Lesson 2 – A Thinking Person’s Game

A Thinking Person’s Game
Typical weekend golfers who don’t break 90 or even 100 regularly play golf as if they were playing showdown poker.  In that variation of poker, each player antes up and gets a full hand (5, 6, or 7 cards) face down.  The first player turns a card.  The next player turns his or her cards until the first player is beaten.  This continues around the table until all cards have been turned.  No one has any control over their cards or their bets and no one has any decisions to make.  After all the cards are turned the winner takes the pot, everyone antes up, someone deals, and another game begins.
I may get a kick out of a hand or two of showdown at the end of an evening of playing poker, but I certainly wouldn’t want to play it all evening.  That’s not poker playing — that’s gambling!  Yet, that’s the way most weekend golfers play golf.  On the tee for a par-4 or par-5 hole, they automatically reach for their driver.  On the tee for a par-3 hole less than 200 yards, they reach for an iron.  Over 200, a wood.  In the fairway more than 200 yards from the green, they reach for a wood — most often the 3-wood.  And many will reach for a wood even if they are in heavy rough.  Short of the green, from 100 yards in, they take a wedge automatically, even if the wedge scares them to death.  From tee to green, they try to play the shortest line to the pin, even if this means hitting through trees, over water, over sand traps, or over long reaches of rough.  Shot after shot, the weekend duffer uses his or her head about as much as the showdown poker player turning over cards.
Good Poker Players Are Patient And They Think,
Good Golfers Must Do The Same
Well, if showdown poker appeals to you, and if you enjoy adding up a 95-to-120 score every weekend, keep doing what you’re doing — at least your brain is getting a good rest and plenty of fresh air.  But if you’ve ever played real poker, you know that you have to be patient, patient, and more patient.  As the song says, “you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.” So, if you’d like to be scoring in the low 90’s or the 80’s, you’ll have to give up showdown golf and start playing a patient thinking game.
This means that you will have to exercise less brawn, and more brain each round, each hole, and each shot and this is where the secret to golf comes in.  Even though you learned the secret in the introduction to Lesson #1, you may not believe it.  Sounds too simple, doesn’t it.  So, you are going to have to prove to yourself that patience is the secret to enjoying your golf game and to improved scoring.  You will have to be persistent in your patience.  And if you are both, you will soon see your confidence build.
If you now have any kind of a golf game and if you learn to be patient, you have the potential to score in the 80’s consistently.  To do this, you must stop trying to make pars happen and learn to let them happen.  That is why your play for bogey (or double bogey, if you do not yet break 100 consistently) game plan is so important.  Take the tee shot, for example.  A 240-yard drive is great on most golf holes, but there are many holes where it is not of much more value than a drive in the 150-to-200 yard range.  In fact, 240 yards in the high rough, woods, a sand trap or even worse, in water or out of bounds is worth a lot less than 150-to-200 yards smack dab in the fairway.  So, to consistently break 100 or 90 (whichever is your current goal) you are going to have to start thinking from the moment you tee the ball up for the first hole.  If you play one course regularly, you can start thinking before your next round, devising a game plan for each hole.
The Game Plan
Here’s how.  First analyze each hole realistically, in light of your own capabilities.  Right here is one of the hardest admissions you will have to make:  You are going to have to be completely honest with yourself about your capabilities.  This means knowing and admitting to yourself how far you can reasonably expect to hit each club in your bag.  The fact that once in a while you hit a 9-iron 120 yards or a 6-iron 160 yards (or whatever numbers you carry in your head) does not mean that you normally hit these clubs that far (and straight).  Maybe you hit a 9-iron 85-to-95 yards 30% of the time, 95-to-110 yards 60% of the times and over 115 yards 10% of the time — when you don’t dub it, that is.  The tables printed in how-I-do-it golf books by professional golfers are partly to blame for our exaggerated expectations.  We think of what each club’s capability is rather than what our capability is with the club.
Many times over the years, I have talked fellow golfers into hitting one club longer than the one they had in mind (as Butch Harmon recommends in his advertisements).  This kind of conversation usually occurs only when the person asks for help, but I admit that on a few rare occasions when I could not stand watching someone beat themselves any longer, I offered a suggestion.

