Thread by @PeterArnottGolf

How to get Good at Golf (without getting lucky)

Understand that you are a guessing machine that solves problems. The best golfers are the best guessers, they solve more problems with their best guesses.

You getting better at golf is about guessing better, becoming a better problem solver.

Best guessing requires experience, but can be developed faster by learning the foundations of what best problem sollving & guessing is 👇

You’re not going to get good at golf by letting other people solve problems for you or make your guesses for you.

As you develop towards a Good Golfer the problems you need to solve, and guesses you make will change. I.e. strike, distance, direction, lie, wind, grasses, situation in tournament etc

Understanding that ALL of the problems needed to be solved in golf performance are unique, a one off, and you’ll never have this exact same problem again. (You may have similar).

Integrating the problems you solve to the guesses you make on the golf course in training allow you to make more informed guesses in performance.

Becoming a better guesser is developing the art of being able to predict, you’ve experienced similar problems before and have a good guess of what to do when a similar problem arises.

Training or performance that offers the same/similar problems frequently limits your ability to guess and predict. Because you’ve only solved a few problems with a few guesses.

The progression of problems you solve and the guesses you make is not linear. (I.e. you may have to come back and solve similar problems again, because you forgot the guess or your best guess is not working anymore).

There are no quick fix/tips to getting Good at Golf. That’s just someone else getting rich of you.

The best guessers are greedy golfers, greedy for information to help them guess better.

There are no problems to be solved or guesses to be made when isolating and breaking movement into parts. Approach with caution.

Guessing and problem solving go hand in hand with the art of not caring what others think, not being afraid to look stupid. This is especially true as you get older (and are more socially aware).

Getting good at golf is an iterative process that is non-linear. It requires an inquisitive mind open to exploration.

Being open to exploration, you experiment with more guesses for specific problems, sometimes these guesses have non-linear effects on your progression. It may take time to find your best guesses, be patient, when you find them the progress can be exponential (non-linear).

Being open to guess, then reflect, and if need be experiment with different guesses (if current guesses are not working) is the art of getting good at golf.

Good Golfers are not afraid to try and guess and experiment in performance, because unique specific problems sometimes only arise in performance (I.e. psychological or adrenaline response).

Not all problems to solve in golf are created equal, understanding what specific problems you need to solve for where you are trying to get to will accelerate your development.

You will get good at golf when you understand that making your best guess of the tools you have TODAY and then fitting that into TODAY’S performance environment is Good Golf.

If the tools don’t fit often enough then you need more tools. You need to explore more specific guesses from specific performance problems.

You can solve the same problem in multiple ways, you should explore this in training (potentially after you are able to solve it in one way).

Your journey to becoming a Good Golfer is realised when you understand that you are a guessing, problem solving machine and therefore act, train and perform accordingly.

When you are finally Good at Golf, you’ll realise that you’ve still got more problems to solve and guesses to make. The journey never ends.