Droppin' Strokes: The Beginning

I'm a golfer. I love the game and would play every day if I could. The only problem is I live in Canada… So, while I wait for my local courses to open, I’m starting this blog as I kick back and watch Happy Gilmore (my annual tradition at the start of the season).

I’m writing this blog to lay things out for myself and track my progress for the year. And, as a bonus, I thought that maybe - just maybe - if it works for me it could work for you.

A Bit About Me

I started golfing when I was 13. My dad bought me my first set of clubs for my birthday about a month after Mike Weir won the Masters and whenever I was at his place for the weekend we were out on the course. For my next birthday, he got me a membership at a course close to home so I could get more practice with my friends.

The next summer I got my first job working at a local mini-golf and ice cream parlour and the following year I began a job at a big-boy golf course and abused the hell out of my golfing privileges. Over the years since then, with a break during some of my college years, I continued to work in the golf industry for 11 years. And, after looking back at all of this, it's amazing that I’m not a better golfer.

I’m not a bad golfer - most people see my overall swing and then call me a sandbagger after learning my index - but a few things are holding me back…

My Roadmap to Single Digits

Looking at my strokes gained data from Shot Scope over the past two seasons paints a pretty clear picture of what’s keeping me from getting below a 10 index: putting and approaches.

Above: My 2022 Strokes Gained compared to a 10 index. From Shot Scope dashboard.

Putting is obviously the lowest-hanging fruit and is luckily something I can start working on while I wait impatiently for the driving ranges to open. I always thought that I was a decent putter - last year I averaged 29.7 putts per round. But, looking deeper at my putting, I was able to see where my putting has failed me.

As for my approaches, I’m going to be focusing on smarter target selection and focusing on improving my ball striking. I also went and replaced my iron and wedge shafts this offseason so here’s hoping these might help me squeeze out a little more consistency in my game.

What is This Blog Going to Be About?

Throughout my blog, I’ll be going through these topics in more depth and other topics that I’ll be using to help lower my scores. Course management, the mental aspect of golf as well as anything else I happen to come across will be covered here as well.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert by any means. But, I will be taking some of my favourite ideas, applying them to my golf game and documenting my progress along the way. I'll be sure to tag my favourite resources so you can get the info from them directly as well, and not just how I'll be applying it to my game. Hopefully, I nail it and see the strokes fly off. Regardless of if I do or not I’m hoping that this blog will be helpful to myself for tracking my progress and to any potential readers out there as well. There's a lot of info out there when it comes to golf and most of it won't fit every single golfer. I'm going to be taking those topics listed above and going into more depth on what my plan is to improve, tracking that progress, and letting you all know if I've managed to make any improvements.

Course management, the mental aspect of golf as well as anything else I happen to come across that I happen to like will be covered here as well. From time to time I might also offer up the occasional idea or two from my time working in the golf industry that might seem relevant - I have some pretty strong opinions on the pace of play.

Obviously, I am just starting out with this blog so the pickings are pretty slim right now but I hope to get a few more posts out before I can hit the course to start this thing off right (unless, by some miracle, I wake up to no snow outside tomorrow morning). If you happen to have any thoughts, questions or ideas for something you'd like to see please let me know in the comments below or find me on my social media channels.

Stay tuned for more shortly and remember, more than anything, enjoy your round!