EP 53: Golf Improvement Theory – Part 1: Strategy, Decision Trees & Shot Dispersions

Golf Improvement Theory – Part 1: Strategy, Decision Trees & Shot Dispersion

If you want to lower your scores, you need more than swing tips — you need better golf strategy and smarter course management.

In Part 1 of our Golf Improvement Theory series, we break down the foundational principles of decision making in golf, including how to use a decision tree, understand your shot dispersion pattern, and make smarter adjustments for lie, slope, and weather.

This episode is about playing golf strategically — not emotionally.

What Is Golf Strategy?

Decision Trees & Shot Dispersion

Most golfers aim at flags. Better players aim based on probability.

In this episode, we explain:

• What a decision tree in golf actually means
• How to use your shot dispersion (your “finger dispersion”) to choose smarter targets
• How elite players think in percentages, not perfect shots
• The connection between strategy, scoring averages, and long-term improvement

Your shot pattern determines your target. Period.

If you’re not building your targets around dispersion, you’re guessing — not strategizing.

How to Adjust for Lie, Slope & Weather

Great course management requires contextual awareness.

We break down how to adjust for:

• Lie conditions (tight, rough, uphill, downhill, sidehill)
• Slope influence on start line and curvature
• Wind adjustments 
• Temperature, firmness, and elevation changes
• How environmental variables should modify your decision tree

Golf is not played in a vacuum — and your strategy shouldn’t be either.

Key Golf Improvement Takeaways

• Strategy is applied probability.
• Shot dispersion determines smart targets.
• Decision trees improve consistency and scoring.
• Lie, slope, and weather always influence execution.
• Better decisions lead to lower scores — even without swing changes.

This is Part 1 of the Golf Improvement Theory series on The Golf Intervention. In upcoming episodes, we’ll layer in skill development and swing execution to complete the performance model.

If you care about golf strategy, course management, and lowering your handicap, this episode sets the foundation.

For bonus content or support the show, subscribe to our Substack at https://thegolfintervention.substack.com/

Transcript

Eric 0:00

And welcome back to the Golf Intervention Podcast. It is a great day in Virginia. The snow is finally melted. People are playing golf again. It has been quite a stretch here for the last month, but we are excited to be talking golf performance today on the Golf Intervention Podcast. My name is Eric Laden. I am the director. Of golf instruction at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. I've been there for 19 years I'll be there. Another 19 more. Sitting here with my co-host, Rob Fails. He is the player development leader.

Rob Failes 0:38

There we go.

Eric 0:39

Yes. Nailed

Rob Failes 0:40

Wow. I think that's the first time,

Eric 0:42

Nailed

Rob Failes 0:43

you've ever gotten it, right. On the first, first try.

Eric 0:44

see PE people can

Rob Failes 0:46

That's right.

Eric 0:46

learn the Boars Head, the Boars Head Resort, which is in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the number one ranked U-V-N-U-V-A men's golf team. Did I see

Rob Failes 0:57

Yes. Yes. They are ranked number one.

Eric 1:01

So cool. So I, I, you don't talk tons about the UBA team, although I know you work with some players on both the, the men's and women's

Rob Failes 1:07

Yeah. Yeah,

Eric 1:08

them a

Rob Failes 1:09

for sure.

Eric 1:09

Birdwood, which is the, which is the course there at Boar's Head, has probably as good of a practice facility. University practice

Rob Failes 1:19

it's hard to beat.

Eric 1:19

the country. I mean, really fabulous. The team is really, really good. LED by longtime coach Bowen, Sergeant, who's just a great guy and a great coach, and a great player.

Rob Failes 1:29

Yeah.

Eric 1:29

And, uh, he's got that program on track. I gotta say Bowen's been coaching them for probably 25

Rob Failes 1:35

It's been a while. Yeah.

Eric 1:36

close. Noah, I was at Farmington, he was there and that's been

Rob Failes 1:40

Mm-hmm.

Eric 1:40

years. So,

Rob Failes 1:42

Anyway,

Eric 1:42

anyway, I'm sure you have lots of good stories about golf performance in the, in the great teams at UVA there.

Rob Failes 1:49

but today we're gonna start

Eric 1:52

into a new series, which we, we talked about on our last episode, sort of the framework of our golf intervention 2.0 we're calling it. So trying to put some series together for the listener to try to organize. And, and help

Rob Failes 2:07

journey.

Eric 2:07

your journey towards better golf performance. And our first series is gonna be entitled Game Improvement Theory. Oh my gosh. So cool.

Rob Failes 2:18

So I said last time,

Eric 2:20

time,

Rob Failes 2:20

try to see it through the lens, hopefully there,

Eric 2:23

the listeners picking up on this. We think that you can really, basically improve in only three ways in golf, right? So there's strategy, there's skill, and there's swing, and there's buckets of stuff there.

Rob Failes 2:35

but

Eric 2:36

But

Rob Failes 2:37

trying to do with these

Eric 2:38

with these series is pick a topic

Rob Failes 2:40

and then take me.

Eric 2:41

you through these, the lens of strategy, skill, and swing through episodes. And then describe to you the listener a little bit of context about who you are as a player and how these topics can help you play better golf. So I think it's really cool, uh, Mr Fails as we kind of go into what we're calling Golf Intervention 2.0, that were sort of. Starting off with a series very similar to how we started off, in one point. Oh when we had absolutely, I had no idea what we were

Rob Failes 3:11

Yeah. Production quality's gotten a, a, just a, a tad bit better since then.

Eric 3:16

you should have seen, like back

Rob Failes 3:18

Oh my gosh.

Eric 3:19

and notes and we'd like be emailing each other and we'd bullet points and we're writing stuff and then we'd record and be like, that was terrible. And then we'd like trash it, do it again. But that's why

Rob Failes 3:28

That's right.

Eric 3:29

now. We have like no notes. We're just

Rob Failes 3:30

Yeah.

Eric 3:31

we text each other a couple things, we're off and running. Um, but it's good. And so, know, that first series on why golfers never improve? I can't remember exactly what we called it, but that was kind

Rob Failes 3:43

Why you might not improve. Yeah.

Eric 3:45

Yeah. Why golfers have a hard time improving or whatever it was. We took you through, I don't know, five or six episodes about different stuff., And we kind of laid out a lot of these topics that we're gonna talk about now. But I think it's interesting, you know, it's not gonna be the same discussion. know, as, as someone who teaches and, and learns all day long, be a different discussion,

Rob Failes 4:08

Hope there is. Yeah. Yeah,

Eric 4:10

Yeah, coaches evolve. I saw there was this big we'll call it on, social media with somebody trying to call out an instructor of something he said in a video 12 years ago, did you see this?

Rob Failes 4:24

I did. Yeah.

Eric 4:24

ridiculous. And the point is, if you're, if you are someone who teaches probably anything and you're still teaching the exact same thing 12 years later, then you're probably not learning anything and you're not growing and you're not doing your students a service. So you should be learning and you should be evolving. I don't think what we're gonna say is all that different, but I'm just saying we're constantly trying to get better, constantly trying to tell the story a better way. That's what teachers do, that's how you grow and you improve, right? So. We're excited to take this topic on again, slightly different way, but similar to how we started the golf intervention. So really fired up for tonight's show. We're recording a little earlier than normal, which is kind of fun. Maybe we'll have a little more

Rob Failes 5:11

Oh yeah.

