It's time for a new episode of faith and fairways with the founder Brad Thorberg, who after more than 16,000 lessons taught to over 2000 golfers, has discovered the most forgotten and overlooked parts of your golf game that is keeping you from playing your most consistent and confident golf ever. Now here's your host, Brad Thorberg.
00:23 Right? All right, another week, what a week. It's been that for clients shoot career rounds, and we're going to talk about one of them here today as we dive into how par ruined your golf.
00:36 The game par is ruining your golf game on the scorecard. It's an epidemic. I see with all my clients. We're going to dive into that. So first of all, welcome my fellow golfers, members of the birdie crew. Glad you're tuning in this week. So how has par ruined you're a golf game? Know I believe it is sabotage. So many golfers right out the gate as they're learning this game, as they're trying to give better because they see that as stupid score APAR and the reality that most of you don't realize is less than 1% of 1% of the golfers across the world. You can shoot par less than 1% of all the golfers in the whole world. You can shoot par, but yet we stare at par on the scorecard and then we create these expectations of where we think we should be based on what the scorecard says, based on comparing ourselves to that one good golfer.
01:41 We know club or that's in our group. Well, we kind of become, you know, basically sorry into this vortex of comparison, all led by the stupid scorecard that shows par. And the reality is most of you aren't there. But what that does is it [inaudible] creates so much frustration that doesn't need to be there. It creates so much unnecessary pressure that just gets you making poor decisions out there and pressing and pressing and stress and going for shots. You should not be going for it, but you feel you have to [inaudible] because you see where par is and to get even close to that score or you now feel like you have to, you have to make this great shot. And then when you don't, you feel like you've got to make an even greater shot. And there's just so much pressure built up. When we get [inaudible] pressure in the body, we get tents, we get [inaudible] quick and our faults show up even worse and we start to have some really bad misses.
02:37 And that's when things spiral. So par on the scorecard has done you wrong for the vast majority of you listening. It's a horrible, horrible thing, which is why I came out with my, my code to breaking 90 you know, forget par. Yeah. And you know, this takes me back. I have a few stories. You know, the first one, it was my senior year of high school golf. You know, I shared about my seven pot my senior year. You know, I went on to finish fifth and go to state. But the team is going to stay by one shot. Well what you don't realize is number two golf for that year. He didn't make it to districts because he got an MIP before districts. So we had to bring up our top player from JV and that guy had never shot 90 or better in his life.
03:24 So I remember going to the practice just rounds with them. And what I did is I took the scorecard and I scribbled out what par was and I changed par to bogeys and I said, here's what your new par is. Look at each hole and pars. Now bogey your new pars, bogey. That's all you're trying to do. Cause we're trying to break barriers guys. So just depends on where you're at. Maybe you're just trying to break a hundred if you're just trying to break a hundred here to go to scorecards, scribble out all the pars cause you don't need to worry about them. They just make you make poor choices. Scribble out all the pars. He can go in there and make all the holes, bogey and the nine hardest holes on the course, you'll see where it says handicap. Usually it has HCP and then list them, you know, and number one is the hardest hole.
04:09 So one through nine change those, the double bogeys. And if you now shoot par with those numbers, you'll shoot to under a hundred you'll shoot 98 so you have to change your focus so you can come with a better plan. So you stop making poor decisions out there. So pars ruined a lot of good golf games mentally because you get [inaudible] there and you just think you have to make it up and you get so frustrated cause you see it's a par three and you took a five. Well we're in reality if you're sitting there going, Hey all I have to do is make a four, maybe I don't try to hit it all the way over the water and I play safe to the left and I chip on and I want her to pot and I make it way less stressful. I take two less clubs into the green cause I go to a safe or shorter area.
04:55 I had pitch on from a good angle and I want her to buy it versus feeling like you have to hit on the green on this long par three and you hit in the water and then you'd have to drop it and then you feel like you have to make up for that shot so then you can get too cute and you try to hit it close and you [inaudible] you chunk of, because your grip is too tight cause you're feeling the pressure of it. And next thing you know you're making a five or six and you're just, you're losing it. You're spiraling out of control and it's all because of par. [inaudible] Made you feel like you had to make something up. But when you start playing now we're, your ability level isn't. You go, Hey, I'm just trying to shoot bogey golfer better. Well your new par is bogey and treat pars as birdies in a birdie as an Eagle and celebrate the shit out of that.
