Good stuff. I’ll need to read this a few times to get it all.
This sort of training, strategy & shot execution is geared toward letting go of statistics such as GIR and to a degree fairways hit. Often I’d rather miss a fairway to improve an angle on my dispersion pattern and I’d definitely rather miss a green to give myself a chip I can try to hole than have a putt I have to hit defensively. I’ll also tend to hit shots & clubs that don’t seem to fit often in order to match my dispersion pattern to fit where I want to go. Stats like putts/GIR & scrambling I tend to be high in not because I’m a particularly good putter or chipper but because I’m always below the hole. I happen to be a good putter, excellent short putter because it’s 95% of what I practice and avg to streaky around the greens. But never ever get caught up with statistics, the only ones that count are score, wins & money.
This thread is great. Perfect for ABS in that you wont find this stuff anywhere else out there.
Example of matching shot pattern to a hole, a million years ago I was playing a one day event something or other at Sonoma National up in wine country, playing really well like 4 under when I get to I think 12. Par 3 not quite 200 yds with this ridiculous hourglass green that’s maybe 20 ft wide with two big crowns, pin center right in between the crowns so anything close to the right distance will roll down pin high. Bunkers L & R, OB L, trees R. I’m last to hit, first guy hits it almost OB 2nd guy.R bunker. I’m looking at the hole thinking to myself this is so stupid, distance doesn’t even matter just anything that goes straight. I hit a 195 yd chip 3 iron that never got head high and landed 30 yds in front, rolled over the first hump & out of sight. I pick up my bag & one of the rules officials starts walking with me from out of nowhere. No introduction or anything, he just puts his hand on my shoulder and says ‘there’ll be better days…’ Huh? ‘Well, that wasn’t a very good shot.’ It’s like 12 ft!?! This guy’s in the bunker shortsided & him, he’s lucky he didn’t hit it out… ‘What, you meant to hit that shot?’ Uh, yeah, now if you’ll excuse me I have a tournament to win. And when you make the check out it’s Alec with a C, not an X. He was still watching when I made the putt, but somehow never saw him when I finished…hehe
Nice reading LCDV…
Strategy is so important as you say instead of just firing all the time. That par 3 hole description sounds like the same kind of deal on a hole I’ve had trouble with in the past until I got my head out of the sand and figured out how to play the darn hole
It’s also 200 yards and the green, although looking ample enough to land something on, is really deceiving. It is severly sloped from back to front. Both sides are severly false so it is, in effect, a narrow crowned green. Bunker and river right in which trees line the bank of the river. Left is bad too but I’ll spare the details.
The part that took me a while to figure out is the teebox. It is extremely elevated, which I don’t like to begin with. Any “normal” flighted ball gets so high, and once the flight gets over the tree line on the river bank, if there is any breeze at all, good luck holding onto the center of the green- which factoring in the false sides is so small it’s ridiculous considering the length of the hole.
So one day I just decided to hit a real low punch draw 3-iron right at that front right bunker. Now if the teebox were ground level to the green to begin with the shot would have been real low, but since the teebox was elevated, the ball flight height was perfect. It drew off the bunker perfectly and hit maybe 30 yards of so in front of the green and rolled right to the pin. Then I had to putt! 
Until finding a new strategy, I held that green maybe 1 in 10 times and after changing strategy now if I don’t roll up onto the green from the tee, the worst I have is an uphill chip from right in front of the green. Easy chip and run uphill.
Speaking of strategy. I’m a little hazy on this, but I think I heard once that Hogan never made a hole-in-one in tourney competition and when asked about that replied…“it’s because I am aiming for the best place to land to make a birdie”
Anyone know if that it accurate? 
Following the thread with interest LCD - thanks
My practise hole…the 15yd x 10yd green sits at a L/R angle from the ‘tee’ (any length possible)…left is dead in the bracken…right is in the trees…short in front plays…but too short & ‘wet’ right is in another patch of bracken…prevailing wind is into & off the left.
After clearing some bracken i got to hit 32 140yd shots into it - just 12 on the green - so will be keeping a record (i took my mizuno up there & having been using the hogans i struggled to keep left out of the equation with the mizuno, so that was good in a way - back to the hogans with confidence)
high up the line of the left hand bracken & dropping l-r or low r-l favouring short look like the best plays.
sadly I won’t be seeing how the shots react on my green (it needs to be somewhere I can take the dog so not perfect) but good for improving my basic shot making hopefully & i should be able to get there for a couple hours twice a week, more often in the winter, great stuff.
Looks like a great place to do some scything Tim…like crr posted…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL2_chKPWjE[/youtube]
very good eagle, that’s a good idea
clever how they scythed it into rows - aaaah the good old days, i’ve stitched my fair share of sheaves of wheat, first time round a 20 acre field takes all day just to get round once - arms scratched to ribbons & back hurts like hell… sorry - best not wreck this top quality thread
Too true. Play your course with a [fill in the blank] iron and a putter some time and that will change your whole perspective on how many permutations there are to play a course. We have a 350 yard dog-leg right on my course that everyone and their brother uses a driver on! Our course is pretty tight, not well manicured, lush rough and an abundance of mature trees. Using driver on that whole may give you a SW in, but also brings double into play. I went from hitting 5W all the way down to hitting 5 iron off the tee and bringing in an 8 iron into the green. I haven’t doubled it since and am probably nearly as good with my 8 iron as I am with a SW anyway. Btw, there are 4 other holes that I don’t use driver on unless I’m feeling flawless…some as long as 450 yards.