Eric 5:11

episode out. And so on today's show, we're gonna take you through the strategy piece golf improvement. Okay? So golf improvement theory, and then the strategy piece of that. So, strategy is, I think something we were talking just before we came on. Strategy is something that's, it's, we would define it as non-invasive in a lot of ways. would define it as, you could define it as low hanging fruit in a lot of ways. You could define it as, something never, golfers, never think about or understand. For most of, for me, a long time in my game, I didn't really understand it. All I ever try to do is just hit the ball better and hope my score's added up better. The, the, the idea of, yeah, like we all start that way, that now we have data, you know, data has really driven sports performance and all levels and golf is not immune to that. So today we're gonna talk some data for sure. Like this is gonna be a data-driven episode. We have some numbers, in front of us that we talk about, where we kind of contextualize the player that we're speaking to. Some of what we talk about today, kind of just kind of, it's like a blanket to everybody that plays golf should have some of this stuff. Uh, but then there is slight tweaks between the level of golfer. So when we talk strategy, fails and we're like with a student and. They're looking to improve and maybe they say something like, I need a playing lesson. This is what

Rob Failes 6:47

Yes.

Eric 6:47

is what I get a lot. Which I think

Rob Failes 6:49

Yeah,

Eric 6:49

I mean, it's really the place where you introduce it, and you, they say, I need a playing lesson'cause I don't really know what I'm doing. And that's where this comes

Rob Failes 7:00

right?

Eric 7:00

that, isn't that where, where you see this, so where do we start with strategy?

Rob Failes 7:04

Yeah, a hundred percent. So I think we're gonna probably be doing this, In a lot of our episodes, honestly,'cause I think it's, it's never, it's never a, a bad idea to hear it multiple times, but it all starts with who you are as a golfer, right? So, thanks to, and this originally came from Game Forge, but thanks to some metrics that we have. We can basically take the levels of golfer, and tell you pretty much what metrics are gonna be most highly correlated with your improvement, right? So we say level one golfers shooting higher than 88. There are pretty much only two stats we say that you really need to keep track of as a level one golfer. Again, if you're averaging higher than 88, take your total score and then subtract your total putts, right? So you're gonna keep track of your total score and your total putts. And then by subtracting your total putts from your total score, you're gonna get another metric, which is called shots to green. All right? So it's basically the number of times that you make an intentional swing from all of the tee boxes until the ball gets on the green. Right. So, shots to green for a level one golfer to get, to get to the end of level one. So from a beginner golfer, all the way down to,, you averaging 88, you're gonna be looking at getting all the way down to 52 shots to green on average. So if you start to track your score again, take your score, take your total putts, right, subtract your total putts from your total score, ask yourself, Hey, am I in the ballpark of 52? Am I 53 or 54? Am I all the way up at, you know, 57, 58, 59 60? You're gonna wanna also be in the, in the ballpark of about 36 putts, total putts for that round of golf. So again, for who you are, just take a look and say, Hey, you know, where is the bigger difference? Right? And, and just keep in mind that as we kind of move through this, is that generally speaking, the shots to green number. Comes down at a faster rate than the total putts come down,

Eric 8:57

Mm-hmm.

Rob Failes 8:58

So to get you from, I don't know if faster rate is the, is the correct term there, but, to get from, from level one all the way down to level four, right? You're gonna have more of a difference in the shots to green, then you are gonna have in the putting, right? So just keep that in mind and you'll see this kind of as we, as we move through that, but shots to green and total putts. We're gonna talk more about where those shots to green happen and why they get inflated for level one golfers. But just know that those are the two stats that you pretty much need to keep track of. You're looking for, you know, 52 low fifties shots to green, and then mid thirties, mid to high thirties for, for total putts. Okay? So once you get to level two, now these golfers are averaging from 88, so entry level two all the way down to 76, right? So the end of level two, you're averaging 76, which is a huge bucket of golfers we say all the time. And what really moves you down that. Scoring bracket is really gonna be, again, it, it is technically still shots to green, but it's more specifically your greens in regulation. So it's the number of times that you stop the ball on the green in two, less than the par value throughout a round of golf entry. Level two golfers are about six greens in reg, and then the end of level two, shooting 76 on average goes all the way up to 10, which is huge. That's a, that's a big, big, big difference in greens and reg. And just to show you all the difference in here, the end of level two golfers, are they, they've got about 32 putts, so just think about that. Like we went from 36 for end of level one to 32 putts, end of level two. That's only four putts. That's only four shots different on the green from 88 all the way to 76. It's only. Four putts different. Again, most of that shots to green and more specifically the, the greens and regulation getting on the green in two less than the par value. So on a par five, getting on the green in, in three shots or better. All right., Level three, these golfers are shooting from 76 to 72. And again, now we start to, the game starts to change a little bit, right? To get you from 76 down to 72. Not only is it greens in regulation, but this is where birdies start to become a thing and actually making some birdies starts to become more important for your score. So we track what's called in positions, which is basically when the, when the ball is on the green and regulation, but less than at or less than 20 feet from the hole, right? And so these golfers are looking to get in the six to seven range in terms of their, their in positions., Total putts down to 32, 31, right, is kind of what we're looking for. So again, like. Again, how different is that? Not that much different. It's like one putt better really. Right? It's one putt better. But again, you're, you're getting some birdie looks, you're getting some,, birdie opportunities, and you're cutting down on those, on those shots to greens still. I would expect the greens and regulation number here to be closer to 11 to 12 really. Right. So again, reducing shots to green, but it's really, yes, it's, it's greens and reg, but it's really those birdie opportunities when you're inside 20 feet. Alright. And then level four, just which we, we actually introduced at, I'm not sure exactly when we introduced the level four concept that you actually brought this up. And I thought it was a great point'cause tour players trying to say the tour player should be in the same bucket as someone averaging 76 is not, that's, that's not a thing. They are, they are different. Right. So, impositions go up to about seven to eight range and then they are less than 31 putts. Right. So, again, they just do, they do the same things the level, level three golfers need to do, but just better. Right?

Eric 12:38

So this is a beautiful example. Colin Morikawa this weekend. So this is why we can't lump them

Rob Failes 12:45

Yes.

Eric 12:45

we say they're not human. Mor and I didn't watch Pebble. I just, I don't watch tons of PGA tour these days, but, just'cause I'm busy. But on Sunday, I guess I was in the middle of the day. I had a few minutes turn the TV on in between whatever I, what I was doing. And Morra Cal was maybe on the 15th or 16th hole and he played Pebble. Did you follow the tournament at

Rob Failes 13:08

A little bit. A little bit. Yep.

Eric 13:10

he played Pebble back to back days. You know, they do the rotation of courses, but he played Saturday, Sunday on Pebble, very windy conditions, off and on, like extreme wind, right? He made a putt on that whatever hole I was looking at. Dottie Pepper says, you know, that's the first putt of any significance. In distance he's made in a couple

Rob Failes 13:30

Mm.

Eric 13:30

she said. Something like that. Okay. I'm like watching he birded 18 of the 36 holes on the weekend. He birded, let me say that again. birded 18 of the 36 holes at Pebble

Rob Failes 13:44

Yep.

Eric 13:44

on the weekend in blustery coal conditions. And Dottie said he made one putt of, of significant length. So what does that say? Cabo Kler was hitting

Rob Failes 13:54

Inside 20 feet a lot.

Eric 13:57

all I, I mean, ridiculous. He's always been a great iron player,

Rob Failes 14:01

Yep.

Eric 14:01

he, he's as good as

Rob Failes 14:03

Yep.

Eric 14:03

But the, the point is that is not human. Like if you drop a, if you drop a scratch golfer at 50 degrees and blowing sideways on Pebble Beach and play'em 36 holes in front of a crowd, what are they gonna shoot? he's making 18 birdies six. Yeah. Had Scotty Scheffler making three eagles in

Rob Failes 14:23

Crazy.

Eric 14:23

and shooting 62 or three or whatever.

Rob Failes 14:25

Yeah.

Eric 14:25

So. And they do it'cause they hit, to your point, they hit the ball way better. So the notion that, you know, drive for show, put for dough, all

Rob Failes 14:36

Nope,

Eric 14:36

stuff, like spend all your time practicing your putting,'cause that's what's gonna make you a great, it's just not, it

Rob Failes 14:42

not true. Yeah,

Eric 14:43

right? They're better putters

Rob Failes 14:45

for sure.

