THE 20TH HOLE GOLF BOOKS

Follow Woodland's path to golf improvement

2011-03-23T21:56:00.002-04:00

(Gary Woodland / Getty)

The following is an article by Travis Fulton, Director of Instruction at PGA Tour Academies.

One of the things that will happen at the beginning of every year for a lot of professional golfers is this: They sit down with their coach and look at last year's stats. At that time, the coach and player go through a full evaluation of the player's game, identifying strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the 2009 season, when he was coming off shoulder surgery, Gary Woodland and his coach, Randy Smith, sat down and outlined a game plan for improvement.

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Quick Reviews

2011-01-13T20:38:00.000-05:00

"I'm a firm believer that an analysis of stats is the way to improvement. This book has space for quick comments, goals, achievements, and every on-course stat imaginable. I would call it the ultimate record of course management!"
-Adam McKaa / Prosnhackers magazine

"Altogether, this is a practical, insightful, and highly usable book that is a great tool for effectively identifying strengths, weaknesses, and trends in your game. I give the book two thumbs up for format, content, and usability!"
-Rick Semple / Heart of Golf

"I hit 12 greens, got up and down 3 times with 26 putts. There's at least one at every club, and you might be him or her. I'm talking about the golfer who takes the game seriously enough to remember most of the key stats from the round. Basically, it's a record book for players as well as useful on-course reminders."
-Nick Ciattei / The Golf Guide

"When I started recording information about my various shots; both good and bad, I started to see some inconsistencies that I never knew I had. Knowing specifically what shots to practice on has helped my game."
-Michael Balkind / Author

"All in all, The 20th Hole-Golf Record Book is a great book for those intrigued with tracking their golf records. The book is laid out plain and simple. A must for those golfers who have everything and are golf stats obsessed."
-Ottawa Golf Blog

"I'm usually happy to stop at the 19th and forget about the round I just played. However, I'm sure there are plenty of golfers that would find this a very useful tool."
- Hacker magazine

Haney recommends Stat Tracking

2010-03-22T11:30:00.005-04:00

In the October 2008 edition of Golf Digest magazine, Hank Haney, the swing coach for Tiger Woods, wrote an article titled “How Good Can You Get?” In this article, he wrote that you can take the temperature of any player by looking at four stats: total driving, greens in regulation, scrambling, and three-putt avoidance. He wrote that when a player sees where their shots are going, they know which parts of their game need improvement.

The main points of his article go hand in hand with what “The 20th Hole” is designed to help you accomplish. Tracking your statistics in these specific categories will help you discover your true weaknesses and tendencies on the course. Once you know these, you can then focus on making the necessary adjustments to improve.

Book Review by Ottawa Golf Blog

2009-12-29T19:38:00.006-05:00

The 20th Hole Golf Record Book -Reviewed by Ottawa Golf Blog

This black hardcover book from Matt Gullo for me is geared towards the person who wants to compile all their individual records and info on their golf game. A person who wants to archive the information to be viewed at a later date either by them-self or by others. I could really see this being a coffee table book in a "Guys room". Here are a few of the things you can keep track of: scoring records, greatest shots, best courses played, locations played, tournament play, match play/bets/games, stories, accomplishments, memories, and Hall of Fame. Matt really covers the areas most people would want to keep track of, I can't think of anything else. Can you think of anything that you might want included?

At the beginning of the book it explains what each record is and at the beginning of each section there's a picture as well. The book is laid out well with simple headings, very easy to figure out where the information goes. There's also plenty of room to fill out any details of your records.

All in all the The 20th Hole Golf Record Book is a great book for those intrigued with tracking their Golf Records.

Review from Positive Golf Blog

2009-08-22T16:49:00.004-04:00

A New Book to Boost Your Golf Improvement

Two things that are key to successfully building a strong mental game and realizing consistent golf improvement are organization and persistence. Organization refers to an organized approach in setting your positive goals and the positive plans to achieve those goals (see blog post from April 4, 2009 for more on positive goals and plans) as well as organization in your practice to make it a more effective "smart practice" or "positive practice." Persistence refers to the stick-to-itiveness to stay with your plans and practice, day after day and week after week. These are the "nuts and bolts" that are at the core of productive change for players at any level. While seemingly basic and simple, they can truly make the difference in whether or not you achieve success. Many a desire for golf improvement has been "lost in the shuffle" of inconsistent thinking and efforts and the lure of the easier path of giving up.

