SIX Benchmarks for Success

 

  

Shot Scope has developed 6 golfing benchmarks for success on the course.  These are:

1.  Driver Distance

2.  Troublesome Tee Shots

3.  Greens in Regulation (GIR)

4.  Multiple Chips within 50 yards

5.  Three Putts

6.  Missed Putts within 5 Feet

Let's explore each benchmark and how you can improve on these.

 

Driver Distance

 

 This one is obvious.  Longer drives = Lower scores because you will have a shorter second shot with less club in hand, and as a result, have a greater chance of hitting the green.  But how do you increase driver distance?  Faster club head speed means faster ball speed, means longer distance.  But it is not just about brute force.  You also need to match your equipment (driver loft, shaft, golf ball, tee height) to your swing characteristics.  A launch monitor and data gathering could help you squeeze out every precious yard.  One last thing - know your smash factor.  Smash factor measures strike efficiency.  It is ball speed divided by club head speed.  A good driver smash factor is 1.47 to 1.50, and center strikes has the greatest influence in a good smash factor, thus an efficient swing.  If you cannot increase you swing speed, increase your ball striking efficiency.

  Use foot spray powder to identify where on the driver you are striking the ball. 

 

Troublesome Tee Shots

 There is a huge divide between low handicappers and high  handicappers off the tee.  A golfer who scores in the 100's has 3 times the number of tee shots in trouble as the player who shoots in the 70's.  The number one goal off the tee is to keep the ball in play!

Plan your tee shot to avoid trouble as follows:

How we approach our tee shots can help avoid trouble, set up a better approach shot, and avoid mistakes, extra strokes, and penalties.  It's not just about distance, but understanding the course and our strengths.  Trust your reliable shot shape and aim away from trouble.

 

Greens in Regulation (GIR)

As average score decreases, the number of greens in regulation that a player hits increases.  The most noticeable jump is shooting in the 80's versus 70's.  

GIR is harder than you think.  The graph above points out the obvious:  Lower handicappers overall have a higher GIR success, and the closer you are to the green the more likely you are to hit the green.  A 15 handicapper (green line) hits the green only 50% of the time from 100-125 yards out. 

You can improve your GIR by working on tee shot distance and accuracy.  The longer your tee shots the shorter your approach to the green. 

Most approach shots miss short so know your average carry distance of each club and not use your best shot distance for that club.  Working on your ball striking skill will increase your GIR!

 

 Multiple chips within 50 yards

There is nothing more frustrating than missing the green entirely from within 50 yards.  Duffing or thinning a simple chip/pitch shot not just increases your score but your blood pressure as well!

Just one less chili dip per round brings you closer to a scoring milestone. 

There are hundreds of tips to perform the perfect chip shot, but here are two simple ones:

1.  Putt when you can

2.  Chip like you putt 

Do what it takes to GET ON THE GREEN.

 

Three Putts

The dreaded three putt is an ever present aspect of the game whether you are playing for millions on Sunday or quarters on Monday, every player is susceptible to them,

Eliminating them entirely is almost impossible, unless you "give" yourself (5/4/3) footers, but limiting one less per round should be every golfer's goal.  Like a good drive sets up the chance of a GIR, a good approach shot can put you in  two putt range.  How far is a two putt range?  

The average Two Putt range is about 16 feet for 15-19 handicappers.  That's just five paces from the pin.  A 3-5 handicapper two putts from seven paces from the pin.  Thinking more on your approach shots about where you don't want to be or where you do want to be on the green may save you that three putt.

Practice, practice, practice a consistent set up, and stroke along with drills on speed control and green reading improves putting and putting confidence.  There are thousands of tips on putting, putting aids, putter types, and books on putting.  Check out this one by our own Tom Graves:

 

 Missed Putts within 5 Feet

Putting proficiency inside 5ft can be the difference between a par save or a bogey, or worse. It goes without saying that the closer you leave your first putt to the hole, the easier the second one will be.

Again, we see that going from shooting in the 100s to the 90s or from the 90s to the 80s does not require a vast improvement. Instead, one fewer missed putt from short range per round, in addition to the other stats mentioned above, can transform your score.

On the greens, you need to develop a combination of distance control and confidence from short range. Once you have both, you will have fewer three putts and place less pressure on the rest of your game.

