Stress free, back to back 91s for an 18 HCP

millsan1

I've figured this game out! Oh wait, no I haven't
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So I have watched some videos on the Tube of You and there is this one guy, whose accent I can't stand, but has some good ideas.

One of his ideas is how to shoot a stress free 90.





It basically works out to this:

Find a club you can hit 170+ with great consistency. Tee off with that club.

Then find a club and distance you are very comfortable with, I'll call that my 56 and 75 yards. This is what you use to put the ball on the green.

Then, after your tee shot, hit your second to that yardage. Accept you will be on in 3 for a par 4, and try to two putt.


I have played a hole or two with this strategy in the past, with varying success. But the last two days, I decided to follow this prescription. I forced myself to not take that "If I get hold of it, I can get it there" shot, and basically lay up to that 75 yard range.

The only time I didn't lay up was if my drive put me inside of 150 on a 4, or if my second put me there on a par 5. Obviously Par 3s are different.

End result was a lot more holes where I was on the green, and close to the pin, than normal. Except for a couple three putts, I was right there with a pair of 91s (good scores for me). And the biggest difference was the lack of stress.

The rounds were very easy, because I wasn't trying to reach out on my second shots.

I also didn't have any of my normal "There it goes! Boom, I nutted that one! Wait, it's tailing off into the rough.....tree line... OOB" shots.

While not my best scores, they were good scores for me, and it was also easy. No high stress shots, not many "WTF Anthony" moments, and ended up happy.

I will be applying this for my next few rounds and hope it continues.
 
Golf sidekick is the best. I've been watching all his videos, some of them many times. They just get me to a good mood. The stress free strategy really works. More confidence in shots, as you concentrate on few selected confident clubs/shots, plan the hole and trust the system. I've played many round with just 6 clubs, two long clubs (d/w and hybrid), two irons (usually 6 and 8) and pw and putter.
 
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I watch his stuff as well. Some good ideas to help while a guy is improving for sure.
Some days I should follow that advice more, but when my driver is working it makes my round a lot easier. When its not, I should swallow my pride and follow this advice.

Glad its working for you buddy!
 
I watch all of his stuff and really enjoy it. Some of the courses he plays look incredible.

I need to follow his "teachings" more often to be honest. Get out of my own way and play some Playa golf.

I will say, that laying up to a number, or giving yourself a specific club to hit, only works when you can actually hit the ball properly and not flub up the follow up shot lol.
 
Well, I suppose if a consistently good for you score is what your after it’s a decent approach. I’ve proven to myself that I’m better scoring (on average) hitting only irons.

To me that kind of golf just isn’t very fun. I’m not going to intentionally try for bogey with an occasional outlier either way.

In the team golf format I’m playing at the Bridgestone event, I’ll do whatever is best for our team. But I’d rather have a couple birdies and a couple doubles than a lot of bogeys and an occasional par.

I golf to have fun. I live for the holes where I pound one, and am in great position to make birdie or eagle. There are a couple local holes that I play for par, but otherwise I want to hit the ball far, and then have as close to the green as possible as my next shot. Grinding out pars/bogeys isn’t a lot of fun for me. Sure, it takes 100 off the board, but it also takes 70 off. Probably 80 too since scrambling is not a strength of mine.

Different strokes for different folks but I prefer going for everything and grinding when it’s a last resort.
 
Well, I suppose if a consistently good for you score is what your after it’s a decent approach. I’ve proven to myself that I’m better scoring (on average) hitting only irons.

To me that kind of golf just isn’t very fun. I’m not going to intentionally try for bogey with an occasional outlier either way.

In the team golf format I’m playing at the Bridgestone event, I’ll do whatever is best for our team. But I’d rather have a couple birdies and a couple doubles than a lot of bogeys and an occasional par.

I golf to have fun. I live for the holes where I pound one, and am in great position to make birdie or eagle. There are a couple local holes that I play for par, but otherwise I want to hit the ball far, and then have as close to the green as possible as my next shot. Grinding out pars/bogeys isn’t a lot of fun for me. Sure, it takes 100 off the board, but it also takes 70 off. Probably 80 too since scrambling is not a strength of mine.