Eric 14:46

you get at golf,

Rob Failes 14:47

Absolutely. Yes.

Eric 14:48

putter. But where they separate themselves is their ability to hit the ball better so that those, those

Rob Failes 14:55

Mm-hmm.

Eric 14:55

those shots to green. So, even chips and bunkers and pitching and, and all those shots, they're

Rob Failes 15:01

For sure.

Eric 15:03

anyway, I think it's an amazing, it was an

Rob Failes 15:05

Yeah. It's interesting, like this is why we don't just look at shots to green, because if you look at a level three golfer. Into level four golfer. Like, that's kind of like where it crosses over where like to get better after level three. If you just looked at those two, you would say, oh, that's when putting becomes more important than ball striking because they're not actually the shots of green and the, and the putts are coming down at about the same. And then even probably from level three to level four, you're gonna see them get better at the putting relative to the shots to green. Right? So if you just looked at those two stats, then you would say, oh, well then once you become a tour pro, it's all about, well, it's not really because if you look at it's the proximity really, it's like how many opportunities are, do they have inside 20 feet? And that's really what's driving those, the, the birdie looks. And so that's, that's really even, even for the tour pros, it's, it's how do I hit it better? How do I get more birdie looks inside 20 feet, which is gonna continue to improve the elements of, of strategy, skill, and swing.

Eric 16:02

But I would also say, I would also add to that, I totally agree with. They're playing way harder and way longer.

Rob Failes 16:10

Yes.

Eric 16:11

like when you're looking at game forage data, which is great. This is people like you and I collecting our data and putting it in there, like, you know, the people that we teach,

Rob Failes 16:20

Yep.

Eric 16:20

And then there's, there's tour player data and there's like, there's all kinds of data. But what I'm saying is if you're playing on the tour, you're playing firm greens, fast, greens, 7,500 yards, plus there's crowds there and you're on television, you're playing for your life. You add all that stuff in and then to still be able to produce

Rob Failes 16:38

Yeah.

Eric 16:38

under all of that,

Rob Failes 16:40

Yes.

Eric 16:41

it's outrageous. Yeah, it's just outrageous.

Rob Failes 16:45

That is, that is kind of, again, like, that's the context behind it. Who are you as a golfer? What, what metrics are you trying to drive to, to get better? That's gonna be the genesis of, of everything that we do. Now, this series is gonna be on, on game improvement theory. And like we've said in the, in the past, each episode is gonna highlight when it comes to the level 1, 2, 3, and four golfers strategy, skill, or swing. So today we're talking about strategy and like Eric said, it, it is lower hanging fruit. It's lower on the invasiveness scale, right? If there's maybe a better way of saying that. But really no one's really getting worse by improving strategy. That's why it's such a good thing to do first, especially, if you're the coach listening, if you can in, if you can, I improve their strategy first. And if the opportunity is there, then we would highly recommend you do that., And the considerations are gonna be a little bit different for the golfer, that you have in front of you, obviously in what level they are. But it is just never, it just doesn't get thought of a lot in, in teaching circles around. Oh, like what's the first thing to look at? Like, a lot of people say, oh, like, look at the grip. Like, look at your posture, look at your geometry of your swing. Like, no, like, let, let's assess their strategy. Like what are they trying to do? Which really starts with the dispersion. All right, so we're gonna have a little bit of a discussion on this. This is gonna be, again, something that we will keep coming back to, but are you aiming a dispersion or are you aiming a sniper rifle is really kind of the first key consideration, that if you have a golfer in front of you, you don't have to get on the golf course for them to understand is this can be very much some of the first things that you talk about with a golfer, because whether you know it or not, whether they know it or not, every shot, they're judging when they go out and practice Hey, they're gonna take their large bucket of golf balls or go into the range and they're just gonna hit some balls, right? You take your average, average club player and they're always judging after every shot, whether, whether they, they like to admit it or not. So are you judging it based off of was this perfect or not? Or are you judging based off of, was this inside my dispersion or not? And those are two very different things. Golfers oftentimes will go out and aim their perfect shot when they go. Right. This is the shot that I should be able to hit, which is very different than aiming the 80 ish of a hundred shots that you're going to hit. Right? So the first key to understand is are you aiming your dispersion or are you aiming a a, basically the, the one, the, the top 1% of your shots. So what is a dispersion? We have, actually on our substack, I think it's, like you said, Eric, in the, our last episode, I think this was a, a member exclusive thing. And I, and I do wanna keep that member exclusive for sure., So go visit our substack if you wanna learn more about the specific finger dispersions, but the general idea is you're gonna be able to, on the golf course, aim this window. Well, what is that window exactly? Well, hopefully many of you are familiar with a bell curve, right? So the bell curve, we can basically divide up into a couple different segments. Looking at it from, from starting from the left, you have your bottom 16% of shots, right? These are the shots that are gonna be big misses,, big miss on the club, face club face pointed way out, club head speed, not in the desired window, right? 16% is again, you hit a hundred shots, 16% of them are gonna be big misses outside of your dispersion. Then you have the middle 68%, right? And divided up into bottom 34 of the middle, then top 34 of the middle. These are all gonna be pretty much your average shots. Some a little bit better than average, some a little bit worse than average. And then finally on the far right, you're gonna have your top 16 percentage shots. These are the, I absolutely flushed it. Face was point, right? Where I wanted all kinds of good stuff like that. So really, if we add in the middle and then the top of your dispersion, right? That's gonna give you 80. Eric, help me. Mental math. 8 6, 68 plus 16 is gonna be 82.

Eric 20:53

It's

Rob Failes 20:53

There we go. 82. Is it 84? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, you're right, sir. Whoops.

Eric 21:01

Math

Rob Failes 21:02

Math, math, math. Math is hard on a

Eric 21:04

man,

Rob Failes 21:04

podcast. Everyone. Gimme, gimme a break.

Eric 21:06

math leads here. Okay.

Rob Failes 21:07

Not, you know, I haven't done mental, quick mental math in a long time. Anyway,, really, the 84% of shots is really what we're trying to aim here. Alright? So really, if the ball ends up in your dispersion, that's, that's gonna be one of the 84% of your shots. So our, our big rule here is right. We, we want to be able to aim that so that we're taking on the appropriate amount of risk. And there's been a lot of, interesting studies done,, about like the sweet spot for risk, and it always tends to come around like that 80 ish percent mark. Like basically if you had five shots, if you can pull it off four out of five times and it's probably worth it, right? You're, you're willing and able to, give up that one out of five so that you get the benefit of the, of the four, right?

Eric 21:53

Yeah.

Rob Failes 21:54

so that's really what we want to be aiming. Everyone's dispersion is gonna be a different size, and that's really what improvement is. It's not about taking away the dispersion, it's about making the size of the dispersion smaller.

Eric 22:05

Mm-hmm.