Yes indeed…never let the tee direction or the orientation of the blocks line you up!
Cheers,
Captain Chaos
And now for something completely different…
A. Ted Williams, Lanny Wadkins, John McEnroe, Bill Russell, Hale Irwin, Paul Azinger, Bob Gibson, Ronnie Lott, Bill Parcells, Jim Brown, Oscar Robertson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, Mark Calcavecchia, Craig Stadler, Pete Rose, Mark Messier, Joe Frazier.
B. Babe Ruth, Seve Ballesteros, Mickey Mantle, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Magic Johnson, Walter Hagen, Deion Sanders, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Conners, Andre Agassi, Hank Shram, Tommy Lasorda, Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier, Joe Willie Namath, Shaquille O’Neal.
C. Ben Crenshaw, Barry Sanders, Mariano Rivera, Jerry West, Joe Torre, Ken Griffey, Jr, John Stockton, Cal Ripken, Jr, Mickey Wright, Ray Allen, Joe Montana, Byron Nelson, David Duval, Sam Snead, Tom Watson, Kareem Abdul Jabaar.
D. Ben Hogan, John Wooden, Mac O’Grady, John Barry, Vince Lombardi, Bill Belichick, Peyton Manning , Phil Jackson, Mike Reid, Nick Faldo, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Tony LaRussa, Justin Leonard, Bill Bradley, Larry Joe Bird, Mike Scosscia, Tom Kite, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Fischer.
Four groups, all great athletes and/or coaches. Which one group are you in
Group D.
Looks like you are saying…any group is ok, any style can win. The trick is knowing who you are…and being that person.
Good quote. Sure any style can win, no one is any better or worse than another. But how do you identify YOUR style and put it to best use?
Let me rephrase the question. Which of the following phrases best describes your ultimate goal in golf?
A. I want to win.
B. I want everyone to know I’m The Man.
C. I want to play the game the best I can.
D. I want to master of all the shots.
One of these statements jumps out more than the others, which one is it? And don’t think about just look & answer.
Group A. The Drivers: Drivers get the job done, cut through the BS and semantics. They’re impatient, decisive and take no prisoners; no one gets more pissed sitting in traffic. The perverbial bulls in the china shop, grace is not exactly a strong suit. Also referred to as ‘Type A Personalities’, you’ll generally find them in corporate boardrooms, stock exchanges & cardiac units before 40. Drivers are overachievers and like to be in control. They are good leaders but not so hot at small talk or relaxing, they don’t understand the concept of a vacation. These are the guys you want leading you into battle but not necessarily over to dinner.
Group B. The Persuaders: Persuaders are the life of the party, they love nothing more than to discuss and to listen. Born salesmen, this is the guy who sold you that Timeshare in Orlando in less than 3 minutes. Their desks are disaster areas yet they always know where everything is. They are brilliant orators and communicators but tend to lack in follow through. They love bright colors, their clothes are stunning and they dominate a room. Persuaders are the negotiators, the front men, the kidders and fierce friends. They can also be flaky and loud.
Group C. The Craftsmen: Craftsmen are the graceful, the understated with beautiful natural rhythm. They have beautiful flowing handwriting and they love to tinker. They like peace & quiet and the natural order of things. The Craftsmen value honesty, integrity, quality and reliability. They don’t like to be the center of attention. Their word is their bond and they rarely get upset. They also have the most gorgeous golf swings and wisdom beyond their years.
I’m a hybrid of B and D. Group A mentality also present, in the sense that winning is what matters, regardless of how.
Group D. The Analyzers: These are the rocket scientists, the brain surgeons, the kids who tear everything apart just to see if they can put it back together again. Analyzers are patient, thorough and double check everything. They don’t like being interrupted, rushed or leaving anything unfinished. They are perfectionists and detail oriented. Generally not big ‘people persons’ unless its on their own terms. You can set a Swiss watch by their schedule and they’ve never had a speeding ticket. They solve the hard problems and are the men behind the curtains.
That’s me… Thanks for posting this stuff.
These are the four personality types as described by Dr Mumford in The Double Connexion. They are all broad generalizations and all of us have different degrees of all of them within our personality. The question again is which are the greatest and to what degree. Over the years I’ve taken his test maybe 5 times and they’ve all been pretty consistent. I think he still has one available online at his website. My own numbers are generally: A-50 B-25 C-5 D-20. The first time I took the test was at the beginning of his two day seminar when I was in college. It was at Sunol GC & my roommate & teammate signed up together. There were about 15 other people and the results were put on folding cards with 4 point graph lines in front of us like name cards. Our graphs were almost exact mirror images & completely opposite. Doc was cracking up when he gave them to us & asked, ‘you guys are roommates? You must drive each other insane…’ Totally eerie & of course Albert pipes up, ‘he’s loud & a control freak, leaves his s…t all over the place & he sleeps with the remote. I’m gonna kill him.’ I had no idea, sincerely. It was like Kreskin or something. I was 19 and had no clue I was born a nut. As it happens Doc is a Driver/Persuader also and took me under his wing a great deal. The stuff I’m posting here is a very broad, toe in the water overview. But it’s a good beginning, you have to dig down and learn what your own motivations are and how you naturally go about doing what you do. You also need to find your playing style so if you start to go outside of it you can recognize it and keep yourself in check. For example a certain Mr Woods, a Persuader/Driver who all of the sudden thinks he’s a Double Analyzer. He’s got no chance until he embraces his natural style again.