The Conversation
Colonel Bogey: “What club are you going to hit?”
Golfer: “A 6-iron.”
Colonel Bogey: “Why?”
Golfer: “Well, I am almost exactly 160 yards out and I know I can hit the 6-iron that distance.”
Colonel Bogey: “Will you have to hit the shot full?”
Golfer: “Yeah, I guess so.”
Colonel Bogey: “Well, that means you’ll have to hit your best shot with the 6-iron to get to the green.  If you come up short, or pull it you’ll be in a sand trap or the woods.  And because you’ll be trying to hit a full shot, it’s a lot more likely you’ll either pull it or dub it completely than if you hit a more comfortable shot.”
Golfer: “What should I do?”
Colonel Bogey: “Why not take a 4 or 5 iron and swing easy.  There’s no real trouble in the back of the green so even if you are long, you’ll only have a long putt or easy chip coming back.”

(By “swing easy” I do not mean to hold back or to stop halfway through the shot.  Swing right through the ball.  The thing that makes it “easy” is that you know you have enough club, so you won’t have to strain for distance.)

As many times as I have had this kind of discussion with a fellow golfer, I don’t need all of the fingers of one hand to count the times the golfer has gone over the green.  And on those few occasions when it did happen it was because the golfer was so relaxed and his or her timing so perfect, that the resulting shot was better than normal for the chosen club.  If possible go out to your course some evening or find a field 150-to-180 yards long and hit some shots with each iron, then pace them off.  I’d be willing to bet that your average shot with each club is 5-to-15 yards less than the figure you have been carrying around in your head for years. (Ideally you should use an area that has already been measured.  If you can’t, you will need to check your own pacing because it is likely that your steps are not a full yard.)

Likewise, start pacing off your drives during your playing rounds, taking into consideration the terrain and how you feel you hit the ball.  In other words, if you hit a 220-yard drive downhill when you know you made perfect contact, be honest with yourself, you are not an average 220-yard hitter.  Why is this important?  Because you are going to have to think out how you ought to play each hole, not how Karrie Webb, Julie Inkster, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods or your club pro would play it.  An important step to shedding the duffer label is figuring out your game plan for each hole and to do that you have to “know thyself.”

Applying The Game Plan

Let’s play a hole and see how the game plan works.  The hole is on a course I have played a lot over the years.  It is a 400 yard, dogleg left, par 4.  To set up a “comfortable” second shot to the green (for the average weekend golfer, that means under 165 yards) requires a precisely placed drive of 235 yards.  Too far right and you wind up in trees or worse, a creek.  Too far left, more trees.  You can have a “shot to the green” with a drive shorter than 235 yards, but chances are if the second shot is longer than 165 yards the average weekend golfer will not hit the green in two.  Frequently, pressing to reach the green from 190 to 210 yards away, they will get into trouble, sometimes big trouble.  For example (see diagram) you’ll see a creek running along the right side.  The creek really shouldn’t come into play at all.  Now when I play the hole I almost forget the creek is there because I have no fear of being anywhere near it.  Yet, for years I plunked many a ball into the water by pressing on a shot I had no business trying.

Standing on the tee of this hole, the average weekend golfer should be patient enough not even to think of hitting the green in two.  Once you stop fretting about hitting a perfect tee shot to be in position for a perfect second shot to the green, the tee shot will become 100% easier.  All that is needed is a smooth, comfortable shot between 160 and 200 yards, down the middle or slightly on the right side of the fairway, in position to put the second shot somewhere in front of the green.  If the first shot is 180 yards and the second shot 170 yards toward the right side of the green, that leaves a shot of 50 yards to the center of the green with no trouble.

The 50-Yard Shot

Let’s take a minute to examine the 50-yard shot. Most weekend golfers who get that close to the green in two, with no water or sand (the case here if you do not go for the pin) to shoot over, start thinking about knocking the ball dead on the stick and getting a par.  Positive thinking, yes.  But more often than not, it’s the kind of thinking that will get you in trouble.  Recently, a friend I was playing with for the first time who had asked for some help found himself in exactly this situation: 50 yards off the green, hitting three on a par-4 hole.  He reached for his wedge.  I asked him whether he felt confident with the wedge from that distance.  “No,” he said.  “Most of the time I either fluff it and come up real short or scull it and fly the green.”  “So, why hit the wedge?”  I asked.  “Because it’s the right club for this shot,” he said.  I’m no longer surprised to hear this kind of remark.