Different strokes for different folks but I prefer going for everything and grinding when it’s a last resort.

I think you are missing the point. It is not to play bogey golf for the rest of your life. It is to build foundation. Nobody hits seventies right away. You build up skills and shots you can rely on. I think Golf Sidekick's Way of the Playa only expedites the transition from newbie hacker to single/scratch player.

I also play golf to have fun. It's not fun to overestimate your abilities and play from OB to hazard. It's a journey for me. For those more experienced than me, it might be hunting low 70's. I need to break 100 first and some other barriers.
 
Not for everyone of course but what this approach does is allow one's game to mature naturally and at a patient pace. It also stresses course management as the very plan calls for a mapping out of how most holes will be played.

Should also hone short game skills as shorter approaches should lead to smaller misses with lots of opportunity to develop skill and creativity around the greens.

Confidence being key, I can't personally see a downside as long as its viewed as a stepping stone in one's golf development. No one way to get it done and I like this approach.
 
I think you are missing the point. It is not to play bogey golf for the rest of your life. It is to build foundation. Nobody hits seventies right away. You build up skills and shots you can rely on. I think Golf Sidekick's Way of the Playa only expedites the transition from newbie hacker to single/scratch player.

I also play golf to have fun. It's not fun to overestimate your abilities and play from OB to hazard. It's a journey for me. For those more experienced than me, it might be hunting low 70's. I need to break 100 first and some other barriers.

Missing the point is kind of my thing, lol. I see it more clearly now. Not a bad philosophy. I’ve hit the reverse side of it where my best scores are behind me and the only way to recreate them is to go for broke most every shot. Seldom does it work out but once or twice a year it all comes together and I can play competent golf.

So while playing for bogey golf with an occasional par isn’t my thing, I get the point of what you’re saying. It just took it a minute to get through my thick skull and into my brain:)
 
Problem is to get a 170 yards were talking 6 iron or more for me. Assuming that's around 14 of those shots I will mess up a couple of those just the same as I would a couple drives. And with the benefit of hitting driver at least 70 yards further, it seems worth risk. I will hit that 5 or 6 iron a couple of times when there is s layup opportunity off the tee and it can be automatic but it can also be live drive into a creek or a weak high fade that ends up out of position anyways.

I have a new 4 wood and entirely intend to make it a driver replacement but really haven't got started on this golf season due to some other things occupying all my free time currently. That ends Sunday and of course the weather looks like garbage for week. Maybe I'll get some rain gear for Father's Day...?
 
Yeah, as noted, this type of play isn't my ultimate goal, but as of now, bogey golf is a good round for me.

But the bigger point of this approach is how stress free it can be to hit the same score.

Can I hang a 180 yard shot and get on? Yeah, 2 out of 10. 6 out of 10 I'm close and have to hit a sand or soft chip of some other kind of shot, so I'm looking at 2 to get on with one of them being tricksy.

Following this plan, from 180, I'll hit a PW or 9, with low chances of a bad shot, followed by a 56 or 60, again, low chance of a club, and be on in 2, but without trying hard.

It's only been two rounds, but it worked well for me, so far.

Today I got pulled in as an alternate for the men's league at my club, and for a variety of reasons I had to reach out for a couple of holes, and the results were not as good as the past few days.

And to be clear, I do not follow the advice re tee shots. I mostly hit driver, because that will give me 200-230 most times, with the odd 240+ in there, and I'm confident I'll be in play. This gives me a couple holes a round where I am going for it in 2 with a reasonable iron shot.

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I have watched his videos on how to break 80 and 90 stress free and find his videos enlightening and make me smile. He is the Bob Ross of golf videos. That said, I can’t make happy trees when I paint and I find it very stressful breaking 80. But there is a ton of useful stuff in these videos that can help and has helped.


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I like his approaches to a lot of things, but his videos sometimes annoy me. But that's a personal opinion. The information is generally solid.
 
