The Talent Code focuses a lot on the development of myelin (the coating on nerves) and how the body develops it. In his book, Coyle basically relates “skill level” to the amount of myelin sheathing on one’s nerves in the relevant areas of the brain. It was an interesting read. I think Colvin’s book “Talent is Overrated” came to a stronger conclusion and had better examples, but the two go well together. “The Talent Code” is on my rotation of good audio books for the range.
To me, Ben Hogan is the perfect golf example of the “Talent is Overrated” principle, when you think of how many times he failed in the process of becoming immensely successful. I would point to him as one of the first people in the game to ever really maximize the application of “deliberate practice” (concept discussed in Talent is Overrated) to become world class over the course of time. His practice routine allowed him to reach the 10,000 hour/10 year mark quicker than most, especially in the 1940’s in professional golf.
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I have a copy of the talent code in .PDF. PM me if you would like a copy. I have gotten through a couple chapters its. Pretty good so far.
Ah home sweet home, I’m never quite so happy as when I leave Las Vegas. Ok back on topic I agree. The point I’m trying to get at with John Smoltz is that while all of us are learning and working on our games we have to compete along the way. You learn to play competitively at the same time you learn mechanics if you ever want to come close to fulfilling your potential. You learn to shoot a million and you learn on the job what works when you need it and what won’t. If anyone thinks that they need to wait to compete until they reach a certain skill level then they’ll never get there and when they finally do go out and compete their game will utterly explode. I’ve seen it happen a lot. Part of learning to play this stupid game is learning how to manage adversity when it really matters. And for anyone trying to compete for the first time my best advice is to take the number you expect to shoot and add 10-15 to it the first few times out. Again this is a learned skill like anything else and nobody normally succeeds the first time. In fact success is probably the worst thing that could happen. But after a while the fire of the competitions will galvanize the entire game the way fire strengthens steel. And without it nothing will ever truly make total sense.
Some people might shoot an easy great score, but not me, never, I have always had to guts it out, and usually its been in adverse conditions where I refused to bow to the conditions, I think that being able to hit it so good that birdie is always an option on every hole is great, but maybe even more important is having a mental state that is prepared to shoot a great score. Obviously combining the two would be perfect, thats why I signed up to ABS!
Thanks Mark, I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve never had an easy low score in a tournament. Every time I’ve ever been lower than my comfort level which was anywhere from 3-6 under depending on my confidence it was always a struggle finishing the last 4 holes trying to balance staying aggressive trying to finish with already having a good round I had to protect. It’s always stressful and I was hardly ever playing an event with scoreboards that told me where I stood so I had the additional stress of flying blind. I always had the thought in the back of my mind whispering don’t give it back stupid…
I don’t know anything about John Smoltz’s golf, but what he’s doing, similar to what Jerry Rice tried a few years ago and struggled with, reminded me of a story a friend of mine told me. He’s a writer, he’s good, makes his living at it in various ways. This may be an old tale but he told it to me as if it happened to him- the writer’s right, I suppose. He was at a dinner party and was sitting next to a guy who was a surgeon. They were chatting back and forth during the evening about the ins and outs of their respective professions, and various other things. After a while the surgeon says to my friend that he’s planning on getting into writing when he retires from surgery, as it’s always been something he thought he’d be good at due to the various papers he’d written over his career. My friend looked at him and said, ‘you know, it’s funny you should say that, because I’m planning on becoming a surgeon after I retire from writing’.
Not that either would be impossible obviously, but doing something really well isn’t easy as such, and is often a life’s work. Playing on one of the big tours is the top level of the field, and it’s not to be sneezed at even taking into account technology and how the game has changed. Say 125 guys on the US Tour and 125 guys on the European Tour. That’s 250 people out of 6 billion, give or take a few million. They’re not good odds, and in general, you don’t end up there by accident or on a whim.
I don’t think tournament golf is any different, in fact it’s probably physically easier due to the quality and condition of the courses. What changes or doesn’t change, is what you bring to the tournament, and I think that’s what makes it compelling for spectators and participants. I think it’s a mistake or a missed opportunity to see the tournament as the thing that holds the power. That may seem like splitting hairs, but I think it’s a very important distinction to make if you want improve.
