That’s awesome re: the driver gains. I am chasing. Chasing what? I don’t know, I just know I want to get better. Strong focus on ball striking right now (driving, iron play) which I figure is the path to long term sustainable gains in handicap. I know I could get some gains with wedge/putter, but I think about that as variance around a ball-striking mean, if that makes sense.
Your comment about the different galaxies reminded me Tom Coyne’s book Paper Tiger. He talks about the ladder of golf. I love his first paragraph, which I’ve just opened up here and copied:
Consider the golf-greatness pyramid’s base, a wide mass of good players, great players, best ball strikers you have ever witnessed firsthand, the only ace you have ever been accidentally, terrifyingly, matched up with – we’ll call him or her The Best Player You Know… A two-, three-handicap – maybe even a scratch player. If you watched them hit balls, you would weep inside.
And here’s the news about The Best Players You Know: They’re shit. Scratch is shit. The Best Players You Know simply cannot play. They are the mere masses, golf’s faceless proletariat, utterly forgettable. They are little more than the wide sprawling base of wannabes on which the pyramid is planted.
And he goes on from there