You have been playing golf for 6 months, 6 years or 6 decades and this year you have decided to play well. Primary translation: you want to score lower than last year or simply remove the crosses from your scorecards! If you are reading this article you are already taking a step towards success. I am not lying to you if I tell you that reaching the level of skills of a Tiger Woods , a Scottie Scheffler , a Celine Boutier , a Nelly Korda , a Matthieu Pavon or a Rory McIlroy is not realistic and yet it is the ideal pursued by the majority of amateur golfers. They want a better swing, a purer technique and they neglect the game!
There's no need to spend hours at the driving range wondering whether your left wrist angle at the top of your swing is ideal or whether your pelvic rotation is sufficient. Here's a recipe for a high-performance season in four parts.
We will start with calculations ( PART I ). Yes, who says score says calculations. Once again it is elementary and no one can tell me otherwise: if we do not know or do not want to count, or if we do not know what to count we cannot improve a total. Then it will be a question of imposing fair and interesting demands on ourselves ( PART II ). The score is the performance and there can be no regular performances without realistic and achievable demands. In a third step we will come to your internal dialogue ( PART III ). Yes, I believe that in golf we play against the course and with ourselves. You will see that your mental health will be preserved or even improved. Finally, how can we talk to you about score without talking to you about the most important part of the game to achieve a score or save it: putting? ( PART IV ).
PART I
IN GOLF YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO COUNT
Moreover, he knows how to count. The two individual game formulas are:stableford and strokeplay .
In stableford each score earns you points, I consider as a performance, on 18 holes, any total greater than or equal to 36 points. 36 points being the total to reach to play your index, or 2 points per hole on average. How do you get these 2 points? By writing a par on the card. But be careful, your par will not necessarily be mine. Indeed if you are handicap 18, most of the time your par will be one stroke more than mine. I am a pro so my par is the one established by the architect of the course when he created it. Let's take a concrete example: if hole n°1 is a par 4, I must make 4 to obtain my 2 points while you must make 5 to obtain these same 2 points. What I am stating here will seem trivial to seasoned golfers, but believe my 10 years of coaching experience and 30 years of playing experience: the more trivial the facts, the more human beings tend to neglect them!
It is obvious that a player with an index of 18 will have opportunities to do better than his par, opportunities to do mine, but it will always be necessary to keep in mind that it will be a performance. Performance which will also reward him with an additional point. If his par is 5 strokes at the same hole n°1 and he registers a 4 on the card then he will receive 3 points in stableford. For my part I will have to make 3 to obtain as many.
The goal of a game of golf in stableford is to take advantage of the accessible holes to score more than 2 points and agree to fight for a single point on the difficult holes. Each hole has its difficulty depending on its length, its obstacles and possible out of bounds. It is not a question of approaching the course with the objective of taking 2 points or more on each hole. That would be burning your wings.
To support my point, scorecards always include a "HCP" line. This tells you how difficult each hole is. HCP 1 is the hardest and HCP 18 is the easiest. This ranking will also be used to distribute strokes received: the strokes the course gives to players who are not pros.
For example, a player with an index of 1 will only have one stroke received and he will have it on the HCP 1 hole, the most difficult. Pretty fair, right?! When you show up to participate in an individual stableford competition, the organization will give you a personalized scorecard displaying your strokes received according to the difficulty of the course and your index. It is a computer software that will make the distribution according to the HCP of each hole. If the course is classified as difficult, a player with an index of 18 could very well receive 21 strokes. Similarly, if the course is classified as easy, this same player could only receive 15 strokes. If you play this formula, then take into account these strokes received to put your one-off performances (on one hole) into perspective and continue to think about your performance over 18 holes.
I would even say more, if you know the course you are going to play on, do not wait to receive the scorecard on D-Day to establish a game plan. Anticipate and make your own scorecard with your pars written on it according to the performance you want to produce. In other words, do not wait until D-Day to see where the course will give you strokes, do it yourself according to the difficulty of the holes but also your own assessment of their difficulty and your form.