Boom,
There’s a couple things that bother me about the smoltz entry.
One he took someone’s spot of trying to make a living especially on the Natonwide where its hard enough for the young guys and veterans who lost there card. There’s no way a thousand people came out to see him so i don’t buy the publicity deal. Playing at your home course everyday or 5 days a week and posting a +3 hdcp does not prepare you for tournament golf!
Second on ESPN the reporters asked him why he shot bad he claimed he wasn’t patient that his 1st rd took 27 hrs to complete------- wait Smoltz you never had a rain delay in baseball in the 23 yrs you played? I’m also sure he played in a couple doubleheaders in his career and had to wait for the 1st game to finish? or a extra inning game?
I really believe swings break down or should i say insufficient swings or timing swings i don’t believe people break down unless your Ron Artest,John Rocker then you just flat out lose your mind!
Show me a guy whose a + 3 at a private club and you got a 80 shooter in a U.S. Open qualifier
Dress 60’s talk 70’s and shoot 80!!!
Just hold on a minute with the ‘he’s taking food out of someone’s mouth’ argument… You know damn well he was in on a sponsors exemption so he wasn’t taking anybody’s spot. Every sponsored event has exempt spot that can go to some Suit’s Aunt Ginny and frequently do so relax. The sponsors flip the bill for the event and there ain’t no tournament without them. You don’t believe it? Read up on what’s going on at Hilton Head with The Heritage right now. Now secondly I highly doubt John Smoltz really is that good anyway, the only thing I’ve ever heard about his game is that Tiger gives him 3 a side & refers to him as his personal ATM. But the point I’m attempting to make doesn’t change. The pressures of tournament golf are self inflicted and don’t really change depending on the level you’re playing at. The only things that would make a difference would be if you do a Trevino and play for 20 with 5 in your pocket or if you have a TV crew show up. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m not real concerned about either of those scenarios. What I would be concerned about are ways to test myself in the appropriate arenas and understanding the nature of the competition and what to do when I get there. Of course there’s pressure, that’s a good thing, it means I care. And it has huge, huge value. After a while in fact the shots don’t really mean much if the competitive flag isn’t up.
And speaking of taking spots away if anybody wants a good laugh you should hear some of the stories about how Jerry Barber used to use his lifetime Tour exemption from winning the PGA back in like 1960. There was a line out the door to put the whack out on him. I used to play some with his grandson Tom & he won’t even discuss it. That was taking a spot away from someone who could have used it…
So the title of this thread is How to Shoot 65… So how does anybody shoot 65? (Warning: The following is purely opinion, please treat it as such but feel free to whack anything at any time) First you have to decide you are good enough to go deep and more importantly believe it and get comfortable with it. Next you have to not just practice but practice with purpose. These are two totally different animals and practicing with purpose means the devil is in the details and everything means something. It’s not just what and how you practice but where, when and why. Lets go step by step.
Where: The worst place possible to practice is a driving range. It’s damn near impossible to get target oriented, there are almost always way too many people distracting you with awful swings, it’s expensive, the balls are almost always garbage & most importantly A BAD SHOT HAS ZERO CONSEQUENCE. Sorry RR but the negatives Way outweigh the convenience. If you want to learn how to practice efficiently the easiest thing is don’t go to a golf course at all. Find a park, a field someplace with grass & NO PEOPLE. It doesn’t have to be huge not even 100 yards to start out is fine. Now you need something to use as a shag bag, a plastic grocery bag works fine and 32 decent practice balls. If you don’t have 32 then 16 is ok. Goal number one for the first day is every ball that you take out to practice with comes home with you. Go ahead and laugh that’s harder than you think even just hitting wedges. This means you find and collect every shot good and bad and the bad ones always find the most interesting places to hide. Now every shot has a consequence, every shot demands attention. This is the start of many more circles than squares. And anyone can do this no matter what their skill level is. It’s cheap, it’s relaxing and it works.