If I had a club that I could hit 170+ with great consistency, I'd be a hell of a lot lower than a 18 HCP.

My index is in the 16's and the longest non-driver club in my bag is a 19-degree hybrid that goes about 180 yards. I would not say I hit it with any consistency at all, nor is my driver play (average 205 yards) consistent either.

And if I tried to lay up to 75 yards every time I was 180 from the green, two results. First, I'd only actually end up with a 70-80 yard next shot about one out of three times. And two I'd add about 10 strokes a round to my score by stupidly spending an extra stroke when I could get the ball on or just short of the green.

The whole proposition is idiotic in the extreme. At best it sounds like a way for a guy who hits the ball like a low-80's shooter to pad his handicap by making sure he never breaks 90.

But hey, if you're the kind of guy who plays the tippy-tips, swings out of his shoes on every shot, can't keep the ball in the same ZIP code and struggles to break 100 maybe he's got just the recipe for grinding out a round of bogey golf once in a while.
 
I watched his video on shooting under 80, which is a goal of mine this year. I enjoyed watching and hearing his thought process. I always go for the hero shot, even when my mind tells me not to. I'm trying to think more about how my shot will go if I hit it right, and plan accordingly. A lot of times I will grab a club, and think to myself, as I'm in my back swing, this is not the right club, you should hit something you know will go, instead of either it's going to go 200+ yards, or you're going to top it.

Case in point. My first round out this year, par 5, i'm about 250 out just in the rough. I haven't been hitting my 3W well, so I have zero confidence to use this for my 2nd shot. So I grab my 4 iron, and lay one out there, leaving me a chip shot to get on in 3. I 2 putt for par. My buddy says, why did you grab an iron, there's no way you were going to reach the green with that. And I told him it's because I have more confidence in my 4i then my 3W. It's playing smarter that is going to help me score better, instead of always going for it. Going for it may seem more fun, if you smack one really good, but you also play from the trees a lot more too.
 
I'm a fan. I watch the videos and try to travel the Way of the Playa.
 
If I had a club that I could hit 170+ with great consistency, I'd be a hell of a lot lower than a 18 HCP.

My index is in the 16's and the longest non-driver club in my bag is a 19-degree hybrid that goes about 180 yards. I would not say I hit it with any consistency at all, nor is my driver play (average 205 yards) consistent either.

And if I tried to lay up to 75 yards every time I was 180 from the green, two results. First, I'd only actually end up with a 70-80 yard next shot about one out of three times. And two I'd add about 10 strokes a round to my score by stupidly spending an extra stroke when I could get the ball on or just short of the green.

The whole proposition is idiotic in the extreme. At best it sounds like a way for a guy who hits the ball like a low-80's shooter to pad his handicap by making sure he never breaks 90.

But hey, if you're the kind of guy who plays the tippy-tips, swings out of his shoes on every shot, can't keep the ball in the same ZIP code and struggles to break 100 maybe he's got just the recipe for grinding out a round of bogey golf once in a while.

Hmmm...interesting opinion. I don't agree, but to each his own.
 
If I had a club that I could hit 170+ with great consistency, I'd be a hell of a lot lower than a 18 HCP.

My index is in the 16's and the longest non-driver club in my bag is a 19-degree hybrid that goes about 180 yards. I would not say I hit it with any consistency at all, nor is my driver play (average 205 yards) consistent either.

And if I tried to lay up to 75 yards every time I was 180 from the green, two results. First, I'd only actually end up with a 70-80 yard next shot about one out of three times. And two I'd add about 10 strokes a round to my score by stupidly spending an extra stroke when I could get the ball on or just short of the green.

The whole proposition is idiotic in the extreme. At best it sounds like a way for a guy who hits the ball like a low-80's shooter to pad his handicap by making sure he never breaks 90.

But hey, if you're the kind of guy who plays the tippy-tips, swings out of his shoes on every shot, can't keep the ball in the same ZIP code and struggles to break 100 maybe he's got just the recipe for grinding out a round of bogey golf once in a while.
I'm not entirely sure who pooped in your Cheerios, but I'm sorry it happened.

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