We had Coach Will Robins teach me his scoring method. Then my friend who's a 16 handicap.
And everyone said we needed a worse golfer. So we did it. We got Gabe... a guy who's played golf maybe 10 times in his entire life... and gave Will 6 holes to coach him up.
Here are the three lessons we learned from each video.
Video 1
Every hole is two games. Game one... get inside 100 yards in regulation. Game two... get down in three from there. You write check marks on the scorecard. Not scores. Check marks. Guarantee you make a bogey on every hole at worst.
There are four gears. Inside 100 is first. Inside 50 is second. Inside 25 is third. On the green is fourth. Will asked me from 230 out... "10 shots, how many inside 25 yards?" I said 10 out of 10. Then I hit it 75 yards offline. We more often than not take on too aggressive of shots.
Stop looking at your score. Three under through seven? Your brain goes "don't mess this up." Six over? You're pissed. The numbers never help. Just go find another check mark.
Video 2
Scott aimed 8 feet right of the flag from 135 out. Will stopped him. That's an aggressive target with a passive swing. Flip it. Aim 30 feet right of trouble. Rip it. Scott's miss went 30 yards right of his target... and he was in a perfect spot to score.
Most people think golf is mental. It's not. It's emotional. Anxious, tight, nervous, angry, frustrated... those aren't thoughts. Those are feelings. The scoring method gets you calm by removing the decisions that create tension.
Lag putting covers up all the sins. Most of us never practice lag putting. Will had him do eyes-on-the-hole drills right on the course. Look and react. Like throwing a ball.
Video 3 (Gabe, beginner)
Will didn't teach positions or mechanics. One thing. Hold your follow-through for three seconds. Gabe's best shot came at "20% effort." It went further than anything he'd hit all round.
Will pulled half the clubs out of his bag. "They sell you 14 clubs, but I don't need powder skis the first time I go skiing." Learn with less and then earn the rest.
Gabe kept chunking chips. Will handed him a putter from 40 yards out. He almost holed one. If you can putt it, putt it.
โ โ๐ช LKD nailed his latest video on chipping strategy. Fantastic cheat sheet and couldn't agree more with every rule!
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๐ If you enjoy my visits to top coaches the latest St Andre video with Hannah and Jason Baile was fantastic. Idk what software Jason is using but I need to find out!
I have a new life goal of trying to win a national open. I'm excited to see where it takes me.
Nothing on the calendar yet for that but few things I'm working on. โ
There is one national open here in the US that I'm going to go try this summer.
The U.S. Speed Golf Open
I've been looking into it and chatting with Scott Dawley, who had the world record for a while and runs the US Speed Golf organization, and it is super interesting!
I've enjoyed digging into the new strategy, different way to play golf. And hey getting into better shape and running more is probably something I should do.
I'm going to film the whole adventure. It'll probably drop in the late summer.
Pumped about it.
โ โ -Cordie
๐ If you haven't grabbed The Scoring Edge yet... it's 119 pages of drills, strategies, and frameworks from 12 coaches including Scott Fawcett, Mark Blackburn, and Ralph Bauer. Everything we've learned from filming with these guys, in one book. Grab it on Amazon.โ โ ๐ฅ Follow on Youtube to catch the latest videos. โ
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