Jeez be careful man, remember luck befriends the young like when I was a kid I found out the hard way I was immune to poison oak, thank God. Sounds like one of those OFF clipons would be a good investment. Snakes I don’t really worry about, we’ve had an understanding ever since I got bit by a 6 ft rattler when I was 18 on the 2nd at Mtn Springs (anti-plug no 2). If you see that bugger again just drop my name & remind him I got multiple chainsaws and WILL travel…
Now that I think about it I got some serious history with that dog track, it was my first paying job (cart barn), almost lost my leg from that snake bite there, the first time I ever lost $100, my first course record, the first time I ever got drunk, I learned how to bend & build clubs there, I got my nose broken there (totally deserved it) & it was there the first time I ever saw someone die when one of the members in front keeled over from a heart attack. Wow, I still think it’s an awful layout though…
Wow. That’s a heck of a history at a course. How’d you get bit by the rattler? I’ve had 4 in my yard, 8 or 10 on the golf course, and a bunch in the desert, but I’ve always been given fair warning.
Snap hooked my tee shot out into the dirt & brush, went out after it totally in the mumbleshed (technical term for cussing yourself out under your breath & paying no attention to anything at all), dropped my bag & kicked what I assumed was a big piece of wood as hard as I could… One of my more brilliant moments…
Hurray, I’m not the only one doing it like this. Here’s how I started writing everything down during a round:
Next I make a visual for each club:
Driver: Middle of the page is intended target. cross represents where the balls ended up. This way you can easily see what your typical miss is (and if you really consistently hit it as far as you intent to…)
9 iron. Again, middle of the page is the intended target (crosses don’t mean much if you use the hole as a reference. a shot aimed left of the hole to avoid trouble that ends up exactly where you aimed it would look like a miss left of you you the hole as a reference).
Great thread btw Alec! I am looking for a small field where i can start pactising again. There are some soccerfield close to my house that could be a possibility (soccerseason is almost over). There are a couple of things posted here that i used to do as well in my youth (36 now) main thing is hitting balls at the range and picking them up, usually by placing a bucket somewhere on the range and taking a wedge and hitting all the balls towards the bucket.
One of the things I like to do when possible, whether at the range or in the backyard is to give an ample amount of time between executions instead of slamming one after another in rapid fire fashion. I do rapid fire at times but only when I am working on accenting something I like.
At the range I will take one ball…tee it up and let 'er go and then wait maybe 2-3 minutes before hitting an iron. People ask a lot of times why I only take one ball with me only to have to make several trips back and forth to the pro-shop to grab another ball. I just try and duplicate the time lapses while playing.
Even in my backyard when chipping, if the result is not quite precisely what my execution attempt was, I will wait a few minutes before hitting another from the missed location.
Another thing I really like to do is to hit the ugliest shots one can imagine. From the ugly comes the beautiful…sounds like a Bom phrase to me 
I’ll hit worm burners, shanks, rocket hooks, tops, slices…you name it just to remind my hands/body who’s in charge here.
Anyone ever tried to deliberately miss the ball from the inside by having the toe of the club just pass by, the width of a human hair, the point of the ball representing 6:00 o’clock on the ball as you look down on it. 
Tried out your practise session LCD, very different to the haphazard way I’ve approached anything I’ve done before, & can see the benefit of the approach – thankyou
LCD - What have your learned about warming up for a tournament round? I assume that since you don’t advocate the range for practice then you wouldn’t warm up there in a tournament…
We’ve got an official white knuckling Wi-man sighting. Go rip that ugly plaid jacket out of their hands!! All you all day, Team T.O. has got your back.
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It was nice while it lasted. 11 & 12 were game-set-match, that fairway bunker shot was just an awful, awful mental error, the holed out wedge is just one of those things, like Watson said you always have to expect your opponent to hit a great shot and you can’t allow yourself to be shocked when it happens because sooner or later it always will. Plus you can’t ever throw away shots if you’re a plodder against another plodder with more experience and wins. You have to pressure him either with aggressive play or never making a mistake & neither one ever came close to happening even when Charlie had the lead. You can’t wait to win, you have to grab it one way or another.
