Golfer's Logbook

by Lee Pearce

Overview

This unique logbook offers the means to record all parts of your golf-game—your shots, scores, putts, penalties, and more—so that you can analyze your progress after each round and build up a valuable personal record.

After a few rounds, you will begin to recognize patterns in your game and areas where you can improve. This is what the rest of the book is about: It targets problem areas and provides practical solutions and all the advice you need to lower your handicap.

Action photography and step-by-step illustrations guide you through all aspects of the game and show you how to improve your performance in key areas, including:

• how to hit the perfect drive
• hitting greens from the fairway
• sinking long and short putts consistently
• playing successfully from the rough
• getting out of traps—every time
• how to improve your mental game.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061363030
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/11/2008
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Lee Pearce is a highly experienced golf instructor and certified member of the PGS. Lee has been teaching for many years and was formerly PGA professional at the Gog Magog Golf Club, before becoming a Senior Tutor at the Cambridge Golf Academy. Lee has contributed to a number of golf instruction books including the best-selling Golf Handbook.

Read an Excerpt

Golfer's Logbook

By Lee Pearce HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2008
Lee Pearce
All right reserved.

ISBN: 9780061363030

Introduction

Using your logbook
Improving your game

It may be rare (and certainly not recommended by publicists) to start out by telling what the book is not. But this book is not a complete guide to golf. That said, it will almost certainly save you many more shots than a complete guide because this book looks specifically at your game.

Your logbook pages

By completing the logbook pages you will build an accurate and detailed picture of your own game, round by round over 50 rounds. By using the analysis pages, after every 10 rounds, you will then be able to use the information gathered to identify trends and problem areas. Are you regularly failing in bunkers? Are you finding the fairway frequently enough? Is your putting letting you down?

Hopefully you will notice positive trends too, particularly as you work on the areas where you feel in need of improvement.

Your real strengths and weaknesses Once you understand where problems are occurring you can turn to the fault fixer pages (from page 128) to look for remedies. Importantly the logbook analysis will help you recognize your true strengths and weaknesses, not just the ones you thought you had. Golfers frequently grumble about one aspect of their play because they perceive it as a weakness whereas, in fact, they are losing a greater number of shots in other areas. Of course you can work on every part of your game—but it's important to knowwhere most shots can be saved in the short term.

The fault fixer pages vary in content. In many cases you will be taken back to basics. The page will act as a reminder of fundamental skills and good practice. In other cases the pages will take you further, building on what you already have learned from your golf pro or instruction books and DVD5.

All areas include "Pro Tips" where extra tips and hints are included. Many also include "Reminders" that visually refresh your memory of basic issues such as technique, equipment, and practice. In many cases the photographs are a good device for additional instructional points as well as providing us amateur golfers with some aspirational shots!

Completing and customizing your logbook The logbook is usable equally whether you play the same course all the time or visit a number of venues. We recommend that you complete the pages at home or in the clubhouse relatively quickly after a round. You will remember the holes and can accurately record such points as short and long puffs, and fairways missed.

You can also add extra notes if you feel they are relevant—make the pages work for you and your game.

Thinking about your game
A fresh approach to go with your logbook

One of the key things that a book like this may do is to help you think afresh about your golf. It is a thinking game. Technique and physical ability will only take you so far; without some thought you will soon reach a brick wall in your improvement.

The bigger picture

Of course, you need to think on every shot—what club, what approach, what game situation. You also need to think about your strategy and course management. These are points that you have probably already considered. The "Fault fixer" pages also tackle these issues. Beyond this, however, are you thinking about the bigger picture, about your approach to the game as a whole? What can you expect to get from the game? What are you prepared to put in? What sort of game do you want to play?

The objective view

The fact that you are planning to record every score over a large number of rounds and analyze the results shows you are already thinking differently from many others in the game. You will know your game so much better as a result. You will be looking at yourself objectively, largely from the outside. Are you also prepared to look at your general game from an outsider's perspective? It is worth measuring your game against new criteria and not just how you feel about it. You may be disappointed in a score, but how much better is your golf now than a year ago? How much better than three years ago? Your handicap implies that you are expected to par, for example, six holes in a round (and bogey the rest). Are you overly frustrated when you don't hit par on a particular hole? Don't forget, in this context, your handicap isn't something you are expected to hit every time you walk on a course, only when you are playing well.

Confidence and realistic goals

The large amount of televised professional golf is also likely to make us set unrealistic goals. We can't all hit perfect draws and magical chips like Phil Mickleson so we shouldn't expect to when we play at the weekend. (The fact is we occasionally hit a special shot and wonder why we can't do it all the time.)

A fresh and realistic view of your game may have one important result. It may give you greater confidence. The fact (probably) is that you are actually improving and doing better than some others in your club. You don't need to stop trying to improve, but you can take strength from what you have achieved before moving forward.

Continues...

Excerpted from Golfer's Logbook by Lee Pearce Copyright © 2008 by Lee Pearce. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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