa]

Well actually it wasn’t 3 shots OB but I played it like OB. One was a pulled 4 iron off the tee of a narrow hole that I pulled into actual OB. One was a topped 3 wood off the tee that still went about 150 to the fairway where I could still reach the green in two but because this was a practice round I decided to re-tee and hit my 3 wood again. I still played the first ball but it was a 5 iron to a protected green where I missed the green by 10 yards and it was a forest where I didn’t even bother looking for the ball. The third one was lost over the trees where there isn’t actual OB and if I were persistent enough and it wasn’t extremely hot (and if I played with someone) I might found it as well. But I only walked through pretty fast and gave up on the ball. So if it were a tournament I probably would’ve scored 2-3 shots less than I did today. 
 

But to answer your question - it depends - my biggest problem is that I don’t have a typical miss. With the driver it is probably 90% straight or slice, while with the longer irons (2,4,5) I might miss in any direction. I might hit the perfect draw with my 5 iron on one hole and slice it on the next. But today only one miss was with the driver the other two were long irons. 

[bweiss711]

11 minutes ago, Killa said:

Well actually it wasn’t 3 shots OB but I played it like OB. One was a pulled 4 iron off the tee of a narrow hole that I pulled into actual OB. One was a topped 3 wood off the tee that still went about 150 to the fairway where I could still reach the green in two but because this was a practice round I decided to re-tee and hit my 3 wood again. I still played the first ball but it was a 5 iron to a protected green where I missed the green by 10 yards and it was a forest where I didn’t even bother looking for the ball. The third one was lost over the trees where there isn’t actual OB and if I were persistent enough and it wasn’t extremely hot (and if I played with someone) I might found it as well. But I only walked through pretty fast and gave up on the ball. So if it were a tournament I probably would’ve scored 2-3 shots less than I did today. 
 

But to answer your question - it depends - my biggest problem is that I don’t have a typical miss. With the driver it is probably 90% straight or slice, while with the longer irons (2,4,5) I might miss in any direction. I might hit the perfect draw with my 5 iron on one hole and slice it on the next. But today only one miss was with the driver the other two were long irons. 

Whether or not it was real OB, isnt the point.  The point was just understanding the difference between your best hits with a club, and your typical hit with a club.  They aren't the same thing, and the higher you go in handicap, the further away from each other they become.  I'm not an expert here, and anything I say on the matter is coming straight out of LSW, for which I see you have the badge.  So it might be better to just revisit the first and third sections of that book. 

[Killa]

On 8/17/2020 at 10:07 PM, bweiss711 said:

Whether or not it was real OB, isnt the point.  The point was just understanding the difference between your best hits with a club, and your typical hit with a club.  They aren't the same thing, and the higher you go in handicap, the further away from each other they become.  I'm not an expert here, and anything I say on the matter is coming straight out of LSW, for which I see you have the badge.  So it might be better to just revisit the first and third sections of that book. 

Yes I know what you are saying but my miss is almost never hitting my 4 iron 190 yards instead of 205 but it’s either a pull or a slice that will usually then cost me stroke and distance. 
 

So I played 2x18 holes the past two days. The first one is shorter - 5500 yards from the men’s tees, much narrower so that the driver comes into play on maybe 5-6 holes, especially if you can carry it over 220 (I do) and can’t really shape it (and I can’t). I shot a 92. We played match play 2vs2 and I didn’t look at my score until the end. If I did I might have hit a couple of 5’ putts that I missed after we already lost two points on the holes. But that’s not the main point - the main point is that I started horrible (two really bad bounces followed by really bad decisions) on the first two holes. I was +7 after 2 holes. And then for the next 9 holes I was birdie, par, bogey, bogey, bogey, par, par, double, par. So  I was +4 over the next 9. Then another  loss of concentration and I added +7 on the next 3 holes. And then finished with +3 on the last 4 holes. So 5 holes for +14 and 12 holes for +7. 
 

And today it was pretty much the same. Finished with 95 on a 6200 yard course. 
 

This time around I started good and I was +1 going into the 7th hole. Then I hit my driver further than I thought I was able to hit and it just bounced into some bushes where we couldn’t find it. And after that my game completely fell apart. I carded a 10 on that par 5. Followed by two doubles and a tripple. So again a stretch of 4 disaster holes where I was +12. Ended with +9 on last 8. 

[uitar9]

I've learnt some things on the forum which has helped me get my handicap down 5.00 this year, from 23 to 18.

-Reducing doubles and triples will help me quicker than 1 birdie every third or fourth round.

-the white tees are my friend.

-I hit my driver anywhere from 185 to 205, including roll. Trying to fly the ball 150 over a hazard isn't going to happen. Trying to hit my second shot with a wood to a green 200 + yards away isn't going to happen...GIR + 1, is my friend.

-Hitting a stupid shot after a bad shot does not help my score