Sept. 12, 2025

Putting is Overrated! An Introduction to the "Strokes Gained" Concept with Professor Mark Broadie

Putting is Overrated! An Introduction to the "Strokes Gained" Concept with Professor Mark Broadie
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GS#432 & 433 April 15, 2014 What does it take to drop 10 strokes from your score? Traditional stats -- fairways/greens/putts per round -- don't answer these questions. Just before the release of his book, Every Shot Counts: Using the Revolutionary Strokes Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy, Professor Mark Broadie introduced us to his theory. He wasn't sure if this idea would be accepted, but today, it's critical on every level of competitive golf. This is the full 65 minute interview that were originally published as two episodes. In part2 of the conversation, we ask what about the rest of us?! We dig into how objective analysis of scoring data can help us lower our scores.

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Here's another two for Golf Smarter episodes number four hundred

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thirty two and four hundred thirty three from April fifteen,

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twenty fourteen.

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Welcome to Golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain

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insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the

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Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets Old. Our

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interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations

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like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.

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Amateur golfers miss way more than fifty percent of their

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putts on the low side of the hole. The question

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is why is that. So there's several possible explanations, but

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one is if you aim at the apex, you will

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miss low And why is that? Because the apex is

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the furthest point, or the highest point on this curved

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path toward the hole. But that usually happens somewhere near

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the middle of the putt. In order to get the

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putt to go into the hole, you've got to start

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it higher because gravity will immediately start breaking. So if

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your target is the apex, to hit the apex, you've

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got to start it higher than the apex because that

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first half of the putt. It's going to be breaking

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before it gets there. It's not like this putt goes.

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Straight and then it takes a left turn at the apex.

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It doesn't do that. It breaks from the instant that

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you hit it. And that's the physics of it. And

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that implies that you've got to start the putt higher

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than the apex in order to hit the line that

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you're visualizing into the hole.

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Putting is overrated. An introduction to golf metrics and professor

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Mark Brody. This is Golf Smarter. Welcome to the Golf

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Smarter podcast.

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Mark Fred, thanks for having me on.

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It's a pleasure, Thank you very much. I just need

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to know something as we talk about this book, Every

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Shot Counts? Have you always been a troublemaker?

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I don't consider myself a trouble maker, so I'd have

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to say no to that one.

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Well, I have a feeling that you are turning the

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golf world on its head with this kind of information.

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Well, I'm anxious for this book to come out to

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find out whether that's true or not, because I figure

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that there's people that will believe it right away, and

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there's other people that are on the other side and

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need some convincing and I'm wondering if I'll be able

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to convince them.

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So, as we're recording this, the book will be coming

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out tomorrow, but as you are listening to it, it

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has been out a couple weeks. So if you want

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to pick up this book, actually you need to pick

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up this book. Every Shot Counts by Mark Brody. Yeah.

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I just think that, you know, I've talked to so

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many different instructors about, you know, the importance of putting,

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and you know, they we even did one episode of

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this show called give me ten yards ten feet closer,

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over ten yards farther every day of the week.

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Oh well, that's that's true, but it's it's pretty hard

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to get to get ten feet closer on your approach shots.

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Every shot ten feet closer is is going from from

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a ninety golfer to the PGA tour sometimes.

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Yeah.

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Well, I mean the guy who that interview was somebody

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who manufactures wedges, So why do you think he would

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say that he believes his product will do that? And

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actually it's a very good product. But it's just that

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we're going to call this episode and it follows in

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your book Putting is overrated. Let's talk about this, this

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concept and what you're introducing here. It's so much I mean,

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the easiest way to explain it is like moneyball, right,

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cyber metrics for baseball. People are understand and what's happened

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with the Oakland A's and you know the movie came out,

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But how they Bill James created was it cybermetrics? Ab

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metrics aabermetrics, right, and it changed the way management approaches baseball,

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but with a lot of resistance. I see this going

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in that direction as well.

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Well. I hope that's the case.

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That one of the things when you look at a

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tournament on TV or where you play with your friends,

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you can see the score. That's what golf is about,

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shooting the lowest score. But it's often not so apparent

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where those score differences come from. So when one golfer

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wins a tournament by five shots, you just don't know why,

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Where did those five shots come from? And one of

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the goals of this book is to try and break

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that down and tease out using data, what separates the

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best golfers from average golfers, whether it's in the pro

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ranks or the amateur ranks.

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I'd let the audience know that we're going to do

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this in two parts. The first part I'm going to

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have you explain how this works in the kind of

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information that you've gathered and what you've come up with,

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and the second part will will focus on how do

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it make it work for me? All right, okay, great,

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So just elaborate. I'm not going to interrupt much. You

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can talk as long as you want on this. Explain

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how that how you figured out that putting is really

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only about fifteen percent of what the total score or

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the importance of the score.

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Well, i'd say, you know, fifteen percent refers to how

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much of the strokes that separate the best PGA Tour

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players from average PGA Tour players. That difference in score,

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about fifteen percent of it comes from putting. And if

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you're if you're looking over kind of a long period

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of time, if you look at tournament winners, it turns

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out that putting is a little bit more important than

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it explains about thirty five percent of the difference between

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the winner of a tournament and the field that they're

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playing against.

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Yeah, I mean, because so often, you know, TV needs

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the drama and you'll see a guy making a putt,

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or just the other day Paula Kramer made that amazing

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seventy five foot putt. She needed to make it to

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win if she two putts, which was fine, she ties,

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but you know that kind of drama you see, but

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you don't see how it got to the point where

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she was struggling or she was behind and had to

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come from behind, and it wasn't always on the putting green.

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Correct Well, certainly if you think a seventy five footer

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for eagle, you had to have some help by reaching

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that par five and two. So yeah, right, it's and

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that's one of the things strokes gain does. It quantifies

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how much of that good score came from putting versus

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how much came from the TITA greenshots.

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Right, So generally, I know, personally on my scorecard, I'll

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keep track of fairways, hit greens and regulation and how

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many putts, But that really doesn't explain to me why

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I had a ninety four.

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That day exactly.

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I mean, each one of those traditional stats has fundamental

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fatal flaws. So if you pop up a drive one

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hundred yards into the fairway versus you hit another one

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two hundred and fifty yards in the fairway. You both

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get a check mark for a fairway hit, but one

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is a much better shot than the other, So fairways

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hit doesn't capture the difference between those clearly different shots.

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The same way when you count putts, if you sink

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a two footer, you know you miss the green, you

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chip the two feet, and you sink the two footter,

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it's a one put on that green, you say, great,

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it's a one putt. But on another green where you

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hit your approach shot to forty five feet and you

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sink a forty five footer, that's a one putt. Also,

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both of those strokes count as one putt. It looks

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like you're putting is the same, But sinking a forty

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five footer is a much better putting performance than sinking

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a two footer. So neither fairways hit nor putting really

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gives you the true story. And you can say the

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same thing about greens and regulation that if you have

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few greens and regulation, was it because you drove the

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ball poorly, or your iron shots were poor, or your

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you know, your third shot on a par five was poor.

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It doesn't really explain what's what's going wrong.

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So we're going from subjective to objective information exactly. Okay,

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you know that I frequently say the one the only

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thing I hate more than a one putt bogie is

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one putt double bogie. But so let's how did you

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get to this place? Please give us some background on

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where it brought you to, how you brought it to

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the PGA, what they're doing with it, go from that.

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So, so it was sort of a a fortunate confluence

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of events. I'd say that my day job is being

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an academic at Columbia Business School, where my research is

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in quantitative finance. But I'm a golfer and I have

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a passion for golf, and I realized that I could

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take my academic training and put it together with my

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golf hobby to try and answer these questions that are

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at the heart of golf. But it all boils down

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to having some data. And so some of the questions

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that I wanted to answer were where did the ten

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strokes come from that separate a ninety golfer from an

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eighty golfer? Or what's the difference between an eighty golfer

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and a pro where did those strokes come from? Or

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as you mentioned earlier, what's the value of hitting the

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ball twenty yards further. And for any of those questions,

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I didn't know the answer, I didn't know anybody else

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who knew the answer, and I didn't have the data

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to answer it. So first step was trying to get

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data to then do the analysis. And so I developed

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a program called golf Metrics that would could be used

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to collect and analyze amateur data. And unbeknownst to me,

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at the same time, the PGA Tour was starting to

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collect data with their shot Link system, and so they

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partnered with CDW and since two thousand and three, they've

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recorded every shot of every pro golfer in every one

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of the PGA Tour events, and so they have this

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massive amount of data and they wanted a way to

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use this data to better understand performance. And they thought

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their weakest stat was putting. In fact, they had three

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putting stats. One was just counting putts. They realized that

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wasn't so good. So they also had putts per green

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and regulation, which very few people understood. And they also

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had had length of putts that were hold. So every

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time you sink a twenty foot or it adds twenty

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feet to your length of putts hold. Anyway, none of

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those three putting stats really gave a good picture of

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who was the best putter.

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And so at the time that I was doing.

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This analysis and they very nicely gave me access to

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the PGA Tour data, they also wanted a better putting

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stat and this thing, this work led to the strokes

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gained putting stat that the PGA Tour rolled out in

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May of twenty eleven.

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On the strokes gained putting, you give a great example

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about Rory McElroy. Did you expand on that for us?

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Well, if he was the player of the year in

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twenty twelve, he won a bunch of tournaments, he had

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the lowest scoring average, he won, he had almost every

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tournament he was in he was in in the top ten.

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So this was just a fantastic year twenty twelve for

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Rory McElroy. And then you take a look at his

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stats and he's not in the top fifty in driving,

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he's not in the top fifteen in greens and regulation,

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and he wasn't in the top fifty in in strokes

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gain putting. So here you have the best player of

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the year who can't get the ball off the tee.

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He can't hit the green and he can't putt according

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to the stats, And there's this complete disconnect between the

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information provided by the stats and the performance that you're

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seeing on the course. And if you look at this

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through this new lens of strokes gain, you can exceed.

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You can see exactly why Rory McElroy had the twenty

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twelve that he did.

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And I mean it's like, wait a minute, you just

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disproved yourself that now expand why tell me why that

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for you? That became heaven to have all this information?

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But how you can prove that he wasn't the best player,

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He just had the best year.