Preparing for tournament rounds the day of are going to be covered extensively later on in the thread, at this point it’s putting the cart before the horse but I’ll say this about it, I want to get ready in a similar fashion to the way a distance runner prepares. It’s about getting in position to execute and eliminating distractions.
Anxiously awaiting the description of pre-tournament warm-up. I have my routine I go through, but I can’t wait to hear how an experienced tournament player goes about it.
Course Management Part One: Par: The concept of par on a golf course is imaginary and completely meaningless. Your goal before teeing off on every single golf hole in the world is the same, hole out in the fewest strokes possible. In order to do so you need to look at every hole on its own merits, take into consideration the conditions, weather and other factors and attack it in a way that will play to your strengths and eliminate big numbers. THERE ARE NO RULES, so take every assumption and throw them out the window. Hole number 12, 405 yds, who says you have to hit a driver then an 8 iron? Why not 2 iron and a 6 iron, or two 4 irons or how about two 7 irons and a wedge? Or even an 8 iron then a driver? Look at every hole, every shot with fresh eyes open to every possibility, pay no attention to what everyone else always does, they are sheep and are there only to be beaten. Pay attention to what the course designers have done though, they constantly create visual tricks and deceptions meant for a single purpose of raising your score. In fact next time you’re playing go behind every teebox and look at just how often the tee points directly at the worst place you could possibly hit it. I guarantee it’s at least 6 per 18 holes wherever you are. Focus on what is really going on out there and hit shots that you can execute time and time again that will end up in position to keep attacking the rest of the hole. Examples:
Let’s look at a so called par 3, par 4 & a par 5 which are misplayed constantly. I’m going to use no. 7 at L.A.C.C. North, no. 10 at Riviera C.C. & no. 14 at Pebble Beach G.L. as examples as I’ve had the fortune of playing all of them a lot and just about everyone knows them, LACC has a lot of pics available online and has been one of the top 50 courses anywhere for 80 yrs. No. 11 is the more famous one shot hole, the Reverse Redan but no. 7 breaks way more good rounds it plays about 248 from the tips (I haven’t played it since the renovation, I read there’s a new tee for the '17 Walker Cup at 295, good luck to them with that, they’ll need it…), there’s a little barranca about 30 yds short, pot bunker short left and deep rough left falling severely downhill. Another bunker right that isn’t bad and more rough and a bailout short and right. The green slopes hard left to right and the left side of the green is very shallow. Add the wind which is predominantly L/R & against and you have one tough B%$&H. The hole generally doesn’t get butchered unless the pin is left or back right, if it is center or front right it’s difficult but totally straightforward, aim at the center and bailout short & right, play for 3, take 4. But when the pin is anywhere left or tucked BR, scores explode. There is only one play that will consistently score 3 or 4: lay up short of the barranca with a 7 iron and pitch on from 90 yds. Here’s what makes this rule absolute: GOLDEN RULE NO. 1: NEVER PLAY A LONG SHOT INTO A SMALL LANDING AREA WITHOUT A BAILOUT. A bailout is defined as an AREA where you expect a missed approach to finish that you expect to get up & down from at least 2 out of 3 times. From 250 yds away there’s nothing even remotely resembling a bailout to those pins & even a perfect shot will only result in a score of 2 once every 10 shots. Therefore the pin position has changed the hole from a one shotter to a two. The designated par of the hole has changed based on the conditions and realistic expectations. Same hole, same yardage different par so just throw the whole idea of par out to begin with, it’s imaginary and doesn’t matter.
