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WHAT DETERMINES A GOOD SHOT?
T LAVAN SHOEMAKER
Professional Champion
 
228 Views    16 Replies    2 Likes   I like it!
As you can see I have gathered enough data to determine both the percentage of each type of shot hit per round as well as how many of those were "good" shots. I use that to guide my practice by which shots I am most likely to hit and which type I hit best and worst.

So the question is the ambiguous zone:

Is it only the result, rub of the green included, that determines a shot's thumbs up or down, or is it the execution?

If you hit a drive that didn't come off anything like you envisioned, but hit's the edge of the cart path which kicks it back into the fairway and boosts the yardage to your own "bomber" range, is it the resulting hit fairway at 280 a good shot? And then what about the drive that you stripe down the center of the fairway and it hits a sprinkler head on the fly at 250 yards ricocheting into the rough and coming to rest only 180 yards off the tee?

Neither seems really "fair" but given that golf isn't exactly a "fair" game, is it only the resulting "stat" or one's ability to execute the shot in a desired fashion that one should use a measure?
GolfPractice.jpg
armygrunt47
Professional Champion
 
# 1    8/2/2012 8:06:45 AM   
Personally, a good shot is a one that goes pretty close to where I intend for it to go and leaves me with a chance to hit the ball again. Anything


cogolfer1
LowIndex
 
# 2    8/2/2012 8:25:28 AM   

Personally, a good shot is a one that goes pretty close to where I intend for it to go and leaves me with a chance to hit the ball again. Anything


Amen


Jude Cifone
Professional Champion
 
# 3    8/2/2012 8:27:58 AM   

Personally, a good shot is a one that goes pretty close to where I intend for it to go and leaves me with a chance to hit the ball again. Anything



I agree!!...to some extent, but we all know it could land close to one's intended target but the way it was struck doesn't always feel like a good shot!


Shawn Overley
Professional Champion
 
# 4    8/2/2012 8:41:49 AM   
How often are you hitting cart paths and sprinklers?

Execution has to be considered as part of the good or bad shot determination. I recently had a round where I hit fairways on 3 straight hole without making a "good" swing. A tree spit one out, I popped one up and got a lucky kick on one. Statistically, that is about 20% added to my fairways hit. If I gauged practice by stats alone, I may spend less time on my driver because I hit 65% of fairways instead of 45%. I feel what I am doing well and what needs work.

If you like to gauge your sessions on statistics, the lucky and unlucky bounces will even out over a large enough sample. The results you see should be a fairly accurate picture of what you need to work on.


Duckhunter
Legend
 
# 5    8/2/2012 8:49:07 AM   

Personally, a good shot is a one that goes pretty close to where I intend for it to go and leaves me with a chance to hit the ball again. Anything


I think the same thing. it maybe only a 10 yard shot from out of trouble to get the ball back in play that was a good shot or it be 300+ drive in the fairway or 150 yard shot that is 3 feet from the hole. all would be good shots.


T LAVAN SHOEMAKER
Professional Champion
 
# 6    8/2/2012 8:59:34 AM   

Personally, a good shot is a one that goes pretty close to where I intend for it to go and leaves me with a chance to hit the ball again. Anything


I can sooo relate to that. The mental recovery time from a poorly hit shot is almost zero when you find it high and dry and really playable. Freakin' Christmas morning like a child! hehe


T LAVAN SHOEMAKER
Professional Champion
 
# 7    8/2/2012 9:14:46 AM   
My personal favorite? A 10 foot putt for bogey! I've gotten to that place where anything above bogey yanks my chain. I think I am just as elated with a grinding putt for bogey as I am a birdie.

So far what I'm hearing is, all that really matters in the course of keeping stats, is where the ball ends up. Using that as the "rule of determination," the rubs will help and hurt about equally over time. My stats go back maybe 5 or 6 years now. I've managed to build my stats into a custom score card that I have made for all of the courses that I play regularly. I just discovered one day that I was having this mental discussion about if a shot should be labeled up or down. I don't need to add that to what I'm already thinking about when I'm trying to "play." That just makes it cut and dried. Where the ball ends up is how you call the shot.


Steve Bigtazz Rayburn
Professional Champion
 
# 8    8/2/2012 9:45:57 AM   
I agree, any shot either from me or the golf gods that keeps it in play
is a good one.


OtterMan08
Legend
 
# 9    8/2/2012 10:29:37 AM   
I always look at a shot that goes where I want it and gets there how I want it, as a good shot. Maybe you need a separate category for "good shot/bad break" and "bad shot/good break". While I sometimes get a nice bounce off a tree back into the fairway, I'd have a difficult time calling it a good shot. Unless of course I was actually going for the bank shot...


njgolfer
Legend
 
# 10    8/2/2012 10:37:42 AM   

Personally, a good shot is a one that goes pretty close to where I intend for it to go and leaves me with a chance to hit the ball again. Anything


I concur. What really gets me going is when I am playing a tight tree lined fairway and I aim my 3 wood with that little draw right down the right hand side of those trees and the ball lands right center cut with a nice roll.


ngm0112
Professional Champion
 
# 11    8/2/2012 11:01:38 AM   
It's a good shot every time I hit it and don't top it.


T LAVAN SHOEMAKER
Professional Champion
 
# 12    8/2/2012 6:21:06 PM   

For me a good shot in golf is the same as a good shot in billiards. You gotta call your shot for it to be "good".



...and this is the thought process that inspired me to ask the question. I THINK like you do, but, I can't have this conversation with myself while I'm trying to actually PLAY THE GAME and seamlessly gather my data. I think I am agreeing with the thought that if I call it where it lies, then the both the bad rubs and good rubs with cancel each other out.


aphia1
Professional Champion
 
# 13    8/2/2012 7:57:45 PM   
Good shot for me is when I hit the exact shot I intend to hit (shape or direction), regardless of a bad break here or there. Of course, I never intend to hit a ball out of bounds. Sometimes, I say it out loud before I hit when playing practice rounds with buddies. Now a BAD shot is when you get to a wide open fairway and think, just hit it (with no specific target planned) and that is EXACTLY where you hit it no where in particular.


Mark Simmons
Legend
 
# 14    8/3/2012 1:10:59 AM   
Stats are about what is. While a good or bad shot has more to do with my performance; those things (and only those things) I can control. It's important to understand they are two different things.

Example: Yesterday I came up to a 276 yard par 4. Only a slight dogleg, so it is drivable and I went for it. Hit it right on line to split the green. Ball hits the ground 15 yards short of the green. Perfect placement. . .and the ball inexplicably jumps right and comes to rest in the rough right of the green. Stat-wise this is a missed FIR. Was it a 'good shot'? You bet it was!


BUCKNUT
Legend
 
# 15    8/3/2012 11:30:40 AM   
Anyshot that goes in the hole.........from 3" to 200 yards out, off the oak tree, 3 hops off the cart path and in. If it's in it's good to me! Doesn't matter to me what it looks like, it looks the same on the scorecard to me.