Re: most important parts of the game

hi golfjunkie
i agree that course managment is very important but you have to know your game first, know what your strong at and what your week at, and then plan your way round the course using the stong parts of your game and trying to keep the week parts in your bag, i tried this at muirfield as my sand play not that great and it worked a treat. i do tend to get lazy and dont plan a round unless its a really hard course or its a very important medle. i'm sure if i planed the game before i started and stuck to it i would shoot a lower score.
bill

Re: most important parts of the game



No point in me adding now,

Thanks Lowpost.


Quality answer.

Re: most important parts of the game

My buddy shoots in the 70s. I always thought if I could hang with him off the tee I could come close to beating him. Well I am hanging with him off the tee now....... actually a little better. Now I see where he really beats me. He gets up and down from anywhere.

I say the short game is most important ......putting in particular.
But what the h3ll do I know anyway ?

Re: most important parts of the game

For me personally it's the short game within 50 yards as these are the wedge shots that require accuracy and determine whether you will be able to putt or have to get up and down which is usually the case if you are within 50 yards anyway.
Then putting because I know I can putt well,but being outside of 10 feet is going to make putting more challenging which leads back to wedges.
Then for me it was putting the ball in play from the tee,whatever the club is.You need to find the short grass or the first cut of rough at worst.
Then it's the mid irons as this has always been the best part for me,If I miss my approach it isn't much and that takes me back to wedge game.

It's all linked but you are only as strong as your weakest link,so working on your weakest shots is the way to go.

Re: most important parts of the game

Most of you have missed the most important part of your game.....!!!!



That is to enjoy it...!!!



Enough said

Ian.

Re: most important parts of the game

I enjoy it most when I play well though Ian

Re: most important parts of the game

I agree Brian but by enjoying it you always play well....!!

I can honestly say I 'always' play Well this doesn't mean I always score well, I miss fairways like everyone, switch the TV on tonight to watch people making a living out of Golf miss fairways, but I enjoy the challenge of escaping. Sometimes it is just a chip out, but then the challenge starts to get up and down, and so on...

So yes I always play well and always enjoy it despite the challenges it brings, maybe this is a major key in being a low h/capper who knows..

Ian.

Re: most important parts of the game

I absolutely love playing golf, I guess I must do playing three or four times a week all year. I normally play well, sometimes very well, managed a birdy followed by 7 consecutive pars Friday. I sometimes (like everyone) have a pig of a game though, my tempo seems bad and irreparable on the course, my coordination seems like parts of my body are being controlled by someone else. On these days I just have to make the best of the day and finish the game the best I can.

I wish I could say or even convince myself to say (even as a low h/capper who's glass tends to be half full) "I always play well" or "I always enjoy it" . I don't think Tiger could say that one.

Re: most important parts of the game

im definately enjoying the game at present, rounds of 73 and 77 this week

Re: most important parts of the game

Congratulations Ian, that's great golf.

Re: most important parts of the game

I think the most important part of your game is the area you have trouble with. For me, over the past year and a half it was driving. I was getting into trouble with a slice until I realized(with some help from my brother who is a scratch golfer), that I was swinging the driver way too hard. I learned to relax and take a nice, easy swing and my drives go farther and straighter and I'm taking the majority of my second shots from the fairway instead of the rough or the trees.
Before that it was putting. I either wouldn't get close to the hole or I would blow it past. It took a lot of practice, but now I can generally figure out how fast the greens are in just a couple minutes on the practice green. My long putts are now stopping within a couple feet of the hole and my puts within 6 feet are getting drained most of the time so I very rarely get a three putt.
I hit my irons fairly well. They're generally on target and I use the same nice, easy swing will all my irons so I know my distances from the 60 degree through to my 3 iron so I'm fairly certain I'm going to hit the green from 50 yards out to 200 yards.
My problem right now is inside the 50 yards....although it's been getting better with some help from my brother. My flop shot from a little off the green is getting better and I'm learning how to pitch and run although it's still a work in progress....so, to me....right now the short game is the most important part of my game. It's the part that I'm focusing on improving as doing this should bring my 6 handicap down a couple notches....and hopefully soon.

Re: most important parts of the game

Can't say that I disagree with your explanation, but at least the I got the subject of course management into this thread. That a good thing. GJS

Re: most important parts of the game

In terms of score, my thoughts are similar to what some others have said. Its a cascading effect. All aspects are important, but there are many opportunities on the golf course to a make up for a previous bad shot. The closer you get to the hole, the harder it becomes to make up for that. So the most critical shots are the ones where there is no backup plan. each shot effects the next in some way.

The drive can be good or bad, facilitating an easy or hard approach. The approach can be GIR or not, which either sets you up for a 2 putt to par, or else you need a great chip and one putt to par. Super long 1-putts are basically a lot more luck than anything, I don't care what anyone says.

1 - Driver accuracy is more important than distance. Get it on the fairway and under 200 yards from the pin on par 4. So many par 4's do not require true driver distance to get to 150 out. Consider laying up with a fairway wood more often then you might think. But whatever you use, work on getting it in the right place on the fairway to setup your approach set, forget about distance. Even on the par 5's. You don't need to hit it a million miles off the tee to GIR. If you go OB, then you aren't gonna par, there is no recovery. So I view the drive as a critical shot, accuracy over distance.