 Practice 5 footers by setting up a "ghost hole" and having your putts finish 6-12 inches past the hole.  NO lagging 5 footers! 

Here are Six Benchmarks for better scores.  Which one(s) do you need working on? 

 

 

Memorial Day 2026 Two Man Best Ball Stableford

 Results of the Two-Man Best Ball Stableford competition at SunRiver Golf Course

Team 1  Dave Lee/Steve McCoy  41 points

Team 2  Ric Opheikens/Randy Sain  44 points

Team 3  Rick Brown/Tom Graves  44 points

Team 4  Mark Johnston/Bob Phelps  36 points

Team 5  Corey Fischer/Greg Fischer  41 points

Team 6  Brian Woodard/Jim Woodard  41 points

Team 7  Jim Styers/Art Tice  45 points

Team 8  Joe Perez/Gary LeClaire  36 points

Team 9  Mike Nakata/Tom Shaw  32 points

Team 10  Jim Thalman/Dean Banner  31 points

Team 11  Erv Black/Mike Heath  32 points

Team 12  Jerry Weydert/Jimmy Reese  34 points

Winners with 45 points Jim and Art.  Jim Styers reported during post round interviews that his partner Art: "Played the best round I'd seen him play, shooting his age again!"  Gary LeClaire commented:  "Art even made two Pars coming out of sand traps."

 

Second place team in a card-off with 44 points was Randy Sain and missing partner Ric O who had to leave to check on his distillery and sour dough bread.  Randy told reporters:  "I practically carried my team DESPITE my broken hand, cortisone injections and ripping off my cast in disgust after dribbling my hybrid off the first tee."  In the background is Gary LeClaire, donor of the plethora of golf balls given out as prizes.  Thank you, Gary.  Keep trying out new golf balls.

 Randy will be recruiting Nelly for his next NSG partner.  Nelly doesn't think so.

 

Third place with 44 points was Rick Brown and sleepy Tom Graves.  Rick said:  "We got off to a slow start scoring a f*ckin' ZERO on the first hole, but Tom's putter got hot."  Tom could be awarded the bested dressed for Memorial Day but that's just his every day outfit he wears to Walmart.  Tom might be dreaming of partnering with Nelly also.  But, Nelly doesn't think so.
 

 

Pros' Best Ball, Three Man Scrable, Match Play at SunRiver Golf Course

 No Stress Golfers returned to SunRiver Golf Course on April 27, 2026.  

 

The Course was in Good Playable Condition

 

There were no Leprechauns, Snakes, and the Coyotes were friendly.

 

The day started out great but the Wind kicked up on the back nine. 

OK, on to serious stuff.

We played Three Golf Formats in one round:

1.  Best-Ball (also known as Four-Ball, Rule 23 in the Rules of Golf)) 

2.  Scramble Format (not officially recognized in the Rules of Golf)

3.  Match Play (Rule 3.2 in the Rules of Golf)

Pros' Best-Ball:   A Team (Side) of Five "Pros" played their individual balls.  The team's score for a hole was the lowest score of all the partners of that hole.  For example:  If one partner scores a Par on Hole 1 and the rest make Bogeys, then the team's score for Hole 1 is Par.

The Pros:  Mike Nakata, Rick Brown, Cliff Long, Mark Johnston, Dave Lee as a team, carded 4 Birdies (Holes 5, 6, 11, and 12) and only 1 Bogey (Hole 13).

Three Man Scramble:  The other three members of the four-some played in a scramble format.  Teams were:

Team 1:  Gary LeClaire, Steve Parker, Jim Styers - had 3 Birdies and 3 Bogeys.

Team 2:  Bruce Bundy, Steve McCoy, Bob Phelps - had 4 Birdies (finishing strong birdieing the last three holes) and 2 Bogeys. 

Team 3:  Dave Holl, Tom Shaw, Art Tice - had 5 Birdies and only 1 Bogey.

Team 4:  David Krewson, Phil Loomis, Jim Woodard - had 1 Birdie and 5 Bogeys.

Team 5:  Jerry Bowman, Greg Fischer, Jim Thalman - had 8 Birdies and 3 Bogeys.

Match Play:  

Most of the golf we play is Stroke Play  In stroke play, your total number of shots over 18 holes is what matters. You are competing against everyone else in the field, and a 10 on one hole can wreck your entire round.