The computer doesn't know how far you drive, it doesn't know if your preferred trajectory is a fade or a draw , it doesn't know how fast the greens will roll, it doesn't know what the playing time will be or what the weather forecast is. That said, your performance can be revised upwards or downwards depending on the results of the entire field of players. I must point out to new golfers who have the good sense to read this article that the stableford allows you not to finish a hole.
Yes, since it is about scoring points based on the score, after a certain number of shots your score will not earn you any points. A game of golf is a long-distance race, daring to score an "X" is saving time, physical energy and mental resources.
In strokeplay, on the other hand, it is forbidden to pick up a ball before it has touched the bottom. Of the hole. This is the formula of purists, that of amateur federal competitions and professional tournaments. In strokeplay it is imperative to finish all the holes regardless of the score under penalty of disqualification.
It is much less widespread in clubs for classic amateur competitions than the stableford. The stableford allows all players of all levels to participate in the same competition without increasing the playing time and without discouraging anyone. Strokeplay is another story. This is evidenced by the playing time of professionals so decried by viewers. Moreover, in general for professional tournaments, players are in games of 2 only once the cut (elimination of a part of the player field) has fallen to guarantee maximum fluidity.
As you will have understood, strokeplay increases the pressure and therefore the playing time. It is also the formula that makes the dollars fall on TV! It is a game formula mainly practiced by very good amateur players and professionals, those for whom a shot is just a shot but it is a lot. A 280 meter drive costs as much as an 80 cm putt: 1 shot.
If you are only playing strokeplay games, then counting is a way of life. How fast is the wind blowing? How fast are the greens rolling? How many degrees will the thermometer read? How many meters will the ball travel with a 7 iron? 8? 9?... What is the most common distance I will have to play to attack the greens on this course? At what distance am I most effective with my wedges? How many meters from the entrance and the edge of the green will each flag be placed? How many meters to reach the "safe" areas at tee shots? How many meters to fly the hazards? How many meters between the green and the hazards? At what time do I tee off? At what time is it ideal to eat? What degree of loft for my driver? What bag composition?
Yes, the 14 regulatory clubs are not always the same depending on the characteristics of the course. You are beginning to understand: in strokeplay the competition must begin before the big day. It is absolutely necessary to recognize the terrain, find out about the prevailing winds and adapt the rods in the bag.
The common point between strokeplay and stableford is that it is absolutely necessary to put the punctual results into perspective and focus on the total result after 18 holes, or even 36, or even 54, or even 72 holes! Imagine if in strokeplay a pro player lets himself be hit by a bogey on the first hole, the game(s) will be very long. The reconnaissance of the course and the knowledge he has of himself will allow him to prepare a game plan. Very often the 18 holes will be divided into 6 times 3 holes with score objectives at each stage like times spent running. These are intermediate quantified objectives that allow you not to project too much but not to forget to move forward.
In stableford as in strokeplay, we differentiate between net and gross . The net takes into account the player's index and therefore the strokes received. In gross, the par relative to the strokes received does not exist. Whatever the player's level, the par is that planned by the architect. Concretely, a beginner has every chance against me if we play in net stableford but - in all humility - he has none if we play in gross stableford.
In both cases my most valuable advice is to start counting before the competition. Each player must know how many meters he sends the ball with his favorite club for the tee shot. The lower the player's level (close to 0) the more it will be necessary to know the distances of each club. Each player must know the distance at which he is most effective below 90 meters. Each player must have a score objective per hole and per 18 holes.
The first cause of failure among amateurs is to suffer the score, to adapt the score objective to the quality of the first shot and to have neither an intermediate objective nor an overall objective. No performance can be born without an objective. None. On a misunderstanding you could make a worthy score but you will not know how you did it so the following week, your expectations will increase but you will not be equipped to assume them.
Counting is the basis of the game of golf. On a scorecard, there are almost a hundred numbers before you even start to fill it in, and it is obvious that this is not enough!
