DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - High handicappers: do you go for par or go for a different goal?

**Oberjej** · 06-26-2012, 07:00 PM

There has been some terrific advice here, thanks to everyone. Last year my average score was 103-108, and this year my scores have been mid to high 90s, and I've now broken 90 twice in the last month or so, practicing weekly and playing about twice per month.

Your question on "going for par, or going for a different goal" is very complex and I've thought about it a lot. For me, it really depended on patterns in my game and where I was doing well, and where I was needing to improve.

One thing I did that helped was to try and analyze where and how my blow-up holes occurred. Were my blowups on Par 5s? Well, yes they were and it was from trying to swing for the fences off the tee. Once I calmed down, choked down on the driver a bit, and did more controlled swings, I hit the fairways much more frequently on Par 5s. I made it a rule to not score more than a 7 on a Par 5, which was an improvement from the 10s I was scoring. Now my personal par on the Par 5s is back to the natural par. Then I noticed that my blowups were starting to occur on Par 3s? Why? I wasn't making solid contact with my higher lofted clubs from the tee box. A bit of impact tape helped discover and solve that issue. I didn't really know where on the clubface I was hitting the ball, so the impact tape has been eye opening and has led me to MUCH better contact with all my clubs.

As far as managing your round and considering your "Personal Par" for each hole, I think it depends on how consistent your scores are. For me, I could fairly regularly get pars and bogeys. But I had about 4-6 holes each round that were triples or worse. So for ME, I still consider the natural par for each hole to be MY par also, and I worked to understand and limit where I was making my big mistakes.

One golf rule that can be your friend is the "Unplayable Lie" rule. Take a look if you don't know it. I can't tell you how many times I've taken a swat at a ball in a bush, or hit opposite handed with an upside down club because the ball was next to a tree trunk. Then one hopelessly impossible shot led to another and another. You can determine if a lie is unplayable for you, take a one shot penalty, move backwards on a line from the pin, or within two club lengths, and improve your chances of making good contact on your next shot.

06-26-2012, 07:00 PM	#8
Oberjej Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 603 Senior Member	There has been some terrific advice here, thanks to everyone. Last year my average score was 103-108, and this year my scores have been mid to high 90s, and I've now broken 90 twice in the last month or so, practicing weekly and playing about twice per month. Your question on "going for par, or going for a different goal" is very complex and I've thought about it a lot. For me, it really depended on patterns in my game and where I was doing well, and where I was needing to improve. One thing I did that helped was to try and analyze where and how my blow-up holes occurred. Were my blowups on Par 5s? Well, yes they were and it was from trying to swing for the fences off the tee. Once I calmed down, choked down on the driver a bit, and did more controlled swings, I hit the fairways much more frequently on Par 5s. I made it a rule to not score more than a 7 on a Par 5, which was an improvement from the 10s I was scoring. Now my personal par on the Par 5s is back to the natural par. Then I noticed that my blowups were starting to occur on Par 3s? Why? I wasn't making solid contact with my higher lofted clubs from the tee box. A bit of impact tape helped discover and solve that issue. I didn't really know where on the clubface I was hitting the ball, so the impact tape has been eye opening and has led me to MUCH better contact with all my clubs. As far as managing your round and considering your "Personal Par" for each hole, I think it depends on how consistent your scores are. For me, I could fairly regularly get pars and bogeys. But I had about 4-6 holes each round that were triples or worse. So for ME, I still consider the natural par for each hole to be MY par also, and I worked to understand and limit where I was making my big mistakes. One golf rule that can be your friend is the "Unplayable Lie" rule. Take a look if you don't know it. I can't tell you how many times I've taken a swat at a ball in a bush, or hit opposite handed with an upside down club because the ball was next to a tree trunk. Then one hopelessly impossible shot led to another and another. You can determine if a lie is unplayable for you, take a one shot penalty, move backwards on a line from the pin, or within two club lengths, and improve your chances of making good contact on your next shot.
	Quote