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So in this measure called strokes gain driving, which measures

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how well he hit the ball off the tee on

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par fours and fives, he was ranked second in his

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approach shots meaning all shots starting outside of one hundred

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yards excluding driving, he was ranked second. He was ranked

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thirty fourth in a short game shots inside one hundred

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yards except for putts, and he was ranked seventy third

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and putting, so that was, you know, the weakest part

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of his game. A short game was a little you know,

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both his putting and a short game were slightly above

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tour average, but outside one hundred yards he killed it.

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He was just phenomenal from outside one hundred yards. So

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he gained most of his strokes outside one hundred yards

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and strokes gained and kind of clearly shows where he

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was getting his advantage on the field.

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So the age old addict of drive for show, putt

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for doe doesn't really hold up, does it.

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Well not in this case.

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I mean, he gained eighty five percent of his strokes

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on the field came outside one hundred yards and fifteen

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percent came from inside one hundred yards. But you know,

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it's it's it's different for different golfers, and when you

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average over the top ten twenty thirty forty golfers on tour,

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you'll find that kind of similar result. But within there,

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you look at a particular golfer and there's definitely there's

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definitely variation.

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So it's it's true that.

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Luke Donald is one, you know, has one of the

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best putting and one of the best short games in

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the world, and you can see that. You can see

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Steve Stricker has one of the best short games in

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the in the world. So everybody's a little bit different,

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but more often than not, it's it's the long game

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that separates the best pros from the average pros.

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So the big drives really do make a.

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Difference, absolutely.

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And uh, you take a look at some of the

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you know, the best drivers in the game, and they

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would be like Bubba Watson or Dustin Johnson, and they

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hit the ball really far and they hit it pretty straight.

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So when you look at fairways hit, they're certainly down

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on the list, but they're straighter.

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Than than than us, than us by far.

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What's you know, I'm hitting the ball two thirty or

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two forty and I'm hitting you know, fifty percent of

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my fairways. They're hitting at three twenty and they're hitting

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sixty percent of their fairwys or something like that.

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That's why we hate those guys.

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Oh, I think that's why we love to watch them, right.

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Right, exactly your example of Jason Day, I think everyone

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can relate to. And how does that compute?

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And please give the example, right, if you pop the

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ball up and hit one hundred yards in the fairway

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counts as a fairway hit. You hit it three twenty

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in the fairway counts as a fairway hit. So they

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both look they both look the same but when you

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measure it on strokes gained. I unfortunately picked on Jason

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Day because it was such an unusual example. When at

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Kapalua on the I believe it was the eleventh hole.

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You know, he he hit a fat drive. I think

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he was trying to drive the green or something. He

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swung so hard, but he hit it, hit so fat

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that it went just over one hundred yards, and in

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strokes gained, you can see he lost about seven tenths

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of a stroke on the field with that with that drive.

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So the key is, in order to compare driving with

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appro shots, with sand shots, with putting, you need a

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common scale. You can't measure drives in yards with putts

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that are measured in strokes. So what strokes gain does

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is allow you to put all of these different shots

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on a common footing, so you can compare not only

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who's the best driver, but how does driving compare with

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a pro shots, short game shots and putting.

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I need actually for the stats freaks out there, it

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was the thirteenth hole in twenty eleven.

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Oh thank you, Okay.

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Not a problem, because I dog eared that page as well.

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In all this, you know, going in background of all this,

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the dynamic programming. I thought was really fascinating explanation to

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help us get there. And as a professor of business,

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you must love that stuff.

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Oh absolutely.

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It's you can use this idea of you know, what's

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the quickest way to get to a goal? And it

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happens all the time in everyday life. And whenever you

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get into a car and you want to drive somewhere,

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you can press a button and it will tell you

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the shortest route to get to your destination. That's one

315
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example of how do you make multiple decisions in a

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way that satisfies an objective, in this case getting to

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your destination fast. But there's other examples in you know,

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finance and investing. When you want to improve your investing

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performance so that you have enough money to retire, on

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what's the best way to invest over time so that

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you have an adequate amount in your retirement account. And

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the connection with golf is what's the quickest way to

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get to the hole? And the way you do that

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is you measure not in terms of yards or feet,

325
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but you measure in terms of strokes. And the reason

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00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:05.519
for that is one yard more on your drive isn't

327
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worth the same as getting a putt three feet closer

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to the hole, so not all three three foot gains

329
00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:14.640
are the same. But if you measure it in terms

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of strokes, then you can compare drives, approach shots, and puts.

331
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But you need a tremendous amount of data to be

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able to it would be Is it hard to do

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it for yourself to figure this out?

334
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No, it's not.

335
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I mean you need a tremendous amount of data to

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figure out what the benchmark is or what you're comparing against.

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So in the example of Jason Day where he hit

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this unusually short te shot for himself, what you need

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to know is what was the PGA Tour average score

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on the tee and then what's the PGA Tour average

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score from his position in the fairway. And it turns

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out that on that shot he was four strokes away

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from the hole when he started.

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And he was because it was a par four.

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It was a it was an.

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Average par four, so some par fours it would be

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more or less than that, but it was an average

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par four, and at the end of the shot, the

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00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:22.599
PGA to were average from that position would be three

350
00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:26.279
point seven strokes. So he took one swing and he

351
00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:30.160
only got point three strokes closer to the hole, which meant,

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you know, he lost point seven And so you might

353
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not follow the math. But you know, if a PGA

354
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Tour player hits one hundred yard drive, you know, with

355
00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:42.039
a driver on a long par four, on a.

356
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Par four, it's not funny. We all do this, we

357
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all do that.

358
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So the funny part is Jason Day smiled after this,

359
00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:53.839
he laughed. Whereas the guys in my forest and after

360
00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:56.000
a shot like that are about to break their club

361
00:20:56.079 --> 00:21:00.000
over their knee. He shook it off and ended up

362
00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:02.920
up paring the hole. And that's That's one of the

363
00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:05.599
things that I'm so impressed with these PGA Tour pros,

364
00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:09.640
which is they not only hit better shots, but their

365
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mental game is better. They can forget about the bad

366
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shots or laugh them off better. They practice better, they

367
00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:18.640
probably eat better, they work out better.

368
00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:21.319
Yeah, but they're constantly traveling, they have to be in

369
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a different bed, they have different food all the time.

370
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It's not an easy life to be able to perform

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at that level when you have all these different factors

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weighing down on you.

373
00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:33.519
Well, I think they do it all all the more

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00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:36.759
impressive what they do. They're playing different courses. I have

375
00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:39.799
trouble enough playing you know, the same course over and

376
00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:43.359
over again. They're playing a different course every week. It's

377
00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:46.519
it's just amazing how how good they are. And those

378
00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:50.720
courses that they're playing aren't like our course. The greens

379
00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:52.880
are much harder, the rough is much thicker, and of

380
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course the holes are much longer.

381
00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:04.480
I kind of get it once you start getting the decimals.

382
00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:06.480
I'm like, how did you get that? That's where I

383
00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:11.160
get lost. I'm not a math guy ever. I'm a

384
00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:14.119
recording engineer, and maybe I should be a math guy

385
00:22:14.200 --> 00:22:17.640
by doing that, But that's where I get lost. But

386
00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:19.559
that's what I loved about being able to read the book,

387
00:22:19.559 --> 00:22:23.000
because you really did give a lot of graphs and images,

388
00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:28.960
and you explain like a college professor. You explain it

389
00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:31.680
quite well. And that's what I really enjoyed about this book.

390
00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:35.119
Well, well, I appreciate that, But one of the things

391
00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:40.640
I hope the readers will find is that this is simple.

392
00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:46.160
It's at the heart, it's just subtracting two numbers and

393
00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:50.519
to give you, to give you an idea if you

394
00:22:50.599 --> 00:22:54.240
knew nothing about strokes gain and I said, if you

395
00:22:55.880 --> 00:22:59.640
missed the two footer. How many strokes do you think

396
00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:01.640
you low lost? What would your answer be?

397
00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:03.200
Two?

398
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:08.359
If you if you two putt from two feet, how

399
00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:10.440
much do you think you would lose to most of

400
00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:12.640
your fellow competitors if you had a two putt from

401
00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:13.240
two feet?

402
00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:16.480
Oh to Mike, bet one one.

403
00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:18.880
You would lose one. Right, That's exactly what strokes gain

404
00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:21.559
tells you. Oh you lost, you lost a stroke if

405
00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:22.440
you missed a two footer.

406
00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:26.519
Okay, that's not that hard. So how about a thing

407
00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:27.200
it was for me?

408
00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:34.359
I didn't ask the questions failed, Sorry, professor after class?

409
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:39.279
Oh, so about how about a thirty footer? So the

410
00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:43.759
PGA Tour average from thirty actually thirty three feet is

411
00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:46.240
two putts, but.

412
00:23:46.279 --> 00:23:49.240
For us, So.

413
00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:50.039
For us it's a little bit more. But suppose you're

414
00:23:50.039 --> 00:23:52.759
a PGA Tour player and you sink a thirty three

415
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.319
footer one putt from thirty three feet, how much did

416
00:23:56.359 --> 00:23:58.240
you gain versus your competitors?

417
00:23:58.359 --> 00:23:58.599
One?

418
00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:03.039
Exactly what happens If you three putted from thirty three.

419
00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:07.400
Feet one less, you lose, you lose, you lose one.

420
00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:13.000
And if you two putt, yeah, zero, Zero's that's all

421
00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:13.559
there is to it.

422
00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:15.079
That's not that hard, is it. No?

423
00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.960
But the difference is if you one putt from two feet,

424
00:24:20.279 --> 00:24:23.400
you gain or lose zero. If you one putt from

425
00:24:23.559 --> 00:24:26.960
thirty three feet you gain a stroke. So both are

426
00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:30.000
one putts, but one is better than the other. One

427
00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:33.160
is gaining on the field, the others staying even with

428
00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:33.640
the field.

429
00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:37.440
Now that we've kind of gotten an overview of strokes

430
00:24:37.480 --> 00:24:42.799
gain putting strokes gained, how the golf metrics kind of work.

431
00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:44.759
But you've got to look at the book to get

432
00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:48.920
a full explanation for yourself. I want to figure out

433
00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:53.799
how we can make this work for us. And you know,

434
00:24:53.960 --> 00:24:56.880
yes there's tons of statistics from the tour, and yes

435
00:24:56.920 --> 00:25:00.079
it's fun to watch and see how they're using it.

436
00:25:00.279 --> 00:25:04.559
But on a Saturday, for ourselves, that doesn't help much, right,

437
00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:08.480
because we really cannot compare ourselves to the pros.

438
00:25:09.559 --> 00:25:10.039
That's right.