PART II
WHO PREDICTS PERFORMANCE ADAPTS ITS REQUIREMENTS
The day a golfer realizes that he is going to spend most of his time missing, a new world opens up to him. All the best players on this planet and above have said or thought it: winning is missing better than others. When I take students on the course, I very – very – rarely play with them. After all, if it is a demonstration of skills that they want, just look at the professional tournaments of the PGA , the LPGA , the DPWorld or the LET . I always take a scorecard before arriving at the 1 tee and ask two questions:
- How much do you want to do on this hole?
- How are you going to do it?
The first question requires the player to have knowledge of the course and his own abilities. About 40% of players answer me: " the par obviously ". To which I respond: " the one on the map or yours? " " What do you mean mine? "
Right now I'm working on a racecourse with a 9-hole course, six of which are par 3s and all of which have small greens compared to all the other 18-hole courses in the area. Wanting to make a par means either planning to take the green in 1 shot and make 2 putts, or planning to get as close to the green as possible and be so good at your approaches that you're sure to only make one putt 90% of the time.
I'm not very annoying, I just give information and let the player make his choice, so when the player sticks to his position I move on to the second question to find out which of the two options he's considering and, more importantly, which of the two options works best for him most often.
And that's where the problem lies - again - since players aim for the flag and improvise the rest depending on the result. To take the example of the first hole of the racecourse: 4 meters from the left edge of the green there is a penalty area (red), 10 meters from the back of the green there is an out of bounds area and a net that protects the brave golfers who come to hit balls at the practice range, 50 meters before the right edge of the green there is a fairway bunker , 20 meters from the right edge of the green there is a very small hedge that delimits the start of the 2.
A player who opens his eyes and does not get caught up in the par on the card and the flag will not get caught out. If he is not a pro and a 4 earns him 2 points or more in stableford, the smartest shot will leave his ball slightly short and to the right of the green, the objective being to fly over the fairway bunker. A pro will play the right edge of the green and the distance from the entrance to the green. Yes, because the smartest players wonder how they are going to build their target score, so they wonder where is the safest area of the hole to be able to get as close as possible to the flag on the second shot. Anyone who believes that the par on the card is the absolute truth and that there is only one valid target, the flag, will quickly become disillusioned. Even Tiger Woods said it: " I only aim for the flag 2 or 3 times out of 18 holes. » Besides, and words are very important even when it comes to statistics, in golf statistics we talk about green attack strokes and approach-putt percentage , not flag attack and attack-putt percentage.
If you've been following along, to play each hole well, you need to be able to answer a third question, induced by the two previous ones: Where is the best place to miss?
I don't necessarily verbalize it from the first hole to avoid traumatizing the souls of sensitive winners! The reality of this game nevertheless requires it. What I mean by that is that with a little hindsight, we quickly realize that you have to be crazy to think you can be precise for at least 4 hours, when you're throwing a ball barely more than 4 centimeters in diameter in order to put it into a hole barely wider than it at distances between 100 and 500 meters.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't take risks either. Without risk, there's no reward. What I'm saying is that you have to measure the risks. When I see players on the course who are more concerned with their swing or their technique than with the quality of their information gathering, the accuracy of their club and score target selection and the precision of their routine, I know that I'm going to be a great help, but I also know that I'm going to have to traumatize them so that they understand the absurdity of their way of playing, which is not absurd.
Because playing this way is not playing golf, it is playing at the driving range on the course. I would even say more: it is disrespectful to the course and its architect. It is BLASPHEMY! Whoever risks it will be punished much more often than not than rewarded.
Of course there is not just one type of golfer. It is not with 40% of the population that I allow myself to draw conclusions and give advice to the entire population. So let's get back to our two questions about hole #1 (and all the other holes). The more humble part of the golfers that I meet and which is often represented by women, do not see any sexism on my part, you can very well be a man, a golfer and be humble, I am simply telling my experience of coaching. Humble men who are golfers exist, I have met several!
