The scorecard does have pictures!

Remembering lessons from the course

Score is more than a number

Recently, I’ve taken to recording some practice disc golf rounds with a paper scorecard, enhanced with a row of large cells that lets me also record a small drawing of the shots I took. That way, I can remember what I actually did, not just the score.

Some good memories

Here are three recent par-3 holes along with the scores. (Notes on the diagrams: The basket is the open circle at the top. Backhand throws are solid lines. Forehand throws are dotted lines. The final putt is not shown.):

A few solid holes.

Pars and birdies are great fun, but I don’t learn much from them except that I made the right disc choice and executed the throws well (or, in some cases, had exceedingly good luck!). 

A bad but useful memory

Sadly, the most learning comes from the double- and triple-bogies. For example, consider this 6-stroke disaster on a 343-foot wooded par-3.(Another note on the diagrams: X marks a lie that is off the fairway in the rough.):

A learning hole.

My forehand tee shot turned more than I had planned and ended up in the woods to the left of the fairway. Instead of pitching out to the center of the fairway (which did cross my mind briefly), I aimed another forehand through a small gap in an attempt to get farther up the fairway. Instead, I hit one of the trees and went about 15 feet, with my lie still in the woods. I was able to get out on my third shot, but still a good distance from the basket. A long bid and a missed putt got me to 6 strokes eventually.

Hindsight is unreliable, but I believe if I had pitched out on my second throw, I would have been able to make a solid upshot to end up with a single bogey, saving 2 shots over my actual score. At worst, I would have gotten a 5.

Have I learned my lesson? Probably not completely. But I will think more carefully the next time I’m in a situation like this!

If you want to see an even worse disaster, see my post from three years ago, Disaster and triumph at Maple Hill.

Updates:

1. Scorecard improvements

Thanks to a suggestion from one of my legions of readers (thanks Charles!), I’ve added the disc type on the non-putt throws:

Scorecard showing disc thrown for tee shots and upshots.

While the disc names may not be meaningful to everyone, they are equivalent to saying (in golf) that I used a driver (Saint) or a midrange iron (Comet) or a pitching wedge (Envy, Toro). This will be useful later when I’ve forgotten the details of the round.

If you have other suggestions for scorecard-drawing enhancements, let me know in the comments!

2. Thoughts on risk-taking

Charles also observed:

Your bogey story reminded me of my completely out-of-character tendency to take large risks in order to accomplish spectacular shots (while playing the other golf).  

It sounded like you might have been doing same on your second shot (throwing through a small gap instead of "laying up").   

"Learning from our tendencies"...next chapter of Bogeyland???? 

I’m not sure it’s out of character, but it’s certainly worth examing further!