439
00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:13.279
You can use the same idea to compare yourself to

440
00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:16.319
a scratch golfer, or if your goal is to get

441
00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:19.519
from ninety to eighty, you can compare yourself to an

442
00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:23.960
eighty golfer. And this way of thinking, the strokes gained

443
00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:28.839
approach to measuring golf will will show where you're gaining

444
00:25:28.920 --> 00:25:31.799
or losing strokes to any player. So if your goal

445
00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:35.480
is to drop ten strokes, it will tell you where

446
00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:36.720
you're losing ten strokes to.

447
00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:40.359
Your competitor or to your goal.

448
00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:45.200
How is this impacted this information, Haws? This impacted your game?

449
00:25:46.839 --> 00:25:50.839
Well, one of the things that I thought, I'm a

450
00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:53.480
thoughtful guy, and I'm doing all this analysis. It should

451
00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:58.119
be obvious to me, and it wasn't. So I will

452
00:25:58.200 --> 00:26:01.519
keep track of all my shots and enter it into

453
00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:04.480
this golf metrics program and I'll get reports out, and

454
00:26:05.160 --> 00:26:07.880
you know, I'd play, you know, two or three rounds

455
00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:10.680
and I'll remember some good shots and try and forget

456
00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:13.279
some bad shots. But at the end, when I get

457
00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:16.640
a report, it says I'm two shots worse this month

458
00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:20.160
than last month in my short game, and I go, really,

459
00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:22.839
I thought I was paying attention. But when you have

460
00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:26.200
a report staring you in the face where you're messing up,

461
00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:29.160
I say, okay, I've got to go to the short

462
00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:32.200
game area and practice. Or if it's putting or if

463
00:26:32.200 --> 00:26:35.359
it's my iron shots, it will tell me. And it's

464
00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:38.680
just hard to ignore when you have the facts in

465
00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:41.279
front of your face. And so I've gone out and

466
00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:44.000
you know one you know, one week, I'll work on

467
00:26:44.039 --> 00:26:46.880
my short game because it needs it. The next week

468
00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:49.039
or two weeks after that, I'll work on my putting.

469
00:26:49.079 --> 00:26:53.119
And so it really does to help to know where

470
00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:57.119
your your individual strengths and weaknesses are because it's hard

471
00:26:57.160 --> 00:26:59.359
to remember. It's hard to remember all the shots that

472
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:02.839
you that you hit and they all matter, they all

473
00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:05.279
add up, and sometimes a couple of shots that you

474
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:08.160
forgot about can really impact your score.

475
00:27:11.319 --> 00:27:13.759
How do we how are we able to keep track?

476
00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:16.359
What's the method you use to keep track of this

477
00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:19.880
information so that you can analyze it later? What's the

478
00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:21.720
best How would you advise us to do that?

479
00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:24.599
Well, one of the things that you can do is

480
00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:29.680
just say, you know, look at the average golfer and

481
00:27:30.119 --> 00:27:34.440
where do they gain or lose strokes. So, if, for instance,

482
00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:36.480
you want to work on your putting and you're trying

483
00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:38.759
to decide should I work on my short puts or

484
00:27:38.759 --> 00:27:40.839
should I work on my medium length puts or should

485
00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:43.279
I work on my long puts? Of course you should

486
00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:45.680
work on everything, but which do you think is the

487
00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:48.000
most critical putt distance?

488
00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:50.480
If you had to pick a particular.

489
00:27:50.599 --> 00:27:54.200
Foot four feet, eight feet twelve feet twenty five feet.

490
00:27:54.240 --> 00:27:58.279
Where do you think the average golfer loses more strokes

491
00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:00.599
to a scratch golfer.

492
00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:06.880
I read the book, I would say that it's the

493
00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:08.240
five to ten foot range.

494
00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:11.880
Five to ten feet, Yeah, so for amateur go that's

495
00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:16.480
pretty close. For amateur golfers, it's four feet. There's nothing

496
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:19.440
magical about four feet if you want to say three

497
00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:23.119
to five feet, three to six or seven or eight feet.

498
00:28:23.960 --> 00:28:27.000
But what was surprising to me is how short the

499
00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:30.279
putts were that were the most critical, were the ones

500
00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:35.079
that most separated average golfers from scratch golfers. And there's

501
00:28:35.079 --> 00:28:38.200
two reasons for that. One is pretty simple, which is

502
00:28:39.480 --> 00:28:41.599
you have more four footers than you have ten footers.

503
00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:47.240
And the other is that there's a skill difference between

504
00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:50.359
good putters and poor putters in the four foot range.

505
00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:53.200
So you may have a lot more one footers, but

506
00:28:53.319 --> 00:28:56.640
if everybody sinks their one footers, it doesn't matter. But

507
00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:59.799
not everybody sinks all their four footers, And so it

508
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:01.240
has these two characteristics.

509
00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:02.200
There's a lot of.

510
00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:05.279
Them, and there's a lot to be gained from becoming

511
00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:05.920
better at them.

512
00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:09.839
Yeah, and really, how many how many opportunities do we

513
00:29:09.880 --> 00:29:12.079
have to make one footers because most of the time

514
00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:16.000
you get one foot inside and people go, you're good, right, yeah, absolutely,

515
00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:18.839
So you don't even know. I have a friend that

516
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:20.759
I do I won't I won't let him pick it up,

517
00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:23.319
and he's like, come on, i'd let you pick I said, yeah,

518
00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:24.119
but you may miss it.

519
00:29:25.559 --> 00:29:28.440
Yeah, it's it's it's the it's the three, four and

520
00:29:28.559 --> 00:29:30.799
five footers that you that you pick up that can

521
00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:35.079
really give you a warped impression of what what your

522
00:29:35.119 --> 00:29:37.480
score really is. So you know, you're playing in a

523
00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:39.640
tournament you're not used to playing in a tournament, in

524
00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:43.720
a you know, club championship or a weekend match, and

525
00:29:43.880 --> 00:29:46.880
all of a sudden, people are taking tens on a

526
00:29:46.920 --> 00:29:49.559
hole because they can't pick up after a double bogie,

527
00:29:49.799 --> 00:29:52.880
or they can't pick up when they've got five feet.

528
00:29:52.680 --> 00:29:59.079
Left right right. And I'll tell you one of the

529
00:29:59.079 --> 00:30:01.039
things that I walked away from this book that I

530
00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:04.599
think was very helpful for me is that I've noticed

531
00:30:04.759 --> 00:30:08.039
that if I'm having a poor day of putting, if

532
00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:11.759
I have multiple three putts in a round, that will

533
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:16.880
affect every shot that I take. It will affect my

534
00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:20.119
attitude for the whole I'll just beat myself up. I

535
00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:24.799
may be hitting fairways and then greens and regulation I'm

536
00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:28.119
stroking the ball well, but my putting game that will

537
00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:30.599
impact how I feel during the day.

538
00:30:31.880 --> 00:30:34.160
So I'd say a couple of things. One is that.

539
00:30:35.480 --> 00:30:37.440
It's also true probably if you hit a drive out

540
00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:39.880
of bounds, that that's going to affect your attitude.

541
00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:41.400
So it's not just putting.

542
00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:45.119
But one way to look at it that I find

543
00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:48.519
helps me a little bit is if I miss innate

544
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:53.160
foot putts, the first reaction is I lost a stroke.

545
00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:55.559
It was a birdie putt. I really wanted to get

546
00:30:55.559 --> 00:30:58.599
that birdie and I missed it. But when you miss

547
00:30:58.640 --> 00:31:02.359
innate footer, you're not losing a stroke. You're only losing

548
00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:06.640
about a half a stroke. Because nobody sinks all of

549
00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:09.279
their eight footers, and the pros only sink about half

550
00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:13.319
of the eight footers. So in fact, and of course

551
00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:16.640
amateur golfer sink sink less than that, So if you

552
00:31:16.680 --> 00:31:19.160
miss an eight footer, you're only giving up a fraction

553
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:21.680
miss stroke, and you should think not about, oh, I

554
00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:24.599
just missed that eight footer, but over the course of

555
00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:28.200
the round, you would hope to sink close to half

556
00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:30.920
your eight footers. But you just can't beat yourself up

557
00:31:31.400 --> 00:31:35.799
over one missputt. It's counterproductive because first of all, it's

558
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:38.119
not true. You're not losing a full stroke, and as

559
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:41.559
you said, you don't want that to impact the next shot.

560
00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:48.279
Why should you have one missputt then lead to throwing

561
00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:49.559
away more strokes after that?

562
00:31:49.559 --> 00:31:52.240
That doesn't make sense. Easier said than done.

563
00:31:52.119 --> 00:31:56.079
Of course, of course, and now I can see that

564
00:31:55.079 --> 00:31:59.240
you know that it's my approach shots where I probably

565
00:31:59.240 --> 00:32:01.119
lose more stroke in anything.

566
00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:05.559
And that's true for everybody.

567
00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:11.160
It's high handicappers, low handicappers and NPGA tour pros.

568
00:32:11.240 --> 00:32:12.279
And I think one of.

569
00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:16.000
The reasons it's so hard to put your finger on

570
00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:20.400
that is that proximity to the hole is measured in feet,

571
00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:24.079
and if you could put your average approach shot three

572
00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:28.039
feet closer, it just doesn't sound like much. If your

573
00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:31.160
proximity is thirty feet and you improve it to twenty

574
00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:33.880
seven feet, you say, so what I was going to

575
00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:36.240
two putt from thirty feet, I'll two putt from twenty

576
00:32:36.279 --> 00:32:39.640
seven feet. It just doesn't sound like it's that big

577
00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:42.720
a deal. And that's just the wrong way to think

578
00:32:42.759 --> 00:32:46.759
about it. And what I found in crunching the numbers

579
00:32:46.839 --> 00:32:50.640
is that it's the shots that are in the rough,

580
00:32:50.799 --> 00:32:53.440
just off the green that three feet closer they're now

581
00:32:53.480 --> 00:32:56.839
on the green that matters. The ten footers that become

582
00:32:56.920 --> 00:33:00.680
seven footers matter, the five footers that become two footers,

583
00:33:01.160 --> 00:33:04.200
they all matter. And so if you put your shots

584
00:33:04.279 --> 00:33:06.680
on average three feet closer to the whole, you pick

585
00:33:06.759 --> 00:33:10.880
up a lot of strokes on the field or on

586
00:33:10.920 --> 00:33:13.519
your competitors, or just on your your own score. So

587
00:33:14.720 --> 00:33:19.599
approach shots are really really important. And so you know,

588
00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:24.400
the long term plan is make you know, for amateurs,

589
00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:26.039
if you can get better in one hundred to one

590
00:33:26.119 --> 00:33:29.519
hundred and fifty yard range, that's the that's the area

591
00:33:29.519 --> 00:33:32.400
that's most correlated with amateur scores.