As a junior, there were two golf courses I grew up on… from age 8 to 13 and 14 to 17 when I went off to college. Neither course had a driving range. But both had areas where you could shag your own balls. I agree, there is something about knowing that you have to pick them up. I would always dump my pile of balls (it was one of those classic bowling ball looking golf shag bags) and I would then walk out and place the bag at some particular yardage, then take aim at it. I would try to hit the bag on every shot. When I did, I could hear it hit the bag. Not so different than a carnival game. I used to like to see if I could hit the entire bag of balls so that not one ball would be outside of 30 feet from the bag. Often I would chip all the balls at the bag instead of picking them up. I would try again to hit the bag on the fly… or sometimes run them up along the ground. I would take different clubs with me to learn to hit different shots. It really taught me a lot. Ultimately my best practice sessions where usually late in the afternoon when no one was around out on the golf course. Really, still to this day.
I know there is this strange propaganda going around about how trees should have no place on a golf course. I find this totally absurd. Some argument that there should not be hazards in the air. I think there is room for both kinds of golf courses.
Trees teach you a great lesson in trajectory control. If you play a course with trees, you will have to deal with hitting high and low shots, and curving the ball up, over, around and under trees. This is shotmaking at it’s best. I love trees on a golf course. Not necessarily in the fairway… rarely do I find that appealing. One of the practice areas I grew up on had three overhanging branches, which presented 4 trajectory zones. I used to try to hit various clubs between the branches that spread horizontally. This was really great practice, something very much missing in the modern game. I don’t see much attention being paid to trajectory… and it was really noticeable at The Masters. I believe this is one of the reasons we are not seeing the next “Hogan”. I don’t believe you can truly become a master striker playing lightweight gear with a ball that has such a low spin rate. The ball in particular will not give you the proper feedback that is necessary to really fine tune your action at the highest possible level.
Good idea LCDV. When I wasn’t holed up in my backyard chipping away, for all things full I went to a grade school about a block away that ususally had no kids playing on the grounds during the summer. Now that is strange in itself. When I was a kid nearly every vacant field, or school had kids on it during the summer playing baseball…where did all the kids go.
Anyway, the school had a 100 yard soccer field. I would stand on an end line and hit something to the other end to see how close I could get. They also had this apparatus that I had fun with, but I’m not sure what the purpose of the thing was. It was a large steel pole ( maybe about 6-7 high ) with a large yellow plastic bowl type thing with several holes the size of a soccer ball in it. I think kids would throw the ball up into it and the ball would return by way of the hole for some reason.
I would stand a fair distance away and try to “plunk” a ball into the yellow bowl. That was a lot of fun. I would only take about 10 balls with me and don’t recall losing any as the entire playground, which was substantially large, was surrounded by homes. So better keep it on the grounds. Too many other things I did to list.
I think ranges can be an effective practice area if one uses them properly. Most people just bang away with no thought, direction, shape, lie, or more important imagination involved. But like you say, range balls are indeed an issue. On those occasions that I do get out to play, I spend the first few holes trying to get used to a new ProV.
I love trees for defining things and forcing one to meander along with whatever trail they set. There’s a course in Port Huron called Black River that has some of the largest trees that have been around for over 100 years. They are huge…better not go in them or you’re cooked…no escape through the air period.
In terms of shooting 65, although I have never done that, my strategy when playing is this: Try to birdie the 5-pars, par the par 3’s, and let the par 4’s take care of themselves.
Haven’t played yet this year. Hope to get out for 9 in a few weeks or so. Looking forward to seeing what kind of numbers I put up.
Same deal as Lag
We had a couple of practice ranges- one was full length where you could hit any club… the other was about 170? yards long with an old green at the end… both tree lined
I had a shag bag with 100 balls in it
I would drop them at a yardage and go place the shag bag up on the old green and fire away… some days I would hit wedges, then 8 irons and then 6 irons at that smaller range… so 100 balls with each club aiming at the shag bag…counting them all as I picked them up and made sure I had 100 . It was great practice.
Then I would go over to the longer range and do the same thing with 4 irons and then 3 woods/drivers 50 each on those
So that was 500 balls hit in a day right there…of course it helped that just about no-one at my club practiced so I had the place to myself.
take some sandwiches and drinks down with me…even a couple of nights I slept down there in a tent, waking up when the birds or the tractors and mowers made the noise. I would get up and start the whole process early… go hit the same thing with pitch shots and chips around the green… 100 balls of pitches and chips from all different spots and see how many I could hole…then go play in the afternoons
Funny how people always used to say I was a natural at golf…in hindsight I worked my ass off to become a natural.
