What does it take to break 70?

[PixlPutterman]

Well the patience paid off and what's funny is I still left 3 or 4 strokes on the course.....

 

 

[bortass]

45 minutes ago, PixlPutterman said:

Well the patience paid off and what's funny is I still left 3 or 4 strokes on the course.....

 

 

Congrats!

[Ty_Webb]

13 hours ago, PixlPutterman said:

Well the patience paid off and what's funny is I still left 3 or 4 strokes on the course.....

 

 

 Nice one!

 

I remember reading a story about a golf pro who went out one day to play a round at his course. He shot 29 round the front and then birdied 10. 11 and 12 were the two easiest holes on the course. He parred them both and felt like his chance to break 60 was gone. Then he holed his second shot on 13, birdied 14-17 and holed a wedge on the last for another eagle. Shot 57. At the time, I believe it was the lowest score ever on a regulation course and he only parred the two easiest holes. I doubt if anyone has ever walked off a golf course without pondering a shot or two that could have gone better. 

[PixlPutterman]

39 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

 Nice one!

 

I remember reading a story about a golf pro who went out one day to play a round at his course. He shot 29 round the front and then birdied 10. 11 and 12 were the two easiest holes on the course. He parred them both and felt like his chance to break 60 was gone. Then he holed his second shot on 13, birdied 14-17 and holed a wedge on the last for another eagle. Shot 57. At the time, I believe it was the lowest score ever on a regulation course and he only parred the two easiest holes. I doubt if anyone has ever walked off a golf course without pondering a shot or two that could have gone better. 

 

I didnt think it was going to happen until that eagle on 15. Stuffed a 7i from 178 to 2 feet.

[Obee]

6 hours ago, PixlPutterman said:

 

I didnt think it was going to happen until that eagle on 15. Stuffed a 7i from 178 to 2 feet.

So cool!!! Well done!!

[PixlPutterman]

I will say, the difference this time was more putts made. The rest of the round was similar to the last round where I shot 72. Just kept my cool and tried to play smart with out playing too conservative.

 

Having a driver I can finally trust off of the tee has been huge the second half of this year.

[Jtgavigan]

36 minutes ago, PixlPutterman said:

I will say, the difference this time was more putts made. The rest of the round was similar to the last round where I shot 72. Just kept my cool and tried to play smart with out playing too conservative.

 

Having a driver I can finally trust off of the tee has been huge the second half of this year.

Congrats! Funny how you say you have a driver you can trust but only hit 2 fairways. But, I know that feeling well because I think I hit 3 when shooting 71 earlier this year, but was never close to in trouble. 

 

Sometimes, fairways hit are just overrated. But, all things being equal, it is usually easier to control the ball into the green out of the short stuff.

[PixlPutterman]

36 minutes ago, Jtgavigan said:

Congrats! Funny how you say you have a driver you can trust but only hit 2 fairways. But, I know that feeling well because I think I hit 3 when shooting 71 earlier this year, but was never close to in trouble. 

 

Sometimes, fairways hit are just overrated. But, all things being equal, it is usually easier to control the ball into the green out of the short stuff.

Most all my missed fairways were just a few feet in the rough. And the rough at this course is like a fairway they didn't cut for a few extra days. Lol

 

I played the same course 2 weeks ago and shot par with 11 fairways...

Edited October 9, 2020 by PixlPutterman

[GoTime]

Crossfield cruising WRX for content

 

[PixlPutterman]

Ha good timing

[Artemicion]

What helped me a lot back in the day was playing easy shortish courses, and trying to make birdie on every single hole. On every birdie putt I just tried to hole it, and every time I missed the green I would try to hole it out from the rough/bunker/whatever, without thinking about the consequences.

 

It got my mind out of the whole 'just two putt this' or 'I hope I can get it up & down from here' to a more positive attitude, and the obvious bonus was that I got comfortable being well under par. 63 was the best I managed to shoot.

 

Obviously bringing it to a proper 7400 yard course was a whole different challenge altogether, but I felt the mindset helped me out especially when I was playing well.

[PixlPutterman]

Headed back out this week to see if I can repeat!

[Obee]

On 10/6/2020 at 6:59 AM, Ty_Webb said:

 

One thing Scott likes to say is being aggressive to your spots. On a 30 foot putt, that might very well mean being aggressive to the hole. 

 

I do hear what you're saying and I agree with it. Mindset to me makes a huge difference. One thing I catch myself doing from time to time is when looking at a 40 foot putt let's say, I look at my line up to the hole. That's where I'm trying to hit it to, but in my subconscious I think I see the hole as the end of the line and so I interpret that as meaning that should be the longest I hit it. Consequently I hit a lot short. That means you wind up with lots of 4-5 footers from short of the hole. Picturing the line going out past the hole by a couple of feet helps to "allow" me to hit the ball past the hole and as a result I wind up closer on average. I'm still trying to stop the ball at the hole on a putt that long, but allowing myself to err on the long side definitely helps. 