In short, when I ask these two questions, I also often get: " I can make 3, it happens to me, but I'll say 4 just in case... " BUT JUST IN CASE?! " Well, just in case I miss, obviously. " At this point, it's better that I have blocked two starts rather than just one because the path to the right thought can take a little longer. I need to ask more questions to get there. The first on this famous hole #1 is: " With your experience of the course, is 3 here a good score or an excellent score? " Understand: do you make 4 most of the time, 3 on days when you are touched by grace and 5 on bad days? If the answer is that 4 is a good score and 3 is an excellent score, then why imagine a bad 4. If you are considering a score, whatever it may be, consider it properly .
4 in golf is not 3 + 1 miss, which implies aiming for the flag, missing the green in the best case on the right side, making an average approach and two putts. Consider the smart 4: a shot to steal the 40-yard bunker and leave the ball on the pre-green, an approach and two putts. On a misunderstanding you could make a very good approach or a very good putt and score a 3. Not because you bit off more than you could chew, but because you set yourself a realistic goal and built your strategy by being smart, humble and positive.
Conclusion, before a competitive round of golf, or just a round of golf at the end of which you hope to get a good score: plan a plan of attack. Aside from knowing your game (distance of each club, efficiency within 100 meters, quality of tee shots and putting, etc.), golf strategy starts with a reconnaissance of the course or a visualization or viewing of the course on the internet to choose: How much do I want to do on each hole? How am I going to go about it based on the dangers and opportunities of each hole? What are the safe zones on each hole? When you have done the tour and taken notes, you add up the total and you know what good total score you can aim for.
You will quickly realize that you cannot expect the same result on the 9-hole course across the street as on the Albatross at Golf Nationa l . It is obvious I know but remember to never neglect the obvious. On the big day it will be a question of tackling each hole as if it were the first, sticking to the game plan and doing the accounts at the end of the game. Believe me this work is not negligible if you want to score and/or win competitions.
I always come back to the professional circuits but look at how important it is: not only does the player have a course book in his back pocket but the caddy also has a copy in his vest. At their level of requirements it is necessary to form a duo similar to the driver and co-driver in rallying to make the fairest and smartest decisions.
No, the caddy is not there just to carry the bag, clean the clubs and put the IZZACAÏ covers back on the clubs. That's respect for the course, the architect and the course maintenance team! What amateurs have that is most amateur is their vision of the courses and their maintenance, they are so obsessed with their swing, their technique and their navel that the course takes second place. Make progress on that. Admit that the one and only star is the course and not only will your golf games have fewer strokes but you will also save physical energy and mental resources. Prepare yourself for worse: you could become a player capable of scoring regularly! Ready?!
PART III
THERE IS STILL A MATTER OF HOW TO FORMULATE THE ORDERS
Do you go to a restaurant from time to time? Do you get delivery from time to time? Do you order on an app from time to time? No, no and no?! Then you must have already had a drink with your gaming partners after a game!
Now imagine that at a restaurant, when the waiter who is taking care of your table comes with his little notebook, you tell him all the dishes you don't want to eat. Imagine that on the phone, after specifying "takeaway" or "delivery", you tell the poor human being who is overwhelmed with calls because it's Friday night and there's a Champions League match on TV, everything you can't eat because of your food allergies and intolerances. Imagine that the application asks you to check everything you don't want to receive. Imagine that you arrive at the bar with your playing partners at the same time as about fifty other players who have left shotgun at 9am and that you ask your partners everything they don't want to drink before telling the bartender everything each of you doesn't want to drink. Imagine all that consecutively! Yes, yes, imagine. Go ahead, I have time...
What is your diagnosis? Stroke? Prank? Stupidity? All three?
I'm sure that unless you're a YouTuber who specializes in hidden camera pranks, such actions have never crossed your mind. So now tell me why do so many golfers spend their time thinking about what they don't want until the moment they swing to hit the ball?