Rob Failes 22:06

that as for you as a golfer, you need to figure out how big does that dispersion need to be so that you're hitting essentially 80% of your shots inside of that zoom, and then within that, that is what you're gonna aim on the golf course, right? We say there's really four different games within the game, if you will. When you play golf, you have driving, you have approach play, you have short game, and you have putting, right. So there's really, when you talk about like using finger dispersions, we use it in putting too with, with aim point. But, for driving and approach specifically, right? And a little bit of short game, depending on the golfer, really these opportunities to aim your dispersion, which depends on what we say to your decision tree. So the dispersion is, is what you're aiming, but the decision tree is really your process for figuring out, Hey, where am I gonna place this dispersion? Where am I gonna aim the center of my dispersion? Right? For so for driving really the number one goal for, and by the way, this is for all golfers. This isn't just for this decision tree does not just apply for level one golfers or level two, level three, Right. The beauty of this is that as your dispersion gets smaller, you end up being able to work yourself through the decision tree further. But if you're, if your dispersion is really big, you might, most shots, you might only be able to satisfy the, the first requirement, not, I shouldn't say requirement, the first priority of the decision tree. Right. Which in driving, it's just getting the ball in play. Right? Right. And I include having a clear path to the green with that. Right. So can you find your golf ball, with a clear path to the green without penalty? Right? And, and, and we can include, we'll talk about disruptors here in a little bit, but really that's the number one goal for driving. So notice it's not fairway, right? It's just getting the ball in play to where you can find it with a clear path to the green from there. Eric, you and I go back and forth a little bit, but. Really as, as far as I see it, for most, if not all golfers, there are some exceptions depending on the course that you play, if the rough is really, really, really bad in your very low speed. So that would be maybe the, the caveat to this. But the second priority of, of driving is gonna be proximity. So how, how close can you get your golf ball to the green? Right? And that's gonna be like, Hey, can I get the ball and play? How far down there can I get it right? That's gonna be kind of the second priority. And then after that, if you can get a couple more shots in the fairway, then you can kind of slide your dispersion over to get a couple more golf balls in the fairway. But that's driving right. Before we move on, Eric, did you have anything you wanted to add to, to that?

Eric 24:39

yeah, I was just gonna say there's geometry involved all kinds of ways in this because it's not necessarily that everybody who's a level one golfer has slower club speed than a level two

Rob Failes 24:50

Mm-hmm.

Eric 24:51

but it's, there is a correlation at times, right? Like the better the, the very highest level golfers have good club

Rob Failes 25:00

Yeah.

Eric 25:00

playing forward tees, right? So. Point being, the slower my swing speed is, the harder it is for me to hit it out of the fairway. Because just think about angles and geometry and, don't know, just think about that as you go 300 yards, four degrees offline versus going 120 yards, carry four degrees offline. A lot of times you're gonna be in the fairway, right? But you need to try to strategize for that a little bit if you have really slow club head speed, because getting it out of the rough is really hard. It can almost be a disruptor for some,, with those lower club head speed. So you just kinda have to know thyself a little bit there. But I, I do think that, like, even looking at your data, it's not like tour players are hitting tons more fairways than level one golfers. They're really not.

Rob Failes 25:50

They're not. Oh,

Eric 25:51

a few,

Rob Failes 25:51

not.

Eric 25:52

No, they hit way more greens and they hit it way closer on the green, but they don't really hit more fairways because they hit it so blessed far that, again, two degrees offline could be, it could be in the rough, whereas depending on how they're aiming it or the hole or whatnot. But,, if I've got slow club head speed, I, I can hit a lot of shots that stay in the fairway that I

Rob Failes 26:11

for sure.

Eric 26:12

they're not, they're not booming

Rob Failes 26:13

Yeah,

Eric 26:14

But they're, they're in the fairway. So anyway, yes. I think that your point, I agree with

Rob Failes 26:18

yeah,

Eric 26:19

get it in play and get it down there. And that even includes, you know, the slower

Rob Failes 26:24

Because I think most of the time, you know, an exception for some, some rare cases, like if that golfer who when they hit it in the rough is getting really penalized'cause of their club head speed.'cause the ball's in the rough. It's like, well that's also the same golfer that. If they just hit it further and learn to swing it faster, like that's not as much of a thing for them anymore. Right? So like even for that golfer, we would probably prioritize, like, no, we're, we're not gonna spend a bunch of time for this golfer, getting them to necessarily hit it straighter. We're gonna teach them how to hit it further. So then getting in the rough isn't as pen penalizing usually. Right.

Eric 26:57

Correct. Yeah.

Rob Failes 26:59

so that's driving and, I'm a big believer in driving is, if not one of, probably the most important aspect of the game. Because when you look at it, when you go from level one all the way through level four, it's like. Improving it, driving just it, it makes the entire game and makes kind of achieving the metric that you're going for just that much easier. So many penalty shots, so many disruptors, which I guess this would be a good time to talk about disruptor, is basically a penalty without necessarily being technically a penalty, right? So, let's say you hit it in the trees and then you have to chip out, right? So that, that chip out, even though it's not a penalty by the rules of golf, is might as well be one because you're not. Improving necessarily the, you are improving the position of the ball. But again, it's not much you're, you're having to take an added shot without advancing the ball, you know, much closer to the hole. So, things like tops, chunks, you know, balls way off the edge of the toe and the heel. And then sometimes big face,, like face to path stuff where the ball's curving way outta bounds. Those are all gonna be well outta bounds would be a, a, a penalty error. But like if you, if you were to, to really hook it into somewhere where you, you know, you'd have a hard time playing it from, but could still play it out of that would be a disruptor, right? So, essentially like effective penalties would be a good way of saying that. So like even for level one golfers, so many of those penalties and disruptors and added shots to green are happening off the tee. I see it a ton, right? For level two golfers, like, you need to drive greens and reg, well, how do you drive greens? And reg, it's usually having less than a 600 in, in regulate for your shot in regulation. So again, that's improving. Driving for tour pros, it's just gonna be improving that proximity is gonna be so huge. So again, driving kind of has a, has an amazing trickle down throughout the entire game. And, and I've said before if I ever were to specialize and be, you know, a coach of only one aspect to the game, I think driving would, would probably be it.

Eric 28:50

Whoa. Okay.

Rob Failes 28:51

Because I, I think it, you could have the most, most like, widespread benefit to all golfers really. Right? So, that's driving approach now as we start to work into, really the shot that is,, approaching the green. And this would include going for it, on, for par fives. Number one is still very much like driving, getting the ball in play. So that, that's the number one goal. Again, this does not mean a hundred percent of your shots should be in play. By the way, this is 80% of your shots. We want you to pick a target so that 80% of these shots are in play, not a hundred.'cause again, if I were to aim somewhere to get a hundred percent of my shots in play, now I'm being so conservative that when I hit my best ones, I'm not really getting a benefit out of. So we want you to get your a benefit out of the best shot. So, 80% of 80 ish percent of shots in play. Number two is gonna be getting the ball on the green.

Eric 29:44

Mm-hmm.

Rob Failes 29:45

right? And then if there's still room on either side of your dispersion, meaning if you're dispersion's tight enough, and or if you're close enough to the green to where you can slide your dispersion now closer to the pin while keeping your entire dispersion on the green, that's gonna be priority number three, and that's gonna be your eventual target. So really, we want you aiming as close to the pin as possible while keeping 80% of your shots in, in play, and on the green. All right. That's gonna be approach,, short game. We're gonna go ahead and say it's kind of understood. It's like getting the ball and play with your short game shot is important. But we're gonna say like, number one is to get the ball on the green. And this, I think this gets glazed over way too much when you even talking to like level three players. I see, I see level, I see level three players, especially end of level two players. Entry level three players really get tripped up by this. Is because far too often those, like end of level two golfers, beginning level three golfers are taking on shots where if you truly looked at it, less than 80% of the shot that you are taking on is getting on the green,

Eric 30:49

Right,

Rob Failes 30:50

So, so getting on the green's, number one, and then proximity to hole is gonna be number two.

Eric 30:55

And we're talking about, just to define

Rob Failes 30:58

Short game. Yeah. Thank you.

Eric 31:00

The, we'd say 40 yards and

Rob Failes 31:02

Correct. Yep.

Eric 31:03

than

Rob Failes 31:03

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Eric 31:04

Right?

Rob Failes 31:04

yards an end. Yep. Agree.

Eric 31:06

and that's for most people. I mean, if you're, if you're some people, I would give it 30,'cause they're just, club speed is

Rob Failes 31:11

Yeah.

Eric 31:12

quite there. But I would say as a rule of thumb, it's shorter than

Rob Failes 31:15

Yeah.

Eric 31:16

I would totally agree with you on the, on the Ms. Green thing, and I think the data from which I do not have in front of me, but you know, if you're off the green, just just off the

Rob Failes 31:25

Yes.

Eric 31:26

versus on the green, the expected outcome is

Rob Failes 31:29

It's crazy.