2 - Once you have done #1 correctly, you should have set yourself up for an approach shot that works best for you. I find that anything from 100-160 yards out is in a zone where I can GIR a high percentage of the time. This is actually an easy shot. So #1 above is to set you up so that #2 is a no brainer that requires less practice than other aspects of the game. You have your swing, you know your yardages, just swing like you do at that driving range. You need to have this down yes, but if you don't have your drive down first, then you won't be setup to make this shot either. So work on the drive first. If you screw up your approach shot, you'll still can save par with your short game. However, if you can get your GIR shots close to the pin you will create birdie opportunities and solid par stats, avoiding all of the following skills.

3 - If you drove too far or blew your approach shot very badly or had to come out of OB, etc; then you have a long wedge shot to make, anywhere from 30-80 yards out. I personally find these shots quite difficult to do accurately and there is often sand and other scary stuff to deal with. Mastering this shot is only necessary if you didn't accomplish #1 and #2 above. Sometimes you need it though. But I prefer to master #1 and #2 and avoid #3. In my view this situation only comes up due to poor course management in most cases. Me personally if I know I can't get to within 10yds of the green from wherever I am, then I try to get my next shot to 100 yds and no closer. I'd rather approach from 100 yds out then in that dead zone. All aspects are important, but I view this as less important because we should master the other skills that will avoid even getting here.

4 - If you blew your approach shot then you may have to chip onto the green from 10-30 yards. This is going to happen to the best of us a certain amount in every game even after handling #1 and #2 so well most of the time. This is an important shot to master because if you're making it, it means you missed GIR and you need to chip as close to the hole as possible. If you chip too far away from the hole, then you just lost a stroke that you are very unlikely to recover through a brilliant long putt. So its a critical shot.

There are a lot of variations for which club to play, how much roll you going to need or want, etc..and this requires a lot of practice and experience to know which club and which swing to use for each scenario. Ideally you haven't cornered yourself into this because you hit the green GIR, but lots of us don't hit the GIR, so we are going to have to make this shot and our putting percentages are going to depend heavily on how well we can place these chip shots near the hole, I say within 6-8 feet on average and sometimes closer. If you're more than that you are likely to two putt anyway and even many 6-8 foot putts are gonna miss. If you can chip within 6 feet regularly, then you will up/down a lot and save your pars. If you don't chip closer than 6 feet, then you probably lost a stroke, no recovery possible after that without a lucky long putt.

5 - Long putts. Need to master all long putts to get within 6 feet of the hole. That should avoid 3 putts. Should be able to get within 6 feet from anywhere on the green. Sometimes you'll get closer, sometimes not. When you don't, you still might make the 6 footer after that for a 2-putt or might not and get the lousy 3 putt. But the key is, practice getting long putts within 6 feet or less and try to turn it into high percentage 2 putt. Like previous things, this is needed when either the chip or approach was not great. If you miss this shot, there is no recovery other than a lucky long putt. So its critical.

6 - Practice hitting all putts within 6 feet of the hole and nailing them all. Need high percentage of these. 3 footers should be almost 100%.

That's how I see it.

So after all that, what I can say is, non-recoverable critical skills for score are:

- accurate drives to strategic locations
- chips to 6 feet from the hole
- long putts to 6 or less feet from the hole
- 6 foot putts.

That isn't to say that everything else isn't also important because we're going to find ourselves in all of those situations. But being the error prone player I am, what I think improves my game the most is the short game where I can still make up for a blown approach. Sometimes I make the approach and sometimes not. Can save par with the short game.

Re: most important parts of the game

I'm a 23 handicap. I drive OK; my irons are inconsistent. What really kills me, though, is not getting near the pin on my 3rd shot (4th on a par 5). So the short game is #1 for me with putting a close 2nd. If I could knock off 5 putts a round and be more accurate from <100 yds then my dream of consistently breaking 90 would be a reality. For now it remains a dream.

Re: most important parts of the game

Right. Breaking 90 is where I'm at too.

You have a high probability of missing the green on your 2nd(or 3rd) shot. Which means in order to save your score you need to work on chipping to within 5 feet of the pin. And personally I feel that is a skill that anyone can learn without a lot of complicated bio-mechanical swing perfection. So in some ways its the EASIEST thing to fix for improving your score. Improve your up/down stat.

The drive is equally important but much harder to master. If your drive goes into the trees on the side, its gonna cost you at least a stroke to get it back on track again. Even worse if you take a penalty of some kind. At least a bad approach can be rescued by a great up/down chip. But a bad drive has no rescue option often times, it costed you a stroke or more, end of story.

The putts in general are so important. Half of the strokes in your game(or more in some cases), are putts. Miss some here, miss some there, your score takes the hit badly. Its not as much fun to hit a putt or practice your putting, that is true. Its a lot more fun to knock balls at the driving range. If you look at the stats, most people, even high handicappers, can hit those 3-4 foot puts a high percentage of the time. So to get your putting solid, you need to make sure that either your chip from the side, or your long putts on the green, get you within that distance of the hole. If you can do that a high percentage of the time, you are going to lower your putting to less than 2 average in no time. That is why working on long putts is so important, along with green side chips.

The reason for working on the 5-7 footers is because that is the danger zone. Usually if you are 5-8 out from the hole, then you either flubbed up your long putt or your chip, and now you have a statistically harder 2nd putt to make. If you miss it, you're going to 3 putt the hole. That is your last chance to save your score. You should get to where you hit those more than 50% if you can. Beyond 8 feet, even the pros are not going to hit their putts with high stats, no matter how much you practice. You will get lucky occasionally. Your time is better spent focusing on A) getting the long puts to stop closer than 5 feet from the hole and B) making sure those 5-6 footers go into the hole. Less than 4 feet you don't need to practice, especially if you've been practicing the 6 footers a lot.