The 2nd Cut Newsletter: Edition #20

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Clear Vision, Distance Matters, Swing Update, Hit Green % by Iron, Would You Go for the $1 Million?

Oct 25, 2023

“You can’t get better unless you judge your effort against what you know it should look like.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger

📰 Edition #20 📰

Welcome back to The 2nd Cut Newsletter!

If you haven’t read last week’s Deep Dive, check it out here. It was a fascinating interview with Master Club Fitter and former Korn Ferry Tour pro Kevin Kraft.

Kevin answered everything from his favorite golf brands, what a fitting can do for amateurs, playing against Ernie Els, and what to look for in a good fitter. Link

📫 In today’s Newsletter: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Clear Vision, Distance Matters, Swing Update, Hit Green % by Iron, Would You Go for the $1 Million?

If you’re new here, this newsletter is designed to provide valuable insights, tips, and ideas to improve your golf game from around the internet.

What you get:

1 - Newsletter every Wednesday
1 - Deep dive every Friday

📗 Have a Clear Vision 📗

I just started reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new book, “Be Useful”. The first chapter is called Have a Clear Vision. Here’s what Arnold says:

“To have a clear vision is to have a picture of what you want your life to look like and a plan for how to get there.”

Switch out the word “life” for “golf game,” and it applies just as well.

Do you have a clear vision of what you want your golf game to be? We all want to hit it 300 yards and be a scratch golfer, but do you have a realistic vision for what would be an achievable but satisfying goal for your game?

Some of you might. That’s a good start.

Now, do you have a plan?

This is where I think most of us amateurs fail. Your vision might be to break 100 and become a 90’s golfer. But how are you going to achieve this? What’s the plan?

Going to the range, ordering a bucket, and hitting balls with no clear goal or objective isn’t going to cut it. Maybe you hit it well; maybe you leave frustrated and worn out after hitting a $14 large bucket on rapid fire. But you need a road map!

A good plan might be: work on lag putting to reduce three putts, practice chipping from 30 yards an in, and keep my driver in play. Then with each of these sub goals, create a practice plan that will focus on these specific areas.

In my deep dive called Goal Setting, I talked about the simple concept of using a Goal Setting Matrix. It’s simple to do and can help you articulate a clear vision and develop a plan to achieve that vision.

“The Goal Matrix is a simple but powerful concept that will help you stay focused and on task. Give it a try. Write down three goals for the upcoming season. Then, write 1 or 2 ways you will achieve that goal. Focus on the process.” link

Once you write down your goals for the season and the process of how you will get there you now have a north star. Reference it frequently to ask yourself if what you are doing is lining up with your goals and plan.

Arnold sums it up perfectly:

“That is what a clear vision gives you: a way to decipher whether a decision is good or bad for you, based on whether it gets you closer or further away from where you want your life to go. Does the picture you have in your mind of your ideal future get blurrier or sharper because of this thing you’re about to do?”

🐦 Tweets of the Week 🐦

Lou Stagner tweeted this phenomenal chart showing the Hit Green % with different irons at various handicaps.

As you can see below, a 10-index goes from having a 56% probability of hitting the green with a Pitching Wedge to only 27% with a 6-iron. Link

Lesson: Distance matters. A lot.

📺 💻 T2C Media 📺 💻

Here’s a quick swing update. I was working on my tempo here, which felt good, but I tend to get my arms too far away from my body, leaving me a bit disconnected. Also, my path was a bit too far out to in. This leads to slight pulls and cuts.

Now, the only reason I know this is because I had another lesson with Ryan Mouque. Otherwise, I would have been going down all kinds of rabbit holes trying to work on my strike issues. This is the value of getting a lesson. It removes all doubt and keeps you from going down the wrong path.

Solution: I’m going to work on rotating earlier, keeping the hands in/club out at takeaway. Then try to get my path to feel a bit more in to out.

My first range session was purely working on this feel. I could definitely tell I was on the right track, with crisper contact, but I also had a hard time turning in sync. Like most changes, this will require some work. There are no quick fixes, and old habits die hard.

Here is a video of Thomas from 3 Legged Golf, going through his club distances. I wish I could hit my 4-iron at all, let alone a smooth 205 yards.

You can now follow on Instagram at @3_legged_golf

@3_legged_golf Here’s a look at my day at the range and all my distances. Thanks again for watching! #3LG #3LeggedGolf #distance #pgm #eku #golftiktok #prosthetic #prostheticlegs #cancersurvivor #sports

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🔢📏 Stat of the Week 🔢📏

Lou Stag strikes again. I play around a 3 to 5 handicap, and sometimes people expect me to be a 70’s golfer every time we play. In reality, it’s often uglier than you’d think. Link

I still have the occasional topped drive and three-putt. I might even duff a chip. All too often, you’ll find me hitting a punch shot out of the woods, scrambling my ass off to shoot an 82. Basically, it’s not always pretty.

One of the reasons for this is the handicap system is weird and doesn’t really represent a player’s average round. Your handicap is, in reality, a representation of your best rounds. GHIN takes the average of your best eight rounds out of the last twenty. There’s a bit more to the calculation, but that’s the bulk of it.

I highly recommend checking out Edition #7 and the section on Accepting Scoring Variance.

“In my last 10 rounds, I’ve averaged 81 strokes. My standard deviation is 4 strokes, which means about 70% of my rounds are between 77 and 85. That last 30% is either a really good round or a really bad round.” link

📊 Poll Question of the Week 📊

You have 24 hours to make a hole-in-one from 125 yards. If you make it, you get $1 Million Dollars. If you don’t make a hole-in-one, you never play golf again.