592
00:33:38.559 --> 00:33:42.960
Putting so much of it. You know it is important,

593
00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:46.440
it isn't important, but so many shots. It's so obvious

594
00:33:46.440 --> 00:33:49.680
that we're missing so many losing so many shots there

595
00:33:49.759 --> 00:33:53.359
because you're in this confined area and you're not making

596
00:33:53.400 --> 00:33:59.759
a lot of progress. Do most amateurs versus pros come

597
00:34:00.200 --> 00:34:02.559
come up short of the hole in their putting and

598
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:04.519
does that have a significant impact?

599
00:34:05.400 --> 00:34:06.759
Oh? Absolutely so.

600
00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:11.639
I think one of the easiest ways for amateurs to

601
00:34:11.880 --> 00:34:15.960
improve is to focus more on the distance to the

602
00:34:15.960 --> 00:34:19.119
hole rather than the break. And I'm not saying you

603
00:34:19.119 --> 00:34:21.440
shouldn't think about the break. What I'm saying is that

604
00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:24.760
not all twenty footers are created equal. And even if

605
00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:26.840
you're pacing off your putts and you say I have

606
00:34:26.880 --> 00:34:30.159
a twenty foot putt, you still want to look at well,

607
00:34:30.239 --> 00:34:33.000
is it twenty foot in steeply uphill or is it

608
00:34:33.079 --> 00:34:38.320
twenty feet and slightly downhill? That matters a huge amount

609
00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:41.599
in how hard you need to stroke the putt. And

610
00:34:42.280 --> 00:34:46.360
what you'll see between the best PGA Tour putters and

611
00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:53.159
average PGA Tour putters is the better putters are slightly

612
00:34:53.199 --> 00:34:56.320
more aggressive, and of course they have better distance control.

613
00:34:56.360 --> 00:34:58.719
And anybody can take a ten footer and make sure

614
00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:00.760
that they get it to the hole, But the key

615
00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:04.559
is not ramming them eight feet by. So you want

616
00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:06.719
to get it to the hole, but but not too

617
00:35:06.760 --> 00:35:10.880
far by. So distance control on putting is one of

618
00:35:10.920 --> 00:35:15.239
the easiest ways that amateurs I think can lower their score.

619
00:35:15.320 --> 00:35:19.320
But it's not just pacing off your putts. It's also

620
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:21.800
being very aware of how steep the green is.

621
00:35:23.079 --> 00:35:25.480
Yeah, there was something here that kind of blew my

622
00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:30.079
mind when I saw and maybe maybe it's an error

623
00:35:30.119 --> 00:35:33.159
in the printing or something, but it talked about downhill putts.

624
00:35:33.320 --> 00:35:36.239
The steeper, the green, the farther the target should be

625
00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:37.360
beyond the hole.

626
00:35:38.519 --> 00:35:39.760
Yeah, that's absolutely right.

627
00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:41.559
And I think really because I would think if it's

628
00:35:41.559 --> 00:35:43.880
a downhill putt, you want to like aim so it

629
00:35:43.920 --> 00:35:46.119
comes up all with short so you can let the hill,

630
00:35:46.280 --> 00:35:47.360
let gravity take over.

631
00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:54.119
So that's very surprising, and I think I can I

632
00:35:54.119 --> 00:35:58.159
can explain the intuition behind it, which is on on

633
00:35:58.320 --> 00:36:02.000
downhill putts, it's harder to control distance. So I talk

634
00:36:02.039 --> 00:36:05.400
about shot patterns in the book, and just like you

635
00:36:05.480 --> 00:36:07.920
have shot patterns on your t shots your putts, you

636
00:36:07.960 --> 00:36:11.119
can imagine a shot pattern for your putts. And so

637
00:36:11.719 --> 00:36:15.239
since downhill puts are tougher than uphill putts, the shot

638
00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:18.400
pattern is bigger, okay for a downhill putt than an

639
00:36:18.440 --> 00:36:22.960
equivalent distance uphill putt. So if your shot pattern is bigger,

640
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:26.199
that means to get it to the hole, you've got

641
00:36:26.199 --> 00:36:28.519
to be a little bit more aggressive. You've got to

642
00:36:28.559 --> 00:36:30.960
set the target a little bit further beyond the hole

643
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:33.719
in order to make sure you don't come up short.

644
00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:35.440
Another way to.

645
00:36:35.360 --> 00:36:37.440
Think about it, which maybe is even easier. If you

646
00:36:37.480 --> 00:36:40.639
have a ten foot uphill putt, you can be pretty

647
00:36:40.679 --> 00:36:42.480
firm with it and it's not going to roll too

648
00:36:42.519 --> 00:36:46.960
far by. But on a ten foot downhill putt, to

649
00:36:47.159 --> 00:36:49.199
make sure that you get that putt to the hole,

650
00:36:49.280 --> 00:36:53.320
you've got to be comfortable in letting it go to

651
00:36:53.320 --> 00:36:56.400
two and a half feet by again in order to

652
00:36:56.440 --> 00:36:57.920
give it a chance to go in the hole. And

653
00:36:57.960 --> 00:37:01.760
it's much more important on ten footers to give it

654
00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:04.199
a chance to go in the hole then to lag

655
00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:06.239
it to the hole to make sure you don't three putts.

656
00:37:06.960 --> 00:37:09.079
So you know, from a ten foot range, you ought

657
00:37:09.079 --> 00:37:11.000
to be thinking how can I make this putt? Not

658
00:37:11.079 --> 00:37:12.960
how can I avoid a three putt?

659
00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:18.119
Oh? Absolutely, but aiming past the hole, meaning if I'm

660
00:37:18.199 --> 00:37:21.000
aiming past the hole. Maybe I'm unique in this, but

661
00:37:21.119 --> 00:37:23.119
if I'm aiming past the hole, I'm going to hit

662
00:37:23.159 --> 00:37:25.320
it harder than if I was aiming at the hole.

663
00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:28.119
Well, you want that if you're aiming at the hole,

664
00:37:28.159 --> 00:37:30.280
you'd leave fifty percent of your put short and that

665
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:32.400
would be a disaster on time.

666
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:34.960
I'm talking about downhill. I'm talking about downhill.

667
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:38.199
Even downhill right, if you aim at the hole, you

668
00:37:38.199 --> 00:37:40.360
don't want to leave fifty percent of them short. So

669
00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:42.519
I actually don't think about it in terms of how

670
00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:44.960
far beyond the hole I'm aiming. I think about it

671
00:37:45.079 --> 00:37:48.159
as if I have a ten foot downhill putt, I

672
00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:50.280
want to hit this hard enough so at least nine

673
00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:53.239
out of ten get to the hole. I don't want

674
00:37:53.239 --> 00:37:55.960
to leave any more than ten percent of those puts short,

675
00:37:56.159 --> 00:37:58.199
so I want to be I don't think if you know,

676
00:37:58.239 --> 00:38:00.400
as my target won two three feet pet on the whole,

677
00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:02.920
I think of I want to get nine out of

678
00:38:02.920 --> 00:38:06.000
ten of these putts to the hole and how hard

679
00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:07.960
do I have to hit it to make sure that's

680
00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:11.199
the case. And what you'll find with many amateurs, and

681
00:38:11.360 --> 00:38:14.199
you know, worse putters more so than good putters, is

682
00:38:15.039 --> 00:38:18.719
they can leave thirty forty of their ten foot or

683
00:38:18.800 --> 00:38:21.400
short and that's really giving up strokes.

684
00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:27.800
Yeah, and you're familiar with aim point, I am, yeah.

685
00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:32.159
And we did a couple episodes on aim point with

686
00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:39.280
with Mark Sweeney last year. Is is that what you

687
00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:40.559
use is that accurate?

688
00:38:41.960 --> 00:38:45.320
So I don't use am point, but I know what

689
00:38:45.360 --> 00:38:46.280
it's about and I.

690
00:38:48.039 --> 00:38:50.559
Know how they come up with the the aim point charts,

691
00:38:50.559 --> 00:38:53.000
and I have my own system where I can kind

692
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:56.800
of replicate their their results. What I what I really

693
00:38:56.880 --> 00:39:01.119
like about the aim point way of thinking is that

694
00:39:03.360 --> 00:39:09.159
it focuses on how much putts break depending on where

695
00:39:09.199 --> 00:39:12.360
the putt starts relative to the fall line. So clearly,

696
00:39:12.400 --> 00:39:14.480
if you have a straight downhill or straight up hill putt,

697
00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:17.840
there's there's no break. Side hill putts break a lot,

698
00:39:18.480 --> 00:39:21.360
but downhill side hill putts break a lot more than

699
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:25.440
uphill side hill putts. And so if you imagine where

700
00:39:25.800 --> 00:39:29.239
your putt starts relative to a clock face or relative

701
00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:32.719
to the fall line, it really helps you with what

702
00:39:32.920 --> 00:39:35.000
line should you should you start this put on.

703
00:39:35.199 --> 00:39:36.840
So I think it's.

704
00:39:38.320 --> 00:39:42.679
Really critical for golfers not to think in terms of

705
00:39:42.840 --> 00:39:45.840
just how much does this break, but where's the fall

706
00:39:45.880 --> 00:39:48.840
line and where is my putts starting relative to the

707
00:39:48.840 --> 00:39:52.079
fall line, because that will ultimately tell you how much

708
00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:53.000
break you need to play.

709
00:39:53.719 --> 00:39:57.239
Another version, vector putting putting those.

710
00:39:57.119 --> 00:40:04.760
Angles well, vector victor putting is is basically identical to

711
00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:08.280
aim point. There it's it's it's the same and they

712
00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:11.320
have the same charts and they use the same Uh,

713
00:40:11.519 --> 00:40:14.360
it's actually the same number. So vector putting is actually

714
00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:15.960
no different than aame point.

