The Data on Breaking Barriers & Parallels of Self-Awareness in Golf and Business

How do I break 100, 90, 80, 70, 60?  By going through understanding progressions mentally and physically.  Breaking barriers is basically all mental once you understand what is physically needed to do so.  Please look forward to posts and videos about our mental state and strategies on the golf course!  What I want to talk about is the actual data behind breaking barriers, why they get broken.  Now I have a lot to learn and a lot of knowledge and understanding to gain, but through learning from smarter individuals than myself, I have come to an understanding of the numbers of how and why certain barriers are broken.

The key to breaking scoring barriers or thresholds is very simple.  Improve your bad shots.  As Ben Hogan says, "golf is a game of misses, you are only as good as your misses."

No matter your skill in the game all players who shoot a good round for their skill level all have one thing in common; their bad shots are better than normal.  What do I mean by that? For a tour player who shoots a round of 64 or 65, their bad shot hits the green 25-30 feet from the pin and they two-putt par. On the flip-side, a tour player who shoots a round of 74 or 75,  rather than hitting the green to 25-30 feet, their miss ends up in a bunker or in a tricky spot.

Why is this true? Let's take look at some simple stats and scenarios of a tour player and a bogey golfer.

The 100th ranked player on tour from will 2 putt or better 91% of the time on average from >25 feet and the 100th ranked player will make about 7% from 25-30 feet.  Quick mental math means that tour players only 3 putt 2% of the time from >25 feet.  So simply if a tour player can get on THE GREEN his chances of making par or better are high.  IF the player misses the green for his bad shot rather than hitting it to 25-30 feet, his chances of making par or better go down and his bogey percentage goes up.  A quick stat shows that the 100th ranked player on tour has a 60% scrambling percentage or they will get up and down 60% of the time.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, let's think of a bogey golfer.  This is the player who on a good round may shoot 85 but during a bad round on a tougher golf course than they may be used to, will struggle to break 100.  For a bogey golfer it can bit more volatile because golfers struggle in different areas, HOWEVER, most bogey golfers who play the correct tee boxes for their driver distance give away strokes within 125 yards.  Although many bogey golfers struggle in this area, they may struggle with slicing the ball, inconsistent contact, lack of distance, etc.

This is where understanding your game comes into play.  It takes self-awareness of your game to know what your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are.  Just like an entrepreneur who is building a business, they must be self-aware and perform a SWOT analysis.  Please, be honest with yourself.  Maybe you absolutely suck at bunker shots (Look for my video on bunker shots soon!). If that is the case, the way I see it you have two choices: either avoid that weakness as much as possible or adapt and learn to play from the beach.  Maybe you have a great idea for an app, but you don't know to develop and build it.  Again, the way I see it is that you have two choices: learn how to build an app or find a product developer who can do it for you. If you can't do it internally yourself, you may need to go external and hire or partner with someone who can.

Either way it takes self-awareness and an honest understanding of where we need to improve in order to break scoring barriers. 100% the point I am trying to make is that the bad needs to be better in order to break scoring barriers whether you are a tour player, a bogey golfer, an aspiring entrepreneur, or a successful business.

Please, please, PLEASE if you want to learn how to break scoring barriers, please contact me. 😊

Take a look at this data. This table shows the importance of better bad shots because simply getting on the green or fringe improves scoring for all players regardless of scoring ability.

The King

Are you a member of Arnie's Army? Who exactly was Mr. Arnold Palmer?

Yes he was a hall of fame golfer with an impressive résumé. A 7 time major champion, 3 Masters, 62 professional wins, successful businessman, a member of the Great Triumvirate, and a cool, refreshing drink to his name. Everyone recognizes that famous colorful umbrella.  Mr. Palmer along with Jack Nicklaus was also instrumental in the starting of the Golf Channel and the PGA Tour which helped shape the PGA Tour over the next 40+ years.

Mr. Palmer was also a man of extreme character. He was known to make everyone around him feel important and loved and he did it with a twinkle in his eye. He has said many times that he is grateful for fans that gave him everything because without them, he would have had nothing.

He was a trendsetter. He was the type of man who would take the time and write handwritten letters to players, especially those young in their careers after they achieved something. He even was his own pilot, flying to his tournaments, before it was popular to travel that way. He was aggressive, go for broke, and fearless. He lives by the repeating the "Hit it hard and find it" method.

He is old school. If you are around Mr. Palmer it is best to be clean shaven and take your hat off in the clubhouse. If you have a scruffy beard, he may ask if you missed a meeting this morning?

"What meeting Mr. Palmer?"
"The meeting with Mr. Gillette in the bathroom."

I never actually talked to the man, but I the first time I saw him was at the 3M Championship in MN, around the age of 8 and even as young as I was, I noticed that he had a different aura about him.

If we can so much as adopt a few of Arnold Palmer's characteristics, the world will be a better place.

Arnold Palmer was the embodiment of the Great American Dream, during the Great Depression, growing up through wars and tragedy. Palmer grew up in a working class family in Latrobe, PA where his father was both Pro and Superintendent at Latrobe CC. Palmer was taught to work hard by his father, to love people and to be happy by his mother.

After joining the military for 3 years, Palmer began his golf career and from there, the rest is history.

