What we'll cover this week

• You need to be better at missing shots to win a championship

• It definitely hurt when she fell from heaven

• Japan has some breathtaking golf courses

Estimated read time: 7 minutes

What I’ve learned this week

The most significant difference between amateurs and pros is where they want to hit. 

Amateurs want to hit the ball, while pros want to hit a target. Instead of looking at the ball and thinking about how to hit it, look for your target and consider how your body can move to hit that target.

Miss Like the Pros

Being an effective golfer is not about where your great shots land but where your terrible shots land (without ruining our round).

Watch this video from GolfDigest to see what the Pros know that we simpletons don’t.

Content in a nutshell:

• You need to start thinking about all of your shots, not just your perfect or slightly off shots.

• The simplified concept of “Hitting away from danger” is not enough to avoid the randomness of our swings when we aim with our perfect shot in mind.

• The Cone of Misses strategy accounts for randomness, luck, and bad luck when we don’t hit our perfect shot (which surprisingly happens more often than we’d like to admit).

• We have a natural spread of shots that deviate from our perfect shot. This spread forms the Cone of Misses.

• Knowing your Cone of Misses helps you avoid the damage of the 30% of horrible misses on either side of the perfect line.

See the example below. While aiming your perfect shot away from danger is theoretically true, your Cone of Misses would still result in 30% of the shots ending up in the water and giving you a penalty:

So instead, you would be better off aiming to where you’re actually avoiding danger with all of your bad shots:

Your worst misses to the right would still be in play, but you would’ve avoided the water hazard penalty entirely to the left. Thereby lowering your score by 30% of your rounds on this hole alone.

Interesting fact: some of the best shots in Golf’s history, including some of Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, and Cameron Smith, were the result of bad misses.

Memorable quote: “Tour players don’t think about their perfect shot. They think about ALL their shots and especially about their misses.”

Missed the ball, missed the net, missed the landing.

One video but so many alternative titles:

• Learn to fly at Topgolf

• Did it hurt when you fell from Bay 47?

• 1 missed ball, 2 broken legs

• The ball is supposed to fly further than you

• Gotta finish that shot first before I help

• Let the sky fall at Topgolf

• Swinging out of your boots and legs

• Can’t help right now, my irons are hot!

Send your quick-witted one-liner description of this video and harvest eternal laughter while we’re rolling on the floor.

Also: so many missed opportunities for a better song…

“Skyfall” by Adele or “Free Fallin” by Tom Petty are just the most obvious that came to mind.

Deals for the feels

• Rangefinders from Bushnell, Garmin, etc., between 10 - 25% off at tgw.com or some others at golfdirectnow up to 50% off 

• 3 nights B&B and 3 rounds at Golf in Scottsdale, Arizona, incl. TPC Scottsdale Champions Course - $429/person

• Adidas golf pants 40 - 50% off (99% of all sizes still available) - highly recommend the 5-pocket pants, it’s very durable

* Please note: none of these are affiliate links. These are genuinely great finds that we recommend without compensation.

What to train this week

Last week, we laid the foundation for bringing the heat with our driver.

This week, we’ll keep it short and improve our flexibility in 2 minutes to put even more mustard into our swings.

1) Cat & Cow pose

2) Open your hips (I have to be honest, I have NO idea how Mike gets this massive hip freedom of movement)

3) Lunge with hip rotation

4) Activating the shoulder rotators

The video on X is only 35 seconds, so just watch it.

Quick bites for the road

Open Clubhouse

This is a look behind some of the most remarkable golf clubs in the world, aside from the usual suspects, such as Augusta.

Last week, we went to a posh club close to London. This week, we’re going to Japan, which some say is on the opposite side of the globe. Some say it’s on the opposite side of the disk. Tomato, tomahto.

For this super awesome course, we’re going to Tokyo. Anyone know who this Jack Nicklaus guy is? He keeps popping up with some of the greatest golf courses in the world. This guy also designed today’s Tokyo Classic Course, and it’s everything I dream of in a course.

I can already see myself hitting some nice shots down these alleys of pine trees. It would be so much fun trying to find my ball within some unforgiving woods instead of unforgiving hip-high grass.

Outcome probably the same 🤷‍♂️ 

Quiz

Feedback & send your stories

That's it for this week. Keep on training and be a real athlete in an utterly unathletic sport.

Want to share something with us? Just reply to this email :)

How did you like this issue of Rabbithol?

​🥕🥕🥕 OOOOOH Boy!​

 ​🥕🥕 Could've been better​

​🥕 Waste of time

If you liked this newsletter, refer it to a friend. If you hated it, send it to the ONE person you desperately want to beat (on the course).

Quiz answer

A hole-in-one insurance costs about $1.25/month, and it’s a very popular insurance option. Roughly 4 million Japanese golfers have a hio-insurance.

Before you get all excited, I haven’t found any personal hio-insurances in the US, only for tournaments and golf clubs.

How am I going to pay for my hole-in-one celebration? Right… I probably won’t hit a hole-in-one in my life; but if I do, nobody will witness it.

(╥﹏╥)

Sincerely, your Magic Rabbit.

Leader through the rabbit hole. Has felt the urge to break a club more than once.