I’ve been taking lessons and diving into my numbers out on the golf course. I’m trying to really drill down on where I can get better. It is simple. I need to either get up and down more for par, or hit more greens in regulation.
After 11 rounds with keeping track of fairways hit, greens in regulation (GIR) and putts, it is clear that my biggest weakness is GIR. I’m doing OK off the tee, hitting about 50% of the fairways, but my misses aren’t bad most of the time. I’d guess that 80% of the time or more I’m able to take a full swing second shot off the tee. The other 20% I’m punching out or having to play to a layup of some kind because my drive wasn’t good. Another thing I notice from my stats is Par 3’s are my worst hole. That isn’t too surprising considering they are also the worse holes for PGA Tour players. About 75% of tour players average over par on par 3’s, compare that to par 5’s where all but 2 tour players are under par.
So what does all that mean? I need to dial in my mid irons. My lessons have been helping with that. I’m making sure not to tilt the wrong way doing my swing, and to start my down swing with my left knee opening toward the target. The final thing I’m working on is an adjustment to my grip. My grip was too strong for the adjustment I was making because of my lesson. If I tried to fired through with my hips first with a strong grip it was a mess, but by taking a nice neutral grip I can get a good body rotation going.
Final update. Handicap index is down to 11.1 🙂