Planning Works! Who knew?!
Planning for success is definitely a thing… Welcome to 54 to Scratch where I talk about my journey into becoming something resembling a golfer.
This week, I had an epiphany thanks to an Imagine Golf lesson, “The PGA Championship Plan” from the “Rory’s Glory” series. This lesson focused on a strategy Rory employed to win one of his may championships.
Essentially, there was a storm delay to the third day, meaning that Rory had to play around half that day’s round on the final day along with the actual final round itself. The thing is that for those that hadn’t started day 3 yet, the conditions on day 4 were more favourable.
Rory knowing this calculated that to win he would need to hit a certain score and planned out his round accordingly. He inevitably won despite there being a lot of noise around Poulter essentially making a game of it thanks to those favourable conditions. He won simply because he stuck to that plan.
So it got me thinking, how could I apply this to my own game. I’ve been saying to Tom for a while that I feel that one of my biggest weaknesses is course management. I just seem to make poor decisions all the time.
This lesson made me think differently about how I could approach the game. We had decided to play Lydd this week for a change of scenery and that course has been something of a nemesis for me, with me having played there 9 times and not breaking 100.
So I made a plan. I keep a track of my scores at courses I play regularly, so I can tell which holes I do better on and which ones I don’t. To break 100 at Lydd requires a score of 28 over par. So in other words, I could double bogey 10 holes and bogey the rest.
I mapped out the round and gave myself 2 shots on those holes that I have historically scored poorly on.
Doing this made me really confident of breaking 100, as it helped me to visualise doing so, but I wouldn’t say I was that confident while we waited to tee off.
Going into this game, my play around and on the green had left quite a lot to be desired, so I had a worry that even if I got onto the greens on plan, my putting might let me down - something that I never thought I would be saying until we got to winter!
So - our tee time arrives and its the Par 4 first. It’s probably the easiest par 4 on the course and a really nice warmup - as long as you stay right. My tee shot drive goes straight down the middle onto the fairway. Great start! My second shot is not so good. I need to use my 7 iron to get onto the green but fluff the shot, thinning a pull to about 50 yards short of the pin.
However, I say to myself and anyone who is listening that that’s fine - plan is to play the hole as a 5 anyway. I chip on and 2 putt, which isn’t great but my mentality is that the plan ewas a 5 anyway, so all is good.
Second hole, similar happens. Tee shot goes onto the fairway, second shot is thinned but ends up in a fairway bunker on the left. I have to play out of the bunker short, so it takes me 4 overall to get on the green. Another 2 putts leaves me with a 6 on a par 4. However, this was to plan - I had intended before the hole began on taking 6 shots, so I came off feeling positive.
Unfortunately, the same thing happened again on the next hole. The 3rd is a Par 5 dog leg left with water down the left side. I drove the fairway, but topped my second shot into the water. This meant I didn’t get onto the green until my 5th shot, which was a lovely 5 iron that stopped almost dead about 7 feet away from the pin. 2 putts later and I was 1 over plan.
The next hole has been a tough one historically for me, however, I had only given myself an extra shot. For some reason though, this completely changed my mentality. I knew that to make that score, I would be fine and so was quite relaxed going to the tee. I drove the fairway again and then played a lovely hybrid up onto the green, leaving me with over 25 foot to the pin for birdie.
I two putted but got a par - 1 under plan and bringing me back on track!
The next 2 holes the same thing happened, with me ending up in another bunker. I missed the fairway to the right and had to lay up due to the distance to the green, however my 3rd shot then went into the bunker. Although I got out fine, I didn’t quite make the green so took another 3 to hole out.
I bounced back on the next hole though, which was a theme for the round overall.
I hit target on the 2 holes, which included a complete rethink on the 8th. Normally I take a driver to get to the corner, but then lose a ball by slicing or over hitting into the water. I gave myself 2 shots to get to the corner, so decided to use a 5 iron on the tee and then PW’d it to the corner.