“ Don’t go into the greenside bunker on the right. ” “ Don’t hit that ball out of bounds on the right. ” “ Don’t miss that putt. ” “ Don’t take the driver. ” “ Don’t make triple bogeys. ” “ Don’t get mad. ” “ Don’t forget to drink. ” “ Don’t slice that ball. ” “ Don’t top that ball or it’ll go into the other bunker. ” “ Don’t slow down that putt. ” “ Don’t forget your IZZACAÏ cover to putt on the green. ” “ Don’t. ” “ Don’t. ” “ Don’t. ” The list goes on and on and I’m sure there are some “ Don’ts ” that I haven’t heard yet.
I wo n't even mention all the mechanical " Don'ts " that ruin swings since I promised not to talk about swings. That said, all of these commands have the same effect, ruin your swing, deprive it of freedom, feed the brain and body only the absolutely useless information in the hope that they will figure out how to get an efficient ball trajectory and a good score. Is n't that just stupid behavior?
Do you use " Don'ts "? No need to beat yourself up, it won't change anything. You're just a human being experiencing the joys of golf. This game tortures the mind, that's why we love it. After a round of golf, we're not necessarily a better player, but failing that, we can be a better version of ourselves, which is, in my opinion, a more than laudable goal.
Let's elevate ourselves and give ourselves positive commands. This is the only valid method for our brain and body to communicate properly. " Aim for the left half of the green, preferring the back to the entrance. " " Aim for the cloud that casts a shadow on the left half of the fairway. " " You have a 99% chance of making this putt, trust your process. " " Play the 3 wood, no chance of hitting the hazard with this club. " " Build smart double bogeys on difficult holes. " " Express your joy as often as you express your discontent. In both cases I give you 15 seconds after the shot." "Drink every time you take the putter out of the bag. " " The opening to the green is on the left, stand on the right at the start and trust your process. " " Hit the sand and aim 2 meters to the right of the flag, there is nothing in this axis. » “ Aim for the twig at the bottom of the hole. ” “ Leave your putter cover on the bag on every green. ” Positive, positive, nothing but positive!
It took me as long to list the “ don’ts ” as it did to find their positive equivalents, but you have to practice doing it on the course. That is, you have to pay attention to the self-talk you’re telling yourself. You may miss the “ don’ts ” even if you make their eradication a priority. That’s okay as long as you put yourself in a position to do it and keep the room for improvement in mind.
All this is still obvious, isn't it? Don't neglect the obvious, it is in the obvious and the simplicity that reside serenity, calm and elegance in all circumstances. Letting go when swinging to hit the ball is not an easy matter, it is a matter of obvious and recurring details. Send yourself positive and driving messages otherwise you will try to play but you will not succeed. Remember - even if it is trivial - that a golfer before swinging to hit the ball still, is also still just like his target so if you add to that a sterile internal dialogue made of "Do nots" you endanger your mental and physical integrity. Free yourself from the "Do nots". Play free golf.
PART IV
RESPECT YOUR PUTTER AND YOUR PUTTING
I say it very, very, very often: the golfer's job is to take the information, the decisions, to visualize, to organize the address position and to set the final position for each golf shot. If he does this job then he doesn't have to feel bad about missing a shot. That's life. Everyone misses, even the best in the world. Our advantage is that we don't risk killing someone in the audience or losing $500,000 on a missed shot. Otherwise we are on par with the best in the world. We often miss our target. Our responsibility is to do the job so that missed shots don't cost too much to our total score or even cost nothing at all.
Professionals have an additional responsibility to perform, satisfy their ego and their sponsors, it is to train to increase confidence capital, skills, and the ability to reproduce. They train with all the clubs in their bag but if you had to choose only one I suggest you choose to train with the putter! You may say to yourself: but I am confident with the putter I rarely make big mistakes. It is my putting that needs to be improved. I understand of course but you must be aware of three obvious facts:
- The putter is the club that will hit the most shots for any player on any course.
- I've never seen anyone shake their fist after a faceoff.
- What you do big, you do small. And vice versa.