05:40 But don't look at par on the scorecard. Don't compare yourself to the really good golfer in the group. That's why we have handicaps to begin with. So that's how par is ruining that golf game. You got to one. No. What's your expectation verse? Your ability to love when you got to get those in a line with other, so your ability level and your goals right now is to consistently bring 90 you can just say, Hey yeah, here's the easiest hole on the course. I need a part of that. The rest I can bogey. I shoot 89 stop looking at par change rope pars on the scorecard. Know. So back to my high school buddy Matt. We went into that and we changed that out and I said, just treat it this way. I don't feel like you have to hit it these longer clubs you struggle with and applied it around the course and talked about, and I think I did about five or six holes that afternoon with them.
06:27 And then before districts I went and took his card and I said, Hey, here's what you're trying to get on each of these holes. [inaudible] I kid you not. He carted in 88 the first time you'd ever shot in the 80s in competition and in his whole life as a senior. I mean this guy was an unbelievable athlete. He had full rides to like Harvard, Iowa, Nebraska for wrestling. I took a full ride scholarship for academics, university of Nebraska, but golf just wasn't his game. He didn't practice it a lot and so forth, but he was a good athlete. Oh really? He got caught up in par and trying to make things happen that he wasn't capable of doing, choosing harder shots that he shouldn't have been choosing when his whole goal was to just break 90 and I told him, Hey, if you break 90 that's unbelievable.
07:12 We actually ended up using his score because we use the four best out of five in the state of Nebraska that districts and state. We ended up using his score as the five guy that day. And the other one was, you know, a career round just in the last week, Lois, she had a career nine and then she followed it up with a career 18 and we've been working on the code to breaking 90 30 30 and five although she ranted up to 30 30 in three. But we've been working on the code to breaking 90 all summer guys. And this is, this is key is it took her probably eight to 12 weeks to slowly start getting into a place where she really looks at the golf hole and goes, Hey, on this par five I get five shots and start making easier club selection, start going driver, you know, and instead of trying to hit a five hybrid going seven iron pitch and run to the middle one or two puff for an easy bogey move on.
08:05 And it took that long to start trusting it and being more consistent with it over the course of every single whole cause. It's real easy to say we're going to do that. Then you get out there and you hit a couple bad shots and you see Parr staring you in the face on the scorecard and now you feel like you got to do something that you're not really capable of doing, but maybe once a 30 40 swing. So that is not a high percentage to be doing, especially on a day when you're not doing anything. Well, I got, it amazes me as well. Even when we're not hitting the ball well, we all of a sudden start trying to make these harder shots that I have a very low percentage of pulling it off. Even if you're a really, really good player like that just as backwards.
08:45 No, that doesn't make any sense. Like if you're not making any three-pointers why step back further and keep shooting, you should probably be passing it off or driving in the lane you if you know basketball, it doesn't make sense. But in golf we feel like we have to, great shots happen after we've hit poor ones all because we see par on the scorecard and it just ruins the golf game. No, but this is going to take time. The number one thing you can do is start taking your scorecard and just you've raised, I mean I know you can't erase, but scribble out where it says hard. Start writing in what your par should be. Just start playing golf within the range you're trying to break into. So if you're trying to break a hundred, change everything to bogey and take the nine hardest holes, one through nine, and change them to double bogey to start plotting your way through that golf hole. Knowing you have that many shots to get your new park.
09:40 Even though Brad has cracked the code to consistently breaking 90 there are still three major mistakes he's found from working with over 2000 clients that will sabotage your round before you get to the first tee. Head to www.mygolfcode.com now to receive your free guide where he outlines all three polls and provides you with some easy action steps to start playing more consistent golf today.
