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What is a good golf shot?

Smallville said:
If a drive is in the fairway (and not a pop up), it's a good shot. If a second shot advances it and keeps you out of trouble (or more trouble if you were already in trouble) it's a good shot. If an approach either gets on the green or misses anywhere but short side or in sand (or any other major trouble), it's a good shot. I want to get pars. If I can get a birdie great, but if I don't play the hole perfectly (for my ability) and walk off with no worse than bogey, then that's great too.
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I'm not picking on you Smalls but I think this is what too many people think and this is why there is not improvement in the game. People are ok with results no matter how they arrived. That low burner might work on your home course but no on another. Being ok with a bad shot that ended up in the fairway just isn't helping anyone, IMO.
 
Good=Result. A well struck 9 iron that goes 10 yards past my target is an awful shot. A flip wedge chip from above the hole to a short sided pin that ends up 10 feet below the hole is good.

Edit: But if the shot its self is ugly, then the result doesn't really matter much.
 
I think it's important to remember that lucky does not equal good.

PGA tour: these guys are good. It's because they execute many of their shots exactly as planned...not cause they got lucky.

Sorry but blading a 7 iron 10 feet off the ground to 2 feet from the flag is not good, it's lucky.
 
Still counts the same Cookie :D
 
Nah, I get it. Like I said above, I'm always critical of myself, even if I'm on the green if I don't like where it's at on the green, etc. Still, give me all the good breaks you can. Bad ones make it even in the end.
 
Hawk said:
Nah, I get it. Like I said above, I'm always critical of myself, even if I'm on the green if I don't like where it's at on the green, etc. Still, give me all the good breaks you can. Bad ones make it even in the end.
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I hear you and I agree with you 100% as well.
 
Tadashi70 said:
I'm not picking on you Smalls but I think this is what too many people think and this is why there is not improvement in the game. People are ok with results no matter how they arrived. That low burner might work on your home course but no on another. Being ok with a bad shot that ended up in the fairway just isn't helping anyone, IMO.
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I don't play pretty golf.

I hit the ball low.

I play a vicious cut off the tee.

With that said, if the result is good, then my shot was good.

I don't care how it gets to the hole, as long as it does.
 
To me if the result of the shot is what I visualized pre shot then it's a good shot...sometimes they don't look just like I imagined, but if the result is the same then it's a good shot for me.
 
What is a good golf shot?

War Eagle said:
I don't play pretty golf.

I hit the ball low.

I play a vicious cut off the tee.

With that said, if the result is good, then my shot was good.

I don't care how it gets to the hole, as long as it does.
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Let me ask a question. Based on "result good, shot good".

If you hit a shot into a par 3 with water in front, balls hit the concrete fountain in water 15 yards short of green and bounces onto green settling 4 feet from hole.

Is that a good shot in your eyes?

IMO, that's lucky and not good but I ask based on that statement that result equals quality essentially.
 
#Cookie said:
Let me ask a question. Based on "result good, shot good".

If you hit a shot into a par 3 with water in front, balls hit the concrete fountain in water 15 yards short of green and bounces onto green settling 4 feet from hole.

Is that a good shot in your eyes?

IMO, that's lucky and not good but I ask based on that statement that result equals quality essentially.
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Still a birdie right :alien: Plus hitting the fountain was the only way to get close to that tucked pin...hehe
 
TripleBogieTim said:
Still a birdie right :alien: Plus hitting the fountain was the only way to get close to that tucked pin...hehe
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Whoa slow down there tiger, your username basically sums up what would happen if that shot happened to me.
 
Our old pro says there is only one perfect shot, the shot that goes into the hole. Everything else is less than perfect.

For most of us, it doesn't matter much how good we hit the ball. It is mostly a matter of how good we miss the ball. We try to hit "good shots" but have to settle for good misses the majority of the time. In the end, all that matters is results.

So a good shot is any shot that gives us a chance to make the next shot a perfect shot.
 
So, was this a good shot? By some logic here (not mine :D ) I suppose the answer is yes.

 
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#Cookie said:
Let me ask a question. Based on "result good, shot good".

If you hit a shot into a par 3 with water in front, balls hit the concrete fountain in water 15 yards short of green and bounces onto green settling 4 feet from hole.

Is that a good shot in your eyes?

IMO, that's lucky and not good but I ask based on that statement that result equals quality essentially.
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If the end result is good, it's good. It was ugly, and a miss, but still good.
 