715
00:40:16.199 --> 00:40:18.199
But one of the things that I noticed in your

716
00:40:18.199 --> 00:40:21.639
book that blew my mind is that if you're you know,

717
00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:24.159
I generally look for the apex, people go, oh, just

718
00:40:24.360 --> 00:40:26.159
you know, one cup outside, and I'm like, no, I

719
00:40:26.159 --> 00:40:27.880
don't look at the cup. I'm looking at where the

720
00:40:27.880 --> 00:40:29.400
break would be and then where it's going to make

721
00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:32.840
the turn. But your stats are saying that you've got

722
00:40:32.880 --> 00:40:37.039
to aim above the apex there or it's going to

723
00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:38.280
fall below the hole.

724
00:40:39.239 --> 00:40:42.519
Yeah, that's uh, blew me away, Absolutely true. And you

725
00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:46.159
look at the data and this is not new to

726
00:40:46.199 --> 00:40:48.559
this book. It's it's it's been around for a while

727
00:40:48.599 --> 00:40:53.679
and it hasn't changed. Amateur golfers miss way more than

728
00:40:53.719 --> 00:40:55.719
fifty percent of their putts on the low side of

729
00:40:55.760 --> 00:41:00.039
the hole. So the question is why is that. So

730
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:04.000
there's several possible explanations, but one is if you aim

731
00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:05.480
at the apex, you will miss low.

732
00:41:05.519 --> 00:41:06.599
And why is that?

733
00:41:06.719 --> 00:41:11.920
Because the apex is where you know, it's the furthest

734
00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:14.880
point or the highest point on this curved path toward

735
00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:18.559
the hole. But that usually happens in the somewhere near

736
00:41:18.599 --> 00:41:21.760
the middle of the putt. In order to get the

737
00:41:21.800 --> 00:41:24.079
putt to go into the hole, you've got to start

738
00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:28.119
it higher because gravity will immediately start pulling the putt down.

739
00:41:28.360 --> 00:41:33.039
It will immediately start braking. So to hit the if

740
00:41:33.039 --> 00:41:35.440
your target is the apex, to hit the apex, you've

741
00:41:35.480 --> 00:41:38.320
got to start it higher than the apex because that

742
00:41:38.440 --> 00:41:41.920
first half of the putt it's going to be breaking.

743
00:41:41.719 --> 00:41:42.440
Before it gets there.

744
00:41:42.440 --> 00:41:45.000
It's not like this putt goes straight and then it

745
00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:47.880
takes a left turn at the apex. It doesn't do that.

746
00:41:47.960 --> 00:41:51.480
It breaks from the instant that you hit it. And

747
00:41:51.679 --> 00:41:55.039
that's the physics of it. And that implies that you've

748
00:41:55.039 --> 00:41:57.800
got to start the putt higher than the apex in

749
00:41:57.920 --> 00:42:01.440
order to hit the line that you visualizing into the hole.

750
00:42:01.920 --> 00:42:04.679
That's what made Paula Kramer's seventy five foot are so

751
00:42:05.039 --> 00:42:08.119
amazing because the amount of break that that thing had

752
00:42:08.639 --> 00:42:10.360
was just remarkable.

753
00:42:10.559 --> 00:42:12.639
And it had some speed going into the hole.

754
00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:15.320
Oh yeah, I mean the hole a fairly got it

755
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:16.880
to the top of the hill there and then you

756
00:42:16.920 --> 00:42:19.719
saw it turn and just take off.

757
00:42:19.559 --> 00:42:21.599
If the hole hadn't been there, that would have been

758
00:42:21.639 --> 00:42:23.760
ten feet by and there's probably nothing she could have

759
00:42:23.800 --> 00:42:27.760
done about it. But that's also an example where you

760
00:42:27.760 --> 00:42:29.280
don't want to lag that one up to the hole.

761
00:42:29.360 --> 00:42:31.840
She gave it a chance to go in, and sure enough,

762
00:42:31.880 --> 00:42:35.320
it was really an exciting, an exciting end too.

763
00:42:35.360 --> 00:42:40.239
That tournament amazing, it was so amazing. Let's talk about

764
00:42:41.519 --> 00:42:48.599
strategy and how we can be more strategic in our

765
00:42:48.639 --> 00:42:51.159
game by using this information.

766
00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:55.360
So one, we already talked about strategy in putting in

767
00:42:55.440 --> 00:42:58.800
terms of how conservative or aggressive you want to be,

768
00:42:58.840 --> 00:43:01.559
and it turns out that amateur golfers tend to be

769
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:04.840
too conservative in their in their putting, but when you

770
00:43:04.880 --> 00:43:08.360
move off the green, it's generally the opposite. That amateurs

771
00:43:08.440 --> 00:43:11.480
tend to be too aggressive in their in their shot selection.

772
00:43:11.599 --> 00:43:15.599
And by that I mean that they don't they don't

773
00:43:15.639 --> 00:43:18.360
pay enough heed to the to the hazards that are

774
00:43:18.440 --> 00:43:22.360
out there. You've got to give the hazards, uh plenty

775
00:43:22.360 --> 00:43:24.559
of respect, and most amateurs.

776
00:43:24.119 --> 00:43:26.000
Don't give me an example.

777
00:43:27.480 --> 00:43:29.559
So the example that I have in the book, and

778
00:43:29.559 --> 00:43:31.800
there's other examples, but the example I have in the

779
00:43:31.800 --> 00:43:34.000
book is where you have out of bounds on one

780
00:43:34.039 --> 00:43:37.400
side of a hole and the other side is just

781
00:43:37.559 --> 00:43:40.840
rough or not as as much of a penalty, and

782
00:43:40.920 --> 00:43:43.239
so you know if you hit the ball out of bounds,

783
00:43:44.039 --> 00:43:47.039
your strokes gained is minus two, right, because you're going

784
00:43:47.119 --> 00:43:50.519
to tee it up hitting three from the same spot,

785
00:43:50.559 --> 00:43:53.239
So you basically have used two shots and you haven't

786
00:43:53.239 --> 00:43:56.199
made any progress to the hole, so out of bounds

787
00:43:56.199 --> 00:43:57.360
you will lose two shots.

788
00:43:58.079 --> 00:44:00.400
That's a huge penalty.

789
00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:04.239
If you hit it in the rough, you have somewhere

790
00:44:04.239 --> 00:44:07.280
between a tenth and a quarter of a shot penalty

791
00:44:07.360 --> 00:44:09.400
for hitting the ball in the rough rather than the fairway,

792
00:44:10.159 --> 00:44:12.639
So you're trading off a huge penalty for going out

793
00:44:12.639 --> 00:44:16.039
of bounds with a small penalty for hitting in the rough.

794
00:44:16.360 --> 00:44:17.239
What does that tell.

795
00:44:17.079 --> 00:44:20.039
You you should do, which is you should shade the

796
00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:24.000
t shot your target toward the rough and away from

797
00:44:24.039 --> 00:44:26.840
this huge hazard which is out of bounds.

798
00:44:27.039 --> 00:44:30.320
And most golfers realize that.

799
00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:34.920
Intuitively, but they don't take into an account nearly enough,

800
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:37.360
and they hit way more balls out of bounds than

801
00:44:37.400 --> 00:44:41.159
they should. So even with the same swing, I don't

802
00:44:41.199 --> 00:44:43.119
have to change anything about your swing. You don't have

803
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:45.800
to go to a pro for a lesson. If you

804
00:44:46.079 --> 00:44:49.360
just take a more conservative, conservative line off the tee

805
00:44:49.400 --> 00:44:53.079
when there's these hazards in play, you can shave a

806
00:44:53.159 --> 00:44:55.480
lot of strokes off.

807
00:44:54.719 --> 00:44:57.679
Your score, and when can we be aggressive off the

808
00:44:57.679 --> 00:44:59.440
tee versus being more conservative?

809
00:45:00.559 --> 00:45:04.440
Well, if you're if you're too conservative. So I've heard

810
00:45:04.480 --> 00:45:08.039
this strategy of you know, it's a long part four,

811
00:45:09.079 --> 00:45:13.480
let's instead of hitting a driver, let's take a five iron.

812
00:45:14.400 --> 00:45:16.079
Then you hit another five iron, then you'll be one

813
00:45:16.119 --> 00:45:18.960
hundred yards away and then take a wedge from there

814
00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:21.079
and you're going to do it worse to bogie. So

815
00:45:21.159 --> 00:45:23.960
that's an example of being way too conservative because you

816
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:26.320
can look at the data and do the analysis and

817
00:45:26.400 --> 00:45:29.199
you find out that on a long part four, if

818
00:45:29.199 --> 00:45:32.480
you give up that many yards with a five iron,

819
00:45:33.159 --> 00:45:36.199
you'll be losing a ton of strokes. It's just not

820
00:45:36.360 --> 00:45:41.559
worth giving up fifty sixty yards by hitting an iron

821
00:45:41.599 --> 00:45:46.000
instead of a driver. And amateurs often aren't that much

822
00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:48.119
more accurate with the shorter clubs than they are with

823
00:45:48.280 --> 00:45:52.039
the longer clubs. So you know, the expression goes, it's

824
00:45:52.079 --> 00:45:54.280
better to be long and crooked than short and crooked.

825
00:45:54.719 --> 00:46:04.119
Yeah, all right, So here's something that I do strategically,

826
00:46:04.320 --> 00:46:07.679
and maybe you can clarify if I'm doing this the

827
00:46:07.800 --> 00:46:09.880
right way or if there's a better way to do it.

828
00:46:10.519 --> 00:46:14.440
Let's say, so on a par five, what I try

829
00:46:14.480 --> 00:46:16.920
to do is, you know, on a part four, I'm

830
00:46:16.920 --> 00:46:19.239
just going to drive the ball either with my driver

831
00:46:19.360 --> 00:46:21.920
or my my three wood. But on a par five,

832
00:46:22.039 --> 00:46:23.800
what I'm going to try to do is get my

833
00:46:23.920 --> 00:46:28.159
second shot into a space where I'm the most comfortable,

834
00:46:28.480 --> 00:46:30.559
which is probably either one hundred or one hundred and

835
00:46:30.559 --> 00:46:32.800
twenty five yards, okay, or ninety or one hundred and

836
00:46:32.800 --> 00:46:34.360
twenty five yards. So let's say so, let's say that

837
00:46:34.360 --> 00:46:37.039
one hundred and twenty five yards is my nine iron, okay.

