For me personally, one of the reasons that club golfers don’t improve at the rate they would like has a lot to do with them having somewhat unrealistic expectations as to how good they should or should not be. One of the issues that can feed this is watching the PGA Tour golf on TV, we for get sometimes that on a Sunday afternoon we are watching the best 1% of the best 1% of golfers on the planet playing their best, it makes for great TV, what you are not (or rarely) going to see is the player who is struggling to make the halfway cut on a Friday afternoon, it just doesn’t make for good viewing. So I have below put a few misconceptions that golfers have regarding just how good the best players in the world are.
THEY HIT EVERY GREEN IN REGULATION
Just not true, in face its not even close, on average a tour player will hit 12 greens in regulation a round-and this number alone is a big predictor in the standard of player, quite simply if you want to lower your scores you need to hit more greens in regulation. To do that stop aiming for the flag, instead aim for the centre of the green, and play the yardage that takes you to the back half of the green.
THEY NEVER MISS A PUTT
Again, its just not true, some numbers to be aware of regarding putting, the first and probably most staggering is that from 8 feet, a tour pro will on average hole out 50% of the time, now read that again. And once outside of 20 feet, a tour pro will have the same number of three putts as one putts. Where the tour pro is very good however is on long putts, in face when a 3 putt is made with a scratch handicap golfer the average length of the 2nd putt is 4.5 feet, compare that to a 20 handicap golfer whose length of 2nd putt when they 3 putt is 9.2 feet. You must practice putts outside of 25 feet, and your aim is not to hole the putt but to lay the ball as close as possible to give yourself the shortest second putt.
THEY NEVER MISS A GREEN WITH A WEDGE
So lets go with a shot to the green of 110 yards, a golfer whose handicap falls between 5 and 10 on average hits this shot 25 feet from the flag, a golfer whose handicap falls between 10 and 19 will hit this shot on average 34 feet from the flag, a tour pro from 110 yards? they hit it to 16 feet. probably not as good as you were thinking, in face for the majority of golfers from 110 yards, if you manage to hit the green first shot, I would class that as a good shot. You must practice wedge shots every time you visit the range, but, something to consider, from 10-40 yards you will play on average per round 13 shots from this distance (not including putting) whereas from 50 yards to 110 yards you will only play 3 shots in this distance per round, so practice wisely!!