Virtually all of the weekend duffers I have played or talked with go around with the “right club for the shot” table in their head.  They respect it with such awe one suspects it must have been carved in stone by the Scottish shepherd who hit that first pebble with his crook.  Normally clear-headed business executives who apply cold, hard logic to the decisions they make at the office resort to whimsy when it comes to making simple choices on a golf course.  Faced with a 50-yard approach shot to the green, weekend duffers ask themselves, “What would Karrie, Juli, David, Tiger, or Phil do here?  A pro probably would hit a sand wedge, but the average duffer who tries it is more likely to skull the ball over the green or excavate a foot of fairway, plopping the ball 10 to 12 yards.

To look from another perspective at the notion that we should not emulate the stars of golf, I don’t care how good an amateur baseball player you are (or were in your day), I’ll bet that if I gave you a bag full of baseball bats actually used by Babe Ruth, Mark McGuire or Sammy Sosa you wouldn’t expect to play in the major leagues with them, let alone hit home runs out of Yankee Stadium.  The lesson from this is, forget the “right club for the shot.”  Remember the right club for you.

The Right Club For You

To get back to that 50-yard shot in front of the green, I pointed out to my companion that there was absolutely no trouble between him and the pin and that he could get the ball on the green within reasonable putting distance with a pitch or chip and run shot using anything from a 6-iron to a 9-iron.

I asked him which club he felt most comfortable with when not hitting a full shot.  He said he thought the 8-iron gave him as much confidence as any at that range.  At my urging, he tried the 8-iron.  Before he hit the shot, I told him to forget the pin and just try to picture the ball ending up in the heart of the green, which would put him 25 feet or less from the pin, leaving two putts for an easy bogey.

He tried it.  The shot wound up hole high, about eight feet from the cup.  He didn’t make the putt, but his tap-in bogey was probably the easiest bogey he had had all year.  Yet, two holes later he had virtually the same shot and again reached for his wedge.  Again, I suggested the 8-iron.  Five times in that round he hit the 8-iron from the 30-to-60 yard range, and the longest putt he had was 25 feet.

So, back to that third shot from 50 yards on the 400-yard dogleg.  All you want to do is put it on the green.  Don’t get uptight by trying to knock down the pin.  Relax.  It’s just an easy little chip or pitch with a 6, 7, 8 or 9-iron, whichever club you feel most comfortable with.  (Of course, if you have great confidence in your wedge or sand wedge, use them but be honest with yourself.  The margin for error is much smaller with the wedges.)

If you don’t press, chances are you will get within 20 feet or less a high percentage of the time.  It will be an easy two-putt bogey most of the time and sometimes a one-putt par.  If you play the hole as described, even if you do miss a shot on the way to the green or three-putt when you get there, you rarely will get worse than a double-bogey (In 2002, Phil Mickelson had a 5 putt from under 15 feet and a 4 putt for a bogey on a hole that he drove, so learn to live with that occasional three-putt or worse.).  Yet, holes like this one normally are death for the average weekend golfer.  Such holes are tough par fours even for a scratch golfer, but weekend golfers psyche themselves into 8’s, 9’s or 10’s and a blown round. As was mentioned in revealing the secret to golf before lesson #1, after “patience” the two most important things are persistence and confidence.  Once you learn patience you will find it much easier to persist in playing what is the safest shot for you.  And with persistence comes confidence.  Take my friend who previously had forced himself to use a wedge even though he had virtually no confidence in it.  After using an 8-iron 5 times in 9 holes and having putts for par from 8 to 25 feet, his confidence increased dramatically.  Thus, the more patient and persistent you are in playing smart shots, the more consistent and confident you will become.  We’ll spend more time on the patience, persistence, confidence, relationship in future lessons.