A good shot for me is the one I can visualize and pull off. Example. 9th hole at River Pines in Georgia. Par 4 slight up hill. Sand on the left at the corner of the dogleg left. From the tee I visualized a nice draw with the 3deep to leave a nice open look at the pin. I was able to execute it. So I walked away with a "good shot" frame of mind.
 
I think for me it's a bit deeper than just the result.
On the dogleg left par 4 17th two nights ago I set up on the tee for a high baby-fade to cut over the trees and somehow instead hit a push-draw; end result - DEEP and in the fairway. While my playing partners were slapping me on the back I didn't really feel a whole lot of pride about that shot as it was the opposite of what I was trying to do. Clearly I put a half ass gimped swing on the ball and got lucky.

Generally speaking though I'm happy if I made "clean contact" and the ball is in the fairway, on the green, or wherever I was aiming.
 
Hawk said:
Any shot that sounds good and does what I want it to is a good one in my books. The rest are playable misses of varying degrees and just plain stinkers. I'll get a few a round with the full swing and usually a handful more with the wedges.
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That's my take, too. I have a tendency to see a shot in my head from time to time, but usally I'm looking to hit a distance ans spot. Like TheDue mentioned earlier, playing the % that makes the most sense. There are plenty of shots during my round where if asked, What are going to do here, James? I'd say something like "I'd like to start this over the left edge of the trap with a small draw back to the center of the green." ...and then do that. It doesn't always work that way.
I'm always trying to play a shot that leaves me in a good spot or close to that, if I miss....unless I'm just ON that day.

Sent from my S3 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
 
My standards for "good shot" are not overly high - "on the green" is automatically a good shot from outside 70 yards. "In the fairway and within 10 yards of the distance I expected" is good. If my putt ends up within "gimme" distance, that is good (unless it started within "gimme" distance, lol). For chips and short pitches, on the green is not automatically good, I'm really hoping for "within 15 feet of the hole".

If I get a good result from a fluke bounce on a shot going 30 yards left of my target, I like to remind myself that I at least got SOME of the basics correct - I didn't whiff, I didn't top it, I didn't shank it, I didn't chunk it.
 
Any putt over 5 feet that goes in. Honest to God, I've hit 57 GIR in my last 63 holes and made 4 birdie putts. Yes, that's 4 for 57 on birdie putts in the last week. 16 have hit the cup and lipped out. I've never hit the ball so good....and putted so badly.

I'm going to need therapy if a couple putts don't go in tomorrow!!!
 
tahoebum said:
Any putt over 5 feet that goes in. Honest to God, I've hit 57 GIR in my last 63 holes and made 4 birdie putts. Yes, that's 4 for 57 on birdie putts in the last week. 16 have hit the cup and lipped out. I've never hit the ball so good....and putted so badly.

I'm going to need therapy if a couple putts don't go in tomorrow!!!
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I've got some good scotch to share with you if my putting doesn't turn-around this Sunday as well. Although, despite 36 putts a round on average over the last 5 rounds, I have had a birdie every time out, which, for me is good. It just sucks to drop a birdie putt from thirty feet, then three-jack from twenty feet on the next hole.....
 
I visualize every shot in my mind before I hit. It I pull it off perfectly, that is a good golf shot.
 
Thought about this thread a lot during my round today...

I had 145 to the pin, and I was left side of the fairway with a small tree in my way. I was aiming at the right of the tree, but knew there was a chance I would clip a small branch.

Well, I decided to play it, and hit it perfect. Ball clipped two small branches that were right on my line, and the ball ended up 6 inches from the hole.

In my mind, that was a great golf shot. I knew my line, and what I wanted to do, however I did not intend to clip two branches on the tree.

Tap in birdie.
 
Bad shot turned good (FABIO) is a sort of good shot, but only by result. A good golf shot is something that is planned, visualized and executed accordingly. But, would I prefer a thin "bad" shot that ends up a feet from the cup, or a "good" shot that ends up ten feet from the cup? I'll take the tap in.
 
I'm not good enough to be picky. A good shot is anything that ends up in the general vicinity of where I wanted it. That can be a fairly large range. I aim my drive down the right side, pull it left and manage to squeeze it into the left side of the fairway, that's still a good shot because it's in the fairway. Fairway is pretty much always better than anything else.

Same with an approach shot. If it hits the green within 2 putt range - usually about 40 feet or less - then it's a good shot. Anywhere on the green is still okay, and missing the green but with a simple chip is still good by me.

Basically, any shot which does almost exactly what I planned isn't a good shot, it's a miracle. :thumb:
 
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