THE GUIDE for Mediocre Golfers

THE GUIDE for Mediocre Golfers

you don’t have to suck at golf even if you don’t swing it like a pro today you’ll hear me talk through every shot of a sub80 score in a round where I started terribly and hit plenty of bad shots starting with the very first one that was terrible but we are on the golf course
but as you can see a good score starts with having the right attitude bad shots are going to happen it’s really a matter of not right now sitting here lamenting that I hit a bad drive it’s just about we have a new shot it’s a new opportunity so I’m holding a 190 club here because I see there’s a bunker short left that’s really the only place I don’t want to miss so 190 club smooth swing aiming actually at the just the middle of the green which is always a good idea from this kind of range all right just long over the back better than short in the trap we want to miss in the right places i’m much happier being here than I would be short in the trap so it’s not a matter of like what club can I muscle the 183 yards it’s a matter of which club leaves me with the best dispersion pattern so that I’m not in a bad spot on the next one so I’m 15 yards long i’m just bumping this with a little 52° picking a spot that I want to see it land and visualizing how it rolls out to the hole okay it’s easier to read the brake looking uphill it’s also easy to read it sitting right here behind the hole seeing which way the ball is moving at the hole it’s losing speed at the end of the putt that’s when it’s most susceptible to break so I’m aiming left edge here there we go so another concept I’m a big fan of is the think box the feel box the play box i’m looking at this hole right now I’m in the visualization process trying to pick out what do I want to see my ball flight doing where do I want to see my shot here so I’m seeing up the right side of this fairway ideally with a draw if it doesn’t draw that’s okay because if it goes dead straight to the right of the fairway I have a good angle in so now I’m done my thinking i’m guilty of not always being in the field box but that’s our practice swing or connecting the feel to our imagination but the important part is that once I’m over the ball there’s no questioning what your plan is you just want to let in my case an unathletic golf swing take over i’m going to demonstrate it so I’m seeing my target it’s as narrow as possible i have a tiny little spot on the right side of the fairway then I’m going to get over and just hit it there’s no thoughts of doubt about what the plan is so it started a bit right of where it was intended right rough that should be fine so back to talking about club selection i have 128 to the pin here and it’s a front pin i’ve got a 9 iron that carries 125 now often I would take extra club just because I want to ensure that if I miss it it’s still getting on the green typically a putt is better than being off the green but I have some course knowledge here being long of this pin on this green leaves you a crazy putt i’d actually rather if anything miss a bit short than I’m putting or chipping up a hill there and now it’s nice and easy because I can take a nine iron take a nice full swing if it gets there great if it doesn’t totally fine well that wasn’t too good okay front left trap i actually switched to a low bounce 60° i have to get used to what that means in terms of hitting bunker shots it’s about my third shot with this new wedge out of a trap all right things to work on so like I was mentioning you don’t get mad you’re always learning in this game we’re going to hit a lot of bad shots where bad shots get to you is when you let it ruin the next shot pretty happy with that so let’s count the bad shots on this hole the drive was mediocre the approach was bad and the bunker shot was bad so we’ve hit two bad shots escaping with just a bogey would feel nice okay so I’ve got this ball just outside the hole on the left okay just a bogey another thing worth talking about is the ranking of holes on the scorecard so on every scorecard somewhere there’s going to be a line that says handicap and each hole is rated 1 to 18 which more or less correlates with the ranking of the holes from hardest to easiest so as a seven handicap on stroke holes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 my expected score is a bogey now obviously we don’t want you sort of mentally accepting a bad score when you’re on the box but it’s not the worst thing especially if the hole isn’t in reach for you in regulation to mentally add one stroke to the par in your mind just so you can settle into the fact that bogei is never a bad score this is stroke hole three long dog leg par 4 not stressing it’s a par five in my mind first I’m just going to hit the best T-shot I can here picking a target there’s one small bushy tree in the distance that’s the line I’d love this to go on so I’m going to take dead aim at it mentally put a carefree swing on it okay so 156 in my seven iron is a 155 club but it’s a bit uphill here and again the treble is short with these traps so I’m going to hit a very smooth sixiron a 165 club aiming just right of the pin which is middle of the green sometimes there’s not much to it okay another bad shot on this hole but I set on the tea mentally it’s a par five get it on the green make a putt and escape with a par if not two putts for bogey no big deal just going to walk up and visualize a landing spot yeah there’s a bunch of uphill there so I want to fly it quite a ways onto the green well that was horrib i kind of chunked it but that’s okay yeah I really chunked that badly it