838
00:46:37.360 --> 00:46:40.599
So so to me, it's like that's the club I'm

839
00:46:40.639 --> 00:46:43.559
most confident with. That's the club that I'm the most

840
00:46:43.559 --> 00:46:46.559
comfortable and feel that I can, you know, give myself

841
00:46:46.599 --> 00:46:50.159
a great opportunity to get close to the pin. So

842
00:46:50.360 --> 00:46:53.599
if my drive leaves me two hundred and fifty out

843
00:46:53.880 --> 00:46:57.000
and my playing partner his ball lands right next to me,

844
00:46:57.679 --> 00:47:01.599
my playing partner will take his three wood and hit

845
00:47:01.639 --> 00:47:05.239
it as hard and far as he can and lay

846
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:11.199
and comes up thirty yards short. And he's not that

847
00:47:11.360 --> 00:47:13.920
good at thirty yards in, so he'll get from thirty

848
00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:16.880
yards and then he'll take two more shots to get

849
00:47:16.920 --> 00:47:20.280
onto the green. And then he may have to do

850
00:47:20.440 --> 00:47:22.199
you know, we'll just say he gets two putts, so

851
00:47:22.239 --> 00:47:25.800
he bogies the hole. Where for me, at twoin fifty,

852
00:47:26.079 --> 00:47:29.119
I'll take my nine iron and hit it twice because

853
00:47:29.199 --> 00:47:31.719
I know I cannot reach the green at two hundred

854
00:47:31.719 --> 00:47:34.480
and fifty yards away, so I'll hit one hundred and

855
00:47:34.480 --> 00:47:37.280
twenty five yards, and if all goes well, I'll take

856
00:47:37.320 --> 00:47:40.400
out the rangefinder and say, oh perfect, I'm one hundred

857
00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:42.800
and twenty five yards to the pin. And then I

858
00:47:42.880 --> 00:47:46.320
hit that third shot and I'm within let's call it

859
00:47:46.360 --> 00:47:49.079
the ten foot range, and I'm a very happy guy,

860
00:47:49.119 --> 00:47:53.960
and hopefully I can get that birdie. Is that statistically?

861
00:47:54.119 --> 00:47:56.039
Is that the way to approach that?

862
00:47:57.480 --> 00:47:58.960
So if.

863
00:48:00.239 --> 00:48:04.360
You are this anomalous golfer that is better from one

864
00:48:04.440 --> 00:48:07.280
hundred and twenty yards than thirty yards, you should follow

865
00:48:07.320 --> 00:48:10.760
your strategy. What I found and looking at amateur data,

866
00:48:10.880 --> 00:48:15.320
is there are very few golfers that are better from

867
00:48:15.559 --> 00:48:17.519
one hundred or one hundred and twenty yards than they

868
00:48:17.559 --> 00:48:22.400
are from thirty. Almost everybody would be better off hitting

869
00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:25.920
the ball closer. I didn't say everybody, I said almost everybody.

870
00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:29.239
So if you have the chip yips, if you hit

871
00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:31.840
a thirty yard shot fat one time and you scull

872
00:48:31.920 --> 00:48:35.079
it over the green the next time. Then that tells

873
00:48:35.119 --> 00:48:37.320
me two things. One is, yeah, you don't want to

874
00:48:37.400 --> 00:48:40.440
hit to thirty yards. You want to lay back to

875
00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:42.679
where you've got a full swing or you've got a

876
00:48:42.679 --> 00:48:45.360
comfortable swing. And the second thing it tells me is

877
00:48:45.559 --> 00:48:47.800
you ought to get a lesson because you should be

878
00:48:48.599 --> 00:48:50.800
much better from thirty yards than one hundred or one

879
00:48:50.840 --> 00:48:54.239
hundred and twenty yards. Every tour pro is better from

880
00:48:54.280 --> 00:48:56.960
thirty yards than one and one hundred and twenty yards.

881
00:48:57.400 --> 00:49:00.119
Almost every amateur that I look at is better or

882
00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:02.159
from thirty yards than they are from one hundred to

883
00:49:02.199 --> 00:49:05.719
one hundred and twenty yards. The data is crystal clear

884
00:49:06.400 --> 00:49:10.000
when you took when you talk about averages, if you

885
00:49:10.079 --> 00:49:14.320
talk about most ninety golfers or most eighty golfers. But

886
00:49:14.519 --> 00:49:19.519
there there are exceptions, and if you're if you're the exception,

887
00:49:20.079 --> 00:49:22.559
then that that points out that you're losing a ton

888
00:49:22.599 --> 00:49:26.400
of strokes by not improving your short game, and you've

889
00:49:26.400 --> 00:49:28.800
got to go take a lesson and work on it

890
00:49:28.840 --> 00:49:31.000
and get better, because that would be an easy way

891
00:49:31.039 --> 00:49:33.239
for you to drop strokes off your score.

892
00:49:33.719 --> 00:49:37.719
But as an amateur who doesn't get a tremendous amount

893
00:49:37.760 --> 00:49:40.960
of time to practice, I find that taking full strokes,

894
00:49:41.559 --> 00:49:43.719
I have more confidence with my full strokes than I

895
00:49:43.760 --> 00:49:47.800
do taking you know, short strokes, as a thirty yard

896
00:49:47.800 --> 00:49:50.960
shot would be versus pulling out a wedge from sixty

897
00:49:50.960 --> 00:49:53.440
five yards solo sewage.

898
00:49:54.320 --> 00:49:57.039
So let's let's change your example slightly. Unless you take

899
00:49:57.039 --> 00:49:59.559
it a par four and you hit a drive, and

900
00:49:59.599 --> 00:50:01.400
you hit your second shot, and you come up thirty

901
00:50:01.480 --> 00:50:03.599
yards short in the fairway, and I give you this

902
00:50:03.639 --> 00:50:08.360
free option, you can pick up the ball, walk sixty

903
00:50:08.440 --> 00:50:10.880
yards back and now you have a ninety or one

904
00:50:10.960 --> 00:50:13.159
hundred yard shot from the fairway. Would you do that

905
00:50:13.239 --> 00:50:16.280
if I allowed you to do that for free?

906
00:50:16.599 --> 00:50:16.960
Yes?

907
00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:23.639
Okay, then I think, yeah, I actually, I actually I've

908
00:50:23.639 --> 00:50:26.119
been working a lot on my short game lately, but

909
00:50:26.239 --> 00:50:30.039
I think that, Yeah, I think that I'd like do

910
00:50:30.079 --> 00:50:30.559
you thank you?

911
00:50:31.039 --> 00:50:31.840
I think I would do that.

912
00:50:33.079 --> 00:50:38.599
Okay, Well, you again, you are not a typical amateur golfer.

913
00:50:38.199 --> 00:50:41.400
Because no, I'm not. I don't think I am.

914
00:50:42.559 --> 00:50:49.599
So if you take a look at how often golfers

915
00:50:49.960 --> 00:50:54.079
hit the green, amateur golfers hit the green from one

916
00:50:54.159 --> 00:50:58.679
hundred yards or so it's typically much less than.

917
00:51:03.480 --> 00:51:06.400
Fifty percent, say, whereas.

918
00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:09.360
From thirty yards it's a lot more than fifty percent.

919
00:51:10.119 --> 00:51:12.800
And I think, you know, many people have in their mind, Oh,

920
00:51:12.840 --> 00:51:15.159
I'm one hundred yards away, it's just a wedge or

921
00:51:15.199 --> 00:51:16.960
a nine iron, I'll put it on the green. Nine

922
00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:20.880
out of ten times, amateur golfers from one hundred yards

923
00:51:21.440 --> 00:51:23.480
put the ball on the green less than half the time.

924
00:51:24.400 --> 00:51:26.199
And so you also got to tell me that from

925
00:51:26.320 --> 00:51:28.480
thirty yards they must put the ball on the green

926
00:51:28.559 --> 00:51:31.000
less than half the time. Also, otherwise it's not it's

927
00:51:31.039 --> 00:51:33.039
not worth it, or it would be worth it to

928
00:51:33.480 --> 00:51:36.639
walk the uh to walk back you know, pick up

929
00:51:36.639 --> 00:51:39.239
your ball and walk walk backwards. And I just don't

930
00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:40.639
see that in the data.

931
00:51:41.400 --> 00:51:43.159
Thirty yards is a little chip shot.

932
00:51:43.199 --> 00:51:45.440
You can you can if there's no bunker in between,

933
00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:47.159
you could take out a putter.

934
00:51:48.480 --> 00:51:50.639
All right, let's call it forty yards. Then thirty yards

935
00:51:50.679 --> 00:51:53.480
maybe would be the right example. But I can't. I

936
00:51:53.559 --> 00:51:56.559
can remember so many times going, oh my god, it

937
00:51:56.639 --> 00:52:01.480
took me two shots to get yeah, four hundred and

938
00:52:01.519 --> 00:52:04.320
fifty yards, and it took me four shots to get

939
00:52:04.679 --> 00:52:06.760
the next forty You know.

940
00:52:06.719 --> 00:52:07.199
That's right.

941
00:52:07.360 --> 00:52:09.559
So if again, if that's the case, one of the

942
00:52:09.559 --> 00:52:13.519
things that this strokes Gained analysis would show is that

943
00:52:13.559 --> 00:52:17.119
you're incredibly weak and you're throwing away strokes from forty yards.

944
00:52:17.199 --> 00:52:21.239
You better go practice that area of your game because

945
00:52:22.079 --> 00:52:23.320
it shouldn't be that hard.

946
00:52:23.400 --> 00:52:25.079
It's not that hard of a shot.

947
00:52:25.239 --> 00:52:28.920
And for most people, even most amateurs, it's not that

948
00:52:29.039 --> 00:52:33.159
hard of a shot, meaning it's not harder from forty

949
00:52:33.239 --> 00:52:37.280
yards than it is from one hundred yards. So again,

950
00:52:37.599 --> 00:52:42.039
I know people that are like that, but they're in

951
00:52:42.039 --> 00:52:46.719
the minority. And like I said, that's the If that's

952
00:52:46.719 --> 00:52:48.920
true of you, then it's an easy place.

953
00:52:48.679 --> 00:52:52.599
To focus on what I need to practice.

954
00:52:53.239 --> 00:52:55.679
Yeah, to improve your game? Yeah, to lower your score.

955
00:52:55.880 --> 00:53:00.679
You weren't really laughing at me, were you, Mark, Yes,

956
00:53:00.719 --> 00:53:04.159
you are, Okay, I'm curious.

957
00:53:04.639 --> 00:53:06.039
Maybe that's not the right way to say it.

958
00:53:06.039 --> 00:53:09.119
It's it's it's then obvious that that's where you should

959
00:53:09.159 --> 00:53:11.880
work on, right, right, Right, that's probably a better way

960
00:53:11.880 --> 00:53:12.239
to say it.