Eric 31:31

And so when you're, I think that strategy is really still, it still does play onto the next, like each shot is getting you in position

Rob Failes 31:39

Mm-hmm.

Eric 31:40

That's why a disruptor takes you outta position.

Rob Failes 31:42

Yep.

Eric 31:43

I'm not in position for the next shot. So if I'm off the green, I got it. And to your point, like especially as my, as I'm working through the levels, my skill, which we'll get to in

Rob Failes 31:53

Yep.

Eric 31:54

isn't quite as good. Meaning. I don't control the shot as

Rob Failes 31:58

Mm-hmm.

Eric 31:58

or as, or as,, or I can really change the, the shot height or whatever the spin. therefore I have to be more conservative. And then as I'm getting, you know, as I'm Tiger Woods, I can get

Rob Failes 32:10

Yes. Yeah.

Eric 32:11

less conservative. Right. like, no, I'll hit it over the back of that hole at, at the memorial and then I'll miss the green from 20 yards and then I'll pitch it in from 15 yards

Rob Failes 32:20

Yes.

Eric 32:21

I'm Tiger

Rob Failes 32:22

Yeah.

Eric 32:22

can't do that.

Rob Failes 32:24

No, I mean, truly

Eric 32:26

it on the

Rob Failes 32:26

a hundred percent. Yeah. Like dispersion is a fluid thing. That's the thing. That's the really the beauty of of, of aiming it this way is that. You know, there are some days where your rhythm just feels impeccable and it's like, you know what? I've got quite a bit more predictability over what's going on, and it's okay. Like if you're feeling good today to, to narrow this in a little bit. And then vice versa. There are days where just like the grip feels weird, like if feels weird in your hands, you're just kind of in a fog. Like you're not really focused, you're not really present. And it's like, you know what, like on those days it's okay to spread that thing out a little bit. And there are environmental situations that change the dispersion too, like into the wind increases, dispersion, downwind,

Eric 33:06

Hmm.

Rob Failes 33:07

decreases, dispersion, in the rough makes it bigger fairway. Typically it's gonna be your stock and it'll be your standard. So like things like that, like that's where the feel comes in as a player. Especially with Aim point, people say all the time, like, oh, like, you know, aim point has taken the feel outta, like, it couldn't be the fur further from the truth. So much depends on those little like ev environmental adjustments to things like how far your fingers are away from your face, where on your fingers you look like there's so many when you're using fingers to target. So much of it is feel, so much of it is your awareness as a player and kind of where you're at. But yeah, that's, that's short game. Any other, anything you had to, to add there for, for short game?

Eric 33:46

No, no. I would say one thing Have definitely done some like definitions of these terminologies, of these terminology that we use, right? Early on there was like, is a disruptor? You did a whole post on some of those terminology

Rob Failes 33:59

yeah.

Eric 34:00

We did a, we did an episode on the finger dispersions. So finger dispersions, we keep bringing up, but it's like a way that you use your hands to triangulate over space to create pattern, right? And basically based on who you are as a golfer, your ability to control that either narrows or it widens, right? And then this brilliant way to use it. And there's other, there's other strategy systems they use, ma, a lot of'em use math, right? And they're just They're mouthing all day long, but the math just to be is so distracting to me. And so just being able to use your fingers to triangulate just like, you know, somebody would do to, to try to judge when the sun is gonna go

Rob Failes 34:38

Yes.

Eric 34:39

So as an example, the target green that we hit at all day outta my teaching bay is 171 yards slightly downhill, And so when I'm showing people tour player dispersion just to give'em a for instance, it looks to me and I should go out and measure it someday. looks to me like it's probably 17 feet, right? And, and 17 feet left of the flag, I would guess from 170. Does that sound about right? I don't know what the math is. I would say it's probably somewhere. So 35 foot dispersion on the green.

Rob Failes 35:13

um, yeah, that's gonna be, so, so it's gonna be, again, if we talk about average dispersion, it's gonna be in the eight ish percent range. So take, take 170, so, so 10% would be 17 yards. So less than, so we're talking about, you know, I don't know, quick more mental math on this episode, but probably like

Eric 35:36

14, 14

Rob Failes 35:37

14 yards ish, somewhere in there.

Eric 35:39

that's 30, 42

Rob Failes 35:42

Four, two feet.

Eric 35:43

I'm not far, I said 35. Like I'm

Rob Failes 35:44

Yeah. Yeah, that's about right.

Eric 35:46

So think about that. So you're, you're at 170 yards, 40, call it 40 feet is the spread.

Rob Failes 35:52

Yeah.

Eric 35:52

feet, right? 20 feet

Rob Failes 35:54

Yeah.

Eric 35:54

from a tour player. Guess what? They're hitting from 170 yards people. They're hitting nine

Rob Failes 35:59

Yep. Eight, nine. Yeah.

Eric 36:02

here we are

Rob Failes 36:03

Mm-hmm.

Eric 36:04

seven iron

Rob Failes 36:04

Yep.

Eric 36:05

or whatever. this is why when you talk about. Game improvement theory. There's a lot of layers to this that you start to unravel. Right. And if I can have a shorter club in my hand, this goes back to your tee shot thing. If I could have a shorter club in my hand, my ability to tighten the dispersion is more because I put less side spin on the ball with a club that has more loft. It's just the way that it works, right? And it's a shorter shaft, so I'm standing closer to the ball, contact becomes a better. So anyway, that's skill stuff. But point being it all sort of builds one to the

Rob Failes 36:39

Yeah.

Eric 36:39

up through the levels, right? And you stand there and you think, my goodness, they're hitting pitch a wedge from here and I'm hitting six iron.

Rob Failes 36:45

Yes.

Eric 36:45

but that's kind of, for some of people, that's the

Rob Failes 36:48

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I.

Eric 36:51

It's just a very thing when you start to calculate it. But it also gives you the visual to work

Rob Failes 36:58

Mm-hmm.

Eric 36:59

oh my gosh, I can see how that

Rob Failes 37:01

Yes.

Eric 37:03

And, and I didn't mean to cut you cut off your

Rob Failes 37:05

No. Yeah.

Eric 37:06

I was just like, it, it's so,, it's eyeopening. It's eyeopening when you start doing it, for

Rob Failes 37:11

A hundred percent. Yeah. And then finally, right, working into putting, right? So really with putting, there's, there's two main considerations, right? Is as you, move through how far your ball is away from the hole, right? So really it's gonna be, are you going for proximity? How close can the ball stop to the hole? Or are you trying to convert it? Are you trying to roll it in? And again, this is very much player dependent, right? So we'll get into this a little bit more in our putting series'cause we will be doing a, a putting series. But really, for level one golfers, it's Probably 10 feet. That's kind of where like the cutoff is. I'd say entry level one golfers, people who haven't putted before. It's probably closer to like six feet, to be honest.

Eric 37:52

let, let's describe that a little bit. So. The at 10 feet, and, and Jack Nicholas said this, I

Rob Failes 37:58

Yeah,

Eric 37:58

at 10 feet, he would say I'd start lagging was his term. And what

Rob Failes 38:02

no kidding. Did he actually say that? That's really cool.

Eric 38:05

Yeah. So basically what we're saying is center of dispersion is gonna be the middle of the

Rob Failes 38:10

Correct.

Eric 38:11

at,

Rob Failes 38:11

Yep.

Eric 38:12

at 10 feet and longer. Relatively.

Rob Failes 38:14

level one golfers. Yeah.

Eric 38:15

for,

Rob Failes 38:16

Or apparently Jack Dickless.

Eric 38:18

well, I think he said

Rob Failes 38:19

Yeah.

Eric 38:20

go back and

Rob Failes 38:20

Yeah. That'd be cool.

Eric 38:21

up, but maybe he was saying for beginner

Rob Failes 38:24

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric 38:24

I'd have to find the

Rob Failes 38:25

Yeah.

