Question:
Nice improvement. While your putts could be lower, don’t forget that as you hit more greens, everything else being equal, your putt count would probably go UP, since you would have more putts which are longer in nature. You need to consider GIR and putt count when trying to evaluate yourself. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The following is a statistical comparison of my golf rounds in February, 2002, compared with February, 2001…same golf course, 4 rounds a piece. One thing to note, last Feb. I was in the middle of teaching myself the golf swing, utilizing Hogan’s lessons and some TGC tips. Out of sheer desperation, I started taking lessons in March, which continue to the present, averaging 1 lesson/month. This should demonstrate the value of lessons, practice, and the folly of curing oneself exclusively through books, videos, and the media. Feb. 2001 Feb. 2002 Aver. score 97.3 88.3 Birdies .3% .8% Pars 20.8% 33.3% Bogeys 27.8% 37.5% Doubles 19.5% 19.4% Triple & higher 18.1% 5.6% Driver Distance 154.2 204.0 Fairways w/driver 35.7% 41.1% GIR’s 13.9% 33.3% Putts per round 37.3 35.5 Bunkers/round 1 .5 Penalty Stokes 1.8 1.7 Obviously the short game needs help, and it’s now getting more of my attention. A final note. I like what Bobby Jones said….."The real road to improvement lies in gaining a working knowledge of the correct swing in general, and yours in particular." RSG is indespensible with the first part of his statement!! -Greg
Response:
I use golfserve.com via Golf Magazine on-line. However, I do believe there is a freebie tracker via the Golf Channel on-line. On my scorecard, I keep track of score, distance with driver, fairways, bunkers/penalties, putts, and greens. I’ve devised a code allowing me to do this, and keep other’s score as well.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This should demonstrate the value of lessons, practice, and the folly of curing oneself exclusively through books, videos, and the media. What you need to try is to listen to the unqualifed advice of your playing partners, on the course:-) Do they have a vested interest in your playing terribly — nooo! No surer way to mess up! What do you do to keep such detailed statistics? Pen & paper? Palm? Thomas Prufer
Response:
This should demonstrate the value of lessons, practice, and the folly of curing oneself exclusively through books, videos, and the media.
What you need to try is to listen to the unqualifed advice of your playing partners, on the course:-) Do they have a vested interest in your playing terribly — nooo! No surer way to mess up! What do you do to keep such detailed statistics? Pen & paper? Palm? Thomas Prufer
Response:
Paul, Like you I am self-taught. However, I still get huge value from the occasional lesson. I taught myself to have a reasonably good on-plane swing but my annual check-up looks at everything and the pro (who never tries to change anything fundamental) suggests a few tweaks and most importantly points out any bad habits I have got into. In two hours, we go through the bag, chip, bunker, putt and then play nine holes with the pro as caddie. However, he never advises me until after the shot. He asks what I was trying to do, why etc. etc. It really is incredibly valuable. The only snag is that the pro who I have been working with has left the country and I am now trying to find another one who is willing to work in the same way. Very tricky! Andrew – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – i’m not making a case against lessons. if one considers each chapter of a book a lesson, for example, then i’ve had a ton of them. like almost everything else in golf (and life), i just think it’s important to find out what works best for you and stick with it. can’t wait for the stats for feb 2003 
paul
Response:
You make a good point. My problem was that I had a 15 yr. "over the top" swing which I tried to cure by adapting Hogan’s method. Unless you are his stature….big butt…arms like popeye, and are a gifted athlete, I don’t recommend his 5 lessons. I have a good collection of sound books and videos, but nothing (in my experience) beats the professional eye. -Greg
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This should demonstrate the value of lessons, practice, and the folly of curing oneself exclusively through books, videos, and the media. greg, congratulations on your improvements and accomplishments. it always feels good to have hard work pay off. i do take exception to the "folly" you mention, however. i consider myself essentially self taught, albeit with the aid of books, video, and other media. when i was playing regularly, my swing was good enough to occasionally let me break 80. while my swing is far from flawless, i embrace it, as i do the fact that i developed it on my own. i’m not making a case against lessons. if one considers each chapter of a book a lesson, for example, then i’ve had a ton of them. like almost everything else in golf (and life), i just think it’s important to find out what works best for you and stick with it. can’t wait for the stats for feb 2003 paul
Response:
This should demonstrate the value of lessons, practice, and the folly of curing oneself exclusively through books, videos, and the media.