Match Play is completely different. It's a head-to-head battle where you compete against a single opponent on a hole-by-hole basis. The goal is simple: win more holes than your opponent. The lowest score on a given hole wins that hole. If you both make the same score, the hole is "halved," meaning it's a tie, and nobody wins it.  So in Match Play:

• You can have a bad hole without derailing the match. If you make a triple bogey and your opponent makes a par, you only lose one hole. In stroke play, that would cost you three shots.

Because the objective is to win holes, not count total strokes, the scoring language is unique.  Instead of saying "I'm shooting 75 and you're at 78," match play scores tell you the state of the match itself. The score is always in relation to who is leading and by how many holes.

“Up” and “Down”

This is the most basic building block. The score reflects how many more holes you have won than your opponent.

• If you have won two more holes than your opponent, you are “2 Up.”
• If your opponent has won three more holes than you, you are “3 Down.”

The score tells you the current difference in holes won. If you are 2 Up and you lose the next hole, the score becomes 1 Up.

“All Square” (A/S)

This simply means the match is tied. 

"Halved"

A "halved" hole is a hole where both you and your opponent record the same score.  So no one wins or loses the hole.

“Dormie”

A player is Dormie when their lead is equal to the number of holes remaining.  This means your opponent cannot win the match. The best they can do is tie the match by winning the remaining holes to bring the score back to All Square. If you win or halve just one of those remaining holes, you win the match.

How to Keep Track of a Match Play Score

Keeping score is far simpler than in stroke play. You only need to track the outcome of each hole.  In the box for each hole, you don't need to write in your score of 4 or 5. Instead, you can use a simple system.

Let's say you're keeping score for yourself against your opponent, "The Pro". You can use these symbols in your scorecard's row:

• "+" if you won the hole.
• "0" if you halved the hole.
• "-" if you lost the hole.

At the bottom of the card, or in any empty space, you just keep a running tally of the match status.

Understanding the Final Result

In Match Play the match can end before the last hole. It doesn't always go the full 18 holes. A match is over once a player is "Up" by more holes than there are left to play.

An Early Finish: The "X &, Y" Format

This is the most common way match play scores are reported, and it simply describes when the match ended. Let's say you are playing a match and after the 15th hole, you are 4 Up over your opponent.

With only three holes remaining (16, 17, 18), it's impossible for your opponent to catch up. They are down by four holes, but can only win a maximum of three more. The match is over!

The final score would be announced as: "4 & 3" (pronounced "Four and Three").

This reads as: The winning player was up by 4 holes with only 3 holes left to play.

 

Here's the final scorecard.  The Pros' Best Ball Score is listed on the top row.  This is the score to beat in Match Play.

Each Team's Scramble Score is listed in rows below.  

Team 1 was A/S (all square) until Hole 5 when they went 1 Down.  After Hole 12, they were 4 Down.  They won Hole 13 so they were 3 Down.  After Hole 15 "The Pros" were in Dormie since Team 1 could not win the Match (3 Down with 3 Holes to play).  After losing Hole 16, the Match was over 4 and 2.  Their Birdies on 17 and 18 did not matter in the Match.

Team 2 was also A/S until Hole 5 when they went 1 Down.  They went 2 Down after Hole 6 but won Hole 7 to go back to 1 Down after 9 Holes.  They lost Holes 11, 12, 14 to go 4 Down and Halved Hole 15 to also lose the Match 4 and 3.  Their Birdies on 16, 17, and 18 did not matter in the Match.

Team 3 had a good start with 2 Birdies in the first 4 Holes and were 2 Up after 4, but lost Holes 5, 6, 9 to go 1 Down after 9 Holes.  In the back 9 they lost Holes 11 and 12 to go 3 Down, but won Holes 13, 14, 15 to go A/S.  This was an exciting Match!  They won Hole 17 with a birdie to put them in Dormie (1 Up with 1 Hole to go they could not lose) and Halved Hole 18 to win the Match 1 Up.

Team 4 was unfortunately 5 Down after 9 Holes, and after Hole 12 lost the Match  7 and 6.

Team 5 had 4 Birdies on the front to go 2 Up after 9 Holes.  They lost Holes 10 and 11 to go A/S.  Another exciting Match!  They won Holes 14 and 15 but lost 16 and Halved 17 so was Dormie (They could not lose the Match.) going into Hole 18 since they were 1 Up.  They won Hole 18 with another Birdie to win the Match 2 Up. 