 

Obee - that's interesting. Next time you're on the putting green, would you try something? Put a coin down on the ground, then pace off ten paces and hit ten putts trying to hit them to the coin. Then measure the distance between the longest one and the shortest one. Report back?

So I did this the other day, without grinding at all. Had someone up by the dime and he would bat the ball back to me and I would hit it just trying to judge distance, with no real "focus" or "routine." Shortest putt was 6-inches short, longest was 26 inches by. Fairly certain I could improve that (considerably?) if I did it again, as I chose a fairly simply putt. 

 

What is "normal" for that exercise?

[Cliffy2020]

On 10/8/2020 at 6:33 PM, PixlPutterman said:

Well the patience paid off and what's funny is I still left 3 or 4 strokes on the course.....

 

 

I kept recounting the score and coming up with 35 on the back nine for 70 total.  I was like NOOOOOOOOOOO!  Then realized (after opening up the picture bigger) 18th hole is a 3, not a 5. I know it’s circled, but I was just focused on the number 🤣.  PHEW! 68 it is.  Great round! & good luck this weekend

[Ty_Webb]

3 hours ago, Obee said:

So I did this the other day, without grinding at all. Had someone up by the dime and he would bat the ball back to me and I would hit it just trying to judge distance, with no real "focus" or "routine." Shortest putt was 6-inches short, longest was 26 inches by. Fairly certain I could improve that (considerably?) if I did it again, as I chose a fairly simply putt. 

 

What is "normal" for that exercise?

 

I think that's pretty good. I think the theory would go that PGA Tour average would be around 4 feet of range from that distance. That's likely not doing it all at once, but as it goes on the golf course. Your range is 32 inches, which means you can be more aggressive than someone whose range is 4 feet. Point is if it's a 4 foot range and you always get it to the hole, then you'll have some go four feet by and that's when you bring 3 putts into the equation. So to minimize your score, you should leave it short occasionally. I'd expect leave short percentages to be around 1% per foot, so from 40 feet you'd leave 40% of your putts short and 60% by the hole. No one is regularly holing 40 foot putts. From that range, 2 putts is strokes gained (I think 33 feet is where the expectation is 2 putts)

[phizzy30]

When I was playing college golf(division 3) I would break par from time to time.  My handicap was a 2 back then.  Had a lot of time to practice which is the most important thing to improving your scores and maintaining a high level of play.  As far as course management goes, besides putting, wedge play/anything 150 and in is the most important factor.  I've played golf with 2 LPGA players, a PGA tour player who's retired, and I have a friend who played on the Mackenzie tour last year who I regularly train who all say the same thing.  It's all about the short game when you get to the highest level as all highly skilled players have consistent misses, are in the fairway more times than not and usually have a high GIR percentage.    

 

Edited October 19, 2020 by phizzy30

[PixlPutterman]

Well short game was non existent when I went out for a repeat. 35 putts and couldn't hit a green to save my life.

 

Mind you this course was 800 yards longer and rated about 3 stroke higher.....but I flat out didn't bring my game to the course.

 

Shot 80

[Ty_Webb]

Two things I saw on Twitter today. One from Scott Fawcett and one from Lou Stagner. From Scott: 

from Lou:

 

[pinhigh27]

21 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

Two things I saw on Twitter today. One from Scott Fawcett and one from Lou Stagner. From Scott: 

from Lou:

 

Unless every single birdie is a par 5 hit in two I’m not sure how one gets to 8 under without trying to make a putt . Or is this some thing about trying to start ball on line with right speed vs “ trying to make it “

[GoTime]

11 hours ago, PixlPutterman said:

Well short game was non existent when I went out for a repeat. 35 putts and couldn't hit a green to save my life.

 

Mind you this course was 800 yards longer and rated about 3 stroke higher.....but I flat out didn't bring my game to the course.

 

Shot 80

 

Fear not, I hit 28% of greens (usually 65-70) and shot 84. Was in control of nothing. 

[Ty_Webb]

17 minutes ago, pinhigh27 said:

Unless every single birdie is a par 5 hit in two I’m not sure how one gets to 8 under without trying to make a putt . Or is this some thing about trying to start ball on line with right speed vs “ trying to make it “

 

I think that's exactly what he means.

[Obee]

2 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

 

I think that's exactly what he means.

 

I think he is also talking about where he hit his approaches.

[TLUBulldogGolf]

Haven't read through the entire thread but when I break par it's generally a good ball striking day. For me this means somewhere in the 13-15 greens range, and generally not getting out of position off the tee. My length allows me to generally birdie a couple of the par 5s and from there it's just a couple other good shots or holed putts. I'm not sure where you are ball striking wise but more generally they are low pressure rounds, with few difficult up and downs or stressful holes. Not being needlessly aggressive and getting back into position after a bad shot. I also found driver confidence allowed me to break 70 a lot more often. 

[ZA206]

It's mostly about making some birdies and not making any doubles or worse because bogeys are going to happen no matter what. Making birdies is all about proximity to the hole with iron shots and actually being able to sink birdie putts.

