Lots of people, famous golfers as well, say they never learn anything from the rounds in which they play well, but only from the rounds in which they play poorly. Bobby Jones said this. I don’t get it. Maybe if I shot ten strokes above my handicap every time out I’d be the smartest golfer in the world.

The only thing I learn from doing something wrong is, don’t do that again. But in that lesson is no advice on how to do it right. There are generally thousands of ways to do something wrong, but only a few ways to do it right. I can only learn to do it right by doing it right.

So if you’re playing poorly, it’s because you’re doing something wrong. And probably the slowest and least effective way to get back on track is to try to locate your mistakes and fix them. Nuts to that.

Go back to the beginning, start over, and learn the right way all over again, from the ground up. Just do one thing right then add on something else that’s right and so on until all you know how to do is the right thing.

That’s how to learn this game.

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When I’m working on something new, I go to my local executive course to test it out. On four of the holes you would tee off with a wedge, but on the remaining holes you can hit a 2-, 5-, 6-, 8-iron, and a driver. That’s a good enough sample of different swings.

I went out this morning to see how my latest swing change is going.The change (cocking my right wrist back on the backswing) seems to be going well, since I’m not hitting those wicked hooks that just drove me nuts. and my chips and pitches were really good. The greens are slow and bumpy, so I never take too much stock in how I putt there.

My guidance for this particular change is in Nick Faldo’s book, Golf-The Winning Formula, on pages 82-86.

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When I stood bridge watches in the Navy, at certain times it got pretty hectic. I had to make the right decisions at the right time and there were no second chances. When I got used to it, I looked forward to it, because I knew nothing would come up that I couldn’t handle. I knew what I was doing.

This came to mind when I was browsing through Afternoons with Mr. Hogan, by Jody Vasquez. There’s a quote from Hogan that goes, “Don’t just hit practice balls. Hit the 9-iron into the back left corner past the bunker. Then remember what it felt like, so when you get to a shot and you need to make it, you already know what it feels like.”

It’s one thing to be able to hit the ball. It’s another for your mind to be at ease with the shot you’re about to hit. A 9-iron to the center of the green or to the back left corner is the same shot if your mind feels that it is. And that sameness is that you know what you’re doing, because you’ve done it before.

Now that the weather in the Pacific NW has finally turned pleasant, I spent the last two mornings at the range. I am in the middle of a major swing change, in which my wrists hinge backward as well as upward. This is how you get the flat left wrist, which I didn’t have, which led to uncontrollable hooking in my case. Nick Faldo’s book, Golf-The Winning Formula on pages 82-86.

At first it felt like my hands were three miles behind me and I would never get them back to the ball, but I’m getting accustomed to the feeling now. Real good results so far. Everything’s going straight, with a few pushes. I’ll figure that one out soon enough.

I had a good session. With 60 balls, I hit each club three times, then about a dozen pitches to random distances, went over to the practice green to practice chipping and putting (hit a dozen chips to the same hole and putt them all out, repeat with three other holes at different distances), then back to the range to finish the bucket. That’s a good morning’s work.