Issue No. 1: Fine Shot, Bad Spot

Most golfers think they're stuck because they don't strike it well enough. Hit it purer, shoot lower.

I believed that too, right up until I went back through last week's card and noticed my worst holes didn't start with bad swings. They started with good ones that finished in the wrong place. If you can already play a little and you've plateaued, I'd bet you're doing the same thing and blaming the wrong part of your game.

The number on the card is written by where the ball finishes, not by how the swing felt. Call it the safe miss: the side of trouble your normal miss can land on without ending the hole.

You've seen the professional version. Final round of the 2019 Masters, the 12th. Molinari had the lead and flew it into the creek. Finau, same. Koepka too. Poulter, water. A short par 3 they could all reach with a smooth 9-iron, and the leaders went at a flag with no safe way to hold it. Tiger aimed at the middle of the green, well left of the pin, two-putted, and walked to 13 with the tournament in front of him. He said afterward he knew his 9-iron couldn't cover the flag, so he played left.

The talent wasn't the story on that hole. The decision was. He gave up the aggressive number for a shot that couldn't hurt him, and he made that call before he swung. That part is free. It doesn't take clubhead speed. It takes knowing where your miss goes.

The rule, and it's the whole issue: play for the miss you can live with, not the shot you're hoping for.

You don't need range time for this, which is good, because most of us don't have much. It's one move on the course and one after.

Before every shot where trouble is real, name your safe miss: the one you could live with even off a slightly mediocre swing. If the trouble is left, favor the right side and accept the longer putt. Most of us aim at the flag and hope. Aim at the safe miss and let the good shot be a bonus.

Then do the part almost nobody does. After the round, before you forget the holes, go through your card and sort every dropped shot into two piles: genuine bad swing, or fine shot in a bad spot. That's the whole audit. You'll find out fast which pile is actually costing you, and I'd bet it's not the one you complain about in the parking lot.

Go pull your own card from last week. I'd bet at least one blown hole wasn't a bad swing. It was a good shot that finished in the wrong spot. Mine did it three times in one round, and I'm not going to ask you to run a test I didn't run myself.

I didn't track putts or penalties cleanly this round, so don't expect a tidy strokes-gained breakdown. Just the holes, as they actually went.

Nine: one of my better drives of the day, and it finished a yard into the rough behind the one tree that mattered. Punched out sideways, had about 110 in for my third, didn't get up and down. Bogey—a 5 on a par 4 that had nothing to do with the swing that started the hole.

Seven: a 5-iron that flew the green when the wind helped more than I gave it credit for. Fine swing, wrong number, and being long left me short-sided with no real up-and-down.

Sixteen: overcooked a 6-iron from 185, finished on the left side of the green but 60 feet from the hole. First putt came up 5 or 6 feet short, missed the comebacker. Green in regulation, and I still gave a shot back.

Eighteen is where my own idea breaks, and I'd rather admit it than hide it. Pulled driver left, lost the ball, took the drop. That wasn't position. That was just a bad swing at the worst time. Not every hole fits the pattern. Yours won't either, every time.

But three of four did. It came down to where the ball finished, and whether I'd thought about that before I pulled the club.

Vortex sent me their new Anarch+ to try out. I haven't put enough rounds on it for a real verdict yet, but the image stabilization already made a real difference: steadier picture, easier to find and hold the flag.

Full read once it's actually been leaned on for something that matters. For now, it's in the bag.

Idea: The safe miss. Your score is set by where the ball finishes, not by how the swing felt.

Rule: Play for the miss you can live with, not the shot you're hoping for.

This week: Name your safe miss before every real-trouble shot. After the round, sort your dropped shots into two piles: bad swing, or fine shot in a bad spot.

My card: Three of four bad holes were fine shots in bad spots. One was just a bad swing.

Hit reply and tell me which pile your last three blow-up holes fall in. I read every one.

Play well,
Connor