Eric 38:26

point being not trying to ram it past the whole, so the, the point is, you try to hit it past the hole from 20 feet, every single time putting your center of dispersion

Rob Failes 38:37

Mm-hmm.

Eric 38:38

you're gonna bring in way more three putts without making more one putts. So therefore, you're losing, you're losing there. Now, people will argue with you, with this. they're blue in the face. Like this is one thing that people I think, don't believe me when I'm teaching them this. It's like, no, no, no.

Rob Failes 38:55

No,

Eric 38:56

don't have to hit it past the hole at 20 feet. You can leave it two feet short and be really happy with that put, right?'cause you're in a two

Rob Failes 39:01

for sure.

Eric 39:02

and you try to give'em the stats and their eyes glaze over and they're like, my dad told me I have to hit it past the hole, or I have to do 10

Rob Failes 39:08

Yes.

Eric 39:09

You're like,

Rob Failes 39:10

Yeah.

Eric 39:10

You know, it is what it's, but so hitting it always past the hole isn't actually the goal. A good co and really good putters will tell you that Brad Fon doesn't try to do that. It's the best putter I've ever seen. You know, unbelievable putter. And he'll tell you, he tries to quote unquote die it at the hole every time. So he's saying, you know. Center of dispersion is at the bottom of the hole, essentially. Right? He's trying to stop his ball right there. He's not trying to run it past, but as you get on short putts, you do wanna run it past, you do want to have a little bit more speed'cause you never wanna leave it short. These are the putts that you actually can make.

Rob Failes 39:47

Totally.

Eric 39:47

And so you're saying over level 1, 2, 3, 4, those numbers can

Rob Failes 39:53

Yes. Mm-hmm.

Eric 39:54

when you feel like you're

Rob Failes 39:55

For sure.

Eric 39:56

versus trying to get it past the

Rob Failes 39:58

Like the data would suggest, like level four golfers for tour players is like thir a little over 30 feet.

Eric 40:04

That's

Rob Failes 40:05

they would actually, what's very interesting, they would put better, if they moved it closer to the hole, if they got to actually at 30 feet, they would actually put better. So tour players are actually a little bit suboptimal in their strategy for putting based off of the data that we've seen. It's like even at 30, they're still trying to roll it past a little bit and they would actually put better if they, if they didn't. Again, that's big data over like every single tour pro taking a look at what's going on. So that's pretty much the range, like level one entry. Level one is six end of level, one 10 feet. Once you get to level two, like that's where it kind of floats into like the 12 to 18 foot range to 20 foot, depending on where you're at in level two. And then again, like Tor pros, they, they, they're out closer to 30 as when they, when they go from trying to convert to trying to lag it. And it is a little bit pot dependent too, like if you're. If you're a level three golfer and you're standing over a 12 footer and it's straight downhill across a 4% slope, then you might say, you know what, on this particular putt, I just feel better about trying to lag it. And, and there are processes that we have,, that involve taking the, the most break that you can possibly take, to try to account for that. But with so much of that, again, that's pretty, that covers basically the, the element of strategy that is going through the decision tree based off of your dispersion, right? It's really your, what are you trying to do here, right? There's a whole other element of strategy that is answering the question of how you're gonna do it, because you can take everything that we've said today and apply it to a Google map. You could map out a golf course with Google and let's say you played a hypothetical round and you put the golf balls exactly where they ended up. You could go through this decision tree that we just laid out for you with a driving approach, short game and putting on Google Maps. What you couldn't do, however, is make the necessary adjustments for how the environment is gonna change, what the ball's gonna do, right? And there's a couple things to keep in mind here, right? We talk about the lie, which is basically the surface the ball's resting on. Is it in the rough, is it in the fairway? Is it in, in a bunker? What's the medium that the ball is sitting in? We, we say lie, then there's slope, right? Which is what the ball is resting on. Whether it's uphill, downhill ball above your feet, ball below your feet where the ball is landing, right? So the ball could be landing above where you are or below where you are. And the surface that it's landing on and rolling across right. When it lands, is it landing on a side slope or is it landing uphill downhill, or is it rolling across a side slope, uphill, downhill? A lot of this looking at each of those slopes individually is gonna be probably most important for short game and, your shorter approach play. But those are gonna be really the environmental factors. It's the, it's the lie in the slope. And then finally is the weather, right, which includes wind, which includes things like temperature, humidity, elevation, like all the weather stuff that can change what the golf ball's doing is another part of the equation. So you have your, what are you trying to do, which is kind of like the decision tree and your, and your dispersion and then the how you're trying to do it, that's kind of making your adjustments for live slope weather. And that's pretty much it. Like that's the, that's all of the conscious decisions that you're making on the golf course. And you can kind of picture this, like when you're going out to play, you're gonna pick a target and then you're gonna make your environmental adjustments. And that's, that is strategy. Pretty much can we get you better by improving those very, very conscious decisions before you swing the club back? Right. That includes things like club selection, all of that stuff. Pretty much. Once the club is swinging back, or I should say even like a little bit before the club is swinging back, pretty much before you walk into the shot, basically. What are the things that you can quote unquote, control. And that's why a lot of people have success with working with strategy. It's because it is more under your control. Like you can control those conscious decisions, right? Once you're walking in and once you take your looks and win that club, swinging back it's skill or swing, it's gonna be one of those two. And it's trying to figure out Hey, what's gonna move the needle, the fastest for the golfer? And what we're saying is there's a lot you can get done before you start walking into the shot. Right. And that's, that's, that's strategy.

Eric 44:35

It's essentially all the things you hear the players and the caddies

Rob Failes 44:38

Yes. Exactly.

Eric 44:40

It's

Rob Failes 44:40

Yep.

Eric 44:40

all it is. I mean, essentially it is. And over time. Yeah. Strategy has been more quantified, like we're talking about. Right? It's

Rob Failes 44:47

For sure.

Eric 44:48

understood better with Track. TrackMan has helped a lot on this. It's helped with the adjustments for altitude and wind and, you know, temperature of the day and, and also understanding dispersion

Rob Failes 45:00

Yep.

Eric 45:00

and where you should aim all that's come together because of this data that we've, we've gotten, and this is why I think, back in the day, you know, when Tiger Woods came on the scene and he said he was gonna try to win every tournament he played in, and they the old timers kind of scoffed at him. Like, you'll see, like, it takes, I think what they were saying is it takes a lot of time to understand the strategy, whether that's what they meant or not. Do you, do you learn quote unquote learn the golf courses? Do you quote unquote, understand, you know,

Rob Failes 45:27

Yeah.

Eric 45:28

where the, where the mountain is that

Rob Failes 45:30

Oh God.

Eric 45:31

to,

Rob Failes 45:31

Yeah.

Eric 45:32

but this is all that stuff that they. You know, and Tiger just came in and nuked it all right? Like he just destroyed all of it and his strategy was just way better than everybody else's, right?, He just understood this stuff. We should probably do a series on Tiger. I keep saying this, we've learned so much from

Rob Failes 45:48

Yeah,

Eric 45:48

should just do the

Rob Failes 45:49

yeah, yeah. I like that.

Eric 45:52

so point being, if you're a, if you're someone listening to this that shoots, you know, that shoots in the nineties, you're probably not thinking to yourself wow. Do I need to like, think through all the stuff I see Scotty Scheffler talk to his caddy about before he plays? And the answer is no, not necessarily. I mean, not to the level that he does it. Why? Because he's just way better at controlling it, right? So you're gonna be making more best guess and best case scenarios. And we're gonna tie this into the skill piece of this conversation. When

Rob Failes 46:25

Correct.