Although this meant that I ended up eventually taking 5 to get to the green, I 1 putted to finish on 6 - to plan.
I rounded out my best ever 9 at Lydd with a 5, again 1 ahead of plan, despite my worst drive of the day where I think my Driver forgot itself and thought it was a pitching wedge… Scrambling from another hole’s fairway was fun!
What this meant was that I finished the back 9 1 under plan.
Starting the back 9, I got a little lucky with my tee shot as it went short but thankfully carried a bunker, but only just! Pitching on and 2 putting again to target took me onto another hole that sometimes proves to be a problem for me.
The 11th is quite a long dogleg right Par 4 with an elevated tee. Anything slightly right goes into deep rough, straight can go in fairway bunkers and left tends to be ok. Not great as someone who naturally plays down the right hand side of a course…
I sliced my drive to the right and ended up on a ridge, in the deep rough. Thankfully, the lie was actually ok, so I decided to take my hybrid to it, got enough on it to get it over all the features and another hybrid to the elevated green got me to the back of the green. A duffed first chip meant that I ended on a 6, but still to plan so all was ok.
So onto another hole that can be a challenge for me. The 12th has water at around the distance that a weaker drive for me will land. A good drive gets over, but I decided to play it safe and play a 5 iron onto the fairway and then hybrid it up the hole. This decision paid off and I got a 5, which was another shot ahead of plan.
The 13th is the hardest hole on the course and has a similar scenario with water designed to catch a drive that goes to the right. I decided to play a 5 iron again, followed by a hybrid and a 9 iron to get on the green for a 2 putt. Another hole to plan.
The 14th didn’t go that well, with me 3 putting from quite close but I was still ahead going into the next hole.
Another solid drive and not so solid second shot meant that I needed to take 4 to get on the green, but 2 putts left me leaving the final par 5 with a 6 - another hole to plan.
The 16th was a big surprise. Another hole that I tend to lose a ball on, I decided to stick with what I normally do as overall I’d been driving well. I ended up slicing quite a bit and onto another fairway once again, about 190 yards away from the hole.
This was also a blind approach, but a passing member told me that a 4 iron would probably get me to the green from there, so I used my Hybrid and hoped for the best. As I approached the green, I could see my ball short of the green but safe!
I ended up chipping to within a foot to walk off with a par - 2 shots ahead of target!
This meant that as I went into the final 2 holes, I was 3 under target, so on track to hit 96. I think I knew I was on a good score and so got a little complacent. My drive on the 17th was fine, but my second shot was a thinned, sliced Hybrid into the heavy rough. I had to just get it out of there, advancing about 20 yards.
All of this meant that it took me 5 shots to get to the green and 2 putts left me with a seven.
Still, 2 under target so all was well!
The next hole was fine for the first 2 shots. Great drive to fairway, second hybrid left me about 80 yards away from the green, but my 3rd shot I was thinking ab out how nice it would be to finish with a par and duffed the shot. However, all was fine as I only needed a 6 to be on target for the hole. I chipped on, leaving myself with quite a hard 10 foot putt due to the slope of the green. I ended up 3 putting.
However, any negativity about that moment evaporated when I realised that I had done it! I had finally broken 100 on the hardest course I have played to date. This all came down to planning the round and I have already planned my next round at Kingsnorth out where I’ll be trying to break 85!
To say I was buzzing probably doesn’t do it justice. I’ve broken 90 at Kingsnorth, but given that that is a short course, it’s nice to be able to say I’ve done broken 100 on a longer course!
I’ll be playing Kingsnorth this week I imagine, so come back next week to see if I manage to break 85 or not!
Keep golfing!
Gear Check
Driver - Callaway Rogue ST
Irons - Taylormade Stealth
Wedges - Taylormade Hi-Toe 52, 56, 60
Putter - Scotty Cameron Squareback
Shoes - Adidas Tour 360 22
