The Par Project

This site is 2 guys, with day jobs, kids and other activities. It’s not easy to find time to do something fun like this with so many things pulling at you. But it is fun and we enjoy getting stuff out to you.

I play about 1x a week on average; I’m an 11.4 handicap right now (was as low as 7.7 last year - sigh); I’m 47, in fairly good shape, I can hit the ball pretty well, and I’m the best putter you’ve ever seen. Sometimes anyway.

Lately I’ve been stewing on a few ideas for the next year and this blog is the kickoff for one of them. I’m been thinking about what would it take for me to shoot even par on 18 holes from 7,000 yards. I think the obvious thing is find the fairway, hit the green and putt well. Plus recover from missed fairways at an above average rate, chip the ball close from off the green, avoid three putts and don’t let hazards and penalties kill your round. Sounds easy right?!

I’ve come up with a multi-tier approach to solving this challenge. First off, I will need to properly assess where I am today. Thankfully, I have been using the The Grint pretty religiously since about 2015, and I have a lot of data thanks to their Pro Version. Use the link and see for yourself; and try not to laugh at my GIR stats. But I’m likely gonna need more info, so I’ll be partnering with a local pro, with access to Trackman, to fill out a) where I am…and b) how I progress with help. Roughly speaking, if I’m not playing too hard of a course (course rating) and I’m playing off say a 4-5 handicap, I can have a hot day and likely sneak my way into a round of even par.

But keep in mind I’ve targeted a set of tees at 7,000 yards, so I won’t have a lot of margin for error. Not only will I need lessons, I will need to manage my game better. This game management tier is building out a) my practice routines and b) building up my mental game too. Reading about high school, college and professional coaches, you will see a few common themes: practice real-life situations and practice with pressure. The more you can replicate the game you’ll play, the tougher you’ll be when you face it down. We know this, we read this, but how can we actually do it? I won’t have 4 hours a day to grind on this; I’m going to have to find a way to maximize my practice, building confidence in shorter sessions to address my challenge areas. Very closely tied to this is the mental game; how can I get sharper focus and make better decisions on the course? The mental game is where I think real a breakthrough can occur. I’m learning much more about mindfulness and meditation these days than I would have ever guessed. I think we’ve all heard about the allegories between life and golf: hold on loosely, don’t let go; trying harder sometimes makes you worse; breathe; negative thoughts can do major damage. On and on it goes. So I’ve been working for while on “me” and I can see serious correlations to my golf game too.

The next tier will lend itself to another project, but is still relevant here too: my fitness. Adding in extra reps, delivering in pressure situations, managing fatigue down the stretch. These all get a boost from being fit. I’ll be continuing my base strength with kettlebell workouts here on the southside of Indy, but I’ll also be focusing on my flexibility. I’m subscribing to an Insta called MoveU and I think everyone on the planet should be doing something similar. We all have some hitches in our giddy-up, to use a phrase. This site focuses on helping you rebuild the blocks to keep you moving. You’ve probably heard sports-folk talk about things moving “up/down the chain” and they’re talking about your bad ankle feeding your bad knee which is making your hip tight and shortening your backswing. Get it? I can do a better job of assembling my blocks too.

Thru the winter months I’ll post an update every month; when spring rolls around I will kick that up to every 2 weeks (along with reviews of courses, partners, etc). There’s gonna be some nerdy stuff like stats, exercise programs, that kind thing. I hope it will be fun and I hope you get something out of it for your game and life too.

I’ll have more info from my Grint page later - it’s pretty telling stuff about my game.