Eric 46:25

episode, we're gonna talk about the skill. So as you're becoming more skilled golfer, your predictability of what's gonna happen and how you're gonna adjust becomes more important, right? And so you don't have to spend all day figuring all this stuff out. This is where dispersion can come into play. And then making your, best case, like having a good routine you know, figuring out how you make slight adjustments for the last slope and wind or slash slope and weather and just play, right? It doesn't become overwhelming. It just becomes part of your. part of your process, right? And the better you get at golf, the better that prediction's gonna be, and the more important your adjustments are gonna be.

Rob Failes 47:06

Percent. Yeah, I, I would, I would totally agree. And, and I think we said this, before we hopped on, but, if you're a level one golfer listening to this, what I'll tell you is that you'll probably get the most bang for your buck with strategy when it comes to putting right. Predicting, where am I going to aim this putter face and how much speed? Again, that's, that's kind of a skill, but really like the, the most conscious prediction we make in putting is really where am I gonna aim this putter face? And basically, where do I want the ball to stop? Right? So you're gonna get the most bang for your buck strategy with putting if, especially if you're a level one golfer. And that's why if you come take a putting lesson with me or with Eric, we're pretty much gonna look at strategy first. That's the first thing we're gonna look at. You might hear us call it green reading, right? So that is strategy really. It's a very conscious, you can literally say out loud, Hey, this is where I'm gonna start the golf ball, and I'd love for the ball to stop either around the hole or a little bit past it, right? So that's all very conscious, I would say that., Honestly. Then from there, it's gonna be aiming your dispersion because again, as a level one golfer, you need to know kind of like how, Hey, how big is this dispersion? Because again, the last thing we'd want for you as a level one golfer is to increase your shots to green because you're picking targets that you're not getting the benefit of your, of your very average shots from. Right? So as a level one golfer, can you just literally understand how big is my dispersion and where do I need to aim this so that all of these shots in my dispersion, again, 80 ish percent of my shots end up in play and pretty much like go through that to a t. You pretty much don't need to, like, even for level one golfer, like obviously we said that the decision tree is for every golfer. So yes, proximity, and then fairway would be third, but then like going even from, approach play, same kind of stuff. Like it's okay to be aiming off the green with your approach. Play for a level one golfer, you're gonna be aiming off the green quite a bit.. That's okay. Like you, you can have your absolute best shots be a little bit off the green, but that might also mean that a lot of average shots kind of misses are gonna be on the green and way fewer of those shots are gonna be in, in penalty areas. And then for short game, it's, it's do what you need to do, get the ball on the green. That's the number one goal. If you need to put it, put it, if you need to take a hybrid out and put it with a hybrid, put it with a hybrid,, you know, do what you need to do. Again, as a level one golfer, proximity's, kinda like a cherry on top. It's like a luxury item. It's kind of nice, like, hey, it's great for the ball to end up close to the hole, but it's, it's not the number one priority. It's, it's getting the ball in the green. So yeah, just wanted to kind of, I, I wanted to do real quick, kind of run through,'cause we're gonna have some level one golfers listening, um, and then level two. Obviously you can go back and rewind and listen as we kind of work through that decision tree, but that's basically what it is. It's how big is your dispersion, how far down that decision tree, can you go? And then are you making those kind of adjustments that, that we need to make?

Eric 50:02

Do you feel like level two is kind of where strategy kicks into

Rob Failes 50:06

Yeah, agreed.

Eric 50:08

a lot.'cause a lot of times you see some level, and again this is just generalizations, but you see some level two golfers that are someone, maybe your age, Robbie, you know, that's getting into golf and played a couple years and they're pretty athletic,

Rob Failes 50:21

exactly who you're talking about. Yeah.

Eric 50:22

they're just munching the ball and they're playing better and when things are working it's like they can shoot a pretty

Rob Failes 50:28

Mm-hmm.

Eric 50:29

and when they're off they hit the ball all over the planet. And because their clubhead speed is kind of high, their or maybe is very high. Their ability to not have disruptors off the tee is. It's crazy. And then they're like, on every par five, whether there's a hazard or outer about whatever, they're just ripping it at the middle, you know, ripping it right at the flag, ripping at every flag, and then just like taking on what comes. And then all of a sudden they look and they go there's gotta be a better way. I'm, I'm getting better at this now. I need to find some refinement in my game. Right? And that refinement is the thing that can really drive that strategy piece to a, understand in the moment how to play a better round of golf, but b, have a bigger understanding of what I need to work on to get to the next level. Right. Because I think that's the beauty of when you really can visualize dispersion. We use this term. I mean, if it was a drinking game

Rob Failes 51:25

Oh my gosh. Someone is absolutely wasted right now.

Eric 51:29

I'm drinking water right now.

Rob Failes 51:31

I'm not drinking anything right now.

Eric 51:33

come on

Rob Failes 51:34

I know.

Eric 51:34

So. Point being when you can visualize that all of a

Rob Failes 51:39

Yeah.

Eric 51:39

and you're like, oh my gosh. Like I see the picture has become clear to me. And just holding your hand up in front of you and,

Rob Failes 51:47

Yep,

Eric 51:47

figuring that out is wild, right? And then for a lot of people that have a competitive spirit, right? That it drives'em, they're like, I see what I need to

Rob Failes 51:58

yep.

Eric 51:58

better. um, yeah. As a store, as a story on this dispersion, I caddied in, in a champion store qualifier this year, Monday qualifier. And I made notes on this one hole. I feel, I mean, to this day, like I, it just drives me nuts. And I miss this, right? I made notes on this hole. It's a dog leg left. And then there's this big tree that guards the right side of the green, you're ripping drive and hitting eight iron ends. It's not a short hole, right? It's not like you're hitting sandwich. We over the tree in the practice round I made a note like, miss right here. Like, cannot miss. There wasn't a hazard, wasn't a bunker actually. was just hard pan, half dormant Bermuda and a cart path and a massive hill that was gonna kick this ball into pine straw or whatever. I made this note, like, cannot mis right, cannot mis right, especially if it's a right hole location. It's a super steep slope. And we're in the fairway kind of going through this, you know, like where his ball was. We're making the wind adjustments, we're going through this process. Every single shot, and when we picked the target line, I just didn't move it enough. Left. Like it, like the, the round was kind of, it was like the 11th hole and we're kinda like even or whatever, like nothing had happened. And in your mind, I think you're. and I both were, I think trying to get one in there with an eight or

Rob Failes 53:27

Mm-hmm.

Eric 53:28

like, you know what I

Rob Failes 53:29

Yeah.

Eric 53:29

And we just needed to move those fingers left 20 feet and we just didn't do it. And he misses like four yards right of the flag and made double bogey, like to a place where he couldn't get it on

Rob Failes 53:42

Yeah.

Eric 53:42

it was a, it would've been an almost impossible shot to get it on the green. So you're putting yourself through this and you just go through it again and again and again

Rob Failes 53:50

Yeah.

Eric 53:51

again. And whether you're a level four player, whether you're level one player, level two is probably where a lot of this starts to come together. You make a decision and you want to do it over. And it's what data? That's how data is, it's not one at a time. It's over and over and over. And I'm consistent and I'm

Rob Failes 54:10

Yes.

Eric 54:11

and I'm in my process and I do it, and I do it, and I do it. And if I do that. a period of time, my scores will improve. the moment you might feel conservative, right? But that's okay.'cause you're, and that it plays out in the short game. Like when you're saying put around a bunker, that feels really weird. It feels weird to put around a bunker and leave myself 25 feet for par. But if I try to, if I don't have the shot to hit the lob wedge over the bunker to get it

Rob Failes 54:40

Yeah. Eight out 10 times, right? Yeah.

Eric 54:42

Eight outta 10 times so anyway, point being, just wanna, you want to be disciplined. Like that's where dis that's where decision process comes in. Like, it's something that you want to be disciplined to do over and over and over and over and over again, right? And where you stand in year round, right?

Rob Failes 54:59

No, it does not.

Eric 55:01

And that's where discipline gets really

Rob Failes 55:03

It does.