 

 Congratulations to Teams 3 and 5 for beating "The Pros"  You each win a sleeve of MacGregor Tourney High Compression, Liquid Center, Rubber Thread Winding golf balls.  For the Golfer that uses "Stiff or Extra Stiff Shafts".  "Gives you all the distance you can pack into your shot".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2026 St. Patrick's Day at Green Spring

 

No Stress Golf traditional St. Patrick's Day celebration was held on March 16th at Green Spring Golf Course and hosted by Steve and Barb Parker at their 3rd Tee Irish Pub.  Everything green was featured including the "Drunken Leprechaun" which Steve tested out on Barb until he achieved a perfect Green Concoction.  There were so many trials, they don't remember what was is the final drink, but they sure had fun perfecting it.

Richard Wolfley made a special trip to Ye Irish Donut Shoppe to get Leprechaun sprinkled treats.

 Mike Nakata invented a golf game called "Leprechauns and Snakes" that was so complicated you needed a math degree to figure out. 

Congratulations to the four teams that got it right:

Ric Opheikens, Rick Brown, Jim Steyers, Tom Shaw

This team encountered more Snakes than Leprechauns.

Tom Graves, Jim Thalman, Mark Johnston, Jim Graves

 

This team did well catching a lucky Seven Leprechauns but one got eaten by a Snake

 

Jimmy Reese, Jeff Zornow, Bruce Bundy, Ken Zander

Captured Five Leprechauns but encountered Two Snakes 

 

Steve Parker, Mike Nakata, Richard Wolfley, Greg Fischer

Did well with Six Leprechauns but two got bitten by Snakes while looking for lost balls.

 

 Joe Perez, Jerry Weydert, Gary LeClaire,  and late to the party Nielsen Septon

Did some creative accounting and somehow managed to find "extra" Leprechauns.

Gary, however was voted "Best Dressed" St. Patrick's Day Golfer

 

Dave Lee, Brian Woodard, Jim Woodard, Gary Thornton

Not sure what this team did, but their score card looked like a first grade St. Patrick's Day sticker project.  They got first place for completely misunderstanding the rules, being creative and stirring up all kinds of shenanigans!

 

 

 

 

 

Last Winter Days, Four Man Shamble, Two Best Ball at Southgate Golf Course

 

It was a cold morning with ice on the ground, but it turned out to be a nice prelude to Spring at Southgate Golf Course.

Another Randy Sain concoction:  Four man shamble - take the best drive and play your ball individually from there until you hole out.  Then, take the two best scores for your team score. 

Congratulations to Jerry Weydert, Don Crim, and Bob Phelps (The red shirts were not planned) with a four under par score of 138.

 

Deal or No Deal at Southgate Golf Course, February 16, 2026

 

Pay Attention to these instructions!

WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED PLAY AND TURNED IN YOUR SCORECARD, A MEMBER OF YOUR FOURSOME WILL DRAW FROM THE BOX A SLIP OF PAPER WHICH WILL CONTAIN A NUMBER FROM MINUS TWO TO PLUS TWO, MEANING THAT YOU CAN DEDUCT OR ADD THAT NUMBER TO YOUR SCORE OR GIVE IT TO ANOTHER TEAM.  YOUR THIRD OPTION IS TO REDRAW.  IF YOU REDRAW, YOUR TEAM MUST KEEP THAT PLUS/MINUS NUMBER.  NO SCORES WILL BE REVEALED BEFORE THE DEAL OR NO DEAL.

And after the dust settled the winning team was . . .

Mike Heath, Erv Black, Kerry Bundy, and Bruce Bundy.  Net 12 under plus another -2 for drawing a good number.  -Congratulations!

2026 Memorial Tournament

 

NSG held a Memorial Tournament remembering all our past members.  It was held at Southgate Golf Course on a chilly - frost delayed morning - that warmed up nicely.

There were three teams tied at 10 under par with Cliff Long, Jerry Bowman, Tom Shaw, and Joe Perez coming in 1st after a card off.

 The second place team, also 10 under, managed 5 birdies in a row on the back nine, along with one eagle.  Ken Zander, Greg Fischer, Larry Cordner, and Mike Nakata (taking the photo).  Steve Jensen was one of the closest to the pin winners.