Want to Improve Your Score...Try Meatloaf!!
Want to Improve Your Score...Try Meatloaf!! |
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| Written by Joseph Hallett, PGA |
| Tuesday, 08 July 2008 00:00 |
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Got your attention didn’t I? Or do you just like that moist and meaty American stand-by? I’ll take mine with some mashed potatoes and green beans please! Now lets’ get on to golf…if you are unhappy with your score (much like Frenchmen Jean Van de Velde was at the British Open) take a look at your statistics first! The key for making birdies and pars is how many greens you are hitting in regulation. A brief moment of your time to make a small but noteworthy point - THE PROS DO NOT HIT 17-18 GREENS PER ROUND! They’re average is in the 75% range which using the “new math” converts to about 13.5 greens per round (the ½ may be considered on the fringe if you like!). This means that the best players in the world miss close to one green every three holes. Here is where the difference lies, they’re up and down percentage is in the 65-70% range here - meaning, in laymen’s terms, that for all the greens they miss - they par approximately four of those holes. How are you doing on these holes? Take a look at your “stat” for this area and you will know where to begin. Don’t panic, I am getting to the Meatloaf part soon! Now that you determined your “missed green recovery percentage” think about what could possibly happen on your chip/pitch shots on the holes you miss. You have three options, short, hole high or past the cup. If you are experiencing all three then it is time to activate your Meatloaf plan of action. Make your goal for your next 10 rounds to be hole high or past on all your chips and you will find your percentage will improve. Why? It is simple. If you get the ball hole high, odds are that you are not going to have a huge putt to make par. The odds of you being 20-30 feet right or left are slim at this point and you have a good judge of the speed. If you hit the ball long of the hole you may have caught a downslope---leaving you and uphill putt coming back and you will also have had a chance to see the break in the green as your ball passed the cup. This piece of evidence will prove invaluable on your next shot as you have a better clue of both line and speed! If you are short - you guessed it, you receive none of these benefits (and in the old “Let’s Make a Deal” game show, you just picked Door #3!).
So your object is to achieve only two of three possible outcomes. The Meatloaf thing? Oh yeah. Way back in the 70’s a rock star named Meatloaf sang a song titled “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad." Now you know. Of course he also sang a song “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights” - but that is for another article, possibly on night putting! Joseph Hallett, PGA |
| Last Updated ( Sunday, 09 November 2008 03:24 ) |