I’m glad this is striking a familiar chord, it’s pretty universal with every good player I’ve ever met. I couldn’t agree more with Lag & TM’s thoughts, if you want to get good at this game you have to strip it down to the essentials. Every shot is to a great extent exactly the same, you choose a target, hit the ball there, walk after it and do it again. That’s it. So that’s how you practice. And the only true opponent is the course so you practice alone; give yourself the opportunity to get as focussed as possible every single shot naturally so there nothing periphery to interfere or distract. This is the first building block in the foundation of mastery and EVERYONE needs to get back to basics from time to time. Find YOUR practice area, choose a target, hit the ball to the target, repeat.
Yeah, the course I learned on had a small practice area about 170 yards long and 40 yards wide, and you had your own balls(incidentally, because of the size of the practice fairway, all of my driver practice was done on the course) HIt them down to an area then put the ball bag down and try to chip them into it. I totally agree, there’s priceless learning in having to pick up your own balls. Even cleaning them if it’s wet and muddy has a certain worth. Even now, I rarely go to the range, if ever actually. I’ll go find an area like you said, and bring 6 balls- they fit in my hand easily in a triangle. I can spend hours hitting them up and down and around a hundred yard area. I find the moving to be very beneficial and realistic. And every shot I hit, I hit with something on the line, or with an imagined scenario.
When: I cannot stress this enough: CELL PHONE OFF, NOT ON VIBRATE; OFF. THE ENTIRE TIME. FOR REAL. There was a day not very long ago when being on the golf course meant being UN-REACHABLE. Time to turn back the clock. You’re gonna need at least a solid hour, preferably more than two but lets get real. If you can’t turn your phone off and unplug for that long, DON’T PRACTICE. You’re just gonna do more harm than good. Every single time you have a club in your hand has a specific purpose, every session will have a goal which is attainable within the time available. Choose targets, hit your targets, collect your shots, choose a new target and continue. It doesn’t matter what time you practice, it could be midnight, Lord knows I’ve practiced by moonlight a thousand times l… what matters is taking enough time to actually accomplish something positive, figuring out exactly what you want to accomplish and doing it. Use your imagination, be creative, challenge yourself and don’t dilly dally. There’s a damn lot of shots to practice and learn, the clock is ticking.
Or you would see someone from the pro shop riding out in a cart to tell you or someone in your group that your mom needs you back at the house ASAP because the principle called and said you haven’t been in class in a week.
We lived just a block or two from the course, and I remember on a few occasions riding my bike over to the course with my clubs over my shoulder in the dark… we would tee off before anyone arrived at the course… basically the first hole in the dark, and play nine holes before school. It was amazing to be sitting in first period class knowing I had already played golf.
I would stash my clubs in the bag room, and my friend would then drive me to school… just in time before the bell rang.
There was another kid in the back of the class who would come in with wet hair as he had been out surfing at the crack of dawn. That’s when the best waves are for the taking. I swear Sean Penn’s role in Fast Times was based on this guy.
The sheer beauty, simplicity, and truth of this tread is palpable.
Takes me back to my days of youth when we would take 20 or 30 balls to the local elementary school baseball fields and hit 5, 7, and 9 irons from one backstop to the other. I remember the last time I visited (20+ years ago), driving by those fields and thinking “damn… it’s just a wedge”! But as has been stated here… you needed to leave with the same number of balls you showed up with! Can’t tell you how many times I was out there shoveling a patch of snow to hit balls from (this was upstate NY I’m talking about in Feb/Mar) and not thinking anything of it. I think that level of passion (that existed early on) can really help down the road when trying to “go low” (I almost hate to use that term here anymore) . It’s pretty deep-rooted when you love it that much that early on and it can be an indicator of how much effort you’re willing to put into the game.
The concept of finding a field “100 yards or so” long is telling as well. Such an under-rated portion of the game that has such an effect on your score.
. It’s pretty deep-rooted when you love it that much that early on and it can be an indicator of how much effort you’re willing to put into the game.