Interesting (non-golf) article about the difference between pros and amateurs

Stumbled on this article this morning, and the parallels with golf jumped out at me straight away

http://www.raptitude.com/2018/05/where-success-leaks/

This passage in particular stood out (the article is talking about tennis)

 

When pros meet, matches are decided mostly by a slight edge one player has over the other—in speed, awareness, or some other highly-trained quality. Their rallies go back and forth, both players knowing where they need to be, until one player puts the ball just beyond the other’s stroke. Pro players have all the fundamental elements mastered, and they win by being slightly better than their opponent at one or more of them.

 

When amateurs meet, they don’t edge each other out by being slightly more skillful. Instead, it’s a contest of who makes the fewest huge, gaping blunders. Amateurs constantly make egregious point- and game-losing mistakes, of the sort that pros no longer make. The outcome is decided by who makes the fewest—or least catastrophic—such mistakes.

 

...

 

Everyone’s strategy, therefore—whether you want to win more amateur matches, or graduate to professional status—should be to identify and eliminate these big, costly rookie blunders, one by one. This is far more effective than getting quicker, hitting harder, or making that one brilliant shot now and then.

 

In your mind, what the most common "egregious" mistakes that you see amateurs make that are costly every single round? Even as a relatively low handicap things like missing the green with a chip/pitch, turning a bogey into a double+ after a bad drive by going for the hero shot seem to get happen at least once a round.

Those who have made a big shift in your games, what did you change to avoid these big blunders from hijacking every round?

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

One huge mistake I see with high handicap amateurs (including myself) is compounding errors and misunderstanding risk. The big one for me was penalties. Hitting a ball OB off of the tee (or any stroke and distance penalty) is a major mistake. Compared to hitting in a bunker which is a minor mistake. A better player sees the bunker fairway left and OB line fairway right and knows to play towards missing near the bunker. A high hcp sees both and is scared of both so tries to play dead center, but fails to take the major mistake out of play.

When I was shooting 100+, I realized that I was losing 4-6 balls a round, frequently off the tee. Getting better off the tee ( improving my skills) and thinking more about the proper line to take ( improving my decisions) is what moved me from a 95-105 player to an 82-92 player.

Another big one I see in myself is misclubbing. I’m one of those players that will hit 8-10 fairways but only hit 2 greens let round. Sitting 150 out in the fairway I used to always pull the same club every time and usually choosing based on “that one time I hit it perfectly”. I’ve focused now on taking the extra club to ensure I get there. If I pure one and it’s long, then so be it. Understanding the “shotgun” distribution approach to selecting lines and clubs has really change how I approach the course. I’m still in that 82-92 range, but as I’ve been making better choices and working specifically on ball striking with short and mid irons, I feel like I’m nearing another one of those big performance improvements again. I just need to trust my swing changes more in the course.

I agree with you in your point about things like missing the green from a green side pitch. There’s zero reason even a high handicapper should miss a 4000 sq ft green from 20 yards away. I think a lot of that comes from unreasonable expectations. We see tour pros hit to 3 feet and then get cute trying to pull off magic.

Nonsense.

Almost all sports comes down to who makes the most mistakes, or makes the mistake at the worst time.

Thrawn: "Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake, Ensign?"

Colclazure: "No, sir."

Thrawn: "Anyone can make an error, Ensign. But that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." [points at Pietersen, Rukh kills him] "Dispose of it. The error, Ensign, has now been corrected. You may begin training a replacement."