Of course you don't put your ball out of bounds with a putter, you don't take a penalty stroke with a putter - although that can happen - you don't make airshots with a putter, but it's not because you're a better putter than you are with irons or woods or wedges. Forgive my frankness, but if you're less punished by the putter it's largely because of circumstances. The distances are shorter. The ball doesn't fly. The target is small. The swing is small. The speed is lower. The effects are invisible or almost. However, the mistakes you make in big ways you start by making in small ways.
The best example is the alignment error. Not long ago I had a student in a one-on-one lesson. I didn't know him at all, neither him nor his game nor his swing. I started by having him play five or six average putts. Then I validated what I saw with a series of short putts. He hadn't come to correct his putting but I still told him that he aimed like a goat with divergent strabismus! His body and his club were constantly miles to the right of his line of play. He looked surprised and told me that on the green he encountered more problems with speed than with line. I explained to him that his body already had to compensate for an address position that was off the mark so he couldn't also get the right shot every time.
After this introduction we went straight to the area of the game that was causing him problems. The long game. The entire long game. The long irons, the fairway woods and the driver. He hit three balls with the 7 iron, three balls with the hybrid, three balls with the 5 wood and three balls with the driver at my request. He looked at me as if he were waiting for a technical instruction to correct his recurring contact faults. I looked him straight in the eye and told him that I had already explained everything to him on the putting green.
Him: "What do you mean? Am I aligning myself wrong?"
Me: “Yes sir.”
Him: “But I make contact errors, not aiming errors.”
Me: "Your body has to compensate for an address position that's off the plate, so it can't catch the ball correctly every time."
Then I show him a profile video. The target is either hidden by his body or to the left of his back (he is right-handed). There he opens his eyes as big as skullcaps .
Him: "How can I do it? I don't realize it, I feel like I'm well aligned."
Me: "We're going to go back to the putting green, build you an effective and not too long alignment method and you'll have to find its equivalent for all the other compartments of the game. I have a video from today, come back in two weeks and we'll see if you managed to change that and if you know how you did it."
Him: “Ok, it works!”
What this gentleman did on a large scale, of course he did on a small scale, but since it's small it's less noticeable! QED . Practice on the green.
Do I really need to elaborate on the other two obvious facts that should get you on the putting green more often? Yes?!
Well, the first one is so trivial that it can be overlooked. As usual! So let's do the math. Your putter will always hit more shots than your driver or any club you use when teeing off. Your putter is the club that will hit the most shots during a round of golf. Yes, because on each green you putt at least once and twice on average. Even if you hit two approaches per round, your putter will remain your most used weapon. Let's say you play the driver on all holes except par 3s, that's only 12 to 14 shots. Even if you also play it on par 3s, that will only ever be 18 shots. At a rate of one and a half putts per green because I'm being generous, we arrive at a total of 27 putts. QED. Practice on the green.
The second obvious fact is related to your emotions. I often watch professional tournaments on television, I observe many players of all ages and all levels on the course. They all have one thing in common: the most positive emotions they express on the course are 99% provided by the putter.
I very rarely, if ever, see a player clench their fist or shout with joy after a tee shot. However, after a putt, I see them several times a week. If you want to win and/or improve, practice putting balls in the hole. If you want to play in a positive dynamic, cultivate moments of joy and the feeling of victory, practice putting balls in the hole. If you want to arrive at each tee in a positive dynamic, put balls in the hole.
You can put a ball in a penalty area, make a contact error or even an airshot, if you finish the hole with a champion putt, you will always come out with a smile and you will forget the course errors. Similarly, if you hit three very good golf shots to get to the green and you add three putts to the bill, you will forget the three very good golf shots and you will arrive at the next tee with a bitter taste in your mouth. The putter will make you forget everything, it's up to you to see what you want to forget. It's with the putter in hand that we clench our fist. QED. Practice on the green. At least 30% of the time you devote to training. It's not that much to ask!
Good games to all. Remember: the hardest part of this game is not to neglect the simplest things. They are the most precious!
@cocoach8242