took its first bounce over here sometimes you hit bad shots and you leave yourself 25 30 ft for par okay I’ve got this uphill moving to my right the important thing on putts like this obviously you want to commit to a line but we’re really thinking about speed there’s lots of ways to dial in speed one thing I like to get used to is to picture what would it be like to roll a ball to the hole and it’s kind of that same stroke with the roll that you can actually put on it with the putter so I’ve got my line committed to my speed okay it never really broke that’s okay tidy it up and get out of here just a bogey we’ve played two of the five hardest holes on the golf course we’re two over through three holes with five terrible swings that’s not bad we just keep playing golf this shot doesn’t care about everything that’s happened to here so I have 187 to this flag that’s a back flag but we’re into a touch of wind so I think it’s going to be smooth swing with the 200 club aiming just right at the pin always aiming from this distance middle of the green i towed that found the trap all right there’s about one two three four five paces of green before this flag so I’m very shortsighted i don’t mind being long at that pin let’s just go steep into the sand get the ball in the air and get it on the green anywhere on the green successful by my standards here well that wasn’t it i don’t have a ton of green and it’s downhill the second it gets up there oh bad bounce off the fringe through the camera if you want to get an eye for how long putts are flag is 7 feet so we’ve got 14 15 or 16 feet now for bogey some tips about reading putts you don’t want to be stuck on tunnel vision what’s between your ball and the hole you want to get a sense of where’s the high and low point of the green if water flowed on this green where is it going to drain i’m looking up the hill i see it just outside the hole on the right committed to my line committed to my speed okay we tried double bogey what can you do 433 directly into win here at stroke hole one so again I’m not trying to claw back because I made a bad score on the last hole this is still mentally a par five got my target just smooth driver swing have an angle in 176 in front pin into wind it’s going to be a 190 club the pins front right i’m aiming left of it so middle of the green with a 190 club oh boy the bad shots continue thus far so just like the last hole the thought here is anything on the green is a win okay it’s up there so the uphill is from there to here so I’m looking at it from down here to get a sense of the break yeah it’s going to be swinging pretty hard to my left yeah I’ve got my spot whoa okay that really swung okay a par five there’s a big dog leg right i’ve got my target yep it’s on my target line should be in a good spot over there okay 272 in and there’s really nothing in the way so this is a just get it as close as I can with a 3-wood yeah it’s on a good line should be good up there well I’ve got some work to do it would seem that’s okay had worse looks at birdie and it’s my first green in regulation today about 18 ft for birdie there’s a slow pure pushing it to my right almost we’ve made a par life is good okay 155 here 7 iron is a 155 we might still be a touch into but it’s a back pin so if this miss is a bit short I’m putting don’t want to miss long not going to take more club middle of the green that wasn’t hit too well but it should be okay oh what a kick oh wow it’s getting closer few feet for birdie I think okay i can’t complain with this result on a missit about 10 ft yep it’s definitely going to move to my left it’s the same routine whether it’s an eagle putt or a putt for triple if you read it coming up the hill here it’s going to move just a hair to my left not quite not quite okay finally one downwind not much to this pick a target it’s the palm trees that make a V in the distance take a swing that’s a giant miss stay okay on the golf course big miss so yeah it’s been a really poor ball striking day but we’re still in it making some pars we’re five over a lot of golf left no worries i’m just going to try to bump a seven iron up there there’s lots of room left at the pin we need to keep it low yeah oh that didn’t quite get up there huh okay so I’m quite surprised this stopped all the way back here more chances to try out the new gap wedge all right a good one finally not much to it left side of the hole ram it in all righty okay so I’d say the bad start is officially in the past this hole typically beats me up we’re going to start today by hitting a good drive on it good swing thought easy game pick a target yay we have found the middle of the fairway 125 middle pin perfect smooth 9 iron for me h hit that too smooth i was thinking might be too much if it carries 125 bit short it’s okay okay lots of options from here everything from putter to 48 to 52° we’re going to try the 52° because we’re still trying to get used to it yeah it’s fine five or six feet let’s use that pin trick seven feet okay wants to move a hair left bingo okay so a front nine full of some really bad golf if I’m being perfectly honest right what do we do there have to count the number of bad shots but it was a lot but we parred more than half the holes had a stretch of five over through five and we’re five over going into the back i’m at Indian Canyons North great golf course i think it’s in fabulous condition especially it’s miday it’s May 14th it’s my birthday today and I’m pretty happy with this place it’s now out of season here cuz it’s so hot anyway back to the golf yep should be fine might even have a go at this one i have 