10:04 Yo, bogey golfers, change everyone to bogey and try to make a birdie, which would be a par. But if you're trying to break eighties same thing. Yeah that's eight over par. So take the seven hardest holes out there and say, Hey, it's okay to bogey these. It's okay to have seven bouquets today or it's okay if I have a double bogey now it's going to happen. You know? And it just helps you relax. And that's what Lois was saying was, you know when I talked with, she goes, I'm just more relaxed. I'm not pressing out there. I'm not trying to do more than I'm able to do. You know, I sit there on the tee box and I, it's like a calming field. Now we still have laser focus of where we want the ball to start and end. But when we stand on the tee box where at calm and at peace, cause we know we can easily get up on the green and we can plot our way around and we don't have to make hard decisions or pick the harder club's the hit because we know, Hey my new par on this par four, it's a par five because I'm just trying to break 90 consistently.
11:02 I'm just trying to get to 85 consistently, so that's how par has ruined your golf game is it's set these expectations that for some reason, even when we know our ability level is nowhere near there, we try to force ourselves to think we need to make pores when it's, you know, a very unrealistic thing. So you have to start changing it on the scorecard. You have to start standing on the whole looking down. They're going, Hey, you know I can make a five here. That's okay. How am I going to do that? What [inaudible] the most confident club in my hand. Give me a couple shots to get there because if you're just spraying the driver everywhere, if you warmed up correctly, if you tuned in last week, you learn how to ooze confidence on the first tee and you now have a plan and that plan is don't hit driver because I can't hit it anywhere on the golf course, but you can stand there on the par for first hole that's only 360 yards and you can go, Hey, I can get away with going five iron teed up, eight iron up in front of the green about 20 yards short.
12:07 I'm just going to pitch and run it to the middle and to putt and walk away with a bogey. Give myself a chance at par, which really will feel like a birdie. Well when you start plotting your way around each hole, knowing kind of your new score for par, you're going to be so much more relaxed. When you do make a bogey, it's okay cause you're expecting it. If you make a double, it's not as big of a deal cause you're comparing it to your new par, which was a bogey. It's just one over. But when you're sitting there staring at pars and you making double bogeys, you feel like you got to make something happen. So now you, you go away from your game plan of really trying to not hit driver too much cause you can't control and you feel like I gotta hit driver, I gotta make something happen and then it just gets out of control and you start making double, triple, double.
12:54 And that's all out of nowhere. We just blow up on the back nine. How are we blow up out of nowhere. [inaudible] Ruin a good round and we just get so frustrated and this game is supposed to be fun but par on the scorecard made it not fun for so many of us cause we set the expectation there even though the ability levels not or we compare ourselves to better players thinking we should be able to do this. Well, if you haven't been practicing, if you haven't got professional help, if senior cell phone video, if you're now working on your short game, 60 70% of the time when you do practice, you know you're, you're just kidding yourself. If you think you're going to be able to go out there and shoot anywhere close to par, I mean that takes work. It takes a lot of golf shots, it takes a lot of practice, it takes good mechanics and that takes time.
13:42 So know where you're at. Be real with where you're at. If you're consistently scoring in the high nineties set the goal to just break 90 change what par is on the scorecard. Start relaxing and then plotting your way around each hole. One hole at a time. Setting the expectation that a five on this par four is my new par and you'll be shocked as to how much easier it is. Just start getting closer and breaking through the barrier. But it's going to take time because what's going to happen, the pitfalls, like I've seen with some of my clients, I've gone through the code to breaking 90 and even, you know, with Lois as it gets so easy, you know, here's two scenarios, you know, one, you could just bomb a drive right down the middle on a par five and you're sitting there thinking, Oh my gosh, I don't want to waste this.
14:30 You know, I could grab my three-word and I can get it up on the green and have a chance at Eagle. But around the green, there's a pond left in bunkers, right? And the pans tucked behind the pond and you're pulling a club out that puts you into range of hitting it into some very tough places. Or you could sit there if you're sticking to the code, you're sticking to the plan you created when you warmed up. You're not letting one good shot or one bad shot dictate that decision. And then you sit there and go, well I could simply go eight iron pitching wedge and I'm actually a head cause I would hit the green in regulation. Yeah, I could to puffer par, which would be my new birdie. See how that makes making the smarter decision easier to do. And I'll reverse it if, if you hit a bad shot into the trees and there's this narrow opening where I can just hit this low five iron punch and it'll roll right up to the green.
