DonJuan
Well-known member
Thing is..people DON't know. They THINK they know...but often not. My playing partner is a great example.
When it is time to chip, he loves, loves, loves his 4i. He is sure he is really good with it because he has hit 4 or 5 pretty good chips with it through the years. He has hit, and I am not exaggerating, HUNDREDS of bad chips with it. He tends to practice the stroke beautifully, step up, over-backswing, realize it on the downswing, try to slow his swing and hit it thin. Trying a 10 yard chip he picks his ball up from 30 yards the other side of the green. Again and again and again. Because he remembers the 1 good one a month and since we play mine on the rest, those don't matter and don't enter his mind.
I actually pointed this out to him, convinced him to try his pitching wedge and 9i a few times to get a little loft and less roll. He was overall far more accurate...most were on the green somewhere. But he hit one bad one and instantly went back to using his 4i because "I chip really well with this."
Objectively, demonstrably false. But he doesn't track and only remembers the good ones.
He is not an outlier. I see so many people that do this. I have to watch myself to make sure I am not getting trapped in that. Tracking puts it on paper, then I know what to work on.
Good points. We all know people like that (Some of us are that person). Although for someone like that the data wouldn't matter anyway. Oftentimes I know what the right play is; I just don't care. Now, in my case I don't have any illusions about my abilities, but the result is the same.