PGF helping in real life

General Discussion
#1

The prizes got me reflecting on this forum. Also played the best golf of my life this weekend (at least for thirteen holes, got to -5, then kinda freaked out). Got me thinking what role this forum had in that. Here’s some of what I came up:

  1. Hitting driver on short par 4s
  2. aiming for safe spot of green on approach shots
  3. Putting to the picture
  4. now have a 35.5” putter instead of 33.5” putter thanks to Jon’s recommendation of SeeMore, which lead me to the website and putting couch podcast
  5. @Adamyounggolf’s Loci of Foci and path and face awareness thoughts

That’s it for now. How has this forum already helped you play better golf?

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#2

Wow, that’s awesome. I just want to know what happened after 13 and what you ended up with. So exciting that this helped you play so well!!! This forum has been amazing and the people too.

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#3

I can’t say it’s really helped my game yet, but recently I have been absorbing a lot of good info about plans for winter practice so I think that will be incredibly useful quite soon and will hopefully help come Spring.

#4

It’s definitely been a good point of focus for me on what I can and should improve on.

I think I have a better understanding of path, which will hopefully translate to better overall results.

I have some great new drills I’ve used for putting and ones I’m hoping to use when I swing full…

It’s made me reassess strategy… I’ve started walking my dog on the course and eyeing greens for where I want misses to be… I realized yesterday a par five has more room back and left than I had realized, making me change my target a little.

I’m planning on playing the best golf of my life next year if my body cooperates!

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#5

Unfortunately I’ve only played 2 rounds since the forum started but I feel mentally I’m ready to play better!

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#6

I got nervy, thinking about “what if”? My best round on my home course is -3 67. After 13 I felt like I could shoot 64 or 63. I played 14 well and very nearly made a 12 footer for birdie there. Kind of weird bogey on 15 after I almost drove the green (weird lie, pitch didn’t quite get on the green, poor chip and missed the 12 footer for par.) Made a good swing on 16 but total course management blunder. Wind had picked up left to right and there is OB just off the right side of the fairway. Smashed a drive that started right down the middle but just stayed in the air too long and ended up OB by a few yards. Second drive I hit the exact same way but aimed wayyy left and it still ended up on right side of fairway (probably 15-20 mph straight crosswind). Made 7. Then bogeyed the par 3 17th straight into the wind. Again hit a very solid tee shot, just misjudged the wind and didn’t get up and down. Played 18 great and had a 10 footer for 69, just missed on the low side. Even par 70. -5 on 15 of the holes and +5 on three. What a game. I wasn’t too disappointed because I had a great time playing with an old friend and I just loved getting to -5. Next time I’ll be more comfortable with it. Thanks for asking!

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#7

I’ve been following @jon on Twitter for the last few years, so he’s been helping me for a while.

I think the biggest thing that has helped me with the forum is the constant reminders of what makes practical golf. I shot +1 on Saturday and as I think back to my round it was really boring. I hit one approach shot close, everything else was 15-30 feet. I didn’t hit a ton of fairways but my drives were always playable, and I didn’t 3 putt. Just ho-hum.

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#8

Sounds fun to me! Seems like the best rounds are just kind of easy and stress free.

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#9

That’s for sharing this Devon, it’s great to think that our shared experiences are helping one another here!

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#10

You all have answered so many of my questions, and shared your knowledge and great ideas! Believe me, it’s not easy for a beginner to find a place to learn so much so quickly!

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#11

Man, isn’t it crazy what our brain does to us. Nice round anyway.

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#12

Great topic! :+1:
And great list of positives @devonpetersen!

For me the biggest … and most important … gains are in the …
On Course Strategies
Mental Game methods and skills
… topics. Lotta really informative and helpful comments and ideas being shared!

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#13

I have gotten so much great information and tips on here, it is hard to pick them out one by one. And then i get to the range and say, now what was that i wanted to try. So now i have begun a sort of log and i write the different tips in so that when i do go to the range i will be taking it with me and pick one thing to work on that day. But i will also say the one item that has definitely helped so far is working on the mental part of the game. Learning to relax more out there and viewing each round totally different than in the past. I now play each hole as a round of its own. So i basically play 18 rounds everytime i go out there. And as we all know, one round does not effect the next one. Thank you to Jon and everyone that has helped on here. A great place to belong to.

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#14

What I have picked up is how bad the pro’s are so don’t be so hard on yourself. Golf highlights are very misleading. On or near the green is a great shot.

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#15

At this point in 2020, I’ve played 2045 holes. In 2019, I also played 2045 holes. A few numbers:

2020 Birdies/Eagles: 196
2019 Birdies/Eagles: 194

Current Handicap: 2.9
End WHS Handicap 2019: 4.0

My overall scoring average has improved by just over half a shot per 18 holes.

This is not a massive improvement, but I’m definitely better in 2020 than I was in 2019, while making almost exactly the name number of birdies. Better golf by eliminating doubles or worse is what Practical Golf is all about.

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#16

That’s a great stat for other golfers to see, thanks for sharing. Even at Jake’s level, he’s not going to make huge strides in scoring by making massive amounts of birdies. It’s trimming away the mistakes!

Remember that most scratch golfers aren’t making more than 1-2 birdies a round.

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#17

Next step is trying to get longer to give myself some shorter approaches, hopefully more GIR and more stress free pars.

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