It brings me great pleasure to read today's comment from a long time Surgite, Amos. He sent in a wonderful story about the best round of golf he's ever played. The letter was actually addressed to all of you, which is why I wanted to share it. I also wanted to focus on a particular part of Amos' game that I think everyone can learn from. It has to do with keeping stats and setting goals for yourself.
Surge Nation:Yeah!! After nearly 50 years of trying, I finally broke 80 with a 41+38=79. Wow! And on a cool, but sunny day also. Maybe I should welcome the ladies more often. We had a ladies tournament on Monday - 80 women, shotgun start so the course was tied up all morning and I couldn't play in the afternoon.However, this morning, I was the "first one on the course" and no one behind me for 4 or 5 holes at least. The course was in near perfect condition, left over from the tournament I am sure. The main difference between this round and recent ones was the old "Bullseye" putter lived up to its name! Six, eight, and even fifteen foot putts were falling in like twelve inch gimmes. I finally would up with 12 one putt greens and nothing worse than bogey for the entire round. I have never done that before either. Driving accuracy was down a little (10 of 14 fairways with a 167 yard average drive). At #12, it finally warmed up enough to let me remove my sweater. I hit all of the remaining fairways with a couple of drives in the "over 180 yard" range. Only got two GIRs, both on par 3's on the back nine for a par and a birdie.I didn't realize it until after the round but I played a nine hole stretch in 1 under par. I have always heard "it is hard to follow a low round with another one." Tomorrow we shall see! But it sure does feel good! I may not get down from the chandeliers for several hours yet!Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG and good things will happen! Amos
As I said, Amos has been with me for quite some time and is very knowledgable about the Peak Performance Golf Swing. Amos came to one of my golf schools in Vegas and he's very big into keeping his stats so he can keep track of what he does round by round. He called shooting 79 his "bucket list achievement" which is another indication he likes to keep track of things!
The reason why I decided to read this other than the feel good nature of the story is because of these tremendous stats that Amos keeps. The importance of stat keeping not only tells you what you're doing well but also what you need to work on. The main point here is to keep stats because it can only help your game. You're only as strong as your weakest link so if any part of your game is off, the only way to know it is to track it in detail over time.
I've been told that when Annika Sorenstam played she would spend hours calculating her own stats after a round. This was in addition to the stats that the LPGA Tour already provided. That's probably because she wanted even more detail of her round, shot by shot. Everytime I play, I'm running through the stats in my head from my round because that's how I know where I'm at. Even when I'm driving home, I'm thinking about the round and what I did right or wrong. It's like keeping track of your check book so you know how much money you have!
Hopefully all of you have a bucket list or certain goals that you're working towards in golf. Congratulations to Amos and to all of you that are playing good golf and keeping good stats. With the new year approaching, let's make a resolution to keep better stats and work towards new goals. Here's to better golf in 2013!
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Write that down
Great info Surge
Amos has always inspired me with his records keeping. I now keep track of fairways hit, GIR, number of putts on each hole, and make notes about the distance to pin, conditions, club used, and sometimes painfully the results of each shot. It helps me to know if I need to spend more time on the short game, putting, driver, or usually the approach game. They say perfect practice makes perfect. I think it is always helpful to know how I need to divide up my practice time.
I don't know that I will ever be as detailed as Amos, but he sure got me headed in the right direction a long time ago.
Amos, congrats on being the topic for today's video. You deserve it. And, congrats on an awesome round. The only way I will ever shoot my age is I live longer than I should.
Dick
Keeping Stats
I discovered this product a couple years ago. It is available through many on line sites including Amazon and Ebay. It is a good low cost system for those who are into cataloging their stats.
http://www.innovagolf.com/golfstatbook.html
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=g+stats&_sacat=382&_from=R40
http://www.amazon.com/Stats-Statistics-System-Track-Improve/dp/B001B6CH80
Thanks for those
links Terry. I go through phases where I am consistently keeping stats and then weeks and months where I'm just happy to be playing at all. The last few months have been more like the later because of my shoulder rotor cuff challenges. Tomorrow I have an appointment with a orthopedic doctor. We'll go over my mri's and x rays and see what his opinion is. Sure hope to avoid surgery. It'll be what it is. Time will tell. I don't care for new years resolutions, never did. Most of my life commitments are lifestyles not plans for a coming year. I am very grateful for all I have and the measure of health and happiness I am blessed with though. Take nothing for granted. Goals? Health, life to the fullest that includes golf and family. The rest as they say is gravy:)
My dear old Dad told me life was peaks and valleys. True.
One way or another I expect I'll get the shoulder(s) fixed and when I once again am able to play and practice with regularity I will keep stats and work at being the short game wizard and one putt wonder that Amos is.
Almost
They say that "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades". Too bad it doesn't mean much in golf. Ha ha!
I ALMOST had eagles on consecutive holes today (haven't done that in quite a while). Barely lipped out a 10 foot eagle putt on the first one, and had a 2 inch putt on the next hole for eagle. Which was another ALMOST. ALMOST a double eagle (which I have never had).
P.S. I did have consecutive eagles in the Shamble we played on Saturday, where we take the team's best tee shot and play our own balls from there. Neither of the tee shots were mine though. Both were my son's tee shots. I chipped one in from 50 yards on the first one (a par 4) and made a 40 foot putt on the next hole after a 187 yard second shot (on a par 5) for 2 eagles for the team. Didn't mean much individually but won the money for the team.
Still a lot of fun
Steve
Sounds like you are getting to play a bunch of golf pal. Sounds like a lot of fun. Glad you hitting some good shots and getting to spend some time with that boy of yours.
We dodged the bullet on this last weather thing, was west of us and then went up and over us. Still saying we might get some Christmas week.
Dick
Golf Weather
We were pretty lucky the last couple of days. The weather was really good for December and Mike was off work for 2 days and I am done with school until January so we played a little golf.
I haven't watched the weather but I heard somebody say that it's supposed to get worse. Was nice while it lasted for a while though.
Golf fun
We are pretty much shut down here in Utah. Lots of snow and very cold. They say we're getting down to about 5* tonite. Time to dig out all the Surge videos and relearn everything I forgot this season. Good to hear from you. Take care my friend. R2
Ski time in Utah
About 20 of us are renting a cabin up at Brian Head in Southern Utah in January.
Ski trip with family. Always a good time. We go every year, normally several times. Cold here in Las Vegas but still getting some weekly golf:) suppose to go down to 32 tonight.
Thanks for the fun, Surge
As the weather turns nasty in my area of the U.S. , I've finally had time to reflect on my golf season and one important stat. My educated (or uneducated) guess of my total rounds for 2012 was over 150. 98% walking. During my working years, from 20-55 yrs old, I guessed I had played about a total of 130 rds . Like most of us, family / work had kept that total down a bit. I credit Don's teachings to allow me to play, pain free mind you, more rounds of golf in 2012 than all of the 35 years of my working life. I absolutely credit Don for this. Like most of us that played sports, I do have a couple of old injuries to deal with. My arthritic right knee seems to be hanging in there, if you know what I mean. Thanks to Don and his advice on posture, flared feet and everything really, I'm ready for next year to do it again!