Eric 55:04

like whether you're playing great and you're like, I'm gonna go right at

Rob Failes 55:07

Yes.

Eric 55:08

all had those days. Right where you feel like every ball's off the middle of the face and right at the flag, and then you get to that hole where you can see is the flag and you hit it two yards, right? And you short side yourself in a bunker and you're like, I can't get this up and down. Like, what was I doing? Why am I here? That was a decision, that was a

Rob Failes 55:23

Yeah.

Eric 55:24

Right? And so, and that could really derail some rounds, right? So I think that being disciplined to just do it over and over again is such an important aspect of this decision making strategy. Right. And um, you know, I'm not great at it. I'm not that disciplined, right. But we're trying, we do better, actually, I am pretty

Rob Failes 55:47

Yeah. With that. Yeah.

Eric 55:49

that took years. I'm old now. It's easier to be

Rob Failes 55:51

Yeah.

Eric 55:52

when I was 22 trying to play the

Rob Failes 55:54

Right.

Eric 55:55

I could. So I think that that, know, that comes into play for sure.

Rob Failes 56:00

Hundred percent. And that's where I think like, just convincing people that you're, you're taking on the appropriate amount of risk. And I say this a lot, but it's like, what we don't, what we don't want you doing is, and I know you said it there and, and everyone knows what you mean, but we don't want you on the golf course saying, I cannot go here or I cannot go there. And standing up on the tee just filled with all of this avoidance, avoidance, avoidance. Because like you, you hear other, other people talk strategy and it's all about avoid this, avoid that. You can't have a three putt, you can't have a two chip, you can't have and, and that's not how we want you to play golf. We want you going out there and. Going for it, but going for it with a mathematically correct amount of risk. So in that scenario, the error really for your player there was, we needed to understand that where to move that dispersion was inside, was actually on the green. Like I needed to get my dispersion here. Like you said, Hey, I was four yards ride of the fly. Well it, it sounded like it kind of, it hit on the hit on a green that had some slope and the slope took it down. So we need to clearly define like, hey, where is the margin of this penalty area actually, right. So that hey, it actually was a little bit further left than what we thought. The fact that like you hit the, the ball in the penalty area. Who knows? That was the one out of, you know, that could have been the one out of like five that we're talking about where just the face had a me a little bit more. Right. But being able to diagnose this after the fact, well. It was not technically a skill error, it was a strategy error because

Eric 57:43

No. A

Rob Failes 57:43

we didn't, we didn't realize where, so I guess my point is, is we want you going out here and attacking the golf course, quote unquote, with putting this dispersion in places where you want the ball to be, right. We want, we want you putting this Hey, I, I want you to hit it here. I, I, I would like to hit it here. I, but it's never, I have to hit it here or I can't possibly hit it here because you never know. Like, again, like think about like Rory playing, in the Masters last year, like his shot on 13. I think if you had, if you pulled an entire room full of like golf strategy experts, they would all probably agree. Like you can't hit it in the penalty area there with a wedge. Can't do it. Right? Like quote unquote, not Well, what did he do? He knocked it in the penalty area. What else did he do? He won the tournament. So

Eric 58:33

right.

Rob Failes 58:34

you never know how this stuff is gonna play out. If you start saying to yourself like, I can't double the first hole. Well, let's actually think about, did you play a round that you were actually okay with, where you did double the first hole? And most people can say yes. I had a great round that I was really happy with where I tripled the first hole. Absolutely. Right. Can you think of a round that you were really happy with where you had a three putt or maybe two, three putts? Yeah, absolutely. So golf is a game of variability. Everyone knows you're gonna have some error with this,

Eric 59:03

Yeah.

Rob Failes 59:04

but it's like,

Eric 59:04

where the, that's where the process comes in.

Rob Failes 59:06

yes, yes,

Eric 59:08

then you're not so emotional. Can't do

Rob Failes 59:10

You stay in the game and you, and you keep staying present with each, every individual shot. And at the end you see what happens. You, you add'em up and you see how you fared. And that's, that's kind of how we like to see it. So, so we're very big on, on. Precepting the fact that you're gonna have, again, 16% of your shots are gonna be outside your dispersion. Hopefully they're in, like when the 16% of shots come. Hopefully they're in a place where you can find the golf ball. Sometimes they're not. But our goal here is to, is to choose a strategy to where if you hit the middle, 84% of your shots, then you're gonna be able to find the ball in play with a clear path to the green, on the green if you're in short game, right? And you're gonna be able to kind of, you know, get the most out of your round. So.

Eric 59:56

It makes total sense. Well, Rob, like to add to this lovely discussion?

Rob Failes 1:00:04

I don't think so.

Eric 1:00:05

I

Rob Failes 1:00:05

I, I think, you know, we, we've said that we want to, to go through some mailbag and, or some, lessons from our lessons, but I mean, I'm looking at the clock right now. It's an hour 15, so that was a, that was a big episode. I think we, we covered some of the score, some of the metrics in the beginning, so I think that was good,, especially on this episode to kind of go through that again, first off. But yeah, as we, as we move through the, it won't be an hour of level one to three, although I don't know you, y'all can tell us as a listener if you, if you enjoyed that. But, a little more long-winded on that tonight, but I think it's,, I think it's good.

Eric 1:00:37

No worries. So what, what we'll do, maybe another good way to do it is do maybe we can collect some questions,, related to

Rob Failes 1:00:46

I like that.

Eric 1:00:47

to the topics,

Rob Failes 1:00:48

that.

Eric 1:00:49

as, as folks listen through the series. You can send us questions and if you had a question about this episode, you can email us at the golf intervention@gmail.com, put in the, the subject line question for golf intervention. That would be great. That way we can sort through it very well. So if you had a question on strategy, so we could either start our next episode, you know, by answering those questions, then go into it or we may collect them and just do, an episode just of questions. So we'll

Rob Failes 1:01:18

Yeah,

Eric 1:01:18

you know, kind of

Rob Failes 1:01:20

I love that. No, I think that's a great idea. And our next, our next episode will be on skill, which I'm very excited about. And we're gonna have plenty of lessons from our lessons on this. I have a feeling. So,, very excited.

Eric 1:01:31

I think that no question we've said and said again I think the misconception with golf improvement is it's all about swing. And what we would say is swing is important. A hundred percent. But also there's also skill and there's also strategy. And in that hierarchy we're, it's probably least invasive to work down

Rob Failes 1:01:56

Yes,

Eric 1:01:56

strategy to

Rob Failes 1:01:57

yes.

Eric 1:01:57

swing,

Rob Failes 1:01:58

Yeah,

Eric 1:01:58

most impactful with that, with the least amount of cost. And when you start to take on swing stuff, you know, there can be a cost there.

Rob Failes 1:02:06

for sure.

Eric 1:02:06

know

Rob Failes 1:02:07

A hundred percent

Eric 1:02:07

that. Coaches know it, players know it, everybody understands. And so if we can, if we can work through skill, and or strategy, you know, there's, they tend to be, steps backwards tend to not be taken

Rob Failes 1:02:20

agreed. Yeah.

Eric 1:02:21

in those. Hopefully they go straightforward, like you said with strategy. It's hard to go, it's hard to have, your strategy and get

Rob Failes 1:02:27

By improving

Eric 1:02:29

Yeah, that

Rob Failes 1:02:29

doesn't really typically happen.

Eric 1:02:33

So thank you again, listener for tuning in to the Golf Intervention Podcast. We've enjoyed our time. And,, we will be rolling out new episodes, hopefully weekly. Now we're in the rhythm, and, we look forward to your questions. And thank you again for listening. Next time we talk about skill, everyone has a great week. You know, the sun is shining in Central Virginia. Hopefully everybody's finding some warm weather and we can start to play some golf. What do you think, Rob?

Rob Failes 1:03:00

Fired up. Let's do it.

Eric 1:03:02

up. All right, everybody, have a great evening.

Rob Failes 1:03:05

Cheers.