Skilled players look at the "margins," not the "pin" (How to find a safe zone) [Blueprint for a consistent 90s score]

■ Introduction

In the previous article,

"Those who aim for the pin on par 3s are more likely to have a blow-up hole."

I talked about this.

Then,

"So, where should I aim after all?"

I think this question will arise.

Actually, here,

there is a big difference between those who struggle in the 90s,

and those who consistently shoot in the 80s.

I will start with the conclusion.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Skilled players are not looking at the pin.

What they are looking at is the margin.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The more someone shoots in the 70s or is a competitive golfer,

the less attachment they have to the pin itself.

What they are looking for is,

a place where they won't get into big trouble even if they miss.

This time,

I will talk about

the "perspective of looking at the margin"

to stabilize your score.

■Chapter 1 | Amateurs look at the "point"

Second shot.

150 yards remaining.

The pin is in the back right.

In this situation, many amateurs

are looking only at the pin.

The flag, which is only a few centimeters in diameter.

Its base.

They try to hit the ball there.

However,

golf in reality is not such an accurate game.

Even professionals

cannot hit the pin every time.

This is even more true for working golfers.

Nevertheless,

they aim for the "point" that is the pin.

Then,

Curving slightly to the right.

Coming up slightly short.

Making slightly thin contact.

Those small errors

turn into major accidents.

The more you focus on the pin,

the less you see the dangers around it.

■Chapter 2 | Skilled players look at the "surface"

On the other hand,

advanced players are different.

What they are looking at

is the entire green.

Furthermore,

even within the green,

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

they are searching for

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

the safest area.

For example,

a pond on the right.

A bunker at the back right.

A wide approach area at the front left.

In a situation like that,

advanced players look at the front left without hesitation.

This is because,

the damage is minimized if they make a mistake.

They think about

"where to land the ball"

rather than

"where it is safe to miss."

They are considering this.

■ Chapter 3 | 3 steps to finding the margins

Finding the margins is not difficult.

Just think in this order every time.

STEP 1

Find the places where you must never hit the ball

The first thing you look for is not the pin.

It is the danger zone.

For example,

・Water hazard

- Deep bunkers

- Out of bounds

- Steep downhill slopes

- Difficult rough

- and so on.

First,

"decide where you must avoid at all costs."

that is the first step.

STEP 2

Look at the opposite side of the danger zone

If the right is dangerous, look left.

If the left is dangerous, look right.

If the back is dangerous, look to the front.

That is where the margin is.

Advanced players

look for the safe zone first.

STEP 3

Aim for the middle of the margin

In the center of the margin you found,

place your own virtual pin.

And ignore the actual pin.

What you should aim for is,

that virtual pin.

With just this,

the course will look surprisingly wide.

■Chapter 4 | Thinking about it in actual play

For example, consider this situation.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

150 yards remaining

Pin on the right

Right bunker

Left approach

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Amateurs,

aim for the pin on the right.

A little to the right.

Bunker.

A major crisis.

On the other hand,

advanced players are different.

Aim for the left approach.

A little to the left.

The approach.

No problem.

Even if you make a mistake,

you will still have your next approach shot.

As a result,

it becomes easier to get pars and bogeys.

What is important here,

is not the accuracy of the shot.

It is how you aim initially.

■Chapter 5 | Redefining a nice shot

Many amateurs,

think that a ball hit toward the pin

is a nice shot.

However,

if you want to build a consistent golf game,

you must change that definition.

An amateur's nice shot:

Aiming for the pin.

You reached the green.

A nice shot by an advanced player

I missed into the margin I was aiming for.

I completely eliminated the danger zone.

This approach

is overwhelmingly more reproducible.

Golf is not a game where you aim for a perfect score of 100.

It is a game of accumulating scores of 60.

People who accumulate scores of 60

eventually shoot in the 80s or low 90s.

■Chapter 6 | Advanced players decide "where not to hit" rather than "where to hit"

This is the most important thing I want to convey in this article.

Advanced players

do not decide where to aim first.

What they decide first is,

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

where not to hit

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

.

Do not hit into the pond.

Do not hit into OB.

Do not hit into deep bunkers.

As a result,

safe zones will naturally come into view.

And then,

you just hit to those spots.

Look for danger before looking at the pin.

This is the perspective of an advanced player.

■ Summary | Those who look at the margins don't fall apart

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

✔ Look at the margins, not the pin

✔ First, find the danger zones

✔ Aim for the margins on the opposite side of the danger

✔ Redefine what a nice shot is

✔ Decide "where not to hit" instead of "where to hit"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

In your next round,

please try reducing the time you spend looking at the pin.

Instead,

look for the margins around the green.

Then,

the course that looked narrow until now,

will look surprisingly wide.

And that perspective is exactly,

the first step to stabilizing your score.

If this article was helpful,

I would be happy if you could support me with a "Like" or "Follow".

I will continue to share

"a design that doesn't collapse" and "a mindset that produces scores"

that even busy working professionals can replicate.