Buckle up

If you’re here, you are probably looking to play better golf. You’re in the right place. I can help you. Not only have I helped thousands of golfers play some of their best golf, I’ve lived it myself. But you’ve gotta buckle up. The road to improvement can be a bumpy ride.

I started playing golf when I was 16 years old as a product of the Tiger craze in 2000. He was absolutely setting the golf world (and the record books) on 🔥. For the first couple years, I improved by sheer effort. Showing up to the golf course every day and digging it out of the dirt… While it worked, I don’t recommend it. I played my way from struggling to break 100 down to about a 6 handicap… But, that method of improvement takes too long and isn’t scalable as you get older… and have day jobs… and families… responsibilities that keep you away from your clubs.

In 2014 I found myself working a demanding engineering job. I had a 1 year old son and as an 8 handicap, still had the desire to play better golf. But how do you improve with less time to practice? That’s when I truly started this journey of learning that I’m trying to share to shortcut your path to better golf. I started writing code for what would become TANGENT Golf and I started experimenting with improvement techniques.

The first thing I learned is that improvement isn’t linear. I have tracked almost every golf shot I’ve hit since 2016. I have more data on how my golf game has trended than I know what to do with, but one thing is clear. Improvement isn’t linear.

There are peaks and valleys. And as much as I’d like to say that if you spend an hour practicing today… you’ll immediately be better tomorrow… that’s simply not true. Improvement doesn’t really work that way. Improvement is a compounded effect from relentless diligence.

Let me give a simple, non-golf, example. You want to get strong. You are going to lift weights. You haven’t lifted in a while. So you go to the gym and you get after it pumping out bench presses until failure. You leave the gym feeling really good about yourself. A good pump… But what happens the next day… the next three days… Well, you can barely move your arms. Your body has some work to do to repair the muscles you just tore. A setback.

Many people stop at this point. That hurt. I don’t want to do that anymore. And while they might have a slight bump in strength the next week after they recover… It’s not sustainable if you don’t come back. It’s no different than getting in a quick short game session. You’ll likely see a benefit in your next round, but it tends to fade.

But there’s hope! Don’t let that discourage you. My handicap plot from above may be full of peaks and valleys, but the overall trend is clear, improvement. Could it have decreased faster? Of course! Is it still inconsistent at times? Of course! I have two boys. I’m trying to grow a business. I probably played the least golf of the last decade this past year… And I still got better. So can you.

You improve what you can measure

If you are in the business world, this might strike a nerve… but you improve what you can measure. There is a reason your boss comes into the room with some metric to hold you accountable for. If you can measure something, you can find a way to improve it. Whether thats revenue or your golf game. The key is to choose the right metric that leads to the best outcomes.

If you choose a metric that is too high level… revenue as an example, it can be difficult to figure out how to move the needle. You can improve revenue with more sales / customers, higher conversions, or higher prices. Which moves the metric the best?

With golf, it’s similar. If you solely focus on score… The problem is much tougher. How do you improve score? A round of golf is the sum of many parts. You can have a great driving day and miss a few putts and feel like you’re lost. This is why I prefer to use TANGENT which converts scores into Strokes Gained and Strokes Gained into actionable steps to improve.

The below is the state of my game in 2017. I struggled with ball striking. Both Driving and Approach, but mainly approach. I lost 4.4 shots to my goal of an Elite Amateur in every round I played. So I knew I had to improve my Approach game.

TANGENT breaks it down further. One of the fastest ways to improve is to hit more greens and I was missing more than 50% of greens due to my Approach game!

You can miss greens in multiple ways: Distance Control, Direction, or bigger mistakes leaving yourself in bunkers, hazards, or recovery. TANGENT highlighted that much of my struggle with Approach was due to mistakes. Mistakes are typically the result of poor course management and aggressive targets for your skill level. This was a huge area that I could improve as I’ll detail shortly.

The last step in the cycle is the Root Cause. I was missing greens primarily short. This is almost always either a strike issue or overestimating my club distances as TANGENT points out. Typically those are related as I described in the last newsletter. You overestimate club distances because you don’t factor in mishits.

