From: wayman@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Jeffrey Wayman)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.golf
Subject: Re: Average hitting distances continued
Date: 23 Jul 92 20:05:16 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523

In article <1992Jul23.180705.12065@brtph560.bnr.ca> gturk@brtph617.bnr.ca writes:
>In article <koenig.711908570@hydra>, koenig@convex.com (Mark Koenig) writes:
>|> hannegan@hyperion.gsfc.nasa.gov (Bryan Hannegan) writes:
>|> >Hmmmm.... I hit the ball extremely well, yet can't seem to shake my handicap
>|> >below a fifteen or so. Played very competitively in high school, but went 
>|> >downhill from there. Can any one help with a few hints?
>|> 
>|> >.....stuff deleted...
>|> 
>|> >Average about 3-4 greens per nine, about 34-36 putts for 18.
>|> >Low round: 76 Hardly ever over 100 (once or twice in my life)
>|> 
>|> 3-4 greens per nine, 34-36 putts...problems solved, you need to practice
>|> chipping and putting.  If you miss the green, you are not chipping close
>|> enough and then making the putt, OR you are chipping well, but then you
>|> miss the putt.  After you get your chipping/putting fixed, work on better
>|> target orientation to the green.
>
>Agreed.  I started tracking my performance recently in terms of
>Score/fairways hit/greens hit/putts as well as birds/pars/bogeys/worse.
>
>My distances (posted earlier) are about the same as Brian's.
>BTW, for all you equipment fan's out there, I have been playing the
>same set of Hogan Director forged irons (Stiff shafts) since I bought
>them USED 13 years ago.  The only things in my bag that have changed
>are the driver (was Jerry Barber laminate, now a Toney Penna persimmon)
>and the putter (Spalding Elite -> Ray Cook -> Slotline depending
>on my mood).  Fairway woods are Lynx persimmon (c. 1977).
>Moral: Buying a better game is not always the answer.
>
>I do consider chipping to be one of the stronger parts of my game.
>Here are my stats (8.2 index on a 117 slope course - don't remember
>the course rating, off hand, par 71 (3 par-5s)):
>
>Rounds: 10 (since I began tracking)
>Low:	73
>High	82 (twice)
>Avg:	78.5 (HCP has fallen from 11 to 8 in these ten rounds)
>Fwys:	63% (8.8)
>Grns:	39% (7.0)
>Ptts:	31.7
>
>As you can see I miss 10-12 greens a round (closer to 10, one of my
>82's only had one green hit , but made up with only 28 putts, thus
>up and down's helped enormously.
>
>Yes, Mark, what I'm working on now IS target orientation.  One of the
>things that has improved this the most is paying MUCH more attention
>to my address/pre-shot routine.  I found that I was not as consistant
>with my ball position in my stance as I should be.  This has made
>for more consistant shot results.  Now, if I could only control my
>driver.  (Most of the time I hit a fairway wood, it's a tight, not
>so long course).
>
>The other thing that tracking has helped, is pointing out the
>holes that give me the most problem.  They do not track the HCP on
>the scorecard, except for the top two or three.  I focus more on
>what I need to do to score on these holes, and I feel that has helped
>in lowering my scores.
>
>-- 
>Glenn R. Turk
>email: gturk@brtph617.bnr.ca
>(919)991-8593 ESN 294-8593
>Bell Northern Research, RTP, NC

Good job, guys!!  Now, *that's* the way to improve a golf game.
Most people don't see how a strong short game will help them.
Glenn, you may want to look into a lesson or 2 to help you with
your driving difficulties now that your short game is better.
I find that a lot of people who have bad short games develop
bad fairway games because of the pressure their lack of short
game presents.  You might really benefit from a driving lesson
now, because you can work out your driving problems while shooting
the same scores.

$.02,
Jeff                wayman@lamar.colostate.edu