The 2nd Cut Newsletter: Edition #59
Incremental Improvement, Scottie’s Winnings, Tiger is Good, Golf Podiums, Do You Hit it Far Enough?
“Improving by just 1 percent isn’t notable (and sometimes it isn’t even noticeable). But it can be just as meaningful, especially in the long run.” — James Clear
📰 EDITION #59 📰
Welcome back to The 2nd Cut Newsletter!
📫 In today’s Newsletter 📫
Incremental Improvement, Scottie’s Winnings, Tiger is Good, Golf Podiums, Do You Hit it Far Enough?
Incremental Improvement
Jon is spot on here. You’ll never totally eliminate certain problems in your golf game. The goal instead should be to “make them happen less often.”
That is how you get better at golf.
Way back in Edition #12 I talked about incremental continuous improvement.
Here’s a snippet:
James Clear of Atomic Habits put it best:
“We convince ourselves that change is only meaningful if there is some large, visible outcome associated with it. Whether it is losing weight, building a business, traveling the world or any other goal, we often put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about.
Meanwhile, improving by just 1 percent isn’t notable (and sometimes it isn’t even noticeable). But it can be just as meaningful, especially in the long run.”
Maybe we get just a 5% better at putting, a little smarter at target selection, and a little better at keeping mentally calm throughout a round. Those little (and unnoticeable) improvements start to stack up and compound, leading to lower scores on the course.
🐦 Tweets of the Week 🐦
Wow. Mindblowing money for Scottie this year.
Shout out to Brad for sending me this tweet. Brandel Chamblee compares peak Tiger to the best Tee to Green (Scottie Scheffler) and the best Short Game (Mackenzie Hughes) players on tour this year.
Tiger’s strokes gained in 2006 were higher than Scottie and Hughes combined. Truly unbelievable.
So massive.
Golf should have podium finishes like the Olympics.
F1 has podiums at the end of each race, and I think it adds a cool element to the event. Maybe we should do it just in majors? Or only for select PGA events?
Side note: It makes Jack Nicklaus’s career look even more impressive.
📺 💻 T2C Media 📺 💻
This is another Dan Grieve chipping video for anyone struggling with the yips or your chipping in general.
Every once in a while, I stray from some of Dan’s core concepts, so I like to rewatch to stay honed in.
🔢 Stat(s) of the Week 🔢
Another excellent breakdown from Lou here.
As we all know, the further off the tee you are, the easier the game is. But it also helps to know that the majority of low single-digit handicap golfers hit it less than 260 yards.
I’m not saying we don’t work on gaining distance off the tee. Do your best to gain distance through fitness training, proper shaft fittings, and maybe even speed training. On the flip side, getting frustrated by not being 300 off the tee isn’t a good idea either.
As Lou says above, only 11% of golfers 3 index or better hit it 280 yards or more.
Almost 40% hit it less than 250 yards.
So don’t despair if you're not hitting 300-yard bombs. We can still go low.
Thank You
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Til next time.