15:23 But there's a, you know, [inaudible] a deep pop bunker short right of the green and you're in the right trees. First of all, when was the last time you practiced just a low whistling five iron punch shot on the driving range? Because if you hadn't been practicing it, what on earth makes you think you're going to pull it off and control the distance? Yeah. You're either going to pull it into a tree, hit it too high under a tree. Yeah. Too far over the green and have an impossible shot back is probably going to cut a little to the right. You're gonna end up in that pot bucker you don't want to be in. So that's where you gotta be real with where's your ability level? Have you practiced this shot? Or if you're sitting there on this par for going, Hey, you know, I still have four more shots and I'm only 165 yards out so I could kind of punch out forward and left here.
16:12 I could hit a shot up by the front of the green chip on and give myself a chance and making bogey or tapping in for a double. That's really, you know, in the new terms is a bogey, but it helps you make the smarter choice instead of trying to go for the hero shot that you don't need to be making. You got to stick to your game plan and realize just where you're at. If you're trying to break 90 treat each hole as a bogey, as a par, a double, as a bogey and a par as a birdie and start making smarter choices and understanding where your ability level is. But that, okay, that part on the scorecard has hurt so many amateur golfers created so much for frustration. I mean that's made guys quit and they're like, it shouldn't be this hard. And I'm like, well, you're setting your expectations too high.
16:58 I can tell you, I have been teaching with the company golf tech for over 15 years and they're all about facts. If you know, if you haven't been to one, go to one. They're incredible at what they do. Each coach is different though, coach with their own personality, but everything's based on facts. There's no guessing. There's no, this is what I think you should do though. This is what we know you should do. Cause we've that around 25 years and we've tests and so many amateurs to tour players that we know where you need to be. You know, so you gotta get in there and get in front of that. But we know that even with our coach working with a coach specifically for one year, you're, you're on average are gonna shave seven to eight strokes over 12 months. So if you're scoring in the mid nineties and your goal is to be in the 70s and you think you can do it with one or two lessons a couple sessions early in the spring and it's going to be your year, you know, you're, you're so far off because it takes more than that.
17:56 And if you're staring at par on a scorecard thinking this is the year you're gonna do that and shoot bar, but you haven't taken any lessons under a watchful eye, you haven't been practicing things that are actually moving you forward versus just practicing random things off of YouTube that you have no idea if they're actually going to help your golf game and you're not even working on your short game, there is no way on earth you're going to go from, you know, 90 95 a hundred into the 70s so you gotta be real with where you're at and start setting the scorecard score to be right there at your next breakthrough. You're, you know, breaking through that plateau and start plotting your way around each hole with that amount of strokes as your new par. And it'll make golf so much more fun, so much more relaxing.
18:41 You'll lose less golf balls. You'll start breaking through those scoring plateaus and onto the next one because you're more relaxed and you're not pressing and making poor decisions and going for the low percentage shots or getting frustrated or giving up so quickly because the person you're playing with is a good player. They're one of the 1% of 1% who can shoot par, but you're not there yet. You can get there. It's going to take work. There's no magic. I've been taught over 16,000 lessons. There's no magic to it. It takes work, it takes guidance, it takes practice, but you can get there, but you have to start being honest with where you're at and change the score on the scorecard and you'll be shocked as to how much more fun you have, how easy it is to start having career rounds and pushing that lower, lower, lower, and that's how you're going to get to shooting par one day. But you have to stop looking at par on the scorecard to do that. So that is how par has ruined your golf game. This is how to get it back on track and change your mindset. Stay tuned. Next week we're gonna talk about why a better swing has blown up your score. So maybe you are one of the few who are out there getting lessons working on your swing. You know it's improved, but now you're not scoring well, even though you know you're making better contact and you have a better swing, why aren't you
19:59 Scoring better? We're going to dive into that next week, so stay tuned next week. Until then, remember, just swing easy. Find the good in each shot, and we'll talk to you all soon.
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