Please help analyze my round

[sonicblue]

A sand save is where you did NOT get a GIR, but still make par.

Your fairways are very good, just under the median PGA mark. Your GIR isn't unusual for your handicap level, which means - as you've already focused on - short game, short game, short game. Here's what I would recommend as a "going-forward mindset":

* Control your tee game: hitting fairways, IMO, is tougher than you think. The margin for error with long clubs isn't much, but the key is to keep them playable. The way to do this is to play within yourself! Don't cut angles, try to shape shots, etc... that you aren't likely to pull off. Play your ball flight, find a good place to land it with that ball flight.

* Greens are good, near greens are good, too: Check your ego in the clubhouse! Take more club when necessary, aim for the side away from the pin, etc.... You are NOT going to throw darts at the pins, so just catch green anyway you can. Again, though, keep your expectations, and your plan, within your realistic reach.

* Greenside game: I've said it once, I'll say it again, when you're around the green, make a plan to make the shot! Envision a realistic, uncomplicated shot that can reach, and make it in the hole. Similar to putts, why would you plan to only lag it within X feet or such! The result will be many more makeable putts to save your par.

* Putts: notice how you hit more greens but had fewer putts. However, since you had no up/downs, I suspect that is from spending more strokes getting to the green, so those fewer putts didn't get you pars. BUT, keep it up. Use my "greenside" tips above, and keep focus on putts. I really believe that many amateurs - I'm getting better, but still need help - envision their putts outside of, say, 10' to "just get close." The person who can overhaul their mindset to truly believe they can make every putt will see 3-4 strokes vanish, and that doesn't take swing changes, distance, nothing.

[cbe_golfer]

$2,
I think we are at the same place on this golf journey. These days, I make at least one birdie a round too.
Yesterday, I started birdie bogey par par..four putts in four holes..then i had a blow up hole.
As the next Hogan! said, I think GIRs are THE thing. And the other thing..for me at least is to keep my drives in play. I have to avoid that pitch back to the fairway/ 150 yard marker. Nice thread.

[$2 Nassau]

I can compare this easily with my game. I have about the same Driving acc. % and twice as good GIR %. And the putts per round is about the same. But here's the interesting thing, I get it up and down about 60% of the times that I missed the green and you've got 0%. I shoot arround 68-78.

It's funny b/c I used to think I had a pretty good short game, but that was just compared to the rest of my game. Now that my long game is starting coming around, it's easy to see that my short game isn't quite as hot as I thought it was.

I analyzed my round a little deeper...I had 5 chances to get up and down for a par. Very reasonable chances...i.e. approach shot just barely missed the green leaving me a fairly easy chip. Not once did I really put the ball close enough to the hole to give me a good chance at par. The result...no up and downs. I know what I'll be working on in the future.

[$2 Nassau]

A sand save is where you did NOT get a GIR, but still make par.

Thanks for the response, I'm going to take this to heart, especially the part about trying to make all shots around the green. I still have that mindset of when I was a 25+ handicap of just trying to get the ball on the green, anywhere. Usually I don't even "make a plan" to get the ball to the hole, I just try to get it around the hole....typically I leave most chips well short.

[nykfan4life]

i'm no expert, and i am a 28 handicap, and despite what you might think, i'm not to terrible greenside, its just ball striking that kills me, but i got very good short game advice from the tour pro at my course, he said that you should never leave green and grenside shots short, and you should always go for the pin. It is always better to hit it a bit faster and play more break than to play little break and leave it short.

knocked me down to about 2-3 3 putts a game

[TheNextBen]

i'm no expert, and i am a 28 handicap, and despite what you might think, i'm not to terrible greenside, its just ball striking that kills me, but i got very good short game advice from the tour pro at my course, he said that you should never leave green and grenside shots short, and you should always go for the pin.

Hmm, that's not true. It's always better to play the perfect speed with the perfect break.

If you're gonna play more break then what's necessary, you'll have to put less speed on it. And if you're gonna play more speed than what's necessary, you'll have to play less break for it to have a chance to go in the hole, or get close. It probably helped you to think "play more break" because it's known that pretty much everyone always play too little break and the subconsciousness makes you pull it or push it closer to the actual break.

[sonicblue]

Thanks for the response, I'm going to take this to heart, especially the part about trying to make all shots around the green. I still have that mindset of when I was a 25+ handicap of just trying to get the ball on the green, anywhere. Usually I don't even "make a plan" to get the ball to the hole, I just try to get it around the hole....typically I leave most chips well short.

