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**bdbl** · 07-27-2008, 03:57 PM

Re: New Season's Target

Originally posted by bdbl View Post

b) To break ninety away from home.

That might not seem very ambitious in scoring terms but it does require a step change in terms of consistency and concentration. I think with most of us at or around 20 its not that we don't have the shots but that we usually "lose it" a couple of times a round.

Yeessssssssssss

At last a PB of 86 on an away course (bogey golf) - ropey front 9 of 45 due to wayward tee shots; just used the four wood on the back 9 to come home in 41 - missing a birdie putt by inches on the 18th.

My home course is so open that wayward shots are often rewarded by a playable shot from an adjacent fairway so getting an away PB on somewhere where thats not possible felt like a little break through.

With two 3-putts and a triple bogey 7 I left some out there too.

**bill reed** · 07-27-2008, 04:43 PM

Re: New Season's Target

hi bdbl
sound good that you hit your pb and still think you played not that well on the first 9. keep working on your game and you soon be aiming for the low 80s.
i started the year aiming for 10 handicap by the end of the year and have dropped 3.5 on my handicap and now am off 10.5 so it looking good and i'm on target.
i put down my better scores to not making big mistakes and if in the deep rough or deep bunkers then take my loss and play to get it back in play and not to get distance. i find i don't have 6s and 7s on my card any more.
cheers
bill

**bdbl** · 07-27-2008, 04:54 PM

Re: New Season's Target

Originally posted by bill reed View Post

hi bdbl
sound good that you hit your pb and still think you played not that well on the first 9. keep working on your game and you soon be aiming for the low 80s.
i started the year aiming for 10 handicap by the end of the year and have dropped 3.5 on my handicap and now am off 10.5 so it looking good and i'm on target.
i put down my better scores to not making big mistakes and if in the deep rough or deep bunkers then take my loss and play to get it back in play and not to get distance. i find i don't have 6s and 7s on my card any more.
cheers
bill

Thanks Bill

Low 80's is the new target

Reflecting on the round a couple of things stand out.

On the back 9, playing within myself (and accepting my medicine where necessary) I only had one hole worse than bogey and that was a 3 putt*

; and, on the 18th which is a shortish (360 yd) Par 4 with a v. v. narrow tree lined fairway I took a 4-wood 220 bang down the middle, and a 9I to 8 foot so whilst I'd prefer the driver to be "working" I now know that distance isn't the beall and endall unless you are playing a long course.

* god those 3 putts annoy me; I'd have had 28 ppr without them sheer bloody carelessness both times

**bill reed** · 07-27-2008, 05:10 PM

Re: New Season's Target

hi bdbl
working on your putting will soon get rid of the three putts in a round.
why did your three putt was it you hit the ball to hard with the first putt or you came up short. i found that if i worked on my distance when putting more the the line i made more putts.
if i missed it was only ever 18 to 20 inches away.
cheers
bill

**bdbl** · 07-27-2008, 08:17 PM

Re: New Season's Target

Originally posted by bill reed View Post

hi bdbl
working on your putting will soon get rid of the three putts in a round.
why did your three putt was it you hit the ball to hard with the first putt or you came up short. i found that if i worked on my distance when putting more the the line i made more putts.
if i missed it was only ever 18 to 20 inches away.
cheers
bill

Bill, I just didn't give a couple of 3-footers the respect they deserved (and ofcourse I shouldn't have left myself the 3-footers in the first place) - I'll blame the sheer heat and humidity darn sarf today

A good point about the practice though - I suspect every poster on here could do with some more putting practice.

To be fair to myself though, over my last 10 rounds I'm averaging 29.80 ppr and today I had 8 singles - none of them taps in. Even with those figures though I know that if I was working as hard on my putting today as I was a year ago I could cut the ppr as I'm leaving some out there.

Thing is I'm spending more time than I should working on my truly woeful driving

- once I've raised that to the level of basic mediocrity I'll refocus on the putting.

**slater170** · 07-28-2008, 07:02 AM

Re: New Season's Target

Good work robin

next milestone is to break 80!

**Scragger63** · 07-28-2008, 10:16 PM

Re: New Season's Target

Hey Robin,

Add's my congrats to the list.

Putting (like many, if not most, things golf) is about confidence...

When you stand over a short 3-4 footer, you need to feel confident you are going to make it.