961
00:53:12.400 --> 00:53:16.400
Yeah, yeah, exactly, And this is and to me, that's

962
00:53:16.440 --> 00:53:19.239
the point of this book is to figure out what

963
00:53:19.400 --> 00:53:22.800
do I need to work on to drop those ten strokes?

964
00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:23.320
Where?

965
00:53:23.360 --> 00:53:25.480
Where are those ten strokes? Going, are they where they

966
00:53:25.559 --> 00:53:31.400
coming from exactly? And it's and statistically is it mostly

967
00:53:32.039 --> 00:53:32.840
approach shots?

968
00:53:33.360 --> 00:53:37.440
It's mostly shots outside of one hundred yards And if

969
00:53:37.480 --> 00:53:40.039
you want to break that down even more, it's mostly

970
00:53:40.079 --> 00:53:46.119
the approach shots, so full swinging iron shots for most people,

971
00:53:46.199 --> 00:53:47.880
or if you're short hit or sometimes one hundred and

972
00:53:47.920 --> 00:53:51.159
fifty yards shot is a hybrid or a seven wood

973
00:53:51.440 --> 00:53:52.519
or a five wood, and.

974
00:53:54.320 --> 00:53:56.519
Those you know, getting the.

975
00:53:56.599 --> 00:53:58.760
Where of those balls on the green, getting those balls

976
00:53:58.800 --> 00:54:00.559
that are on the green a little bit of the

977
00:54:00.559 --> 00:54:03.360
hole is where you can you can save a lot

978
00:54:03.360 --> 00:54:03.880
of shots.

979
00:54:04.480 --> 00:54:07.000
I think the thing that when when you know, when

980
00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:09.000
I talked about someone, we're two hundred and fifty yards

981
00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:10.360
out and they're just going to hit it as hard

982
00:54:10.360 --> 00:54:14.239
and far as they can. I don't think that they

983
00:54:14.280 --> 00:54:18.800
necessarily take into account all the trouble that they could

984
00:54:18.840 --> 00:54:22.039
get into, you know, how aggressive they should be. Do

985
00:54:22.119 --> 00:54:24.079
I really need to hit the ball as far as

986
00:54:24.079 --> 00:54:29.400
I can here because I'm I'm opening the door for problems.

987
00:54:29.760 --> 00:54:31.360
Yeah, Well, you want to hit the ball as far

988
00:54:31.400 --> 00:54:35.400
as you can, taking into account the hazards. So you

989
00:54:35.440 --> 00:54:39.239
don't want to hit the ball, you know, three hundred

990
00:54:39.280 --> 00:54:41.480
yards if that's where the fairway gets the narrowest, that

991
00:54:41.519 --> 00:54:44.199
brings fairway bunkers into player, that brings water out of

992
00:54:44.239 --> 00:54:48.119
bounds into play for sure. So it's not just you know,

993
00:54:48.280 --> 00:54:50.840
bomb and gouge or grip it and rip it. You've

994
00:54:50.880 --> 00:54:55.800
got to pay attention to the hazards. And you know,

995
00:54:55.880 --> 00:54:59.079
going back again to the you know, the forty yard

996
00:54:59.119 --> 00:55:02.480
fat shot. You know, one of the things that I

997
00:55:03.239 --> 00:55:07.760
recommend amateurs do is take a look at their awful shots.

998
00:55:08.360 --> 00:55:10.800
So in around you'll have one of those where you

999
00:55:10.880 --> 00:55:15.039
hit it fat, you skull it, you know, the ball

1000
00:55:15.119 --> 00:55:19.800
goes nowhere, or you miss a two footter. You can

1001
00:55:19.880 --> 00:55:25.519
identify those shots that really lose a lot to your

1002
00:55:25.519 --> 00:55:30.639
score and then see whether that's better or worse than

1003
00:55:30.679 --> 00:55:34.679
the average golfer for your handicap level, for your average score,

1004
00:55:35.159 --> 00:55:37.840
and then identify those areas where you need to improve.

1005
00:55:37.880 --> 00:55:41.480
And many golfers if they got out of a bunker

1006
00:55:41.480 --> 00:55:45.360
in one shot, if when they're in the hay or

1007
00:55:45.360 --> 00:55:47.599
in the woods, they get out of trouble in one shot,

1008
00:55:47.719 --> 00:55:51.559
rather than trying to pull off the miraculous rescue and

1009
00:55:51.639 --> 00:55:53.800
then hitting it out of bounds, you know, falling up

1010
00:55:53.800 --> 00:55:56.840
a bad shot with a worse shot. Reducing the number

1011
00:55:56.880 --> 00:56:02.159
of awful shots is another kind of easy way to

1012
00:56:02.920 --> 00:56:05.920
shave strokes off your game, or at least give you

1013
00:56:05.960 --> 00:56:07.599
an idea of what you need to practice.

1014
00:56:13.880 --> 00:56:16.400
One of my all time favorite lines that I continue

1015
00:56:16.400 --> 00:56:19.039
to tell myself never follow a bad shot with a

1016
00:56:19.079 --> 00:56:20.000
stupid shot.

1017
00:56:20.719 --> 00:56:21.840
I like that. That's great.

1018
00:56:22.239 --> 00:56:23.639
I thought you're going to say, bad shot with the

1019
00:56:23.639 --> 00:56:26.599
bad shot, but that's very good. Never follow a bad

1020
00:56:26.639 --> 00:56:28.920
shot with a stupid shot is great advice.

1021
00:56:29.679 --> 00:56:32.880
Put in the book and talk about golf smarter. Don't

1022
00:56:32.880 --> 00:56:39.559
care about me. Talk about two ingredients to making your decision.

1023
00:56:39.880 --> 00:56:44.239
Things are the factors? What are the main things statistically speaking,

1024
00:56:44.400 --> 00:56:46.559
what are the main things we should be thinking about

1025
00:56:46.599 --> 00:56:48.800
when we're trying to decide which club to hit?

1026
00:56:50.559 --> 00:56:54.719
So which club to hit? The first thing is you

1027
00:56:54.760 --> 00:57:00.480
want to know your club distances? And yeah, it's absolutely critical.

1028
00:57:00.480 --> 00:57:04.079
And if that also means when you're sixty yards away,

1029
00:57:04.920 --> 00:57:07.920
what is my sixty yard swing if it's not a

1030
00:57:07.960 --> 00:57:12.239
full swing? What is my forty yard swing if it's

1031
00:57:12.280 --> 00:57:15.639
not a full swing. And it's also you know not

1032
00:57:16.159 --> 00:57:19.519
only your club distances, but it's your carry distance. So

1033
00:57:20.199 --> 00:57:22.000
depending on where you play, if you get a lot

1034
00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:25.840
of roller or not. Then a two hundred yard shot

1035
00:57:25.960 --> 00:57:29.440
may be one hundred and ninety yards of carry, or

1036
00:57:29.480 --> 00:57:31.519
it may be one hundred and seventy yards of carry.

1037
00:57:31.639 --> 00:57:33.599
You know, one with ten yards of roll, the other

1038
00:57:33.639 --> 00:57:35.199
with thirty yards a roll. And if you have a

1039
00:57:35.239 --> 00:57:38.440
hazard to clear and it's two hundred yards away, a

1040
00:57:38.480 --> 00:57:40.840
lot of amateurs will say, oh, I'll take out my

1041
00:57:40.920 --> 00:57:44.000
two ten club, But that may not be right because

1042
00:57:44.039 --> 00:57:46.639
you need to keep track of not only your club distances,

1043
00:57:46.679 --> 00:57:48.280
but what are your carry distances.

1044
00:57:50.199 --> 00:57:52.039
And plus they think they have a two to ten

1045
00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:53.719
club and it really is one hundred and eighty five.

1046
00:57:54.400 --> 00:57:56.480
Yeah, there's so many people that you know, how far

1047
00:57:56.519 --> 00:57:58.360
did I hit that drive? It must have been two

1048
00:57:58.400 --> 00:58:01.119
fifty two sixty And when you look at it and

1049
00:58:01.320 --> 00:58:04.400
you know plot it, it's you know, to ten. And

1050
00:58:04.480 --> 00:58:09.360
so many people hit the ball shorter than they think

1051
00:58:09.400 --> 00:58:12.320
they do for a number of reasons. So knowing your

1052
00:58:12.360 --> 00:58:16.000
club distances is certainly a good place to start. But

1053
00:58:16.079 --> 00:58:20.760
when it's a question of strategy, I think of, you know,

1054
00:58:20.840 --> 00:58:24.039
the main ingredients are what does your shot pattern look like?

1055
00:58:24.960 --> 00:58:29.440
By that, I mean not how well does my best

1056
00:58:29.480 --> 00:58:33.519
shot go? But if I hit ten or twenty or

1057
00:58:33.519 --> 00:58:37.599
fifty shots. What would that distribution of shots look like

1058
00:58:37.679 --> 00:58:41.880
if I plotted it on this particular hole. And you

1059
00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:44.679
need to think about your target as moving around your

1060
00:58:44.679 --> 00:58:48.760
shot pattern, and so one ingredient is what your shot pattern,

1061
00:58:49.360 --> 00:58:52.280
what is your likely miss going to be? The other

1062
00:58:52.440 --> 00:58:55.280
ingredient is what are the features of the hole and

1063
00:58:55.320 --> 00:58:57.320
where are the hazards? You know, how wide is the

1064
00:58:57.360 --> 00:58:59.760
fair way, where are the bunkers, where's the water, where's

1065
00:58:59.760 --> 00:59:02.280
the of bounds? And you want to put those two

1066
00:59:02.519 --> 00:59:05.039
ingredients together, your shot pattern with the features of the

1067
00:59:05.079 --> 00:59:08.599
hole in order to decide how aggressive or how conservative

1068
00:59:08.639 --> 00:59:11.719
you should be. And clearly, if it's a long part

1069
00:59:11.800 --> 00:59:14.320
four and it's wide open, you can grip it and

1070
00:59:14.440 --> 00:59:17.159
rip it. But on other holes you need to be

1071
00:59:17.639 --> 00:59:20.400
more more conservative to make sure you don't have one

1072
00:59:20.440 --> 00:59:22.880
of those awful shots that go out of bounds.

