Make them Match

[iacas]

I was looking over my stats and I saw this in the Scoring Averages table:

[pre]GIR Hit Even -0.11 -0.08 -0.08 -0.08
Missed GIR +0.50 +0.59 +0.59 +0.61 +0.63[/pre]

The scores are for last round, last 5, 10, 20, and total.

Anyway, the simple thought is "if you can make those match, you'll shoot even par." It's kind of a "duh" moment, but it goes back to what Dave talks about in his 40/30/20/10 rule: GIR is supremely important.

I had a pretty lame round today. It was the worst 76 I may have ever shot... I hit about two shots the way I wanted. But the "bad" ones - the other 74 I guess - were "not too bad" - they were in the fairway or on the greens, and though my putts never went in, I had tap-ins for par on the 10 greens I hit and I made a few 4-8 footers for par on a few other holes.

You can make your GIR Hit and your Missed GIR numbers closer to each other by:
a) missing less greens
b) making more birdie putts
c) missing greens by smaller distances, on the correct (fat) sides, etc.

Pretty simple, and probably a dumb post that y'all will say "duh" to, but something that was at least post-worthy in my opinion.

[sam4msu]

I shot the best 98 today that I have ever hit!!! I sure do feel sorry for you shooting a lame 76. Not to sound like a jerk, but maybe you need to take a step back and learn to enjoy the game again. I hope I do not offend, that is not my purpose, but I would certainly give major body parts to shoot a "lame" 76 or 86 for that matter!!! I guess my time will come, I have only been playing for about 2 1/2 months.
Fairways and Greens
Sam

[Lomi]

Good job sam, I am in the same boat as you, I scored 106 a couple days ago, but I was playing pretty badly on the back 9 due to having worked a 9 hour day on my feet and it getting dark for the last 5 holes, could have probably broken 100. I have been playing just under 2 months myself :).

You running a blog like I am to plot your progress?

[muskegman]

I shot the best 98 today that I have ever hit!!! I sure do feel sorry for you shooting a lame 76. Not to sound like a jerk, but maybe you need to take a step back and learn to enjoy the game again. I hope I do not offend, that is not my purpose, but I would certainly give major body parts to shoot a "lame" 76 or 86 for that matter!!! I guess my time will come, I have only been playing for about 2 1/2 months.

Don't worry! Erik enjoys the game and part of the enjoyment he gets is being a stat cruncher. You want to improve, you've got to think about stuff like this.

[iacas]

Don't worry! Erik enjoys the game and part of the enjoyment he gets is being a stat cruncher. You want to improve, you've got to think about stuff like this.

Indeed. It is a lot of the fun...

Whether or not you shoot 76 or not is beside the point of this thread. The point of my post was to stress that hitting greens and making putts are important. They're the two easiest things you can do to make the scoring averages for hit greens and missed greens offset each other. It applies whether you're shooting 76 or 98 - if your driver is costing you a chance to go for the green, at any level, then the distance it gives you over your 3-wood or even your 3-iron isn't worth it. Missing greens in the right places matters. Proper club selection (pin high is rarely a bad place to miss) is important, and so on. These are all things you can learn, regardless of your current ability, to improve.

[iacas]

Another way of looking at it:
Suppose I average -0.2 when I hit the green and +0.5 when I miss.

To shoot par, I'd need to hit 2.5x as many greens as I miss (to make 0.2 balance 0.5). That's 13 greens per round, 72% GIR. Even Tour Pros don't hit 72% of their greens in regulation.

So they either make more birdie putts than -0.2 (1/5th of the time, which isn't too bad) or they minimize their Missed Green cost, +0.5 would be horrible on the Tour.

Again, really simple stuff, but a new way of looking at stats. I had a "horrible" lame round, I didn't hit shots at all how I wanted, and I took little satisfaction from that particular round of golf. Yet, in looking back, I am able to see how I did so well:

I hit ten greens - not bad at 56%. I got up and down 5 of 8 times, which minimized my "missed green" penalty, because I missed in relatively easy spots.

I hit the ball very poorly, but I managed to leave the ball in salvageable locations. And, again, whether you're shooting 76 or 106, that lesson applies to you.

[FAHooGolfs]

Not to sound like a jerk, but maybe you need to take a step back and learn to enjoy the game again. I hope I do not offend, that is not my purpose, but I would certainly give major body parts to shoot a "lame" 76 or 86 for that matter!!!

That's the great thing about golf... no matter how good you get, you're never satisfied. Trust me, when you get to the point of shooting 76 or 86, there will always be a part of you that's thrilled the first time it happens.... but after that, you start wondering "why can't I do better?" Until someone shoots an 18, I think that'll always be the case.

[sam4msu]

I certainly understand always wanting to get better, that is what drive me professionally and personally. I guess I was just "feeling my oats" the other day. Reading about your "bad" round of 76 just kind of made me feel silly for being proud of my 98!!! I guess we all do have to improve to keep having fun. By the way...what does the reference of "pin high" mean. Is it the pin physically at a higher elevation than the ball or is it the ball not going past the pin?

Thanks and sorry for the "negative" post.
Sam

[mgresh]

"pin high" is a linear term used in reference to the position of your ball relative to the hole i.e. not too long of the hole location and not to far short. So, at a point on the green near the hole from front to back. Hope that helps.

[iacas]

I certainly understand always wanting to get better, that is what drive me professionally and personally. I guess I was just "feeling my oats" the other day. Reading about your "bad" round of 76 just kind of made me feel silly for being proud of my 98!!! I guess we all do have to improve to keep having fun.

If I were you, I'd be proud of my 98 too! I just shot my first 71 a few days back (last week??). I was proud there too. You'll be proud each time you break a barrier or lower your personal best score.

Congrats.