Critical for Improvement

I watched the end of the Northern Trust Open at Riviera yesterday. I found the interview with Sergio Garcia interesting as it relates to my game and my goal to improve. After the round, Sergio said “I didn’t deserve to win.” Nothing wrong with those comments, which are at worst, blatantly obvious. He went on to say he had not been driving the ball well all week, and that is what caught my attention.

Sergio’s problem was not about driving the golf ball all week. It was not about tee shots at all. The problem is choking under pressure. All he had to do was par the final two holes, and he would have won. He certainly would not have been quoted saying “I did not deserve to win!” if he had simply parred the last two holes.

The same thing happened a couple of years ago, two holes to go, tied for the lead, and he fell apart.

Here’s how I get an accurate read-out on what goes wrong on the golf course, and I don’t rely on a vague feeling. Yesterday was a particularly ugly round. Using the Game Improvement option in the 80BREAKR™ app, the area I need to focus on short-term is green-side bunkers and short pitch shots.

Examining my detailed stats points out that I was not hitting fairways much, and only had one green in regulation for 9 holes. Fairways and GIR were an issue yesterday for me, but was not the main problem.

If Peter Kostis interviewed me after my round, I may have said “I didn’t deserve a good score.” But the reason for scoring poorly and the areas needing improvement are clear: poor sand shots & poor pitch shots.

Sergio might improve and win the next time if he focuses on the real problem.