You're on the right path then. It's amazing when you truly think about

: how many times do you have a little chip from the front of the green - say 40-50 feet total - and we get over the ball, and there really isn't a good thought in our head! We're probably thinking, "gee, should I putt so I don't chunk it?" Or "Golf Digest said to use 7I on this shot, so I am." Few of us stand there, with the selected club, and say to ourselves, "I want this to land there , release, and roll into the hole." I still find myself, after a shot, saying, "dummy, you didn't even think about your goal, you just 'hit a ball.'" My scrambling has been AWFUL lately, even though I've been driving the ball very well, and hitting lots of good irons near greens, my scoring has gone nowhere. Conversely, a few months ago, I was kinda spraying everything, but keeping a great greenside mindset, and scoring pretty well. I've let my better ball-striking go completely unrewarded because I slacked on my short game. Let me be a lesson, campers!

[nykfan4life]

Hmm, that's not true. It's always better to play the perfect speed with the perfect break.

i didnt mean that you should play too much break, i meant there always is more than you think, and playing too much break leaves you in a better spot than playing to little break most of the time and speed-wise, almost every mid to high handicapper(and even lower) leaves everthing missed too short.

[Paladin]

I just wanted to encourage you on a really good round and tell you how much I've enjoyed reading the replies. This entire thread helped me because you are where I'm trying get to! I'm a 19.5 handicap that didn't break 90 in September, albeit, I did a couple times during the summer. I can see from your numbers where I'm coming up short and the advice you received either applies to me or will at some point. This is why I like this site so much - experienced golfers willing to share. Thanks for the great topic.

I'm doing OK on my fairways but greens in regulation are just killing me because of my lack of distance. I average almost 6 double bogeys a round and that is hard to overcome trying to get into the 80's.

Paladin

[silliwilli]

You're on the right path then. It's amazing when you truly think about

a Rotella fan?

[$2 Nassau]

I just wanted to encourage you on a really good round and tell you how much I've enjoyed reading the replies. This entire thread helped me because you are where I'm trying get to! I'm a 19.5 handicap that didn't break 90 in September, albeit, I did a couple times during the summer. I can see from your numbers where I'm coming up short and the advice you received either applies to me or will at some point. This is why I like this site so much - experienced golfers willing to share. Thanks for the great topic.

I just recently started to break 90 with semi-regularity. A couple months ago I was a 17+ handicap shooting mostly low 90's, then suddenly things began to click, mostly with my iron game and my scores began to drop. I wouldn't consider myself a good iron player by any means but my misses have been more manageable lately....so now I need to bring my short game up to speed to turn some of those misses into pars and bogeys instead of bogeys and doubles.

When you say you lack distance, what do you mean? Off the tee, with irons, both? I bet you're really not as short as you think you are compared to most golfers, just guessing. Are you playing from the appropriate tees when you play? If you can consistently put the ball in the fairway I bet you can break 90 consistently.

[sonicblue]

a Rotella fan?

Haven't read any of his stuff, but I plan to. See my thread on the "Vision 54" folks, and

Every Shot Must Have a Purpose. The bottom line is, I thought a "good mental game" just meant, hey, think positive, don't get down on yourself after a bad shot, you can do it. In reality, it's much deeper, but more simple than that at the same time. I'll tell another story about when I started to finally get this: watching Playing Lessons from the Pros with Colin Montgomerie. He had a pitch from about 50 yards or so, over a bunker, IIRC. He was talking on camera about things to watch out for, his landing spot, etc.... Then, almost too quickly, he said, "ok, so here we go," and just swung. No details about ball position, opening the face, stiff left wrist, nothing. Watching that, you could tell that 95% of his task at that point was just making the plan. Obviously, we amateurs needs to spend a bit more additional time on the swing stuff, but I believe we tend to do so instead of on the plan, as opposed to in addition to the plan.

[Diggitydog]

a Rotella fan?

Not sure if that's a dig on Sonicblue for working on positive thinking but more people than Bob Rotella will tell you that positive thinking will create better outcomes than negative thinking. Even thinking things like "I don't want to hit it right, or don't want to hit it in the bunker" Those thoughts will create negative energy. It's crucial for success to think about what you actually want to do, not the stuff you don't.

Beth Daniel was on TGC last night doing a playing lesson, last thought she wants in her mind before hitting is the target. She was about to hit a shot and the water on her left came into her mind, she backed off and refocused. I've been working on trusting my instincts on shots, trust that my mind can make my body do the things it needs to mechanically, just think about the target and results.

[blue_crush]

Fairways hit: 4/13 = 31%
GIR: 4/18 = 22%
Up and Downs: 4 (I think this is good, normally get only about 2 of these)
Sand save: 1 **
Putts: 33

well if this were my card I would work on my driver a little
as you only hit 4 out of 13 fairways... getting it a little staighter will help a little. the big one I see is the greens missed, only 4 GIR and that counts for par 3 too so I would mark my card next time as to the club that missed the greens and from what distances and was it right/left. that right there can get you another 4-9 strokes as I see it. your putts were 33, so to me that is a 1.8% which is good. if you hit just more greens in reg, now your in the hunt... so keep track of the mid/short iron shots and pratice them and your driver and I'd say your on your way....thats my take on it