Do Not Let The Double Or Triple Bogey Kill Your Round

Even if you become a 10 handicapper, you are still going to experience double-bogeys and worse.  Double-bogeys, even several in a round, will not kill you.  You can survive even a triple bogey or two and still have a respectable score. [Recently, my regular skins opponent, who just a few years ago had trouble breaking 100 shot a 43 on the front side with two triple bogeys.] It is the multiple sevens, the eights and the nines that are keeping you from breaking 110, 100 or 90.  And all too often it is thinking about a 7, 8, or 9 that produces another disaster.  You absolutely have to learn to block out a bad hole.

Now, take a mental tour around your regular course, thinking out each hole using the strategy I’ve just described.  Patience means not giving yourself any pressure shots. Next, go out and play the course as you have thought it out.  Few things in life go exactly according to plan, so be prepared to adjust.  For example, suppose despite your best effort you hit a really bad tee shot on the hole described above, and wind up on the left side behind the tress only 100 yards off the tee.  (And don’t beat yourself up for that 100 yard shot.  In the first round of the 1999 U.S. Open, John Daly, a co-leader, hit a tree on his drive on 18.  He played a smart safe second shot and settled for a bogey.)   So don’t gamble.  You may need to revise your game plan to play for a safe double bogey.  Here’s how.  Play a safe shot to the right side of the fairway past the trees so that you can go toward the hole on your third shot.  Notice I didn’t say go for the pin on the third shot or even go for the green.

All you want to do on that second shot is punch the ball past the trees to the right side of the fairway.  Don’t try to bite off so much that you choose a club capable of reaching that creek.  The creek is not even in play unless you bring it into play by not using your head.  And don’t even consider going over or through those trees.  If successful, it only gains you 30-40 yards.  And if not – forget it!!!  Your revised game plan should put you easily on the green in four shots and since your fourth shot should be fairly short, you should have an easy two-putt double bogey and a possible one-putt bogey.  Remember, before each shot you have to make a decision based on where you are and the equipment available to you for the next shot.

Adjust To Your Own Capabilities

Since virtually everyone has 14 clubs that will do the job reasonably effectively, the most important equipment factor is your own capabilities.  If you try to go over or through the trees or cut it close to the trees, then don’t be surprised if you get in real trouble and take an 8, 9, or 10.  If that happens, admit to yourself you made a mistake, then forget it, and start thinking about the next hole.  Remember to be patient.  If you are not breaking 110 consistently now, a string of double bogeys is not all that bad.  If you are shooting in the 95 – 105 range a string of bogeys is a real improvement.  Don’t get impatient for the pars.  They will come.  The best poker players are almost always the most patient poker players and the same is true for golfers.

One reason golfers like Nick Faldo get to, and stay, at or near the top of the world standings for a number of years is because of their almost infinite patience.  Remember when Faldo won his first British Open.  As I recall he had something like 25 – 30 straight pars during his third and fourth rounds.  Seemingly boring, unspectacular golf, except for the fact that it’s the kind of golf that wins major championships.  (The U.S. and British Opens are great examples.  The top finishers are almost always the players that had the fewest bogeys and double-bogeys, not the most birdies and eagles. And this is true during the average weekly tournament a lot more than you would think.) The sooner that your patience produces boring, unspectacular, but consistent golf, the sooner you will start enjoying every round and most likely your scores will drop so that you will be winning matches from people who now own you.

OK, now you’re on your own for a round or two – don’t forget:

  1. If you have the time, try to find out just how far YOU hit each club on the average.
  2. Before your next round, think your way around your regular course.  Ask yourself on each hole “how can I play this hole so that I will never have a really difficult pressure shot?”
  3. Go out and play the course as you’ve thought it out.
  4. After you finish your next round, sit down and make a few notes on how you played each hole.  BE HONEST.  If you took a triple bogey or worse – ask yourself how it happened and put it down on paper.  Did you try a shot you shouldn’t have?  Were you on the fringe of a par 4 in three and were you so anxious to get close that you sculled the shot across the green and then got so upset that you three putted.  If so, write it down.  The sooner you start to recognize why you take triple bogeys or worse, the sooner you will eliminate them.  [Note:  Notice that I suggest you do this after the round.  I know some players make a lot of notes during the round, but I do not recommend that you do.  It can be too distracting.]

Now it’s up to you.

GOOD LUCK
&
GOOD GOLFING!!

Colonel Bogey