Riviera CC No. 10, 315 yds downhill predominant wind R/L usually helping a little. One of the most famous holes in the world, rightfully so. I call it Little Bastard since it’s only a couple miles from where James Dean died. This is a good time for: GOLDEN RULE NO. 2: S#!T OR GET OFF THE POT, NO 'TWEENERS! You’re either going for the pin trying to make a two or you’re positioning a shot to pitch on and make an easy three. There is no ‘I’m gonna hit driver or 3 wood here and get it up there somewhere & see what happens…’. That’s how you make six and honestly it’s better than anyone deserves with a hit & hope mentality. If you’re gonna go, GO!! Choose a target & find where your bailout is & choose a shot that misses in the bailout, if you can’t do all that, don’t go. This hole is the perfect example, these days everybody & their brother can get there easy, but I can’t remember ever seeing someone make a two there with my own eyes. I also can’t even count all the sixes & sevens I’ve seen (& made myself). I don’t even have to get into the correct plays to the different pins, it’s obvious at this point.
Pebble Beach No. 14, 565 yds, uphill L/R dogleg wind hurting hard & L/R. It’saclose race I bet whether this hole or 15 at Augusta has had more tournament scores 8 or worse over the years, I’d take this one but it’s gotta be close… More good players (that I’ve met) absolutely hate this hole than any other hole in the world. I don’t hate it because I’m comfortable with the fact that there’s only one way to play it but I would say that it’s probably the least great hole on one of the five best tracks in the world. Here’s GOLDEN RULE NO. 3: SACRIFICE TO GAIN POSITION AND MOMENTUM. On 14 you always always always hit it in the front bunker. Whether it’s your 2nd, 3rd or even 4th shot just dump in the middle of the face of that bunker splash it out & get outta there. I’ve hit driver off the deck in that bunker & I’ve pitched it in there from both sides of the rough & even the fairway more than a few times. It’s a trap hole plain & simple even a perfect pitch from a perfect lie brings long & the false front in play. I hit it in there everytime it’s not that hard to bounce it in on a second shot. Made a bunch more birdies than bogeys and never worse than six. Always sacrifice a shot if it gives you a positional advantage and eliminates a big number. The golf course is a chessboard, your shots are your pieces and you are the king. Your pieces service you, use them well and toward your ultimate goal.
Fantastic advice there LCDV…So are the others as well…Best thing I’ve read in a while
Now don’t misunderstand any of this to mean that you want to layup, layup, layup all the way around the course, far from it. The point here is to play shots aggressively into places you continue to attack from. On the tee the first thing you need to think about is where the pin is on the green, even if the hole is 650 yds. Then you find where you want to putt from that will give you a realistic chance of holing on the first putt and that is realistically accessible on the approach. Then you decide where you want to approach from, distance and position to get the putt you want. You connect the dots from the hole back to the tee. Then you do it again, look back to the approach and look back at where your bailout area is around the green that a missed approach can be played from easily. Decide if you have a specific shot played from the position you want to approach from where your standard miss will go to your chosen bailout area; all the space in between is your dispersion area & you should rarely if ever be outside it. If it does match you’re good to go if not you need to find a different position or shot that will match. Then you have to do the same thing and match your tee shot & miss pattern to the preferred area for your approach. Find the place you can miss the tee shot and still play an aggressive approach and match the shot you play from the tee. If all else fails go to your safety valve, that’s what it’s for. See every shot on the hole before you pull a club on the tee. See where a good approach goes, see where the miss goes and the boundaries between. You don’t leave anything to chance and everything is realistic and immediately attainable and in focus.
And again remember this is all a very long process, years or even decades worth of work, but hey this you shoot 65. These are the details, the nitty & the gritty that separates the men from the boys.
The visualization required to see the shots comes from the work with the 4x4 drills. Study where the misses end up so you can establish the boundaries and dispersion patterns in between on the course. You hit all the shots and use the ones with the patterns that fit accordingly. You practice 24 different shots, say 9 are good enough that you feel comfortable using on the course on any given day. You have boundaries set & you know exactly where a good shot goes AND where the bad one goes. And oh by the way you’ve got at least 7 more shots to choose from than just about anyone else. NOBODY has 3 different bullets anymore.