Alright. We laid the groundwork. What are we going to do about it?

Make a plan for improvement… and stick to it.

I needed to improve two things:

1. Ball striking

2. Course Management

Ball Striking

My ball striking would help me get more center hits, get my irons distances more consistent so that I would stop missing short. Better course management would put me in better spots. It would give me more margin for my misses without being stuck in bunkers or penalty areas.

I still had obligations, so practice time was limited. So I brought practice to me.

With some simple items from the local hardware store, I built a stand in my backyard, got a cheap net and went to work. It was nothing crazy. In between diapers and dinner, I could squeeze in 20 balls here and there. Hit 20 balls a few times a week and you start seeing results. I amplified the results further by getting a launch monitor. The launch monitor would give me even more feedback and feedback is a fastrack to change.

Feedback is similar to having a metric. I would hit a ball, the launch monitor would tell me how far that ball went including Clubhead speed, ball speed, etc. So I would practice. Move the ball around in my stance, work on keeping my head still, try to swing faster… and with each swing I’d get a little bit of feedback on how I was doing.

Slowly but surely, session after session, I started seeing my ball striking get more consistent. I went from hitting a 6 iron 160 yards to 180+ yards. I did this by doing simple drills and measuring low point control, impact location, and speed. There is a reason all these drills are now easily measurable in the TANGENT app. They work.

Course Management

Ball striking was just one part of the equation. I needed to improve my course management. I devoured books. Lowest Score Wins was probably my favorite for simply talking through course management and target selection with visuals. I studied DECADE methodologies, which were great. It put context to things I already knew to be true and allowed me to better understand complex concepts in a way that allowed me to be more committed to implementing them.

The best part of me going down the course management journey?

I made it so you don’t have to. I took everything I learned and put it into the Caddie in TANGENT. TANGENT will learn your distances and dispersions and help give you smart targets that optimize scoring. The same thing the best caddies in the world do for their players. It’s like having a seasoned caddie right in your pocket.

How well did these methods work? Well, again, I have 7+ years of data in TANGENT, so let’s compare 2017 to 2024.

I improved my overall strokes gained by 5.5 shots.
Over a shot and a half in Driving.
Almost 2 shots on Approach.
Another shot on Short Game.
Over a full shot on Putting.

But wait a minute?!? I didn’t say anything about practicing short game or putting. Why did they improve?… A funny thing happens when your course management improves… I left myself in easier places for short game. Instead of being in a short sided bunker, I was on the fairway color with a simple chip. Short game got easier, which meant my performance improved without me focusing on it.

Similarly, I started hitting it closer to the target. My proximity improved and so did my putting. I was a good short putter and struggled more with long putts. So by improving my ball striking (and therefore proximity), I was able to lean more into my strength on the putting greens.

Embrace the Journey

The journey has been a blast. Playing better golf is more fun. Setting new personal bests, playing tough courses well, there is nothing like it. I am so passionate about the path to improvement that I’ve poured myself into building tools to help you do the same.

This year, I’m doubling down. I believe so much in TANGENT and the process that I’m really pushing myself to see just how good I can get. Putting my money where my mouth is. In case you missed it, I announced on The Good Miss that I’m going to to try to qualify (and eventually win) the US Mid Am.

But as I said at the beginning… Improvement isn’t linear. My first tournament back was a huge shock to the system. Spoiler Alert… I shot an 84. Not very good if you have the goals I have. But there is a lot to learn from that. I show the round in its entirety here:

Then I got in the lab with TANGENT and learned everything I could from the round. I detailed how I used the Round Report to focus my attention for the next Tournament.

And lo and behold… I had my best tournament score ever in my very next event. Just wild. You can see that round in its entirety here:

Is this shameless self promotion… yes. Is this my real golf journey?… Also yes.

I’m building this thing because I believe in it. Because I use it. And because I know it can legitimately help you improve your golf faster… Even if it’s not always linear. Let’s improve together.

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