Tag Golf
Practice Makes Perfect - Hopefully
Analyzing my short game statistics including putting and chipping to understand my golf game and how to get better.
I’ve determined that I need to practice around the greens if I’m to consistently shoot in the 70s. A couple of statistics gathered from The Grint confirmed my suspicions as I haven’t made a single putt outside of 5ft in three rounds. According to The Grint, from 5ft I only make 50% of my putts. To confirm I spent about an hour on the putting green testing myself from 6ft and the results were depressing. Giving myself the same shot 18 times (lining up as if I were playing) I only managed to make 61% of the putts, suggesting I am unable to put a ball on its intended line. I then tested myself from the same distance uphill left-to-right making 50%, and right to left only making 22% of putts! Going downhill from the same distance I could barely make anything, with only 11% of downhill left-to-right putts dropping for me and 17% of right to left putts dropping for me.
Making golf fun again
My five year old showed interest in golf this year. Excitedly, I did exactly the wrong thing and took her to a local pitch and putt. After some reflection I came to the same conclusion my daughter did: golf is objectively boring, especially for a child. After a few swings she was more interested in naming the worms than playing golf. The good news was that I now had a problem to solve: how to make golf less boring for a kid. This blog post documents a few things I discovered that make golf less boring.
Traveling With Golf Clubs
I recently flew to California to visit my dad and brought my clubs so we could play golf during my visit. Before this trip I had been renting clubs on my visits and simply got fed up with the worn out clubs that the vast majority of courses and even country clubs provide. I decided it was time to start bringing my own clubs on these trips. After a couple weeks of research I purchased the Club Glove Last Bag collegiate travel bag. The purpose of this post is to simply detail my experience and offer some advice to others thinking of doing the same.
Annual Golf Report 2018
I played more rounds of golf this year than in my previous 15 years combined. As I have two young kids at home and something lightly resembling a career, I’m calling this a resounding success regardless of any improvement (or regression) in my game. Despite the success, I wanted to recap the year, look at my game by the numbers, and see how my game has changed if it has changed at all.
Fall Golf and Lowered Expectations
It is now halfway through November and I have managed to maintain a weekly golf schedule despite our Northwest courses resembling a Louisiana mud pit. And even though November rain in Vancouver is downright oppressive, it has mercifully been dumping its load during the week and clearing up on weekends, allowing me to get out on the course regularly. This being the first fall I’ve braved the weather in hopes of a lowered handicap, I thought I would make a few observations.