Why you should try tournament golf

It’s been over 10 years since I started this journey of app development and golf statistics. I started it for one simple reason. I wanted to get better at golf, but I had a growing family and a day job. It’s not easy. In addition to developing the stats app now known as Tangent, I started playing a lot of tournament golf on the US Am Tour.

In my opinion, tournament golf is the best way to improve the fastest. It gives you something to strive for, it gives you a measuring stick, and it exposes cracks in your game that aren’t there in a friendly match.

No mulligans, no gimmes, no escape. Even if you feel like you need one.

I recently put up a quad and a triple in a tournament round at Chambers Bay. I found myself stuck in the dunes and just couldn’t get out. The round deserved a drink to show off the new scorecard sharing function in Tangent. How bout that 48-37.

I finished second to last in that tournament. Not ideal going into Mid Am season, but thats tournament golf. Luckily I filmed the whole thing to post to The Good Miss later, so it lives on forever. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube so you don’t miss the comedy of errors when its released.

Despite not loving the score, there is a lot of good golf on that scorecard and I took that with me on the way to the Mid Ams.

Mid Am Qualifiers

Part of my golf journey has been preparing to really test my game. I’ve been a scratch handicap for a while now and I want to be competitive in higher level events, which means TXGA and USGA. I signed up to play in both the Texas Mid Am and US Mid Am qualifiers which just so happened to fall back to back.

The first test was the Texas Mid Am qualifier at Sugar Tree in Lipan. I had never played the course, so I made my game plan using Explore Mode, tried to get a good night’s sleep and prayed I didn’t embarrass myself like I did in the Texas Am Qualifier (on YouTube).

I’ll spare too many details, other than to say, I played well. I missed qualifying by just 2 strokes. I finished T14 out of 83 players. Not bad. Only the top 8 qualified.

Explore mode did a good job of preparing me, but I just didn’t putt well enough.

The US Mid Am Qualifier

Next up… The US Mid Am Qualifier. The big kahuna. In case you missed it, my dream would be to win the mid am as it gets you a spot in The Masters.

Until yesterday, I had never played in a USGA event. The field for the qualifier was 120 players for 4 spots. I showed up feeling like the only player that didn’t play college golf. My resumé is nowhere near as decorated as the majority of this field. Intimidating. To say I was nervous is an understatement. My heart was racing from the jump, but I held my own.

Again, I’ll spare you the play by play, we recorded both of these rounds for The Good Miss to be released in August.

I did not qualify, but I learned a lot about myself in the round. I’m a big believer that you have to look for positives in every round and I was able to right the ship in this round. I putted dreadfully on the front and found myself +6 through 10 holes. I found a way to shoot -1 on the last 8! Every bit of that grind will pay dividends in the future.

If you click on that link to see the full leaderboard you’ll find I finished somewhere just north of the middle of the pack and it took -4 to qualify!

Here’s where Tangent comes in. A 77 may seem miles away from a 68 (and in some ways it is), but now I can quantify just what I have to do to put myself in position to advance a year from now.

I always like to start with the Tangent Four:

Just do the easy stuff well. I threw away more than a handful of shots. These were not difficult putts that I 3 putted. I was tentative. Putted scared.

A careless penalty with a poor club selection (I hit one less than caddie would have recommended) and a recovery shot where I had to punch out of trouble cost me a couple more strokes.

But wait… you still have to find 4 more shots?!?

I missed an easy 4 footer on 8 that shows in the Coachable Moments of the Round Report.

I also chunked a really simple wedge on 9 that led to another bogey. That cost me over half a stroke according to the new Round Review Strokes Gained feature.

And even though I ‘only’ had three 3 putts… I lost over 4.4 strokes putting because I missed so many makable birdie chances.

How do I know I missed makable ones? Well continuing through the Round Report guides to exactly where I need to work and it’s not long putts, it’s 20 feet and in:

Alright… by now I’m in danger of becoming that guy at the bar who won’t stop droning about how his 77 could have been a 68 if he just would have gotten a few breaks, but I think it’s important to point out just how powerful the analytics are in the Tangent app and you don’t have to drone on about it with your friends to get the insights for yourself with a Pro subscription.

If you track your shots and spend just 5 minutes after every round looking at your round report and coaches corner, you’ll find ways to quickly improve your game. And lower scores are more fun.

So I know what I’ll be working on. Wedges and putting.

Whether your practicing on the range or at home, focused practice results in a greater than 50% improvement in results. TANGENT is built with drills to help you work on the right things and measure performance of your practice sessions. The iRange Sports Stick makes practice with TANGENT easier. It holds your phone where you can easily see it and interact with it. Whether your using TANGENT voice commands or tapping the screen, iRange is a convenient solution for holding your phone. You can also use it to capture those swing videos as you get dialed. Super portable, it fits in your golf bag. A great addition to any serious golfer.