When you stand over a 35-40 footer, you also should feel confident you are going to make it, and, if you don't the fall back plan is to leave it inside that 3-4 foot ring of certainty.

On the practice green before a round, I only ever practice those 3-4 footers. I'm trying to give myself the confidence of seeing the ball regularly go in the hole.

And the one thing I'm pretty certain of is that confidence breeds confidence. With confidence comes the self belief needed to ignore the one or two missed putts per round as aberations to the norm...

Good luck reaching your goals this season.

Cheers

**vp27519** · 07-29-2008, 01:05 AM

Re: New Season's Target

Love the picture Robin.

Putting per round average is fantastic Robin. It sounds like you don't need to worry about that aspect of your game. Under 30 a round is a great outcome.

What is my season's target - work on my mental side. I have lost plenty of confidence in my game since winning the club champs. As a good friend told me, I have lost my focus, more than anything else. I agree with him - thank you Scragger.

My goal is to create more pressure on myself during practice and be more goal specific during it. Once the goal is achieved - I will walk away from the session, whether it has taken 5 minutes or an hour.

VP x

**bdbl** · 07-29-2008, 05:47 AM

Re: New Season's Target

Originally posted by vp27519 View Post

Putting per round average is fantastic Robin. It sounds like you don't need to worry about that aspect of your game. Under 30 a round is a great outcome.

What is my season's target - work on my mental side.
VP x

Nicole, I have to be honest, to a large extent my PPR average is a reflection of pretty poor GIR stats

but I guess you have to take advantage of chipping / pitching up within range and on Sunday the single putts made the difference being whupped and tying the round despite being comprehensively out driven all the way round - so I guess I'm happy enough.

As Craig says

Originally posted by Scragger63 View Post

Putting (like many, if not most, things golf) is about confidence...
When you stand over a short 3-4 footer, you need to feel confident you are going to make it.
When you stand over a 35-40 footer, you also should feel confident you are going to make it, and, if you don't the fall back plan is to leave it inside that 3-4 foot ring of certainty.

For some reason I genuinely belief that I should make every putt - now if only I could bottle that confidence and take it to the tee box

**vp27519** · 07-30-2008, 11:20 PM

Re: New Season's Target

Robin,

It's not quantity it's quality and I am referring to the driving Robin

.

You say you were being pumped from the tee. Try this, I recently read Harvey Penick's book - fantastic, he's thought was to drive the ball to the 150 mark and play the second to the green from there. His reason for this was there are at times far too many long hitters hitting their second shots from the trees.

Give it a go - play your drive to the 150 mark, whether an iron or driver. Be interested to see the result.

I have tried it - on courses where the rough is full of danger and very hard to get out from. There have been times where I miss hit the drive but haven't been in the trouble cos I planned to hit to the 150 mark.

Cheers x

**Scragger63** · 07-31-2008, 12:02 AM

Re: New Season's Target

I too am a long time fan of Harvey Penick's work.

His quote "The trees are full of long hitters..." is well borne out when you consider how much better it is to be 20-30 yards further back, but in the centre of the fairway and not in the cabbage with a couple of trees between you and the green.

This is the next level for me to take. The course management and mental focus side of the game.

Have long attempted and struggled to tame my driver. We all have. Some with more success than others. That fantastic adrenaline rush you get when you blow one 280 plus rifle straight down the guts is indeed all powerful.

My goal is to be mentally strong enough to carry my driver and to only reach for it when the situation warrants.

As Nicole rightly points out, the 150 pegs on many holes at many courses are well within range from the tee, even without driver.

A friend of mine once pointed out that he knew and loved his "150 club" because it so often put him in a position to score well...

Cheers

**bdbl** · 08-21-2008, 05:30 PM

Re: New Season's Target

Originally posted by vp27519 View Post

Love the picture Robin.

Putting per round average is fantastic Robin. It sounds like you don't need to worry about that aspect of your game. Under 30 a round is a great outcome.

VP x

Aaaaaaaaaaargh

12 first putts for Par today.

Converted 3

, which probably explains the worse than "bogey golf" round - you've got to get a few to compensate for the blow up holes and the missed GIR

If I got the pace I misread the break (by inches only), if I read the break I left em short (again by inches) , ah well just a bad / frustrating day in the putting office I guess.

I'll console my self with the 2 long ones I sank to save my "double" but I'm not too happy about my ppr average once this round goes in the spreadsheet.

All the best Robin

ps Nickers, how did that tourney go?

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