1073
00:59:24.599 --> 00:59:27.239
I'm sure that you're you've been witnessed to this, You've

1074
00:59:27.440 --> 00:59:30.639
a thousand times because we all have. And I'm curious

1075
00:59:30.639 --> 00:59:33.880
to what your reaction to it is. Maybe not verbally

1076
00:59:34.039 --> 00:59:36.400
to yourself, but you may say something when you walk

1077
00:59:36.480 --> 00:59:38.559
up to a t box and your partner says, I

1078
00:59:38.639 --> 00:59:40.679
hit it in the water here every time.

1079
00:59:41.880 --> 00:59:45.159
Right, Yeah, when when when that happens, you got to

1080
00:59:45.199 --> 00:59:49.280
say you got to step back and say, well, what

1081
00:59:49.320 --> 00:59:51.679
can I do differently to to avoid that?

1082
00:59:51.920 --> 00:59:53.679
And and they pull out the same club that they

1083
00:59:53.760 --> 00:59:54.719
always use in.

1084
00:59:54.639 --> 00:59:59.199
The right there's there's there's another manifestation of that. That's

1085
00:59:59.239 --> 01:00:01.360
one of the you the fun things that I've gotten

1086
01:00:01.400 --> 01:00:04.480
to do playing with some club pros and some PGA

1087
01:00:04.599 --> 01:00:08.159
tour pros, and you can see them from one hundred

1088
01:00:08.159 --> 01:00:12.400
and fifty yards and sometimes they'll hit a club that's

1089
01:00:12.559 --> 01:00:15.159
two or three clubs different than they did on the

1090
01:00:15.239 --> 01:00:18.519
last shot from one hundred and fifty yards, whereas most

1091
01:00:18.599 --> 01:00:21.679
of my friends that I play with one hundred and

1092
01:00:21.679 --> 01:00:24.159
fifty yards is a seven iron. It could be downhill,

1093
01:00:24.159 --> 01:00:26.519
it could be uphill, it could be downwind into the wind,

1094
01:00:27.400 --> 01:00:31.400
and they might change from a seven iron maybe to

1095
01:00:31.559 --> 01:00:33.679
a six or maybe to an eight, but they wouldn't

1096
01:00:33.719 --> 01:00:38.559
think about changing more than that. And the good players

1097
01:00:38.960 --> 01:00:42.840
know how to adjust, you know more, and they typically

1098
01:00:43.400 --> 01:00:46.840
take all those factors into account and they're willing to move,

1099
01:00:47.320 --> 01:00:49.480
you know, one, two or three clubs away from their

1100
01:00:49.880 --> 01:00:51.360
normal club from that distance.

1101
01:00:52.400 --> 01:00:56.320
Yeah, I played band in Dunes last year, and luckily

1102
01:00:56.360 --> 01:00:58.480
we had caddies because there were shots where it was

1103
01:00:58.519 --> 01:01:01.239
a four club win right in our face. So you know,

1104
01:01:01.320 --> 01:01:03.920
it's like usually i'd hit a nine iron here, pull

1105
01:01:03.960 --> 01:01:07.320
out your you know, your three wood, you may reach it.

1106
01:01:07.840 --> 01:01:09.840
And if you didn't have that county there, you'd say, ah,

1107
01:01:09.960 --> 01:01:11.719
nine iron, there's a lot of win in my face.

1108
01:01:11.800 --> 01:01:13.280
Maybe you go to a seven right.

1109
01:01:13.440 --> 01:01:18.039
Maybe maybe exactly, and it's uphill and it's uphill right?

1110
01:01:20.880 --> 01:01:24.800
What is? What is the This to me is interesting

1111
01:01:24.880 --> 01:01:27.199
because I live next to a country club that I'm

1112
01:01:27.239 --> 01:01:33.199
not a member of, and I like playing different courses

1113
01:01:33.519 --> 01:01:38.960
a lot. But country club players, I think that their

1114
01:01:39.039 --> 01:01:43.840
handicap may be not representative of their game because they

1115
01:01:43.920 --> 01:01:46.639
get so comfortable with this course, so confident they just

1116
01:01:46.840 --> 01:01:48.719
know what to do. But if you take them out

1117
01:01:48.760 --> 01:01:53.280
to another course that they're not familiar with, their game changes.

1118
01:01:54.079 --> 01:01:54.920
Oh absolutely.

1119
01:01:54.960 --> 01:01:59.280
I think it takes you know, at least two rounds

1120
01:01:59.280 --> 01:02:03.800
and maybe more in order to learn a course. And

1121
01:02:05.280 --> 01:02:07.199
one of the fun things I've I've gotten to do

1122
01:02:07.320 --> 01:02:10.119
is go out with the PGA Tour pros on the uh,

1123
01:02:10.679 --> 01:02:13.960
you know, the Monday or Tuesday of a tournament where

1124
01:02:14.519 --> 01:02:19.400
they're preparing for the tournament, and they and their caddies

1125
01:02:19.480 --> 01:02:22.800
will map out the course, see what's changed from last year,

1126
01:02:23.239 --> 01:02:26.239
and they really develop a strategy to attack the course.

1127
01:02:26.280 --> 01:02:28.119
Whereas I remember.

1128
01:02:27.760 --> 01:02:30.760
It, you know, playing at Bend and Dune's, you know,

1129
01:02:30.880 --> 01:02:33.440
with with the caddy and I didn't know where to

1130
01:02:33.480 --> 01:02:35.239
hit it or what club to hit. And he goes, ah,

1131
01:02:35.320 --> 01:02:38.440
you know, just stame there, which so I did, and

1132
01:02:38.679 --> 01:02:40.559
you know, I took out you know, he saw I

1133
01:02:40.599 --> 01:02:42.519
had a driver in my hand, and I hit it

1134
01:02:42.599 --> 01:02:45.519
exactly where he said and it went into the trees.

1135
01:02:46.079 --> 01:02:48.719
Because he looked at me and said, oh, he's not

1136
01:02:48.760 --> 01:02:50.320
going to hit the ball more than two hundred and

1137
01:02:50.320 --> 01:02:51.800
thirty yards. And I hit it two hundred and fifty

1138
01:02:51.840 --> 01:02:54.079
yards into the trees. And I was so mad because

1139
01:02:54.079 --> 01:02:56.480
they hit a perfect shot and now I'm in the woods.

1140
01:02:58.440 --> 01:03:01.280
And that's a case of just not knowing the course

1141
01:03:02.039 --> 01:03:06.440
and that can really add up two three four shots easily.

1142
01:03:06.880 --> 01:03:12.960
So having a yardage book, mapping out the course pros

1143
01:03:13.159 --> 01:03:15.840
do it because it's their livelihood if you're just playing

1144
01:03:15.840 --> 01:03:18.840
another course for fun. That's why when I go to

1145
01:03:18.880 --> 01:03:21.039
a place like Banded Nun's, I would much rather play

1146
01:03:21.079 --> 01:03:24.000
the same course five times than to play five different courses.

1147
01:03:27.000 --> 01:03:31.679
Yeah, I sometimes I find it to be an advantage

1148
01:03:31.880 --> 01:03:34.840
of you know, just tell me my target line here.

1149
01:03:34.920 --> 01:03:37.280
I've never played this course. Just tell me which direction

1150
01:03:37.360 --> 01:03:40.159
you know, and and you know, if I don't want

1151
01:03:40.199 --> 01:03:41.320
to go all the way, I don't want to be

1152
01:03:41.360 --> 01:03:45.360
too aggressive. That I don't have these preconceived notions of

1153
01:03:45.360 --> 01:03:47.199
what has happened in the past, so I can just

1154
01:03:48.000 --> 01:03:49.079
relax a little more.

1155
01:03:50.039 --> 01:03:53.360
Oh absolutely, I think that's that's the goal, which is

1156
01:03:54.360 --> 01:03:57.159
you you approach each shot with what's my target?

1157
01:03:57.400 --> 01:03:58.239
What do I need to do?

1158
01:03:58.280 --> 01:04:00.920
And you just get up and that's your entire focus

1159
01:04:01.000 --> 01:04:04.280
is hitting the shot you know in that in that direction,

1160
01:04:04.440 --> 01:04:09.519
with with that club, and having having a good caddy,

1161
01:04:10.360 --> 01:04:12.039
which you can get at a lot of courses, is

1162
01:04:12.480 --> 01:04:15.239
really helpful when you're playing, you know, a new course

1163
01:04:15.280 --> 01:04:17.280
that you're not you're not familiar with.

1164
01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:23.360
Well, Mark, this has been a graduate level education. I

1165
01:04:23.480 --> 01:04:29.280
truly appreciate your time. The book. This is Mark Brody.

1166
01:04:29.320 --> 01:04:32.159
It's b R O A d I E. The website

1167
01:04:32.280 --> 01:04:34.760
is every Shot Counts dot com. Just give you a

1168
01:04:34.760 --> 01:04:38.440
little more about the book and the book. Every Shot

1169
01:04:38.480 --> 01:04:41.800
Counts using the revolutionary strokes gained approach to improve your

1170
01:04:41.800 --> 01:04:46.159
golf performance and strategy. It's available, and it is an

1171
01:04:46.199 --> 01:04:49.519
important book to have in your library because it's going

1172
01:04:49.599 --> 01:04:52.679
to change the way you think about your game. And

1173
01:04:53.119 --> 01:04:56.760
it's a necessary change in your thought process because they're

1174
01:04:56.760 --> 01:04:59.519
doing it on the tour too. And if we if

1175
01:04:59.559 --> 01:05:01.280
we buy balls, if they play in the tour, if

1176
01:05:01.320 --> 01:05:04.199
we buy equipment they play in the tour, then you

1177
01:05:04.199 --> 01:05:06.239
should be thinking like tour players.

1178
01:05:06.599 --> 01:05:09.840
Do you agree? Oh? Absolutely agree that.

1179
01:05:11.320 --> 01:05:13.679
As I mentioned, the PGA's war players not only hit

1180
01:05:13.719 --> 01:05:16.039
better shots, but they but they think better. And I

1181
01:05:16.079 --> 01:05:18.920
hope that this book gives you a little bit of

1182
01:05:18.920 --> 01:05:21.519
a clue or insight into into how they think.

1183
01:05:21.599 --> 01:05:24.519
And uh, it's it's meant for the average golfer. It's

1184
01:05:24.519 --> 01:05:26.360
not meant for the graduate student of golf.

1185
01:05:26.440 --> 01:05:29.360
So I think anybody can can read this and get

1186
01:05:29.400 --> 01:05:31.400
a little bit of value and hopefully a little bit

1187
01:05:31.400 --> 01:05:33.320
of fun and a couple of good stories out of it.