 

Lately, I've been shooting in the mid to low 70's and flirting with shooting under, and possibly in the 60's (I've done it before). Two things keep popping up that are killing my ability to get under.... bone headed doubles (one or two a round) and not making birdie putts that I should make. I've been lights out lately with my irons and wedges, so I'm getting a TON of legit birdie looks these days. I'm averaging about 3.5 birdies a round (a good putter would probably be averaging +5 birdies a round off my approaches lately)....

 

As frustrating as it can be, it's nice having so many quality looks at birdie! I can't complain about that!!!

 

-ZA

 

[Ty_Webb]

1 hour ago, ZA206 said:

It's mostly about making some birdies and not making any doubles or worse because bogeys are going to happen no matter what. Making birdies is all about proximity to the hole with iron shots and actually being able to sink birdie putts.

 

Lately, I've been shooting in the mid to low 70's and flirting with shooting under, and possibly in the 60's (I've done it before). Two things keep popping up that are killing my ability to get under.... bone headed doubles (one or two a round) and not making birdie putts that I should make. I've been lights out lately with my irons and wedges, so I'm getting a TON of legit birdie looks these days. I'm averaging about 3.5 birdies a round (a good putter would probably be averaging +5 birdies a round off my approaches lately)....

 

As frustrating as it can be, it's nice having so many quality looks at birdie! I can't complain about that!!!

 

-ZA

 

 

3.5 birdies a round is pretty good. Not many people around who average 5 birdies a round. Do you keep your stats? Be curious to know what your strokes gained putting numbers actually look like. A lot of people expect too much out of their putting. PGA tour players miss half their 8 footers and they're playing on near perfect greens. 

[ZA206]

On 10/21/2020 at 3:45 PM, Ty_Webb said:

 

3.5 birdies a round is pretty good. Not many people around who average 5 birdies a round. Do you keep your stats? Be curious to know what your strokes gained putting numbers actually look like. A lot of people expect too much out of their putting. PGA tour players miss half their 8 footers and they're playing on near perfect greens. 

 

I don't really track stats when I play (I used to). I probably should though. I got a new (to me) set of irons about 4 months ago and my iron game has gone from a weakness to my #1 strength.... kinda unbelievable.

 

I played yesterday and shot a 75 on a really nice Donald Ross track that I had never played, it had some wicked greens. I had 2 birdies, and missed probably 10 other birdie putts from less than 20 ft. I had three bad tee shots, two ended up as double bogeys and the third I got away with a par. Other than those three tee shots (2 driver and one 3W), I was putting on a clinic off the tee.

 

Situation normal.... LOL😩

 

 

[pinhigh27]

2 hours ago, ZA206 said:

 

I don't really track stats when I play (I used to). I probably should though. I got a new (to me) set of irons about 4 months ago and my iron game has gone from a weakness to my #1 strength.... kinda unbelievable.

 

I played yesterday and shot a 75 on a really nice Donald Ross track that I had never played, it had some wicked greens. I had 2 birdies, and missed probably 10 other birdie putts from less than 20 ft. I had three bad tee shots, two ended up as double bogeys and the third I got away with a par. Other than those three tee shots (2 driver and one 3W), I was putting on a clinic off the tee.

 

Situation normal.... LOL😩

 

 

are you measuring your putts? if you have 12 1st putts under 20 feet that would be pretty unusual for a good golfer 

[ZA206]

11 minutes ago, pinhigh27 said:

are you measuring your putts? if you have 12 1st putts under 20 feet that would be pretty unusual for a good golfer 

 

No... not measuring anything, just a swag on my part. I missed probably 4 that were around 10 ft. One of the two I made was a gimme from 6", the other I made was a 15 footer. What drove me crazy is that some of the shorter ones I missed were actually very tough putts... super fast down hill, or huge breaking putts. Fantastic approach shots into the green, and then I had to be super defensive on the putts.... so annoying.

 

I was lagging the ball great and running the birdies just over the lip sorta misses. Not one three putt yesterday, which was saying something on those crazy greens.

 

Since June of 2020, this has been my MO.... LOL.

 

-ZA

[Ty_Webb]

2 hours ago, ZA206 said:

 

No... not measuring anything, just a swag on my part. I missed probably 4 that were around 10 ft. One of the two I made was a gimme from 6", the other I made was a 15 footer. What drove me crazy is that some of the shorter ones I missed were actually very tough putts... super fast down hill, or huge breaking putts. Fantastic approach shots into the green, and then I had to be super defensive on the putts.... so annoying.

 

I was lagging the ball great and running the birdies just over the lip sorta misses. Not one three putt yesterday, which was saying something on those crazy greens.

 

Since June of 2020, this has been my MO.... LOL.

 

-ZA

 

When push comes to shove, there is a part of us I think that knows if we really need to work on putting or if we just have to wait for the breaks to go our way. There is more than one way to miss a 10 foot putt. If you're hitting it 6 inches short and a foot to the side, that's a dreadful putt. If you're hitting it a foot by the hole and it's within a ball either side, that's a decent putt. If your missed putts are the former, then yes your putting is a problem. If they're the latter, it's probably something you just need to maintain.