greg, congratulations on your improvements and accomplishments. it always feels good to have hard work pay off. i do take exception to the "folly" you mention, however. i consider myself essentially self taught, albeit with the aid of books, video, and other media. when i was playing regularly, my swing was good enough to occasionally let me break 80. while my swing is far from flawless, i embrace it, as i do the fact that i developed it on my own. i’m not making a case against lessons. if one considers each chapter of a book a lesson, for example, then i’ve had a ton of them. like almost everything else in golf (and life), i just think it’s important to find out what works best for you and stick with it. can’t wait for the stats for feb 2003 paul
Response:
Driver only…..I do keep stats on whether I hit the fairways with a non-driver. You’re right about the improvement in T shots, both in length and accuracy, which have diminished the big number holes. Hitting the greens is where I really need the work, and making a putt or two. Re. driver distance, this is virtually all carry, since the Great Wet North fairways are still quite wet. -Greg – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Wow, Greg that is a remarkable turnaround. I find it interesting that you’ve kept your "double bogey" stat about the same, but basically replaced a lot of the "triples and higher" with pars and bogeys. Shows that the idea behind improving your score is to get rid of the real big numbers, not necessarily make more low numbers. The number that blew me away was the driver distance. The fact that you’re averaging a sub-90 round with a driver distance of 204 is really something. Does that 204 count everything or fairways only? Driver only or all tee shots? If that’s driver only, tack on a little yardage and you might break that next barrier! Chris The following is a statistical comparison of my golf rounds in February, 2002, compared with February, 2001…same golf course, 4 rounds a piece. One thing to note, last Feb. I was in the middle of teaching myself the golf swing, utilizing Hogan’s lessons and some TGC tips. Out of sheer desperation, I started taking lessons in March, which continue to the present, averaging 1 lesson/month. This should demonstrate the value of lessons, practice, and the folly of curing oneself exclusively through books, videos, and the media. Feb. 2001 Feb. 2002 Aver. score 97.3 88.3 Birdies .3% .8% Pars 20.8% 33.3% Bogeys 27.8% 37.5% Doubles 19.5% 19.4% Triple & higher 18.1% 5.6% Driver Distance 154.2 204.0 Fairways w/driver 35.7% 41.1% GIR’s 13.9% 33.3% Putts per round 37.3 35.5 Bunkers/round 1 .5 Penalty Stokes 1.8 1.7 Obviously the short game needs help, and it’s now getting more of my attention. A final note. I like what Bobby Jones said….."The real road to improvement lies in gaining a working knowledge of the correct swing in general, and yours in particular." RSG is indespensible with the first part of his statement!! -Greg — RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/schoenbergg.htm I do not feed trolls….see the RSG UIP http://home.globalfrontiers.com/rorider/
Response:
Wow, Greg that is a remarkable turnaround. I find it interesting that you’ve kept your "double bogey" stat about the same, but basically replaced a lot of the "triples and higher" with pars and bogeys. Shows that the idea behind improving your score is to get rid of the real big numbers, not necessarily make more low numbers. The number that blew me away was the driver distance. The fact that you’re averaging a sub-90 round with a driver distance of 204 is really something. Does that 204 count everything or fairways only? Driver only or all tee shots? If that’s driver only, tack on a little yardage and you might break that next barrier! Chris
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The following is a statistical comparison of my golf rounds in February, 2002, compared with February, 2001…same golf course, 4 rounds a piece. One thing to note, last Feb. I was in the middle of teaching myself the golf swing, utilizing Hogan’s lessons and some TGC tips. Out of sheer desperation, I started taking lessons in March, which continue to the present, averaging 1 lesson/month. This should demonstrate the value of lessons, practice, and the folly of curing oneself exclusively through books, videos, and the media. Feb. 2001 Feb. 2002 Aver. score 97.3 88.3 Birdies .3% .8% Pars 20.8% 33.3% Bogeys 27.8% 37.5% Doubles 19.5% 19.4% Triple & higher 18.1% 5.6% Driver Distance 154.2 204.0 Fairways w/driver 35.7% 41.1% GIR’s 13.9% 33.3% Putts per round 37.3 35.5 Bunkers/round 1 .5 Penalty Stokes 1.8 1.7 Obviously the short game needs help, and it’s now getting more of my attention. A final note. I like what Bobby Jones said….."The real road to improvement lies in gaining a working knowledge of the correct swing in general, and yours in particular." RSG is indespensible with the first part of his statement!! -Greg — RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/schoenbergg.htm I do not feed trolls….see the RSG UIP http://home.globalfrontiers.com/rorider/
Response:
The following is a statistical comparison of my golf rounds in February, 2002, compared with February, 2001…same golf course, 4 rounds a piece. One thing to note, last Feb. I was in the middle of teaching myself the golf swing, utilizing Hogan’s lessons and some TGC tips. Out of sheer desperation, I started taking lessons in March, which continue to the present, averaging 1 lesson/month. This should demonstrate the value of lessons, practice, and the folly of curing oneself exclusively through books, videos, and the media. Feb. 2001 Feb. 2002 Aver. score 97.3 88.3 Birdies .3% .8% Pars 20.8% 33.3% Bogeys 27.8% 37.5% Doubles 19.5% 19.4% Triple & higher 18.1% 5.6% Driver Distance 154.2 204.0 Fairways w/driver 35.7% 41.1% GIR’s 13.9% 33.3% Putts per round 37.3 35.5 Bunkers/round 1 .5 Penalty Stokes 1.8 1.7 Obviously the short game needs help, and it’s now getting more of my attention. A final note. I like what Bobby Jones said….."The real road to improvement lies in gaining a working knowledge of the correct swing in general, and yours in particular." RSG is indespensible with the first part of his statement!! -Greg — RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/schoenbergg.htm I do not feed trolls….see the RSG UIP http://home.globalfrontiers.com/rorider/