Elite amateurs- what seperates the men from the boys?

MacMia · September 17, 2009

[quote name='nitefisher111' post='1949589' date='Sep 14 2009, 11:04 AM']To the OP, a lot of times in these types of threads, everyone always falls back to a weak short-game as a limiting factor. You can't be a great player without an above average short game, but you also can't be a great player if you don't have an above average long game.

Take an honest assessment of your current game, or have a friend do it for you. You have a nice index, but to compete on the level you want to, it needs to be lower.

I was in a fairly similar situation and I spent a lot of time working on the short game, but could never quite get over the hump. It became apparent the more I played with today's really good players, that I wasn't nearly as good of a ball striker as I thought I was.

The thing I worked the hardest on was learning to be a better drvier of the golf ball. This kind of goes against the saying that you drive for show, putt for dough but improving this facet of my game (getting longer and trying to eliminate a 2 way miss) paid bigger dividends than any other area for me.[/quote]

I agree with this post- driving sets the table and eliminating one side of the course is key. The biggest correlation with lower scores is GIR and that's hard to do if you are a mediocre driver of the ball, which I am. This is a major area of focus for me

Sean2 · September 17, 2009

I'm 54 and work my butt off to play this game well. My short-game is very good, however, I don't hit the driver a long way and as a result I don't hit nearly as many greens as I need to because I am hitting a much longer club on my approach than anyone else.

Yes, short-game is important (I get up and down a lot), but if you can't get your tee ball out there it's a real handicap, much to my enduring frustration.

Rolex · September 17, 2009

Men have learned how to spell the word "separate" correctly?

Big Ben · September 17, 2009

My golf partner is a Hooters and Tar Heel tour guy and the difference is no real weaknesses in any one place in the game; he can dumb up a round and make an even par 70 look like my 77. I'm playing to around your number as well but these guys are simply a notch better unfortunitely for both us! BB

caller · September 17, 2009

I say all aspect of game is way better than normal.

I never met a elite that is shorter from the tee than other low to mid hanidcappers.

Their approach shots are more accurate and have pressure off for next putting

No matter how good their putting is, if their approach leaves them long distance to hole, it gets to them.

Having all aspect of game well worked out gets them consistancy that they have.

In order to do this, yes they put more time on practicing than others. No doubt about it.

AcesAZ · September 17, 2009

At first I thought the biggest difference was short game and mental game, but there are many ways to skin a cat. I played with a former mini tour player a few days ago and having a talk after hes actually the opposite of what I think alot are. He had a great long game but if he missed a green it was probably a bogie. He even said himself he has a very bad shortgame but his longame was PGA tour quality. He couldnt make it because he couldnt get up and down enough, even though he could shoot 20 under in a 3 day tourney. I guess the bottom line is there are many different ways to get it in the hole, find out what your greatest weakness is and work on it.