We had plenty of fun, and no good golf was played… and I think you are right about what’s great about golf… as good as we get and as good as we played, we ALWAYS leave strokes on the course.
When talking about dumb mistakes, I mean more picking targets where an OK swing is going to get me into trouble. Or where I take on risk with no additional reward… I guess I should say making dumb decisions about what shot I’m going to hit… I’m going to block a drive left once every 40 holes (if i’m lucky)… I’m going to hit a big fade short and right of my target ever once in a while… bad shots are going to pop up… my goal is to make decisions that don’t punish decent shots.
I don’t want to have to hit everything PERFECTLY to score decently… taking driver out of my hands on certain holes has made the course easier AND more fun, because now I’m just focused on hitting the fairway and then the green… I might still mishit the hybrid, and that’s OK… but I’m not forcing myself to be “on” with my driver every hole… and when I do hit driver, it’s in places where I can swing away.
It’s proven helpful and FAR less stressful… I know what club I’m reaching for on every tee box but the par 3s now… it makes it easier to commit to the shot as well, knowing exactly what I have planned on the hole.
I’m sticking with the driver on the 2 par 5s… I still think it makes the most sense. It doesn’t add significant risk of a bogey+ while it increases my chances of making birdie. Seems like the classic Win-Win.