Stop Aiming at the Flag!!! #DeadCenter

[FooFader]

This aiming for the centre of the green stuff is very interesting and i shall be employing this on my next round. I know i am culprit to thinking im better than i am. For my next round my sole aim is going to be to try and hit as many greens as possible, and on some holes playing conservatively and make sure i get away with a bogey rather than doubles and worse due to penalty shots. Looking forward to whether after five rounds with this mentality i can drop a few shots

[mvmac]

This aiming for the centre of the green stuff is very interesting and i shall be employing this on my next round. I know i am culprit to thinking im better than i am. For my next round my sole aim is going to be to try and hit as many greens as possible, and on some holes playing conservatively and make sure i get away with a bogey rather than doubles and worse due to penalty shots. Looking forward to whether after five rounds with this mentality i can drop a few shots

Keep us updated and let us know how it goes. Hearing lots of good things from people that are starting to employ this strategy.

[RandallT]

OT but I didn't want to create a new topic on just this: Wednesday night (March 12), Martin Hall's "School of Golf" show will be all about golf statistics relating to lowering scores at various levels. (Pro, club, weekend golfers). Mark Broadie (who apparently invented strokes gained putting) will discuss other measurements similar to strokes gained putting, but for aspects throughout the course. I imagine he will cover things similar to this topic here where you can statistically measure where you can improve scores with better strategy.

[cuzcapri]

got out on the course yesterday and even though i'm suffering from a shoulder injury, and wasn't hitting that long this helped me keep my score down

[FooFader]

Keep us updated and let us know how it goes. Hearing lots of good things from people that are starting to employ this strategy.

so i managed to get a round in yesterday and aiming for the middle of the green i hit 4 greens which is kind of around my average. That said my missed greens were down to poor tee shot leaving myself in tricky positions for approaches. Also averaging 2.2 putts per hole really hindered scoring well.... looking forward to seeing if my GIR% increases over 5 rounds though, i feel like it probably will

[KyleAnthony]

i will be trying this tuesday for sure. i'll post up how well it helped me

[JP golf]

Keep in mind, by aiming at the center of the green, that means playing for your ball to end up in the center of the green...  My target (final resting spot) may be the center of the green but to account for my fade, I may "aim" a little off the left side of the green and play for my fade to end up center green...

May be a bit of semantics but you get the overall idea...  It's simply saying don't go pin seeking.  Don't just "aim" at the center of the green, play your ball flight and ball to end in the center of the green.  Overall concept is great advice to not go for the flag as many times it results in missed greens, failed up & downs, and scores over par

[mvmac]

Keep in mind, by aiming at the center of the green, that means playing for your ball to end up in the center of the green...  My target (final resting spot) may be the center of the green but to account for my fade, I may "aim" a little off the left side of the green and play for my fade to end up center green...

May be a bit of semantics but you get the overall idea...  It's simply saying don't go pin seeking.  Don't just "aim" at the center of the green, play your ball flight and ball to end in the center of the green.  Overall concept is great advice to not go for the flag as many times it results in missed greens, failed up & downs, and scores over par

Correct, that was mentioned earlier in the thread. All golfers curve it to some degree so you aim the face slightly right or left of the center of the green (depending on your pattern).

[mdl]

So I've fully committed to this strategy, basically only going for the pin with my 60˚, or another club on the still pretty rare occasions when I use some other club for a shot shorter than my full 54˚ (102-108 yards, depending on weather conditions and my swing that day).  Haven't gotten to play a ton recently, and doing some major swing changes, but results have been good.  My miss with my short irons these days is a pull, sometimes a pull-draw, and my good shots tend to go almost dead straight, sometimes a baby draw.  So basically I've been aiming all short irons at the middle right of the green.  I've saved a bunch of GIRs this way already.

A good example from this Sunday.  Short par 3, 148 yards, pin a bit left of center.  Take my 9i, aim standard amount right of center green, so a good bit right of the flag.  Hit a good looking shot but with a significant pull and am just on the green by a couple feet cause I didn't shift my aim at all left with the left-center flag.  2-putt par.  Was putting very poorly Sunday, so even with a bunch of solid but not super awesome pitches to 4-8 feet (and one 295 yard drive to 6 feet!) I didn't get up and down or 1-putt once.  If I'd aimed 6-8 feet further left I would have been off the fringe and unable to putt and I almost surely would've bogeyed the hole even with what would have been about as easy an up-and-down chance as you can get.

[Unforgiven93]

I agree with this strategy for the most part...

The only problem I have with it is aiming for the center of the green on nearly every shot seems like you're acknowledging to your brain that a miss is possible, and everything I've ever read says that you need to have pure confidence that the ball is going to go where you are aiming... but that is nit-picky and won't make any difference for most golfers.

So in conclusion, if you're a really good golfer, I think it is a good idea to be 100% confident that you are going to hit the center of the green if you decide the center of the green is the best strategic play.  Pick a strategy and commit to it completely.  Don't aim at the center of the green because you're scared you may hit the ball poorly, aim at the center of the green because you know it will make your score lower in the end.

[saevel25]

I agree with this strategy for the most part...