After his playing career, he began his he gave some of his good fortune back to the people. In 2009, he won the Congressional Medal unanimously. Some have said that it may be the only unanimous vote in the history of the Democratic and Republican parties.

The King's legacy will be etched into history with the greats that lived before him.

I am a member of Arnie's Army.

We are members Of Arnie's Army.

Long live Mr. Arnold Palmer, The King.

#ArnieWould

Videos

A short but important post!

I will be starting to post videos which will hopefully represent a good visual to some of my posts.

If you would like to send swings to me for some feedback on how to improve please send some videos my way!  Or come see me in Des Moines in about a month! 😀

I would prefer either a direct message on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook so the videos will be private between myself and the sender...

Stop Practicing Mindlessly, Start Mindful Practice

How often do you catch yourself at the end of the day, when you have some quiet time thinking, "Wow, I literally just went through the entire day, what happened?" Or how about you interacted with a customer or guest? This has been me so many times. I wish I had been mindful years ago in high school and earlier in college about where my time was actually going and I wish I had been mindful about the quality of the interactions I was involved in. It was just not something that came to mind. I did not fully understand what it really meant to be mindful.

Mindfulness is actually extremely simple, but in today's fast-paced convenience economy, many do not pay a thought towards this.  Being mindful simply means you think before you speak and act. One takes in their surroundings, including who, what, where, when, and why or the "Five Ws".  

Doing the little things like this enables us and puts us in the right frame of mind to make clear decisions and really execute.  Engaging a guest when they arrive by offering a nice greeting goes a long way. I always try and audit myself during interaction with everyone I meet and communicate with to see how next time, I may handle the situation differently or the same. How I decide is simply based on the quality of the interaction that took place.

Literally in a nutshell, being mindful means to listen, observe, and learn with an open and objective mind. There is no need to let emotions take over and cloud, rather we learn from mistakes, plan on how to do better next time, and forget it. I have found when I really break down a day both good and bad, it allows me to realize how my day was used. Did I actually work smart and hard or did I just waste the day, practicing things they didn't help...

How does this relate to golf you ask? If we cannot be mindful in business, at home with our families, or out in public, how can we expect to be mindful when we practice and play golf?  Instead of mindlessly beating balls, raking one after another repeatedly, take a second and try and understand what caused a certain shot to happen. Work smarter, not harder.

Only 2 hours a week to practice? No problem.

March is here and the spring golf season is right around the corner, and still, many golfers struggle wondering why they don't get any better at the game.  Many players believe that just because they are one year wiser and more experienced they should get better at golf.

Unfortunately, golf does not work this way.  Nor does that work in many other areas of life.  I can guarantee you that a surgeon did not become a surgeon by simply getting one lesson.  It takes hours and hours of practice and SUSTAINED EFFORT. Golfers often complain that they do not have the desire or the time of a professional to work on all aspects of their game.  They have their career, wife and kids, and their finances to worry about.  Many say that two or three hours a week is all they can muster to practice and are lucky to play twice a week.

If a golfer who consistently shoots in the 90s and 100s comes to me and says, I want lessons with you to help me lower my scores, what would my answer be?

"I will say are you sure you are ready to make this commitment? (Crickets will probably often follow this question). If you really want to get better then it will take more than one lesson from me. It will also require sustained effort on your behalf." And then I would hand him a wedge and say "Here is where we start."

BUT if the golfer truly does not have the time outside of the two or three hours a week, I will teach him three shots in our lesson; the chip, the pitch, and the bunker shot.  I will suggest that instead of hitting 3 range buckets per week, that he go to the chipping green and practice these three shots.

Many professionals and coaches have different ways of teaching short game shots but for golfers who do not have the time I believe these basics will go a long way.

How to play the chip: Setup close to the ball with the club fairly vertical, by playing the ball in the middle-back of the stance, grip down toward the steel, with the club SLIGHTLY leaning towards the target.  Have 60-70 percent of weight on left foot.  Next, with relaxed hands, turn the chest and arms back and through and brush the grass, letting the ball get in the way of the club.

Goal? To get the ball rolling onto the green and toward the cup as soon as possible.

How to play the pitch: Similar to the chip, but utilizing more loft and a longer arm swing.  Setup to the ball with the ball in the middle of the stance to a touch forward (Ideally, the bottom of the swing). Again with relaxed hands, turn the chest and arms back and through and brush the grass, letting the ball get in the way.

Goal? To fly the ball in the air over and beyond obstacles such as rough, fairway, or bunkers and onto the green and then the ball will bounce and roll to the cup.

How to play the bunker shot: Setup with a wide stance and dig the feet in for balance, with your hands lower to the ground than normal and the club face open.  We DO NOT want the club vertical like we do with the chip shot, actually the opposite.  Take a long, fluid swing, hitting the sand about an inch or two behind the ball and watch it soar onto the green. 😄

Goal? To get the ball out of the bunker on the first shot EVERY TIME, preferably on the green!


For golfers who only have a couple hours to practice per week, take those few hours and develop these three shots.  Practice these shots from all lies and experiment with opening the face of your wedge. This will develop the touch and feel that is required to handle more difficult shots you will undoubtedly face on the golf course.  I believe 100% golfers will be surprised at the feel and creativity that will be born even from just a couple hours of practice if you work on these three shots.


"Small changes eventually add up to huge results"