222 to the stick stick is right over the bunker so we’re not even thinking about it let’s see what the front of the green is 200 to the front 230 to the back so I think the three with the 220 club is the club like I said we’re not even going to think about the pin here there’s an opening at the front of the green that’s where we’re aiming yeah it should be good might be over the back or on the back corner okay so putting for eagle is fun this is actually exactly pin high this is a really tricky putt for the last 15t it is straight downhill and I mean straight downhill from about here on let’s double check that boy from here it looks uphill the whole way you got to trust it looking from beneath the hole because the last 15 ft of this putt are downhill no matter how much it doesn’t appear that way over the ball happy with that so we just keep playing golf we were five over through five we are now four over through 10 [Music] good birdie that was fun this is another hole that’s historically kicked my butt let’s get one on the fairway this T- box tends to aim you to the right rough so I’m going to look up the left yeah that should be very good okay 115 in front pin but we’re a bit downwind so the pitching wedge that carries 110 115 should be the club okay not when you do that though okay once again this is bad because we’re short-sighted for the record I only get these numbers so that you have it in the video this is not a place where I usually care what the yardage is bite nope well we’ll get there in time this whole green is sloped back to front so this is going to want to move a little to my right but not much not quite okay very tough long hole they say smooth easy and accept the extra distance that was hit really poorly okay so 194 in and into and it’s got to move a little left coming around this tree but we’ll see what we can do yeah I think that should work just on the front little uphiller not my best work still getting used to this 52° gotta figure out what this putt is doing because for the first bit was moving one way but I think now at the hole it is going to be coming to my right camera left yes it is let’s pick a line and trust it it is left edge pushed it bummer and we’ve got another par five we’re going to go straight down the middle or a little left it’s well over 200 to that trap and there’s a dog leg left up there in the greens there so just trying to advance at around 200 towards the trap yep pushed it a bit but it’s fine there no problem there okay 123 to a pin in the back left the nine iron carries 125 but we’re going to hit it nice and smooth and a little right of it that’s really good okay I thought this ball was inside six feet but my eyes deceived me tough putt goes downhill then uphill turn now turn in turn in oh nothing wrong with another par the par threes here are long save for that one on the front all of them require me pulling a head cover this is 184 we don’t want to miss short right we want to miss long left be good yeah i think it’s just on the front we’re thrilled with the outcome but not the execution because we missed exactly where we said we didn’t want to i think this is going to be a putt what is it doing as it gets on the green actually not a whole lot mostly just uphill that is fine easy par my driver miss has been mostly left today and on left here there’s trouble so we’re just going to hit a 3-wood yeah 113 in bit into we’re just going to go full pitching wedge okay bit pulley but that’s okay we’re putting long uppillar here okay 191 back right pin we’re not even thinking about that looking at the middle of the green carry carry no in the track
okay so this only needs to get over the lip then it should roll all the way down huh not exactly what I expected on that i really thought that would come down here quickly yeah the par 3s have proven to be the toughest holes on this golf course okay this is a downhiller swinging to my left camera right got my spot no low stop stop okay another short hole where I’m just going to try to put a 3-wood in play got my line the curved palm tree looking a little right of it oh I hooked it that’s good that’s why we hit 3-wood that ball despite being left rough is fine okay 130 to a front pin i’m going to hit a 140 club real smooth i think it’s really good doesn’t get a whole lot better than this muck on my ball that I’m going to remove then we’re going to try to make a birdie it’s actually a sneaky little putt got quite a bit of right movement in it do I have to give up the hole no left edge nice and firm [Music] couple of birds today erasing some damage okay one more hole that has given me fits over the years not today even at the pink bushes perfect hope that’s not through the fairway okay so it’s only 225 to the flag but there’s water everywhere so we’re going to go pitching wedge pitching wedge make this an easy game pitching wedge number one so we got 119 and a little induc so we’re going to go nine iron bunted it too much it’s a bit short it’s okay finishing just in time it’s getting a little windy this is uphill all the way moving to my left never really moved
one more testy putt to end the day as the wind comes center right and there you have it as 78s go that wasn’t the prettiest one a whole lot of bad shots and only six greens in regulation but five scrambles a couple of birdies and most importantly a calm mindset enabled a score that was better than the sum of its parts i hope this is useful in demonstrating that mediocre golf doesn’t need to produce mediocre scores or worse until next time

THE GUIDE for Mediocre Golfers
Intro: 0:00
Front 9: 0:13
Back 9: 12:32
Recap: 19:38