The only problem I have with it is aiming for the center of the green on nearly every shot seems like you're acknowledging to your brain that a miss is possible, and everything I've ever read says that you need to have pure confidence that the ball is going to go where you are aiming... but that is nit-picky and won't make any difference for most golfers.

So in conclusion, if you're a really good golfer, I think it is a good idea to be 100% confident that you are going to hit the center of the green if you decide the center of the green is the best strategic play.  Pick a strategy and commit to it completely.  Don't aim at the center of the green because you're scared you may hit the ball poorly, aim at the center of the green because you know it will make your score lower in the end.

I think your brain acknowledges that no matter what. I mean some people might think they are better than they are and say, "I can aim at every pin all day long". In reality, everyone knows were they miss it. You see it in their golf swing. Player have built in tendencies to stop a miss.

Honestly this might actually IMPROVE the self esteem of golfers. If they hit more greens, score better, ALL POSITIVE actions. I think its a benefit. Really what you might be talking about is a golfer's pride. Which has nothing to do with how they score.

[Unforgiven93]

Yeah, I can see what you're saying.  What I was trying to say is not that people shouldn't do this, just that when they are doing it, they should think about it in a specific way.  I think it would help lower scores even more.

I know I'm not accurate enough from 100 yards to pin hunt all the time...

[mvmac]

I agree with this strategy for the most part...

The only problem I have with it is aiming for the center of the green on nearly every shot seems like you're acknowledging to your brain that a miss is possible, and everything I've ever read says that you need to have pure confidence that the ball is going to go where you are aiming... but that is nit-picky and won't make any difference for most golfers.

So in conclusion, if you're a really good golfer, I think it is a good idea to be 100% confident that you are going to hit the center of the green if you decide the center of the green is the best strategic play.  Pick a strategy and commit to it completely.  Don't aim at the center of the green because you're scared you may hit the ball poorly, aim at the center of the green because you know it will make your score lower in the end.

Hi, yes confidence is important and tend to agree with @saevel25 that using this strategy will make a player more confident.

Even the best players in the world don't aim at every flag, so when they are playing to the safe side (what they might call it) of the green they are "acknowledging" that a miss is possible.

[kaplack]

To all you "Center of the Green Always" unless you have a tour card; math strategy wonks. Does your distance decides every thing consider....

Does the Center of the green bring your ball a lot closer to a pond, OB, dense tree line or foot high rough?

And even if your ball ends up exactly in the center, will you have a super slick double breaking downhill putt with a six foot break.

[Abu3baid]

To all you "Center of the Green Always" unless you have a tour card; math strategy wonks. Does your distance decides every thing consider.... Does the Center of the green bring your ball a lot closer to a pond, OB, dense tree line or foot high rough? And even if your ball ends up exactly in the center, will you have a super slick double breaking downhill putt with a six foot break.

I'm sorry, but I just couldn't follow the above! Are you saying that you don't like super slick double breaking putts? That would be tough, but what if it ends up in the pond and then the next one is in the first level if that extra slick double breaking green? I would rather be putting for birdi rather than putting for bogy, don't you agree?

[kaplack]

Yeah Abu, you sure didn't follow!

[mdl]

I can't resist.

Originally Posted by kaplack

[1] To all you "Center of the Green Always" unless you have a tour card; math strategy wonks. Does your distance decides every thing consider....

[2] Does the Center of the green bring your ball a lot closer to a pond, OB, dense tree line or foot high rough?

[3] And even if your ball ends up exactly in the center, will you have a super slick double breaking downhill putt with a six foot break.

If you read the thread, you'd see that for [1] this advice is more often talking about left/right aim, not front/back.  The general advice is aim for pin high except on flags tucked short or long, then aim for a bit closer to center of the green distance wise.

Also, if you read the thread, considerations in [2] obviously play a big role.  If you've got a left flag with an easy bail out left but water hugging the whole front and right of the green, then you probably want to go flag hunting cause that's the smart play.

The main point of this thread is basically that the intuition behind [3] is flat out wrong.  Almost not matter how hard a putt is, you'll successfully 2-putt (or 1-putt) a much higher percentage of the time than you'll get up and down.  Even the pros only get up and down from just off the fringe in the 75-80% range.  Even with a super hard putt you're kidding yourself if you think you can't beat your up and down percentage with your avoiding more than 2 putts percentage.

[Golfingdad]

If you read the thread, you'd see that for [1] this advice is more often talking about left/right aim, not front/back.  The general advice is aim for pin high except on flags tucked short or long, then aim for a bit closer to center of the green distance wise.

Also, if you read the thread, considerations in [2] obviously play a big role.  If you've got a left flag with an easy bail out left but water hugging the whole front and right of the green, then you probably want to go flag hunting cause that's the smart play.

The main point of this thread is basically that the intuition behind [3] is flat out wrong.  Almost not matter how hard a putt is, you'll successfully 2-putt (or 1-putt) a much higher percentage of the time than you'll get up and down.  Even the pros only get up and down from just off the fringe in the 75-80% range.  Even with a super hard putt you're kidding yourself if you think you can't beat your up and down percentage with your avoiding more than 2 putts percentage.