I have learned about a handy new tool to help you stay on track with your organization and persistence and help increase the likelihood of your success in golf improvement. It's called The 20th Hole, Stat Book and Log for Golfers, by Matt Gullo, USGTF Teaching Professional. This recently published book is designed to help you in the analysis and development of your overall game, from statistics to swing thoughts and strategies. Matt's background as a teacher and a player dedicated to golf improvement really show through in this book. It's packed with practical charts and forms to fill out with scores and notes about your lessons, practice sessions and rounds. For example, the Practice Session/Lesson Notes pages provide sections to fill in your notes on parts of the game you worked on, tips to remember, drills to remember, and swing thoughts to remember. These sections act as "prompts" to get you on your toes and keep you on your toes in thinking about these crucial subjects. Anyone who has done training or teaching knows that the act of writing things down helps to reinforce the ideas and keep them fresh in your mind. Having the forms all ready for you in this book makes it even easier for you to do this. The Statistics Pages are also set up in a convenient format for recording your score as well as the number of putts, fairways and greens you hit, and up and down and sand save opportunities. Plus there is an area to record strengths this round, areas for improvement, swing thoughts for the next round, strategies next time you play the course, and what to practice most before the next round. This gets you to think about a lot more than your score and helps give you detailed insight into both your physical and mental tendencies, which is a productive and effective way to improve your game. Another tool in the book which will help your game is the Set and Achieve Your Golf Goals Pages, with sections to write your goals, your plan of attack, the date to be accomplished, and the outcome. Here again, it keeps you on your toes and on-track. The book also offers some good practical tips on swing thoughts, course management, pre-shot routine, how to practice more effectively, and golf in the off-season.

Altogether, this is a practical, insightful and highly usable book that is a great tool for effectively identifying strengths, weaknesses, and trends in your game, which is a critical step in golf improvement that is often glazed over or even overlooked. It also helps with the critical step of looking ahead and developing both mental and physical game strategies, all of which increases the likelihood you will achieve your goals. As an advocate of the "blended" (mental and physical), mindful, organized Positive Golf approach to the game, I give this book a thumbs up for format, content, and usability and encourage other Positive Golfers to consider it for helping with organization and persistence in your golf improvement. You will be more aware of your tendencies and more tuned in to your game! For more details, check it out here.

Here's to great golf!

Rick Semple
Positive Golfer
Positive Golf Blog
Co-Founder, TheHeartofGolf.com
http://www.TheHeartofGolf.com

The 20th Hole Down Under

2009-08-19T22:32:00.004-04:00

The 20th Hole golf books were recently featured in Hacker magazine from Australia. I think its just cool that the books are being read about down under.

A quick quote from one of their writers.

"I'm usually happy to stop at the 19th Hole and forget about the round I have just played rather than record the pain. However, I'm sure there are plenty of golfers that would find this a very useful tool."

GOLF RECORD BOOK RELEASED

2009-06-26T19:03:00.004-04:00

I've just released "The Golf Record Book" which is a classy hardcover book designed for a golfer to track important and memorable records throughout their career. The book features black and white golf photos to begin each section and is divided into these sections:

Scoring Records
Greatest Shots
Best Courses Played
Locations Played
Tournament Play
Match Play, Bets, Games
Stories
Personalization
Hall of Fame

For full details, click on the 20th hole.

STAT BOOK FEATURED IN GOLF TEACHING PRO MAGAZINE

2009-06-02T13:28:00.006-04:00

GOLF TEACHING PRO is a quarterly magazine put out by the USGTF, and they included a nice feature about The 20th Hole.

Excerpt:

We all know the 19th hole is the place to grab a drink, have something to eat, and discuss the round with your playing partners. Well, what happens after that? USGTF Professional Matt Gullo has recently designed a book titled The 20th Hole - Stat Book and Log for Golfers. The overall purpose of this book is to help golfers analyze their overall game in a variety of ways, and then use what they've learned to progress and improve. The book lets golfers focus on achieving specific goals and has a section to keep a written history of important keys about their own games.

STAT BOOK REVIEW FROM AUTHOR MICHAEL BALKIND

2009-05-11T15:00:00.005-04:00

Here is a book review from Michael Balkind, author of the books Sudden Death and Dead Ball. Details of these books can be seen at balkindbooks.

When I received The 20th Hole, I was skeptical. How could taking notes help my game? The only thing that I thought could help was playing and practicing more. Well, after using Matt Gullo’s book and recording some of my rather poor stats, my skepticism was proven incorrect. When I started recording information about my various shots; both good and bad, I started to see some consistencies that I never knew I had. Knowing specifically what shots to practice on has helped my game. It turns out that a few minutes of taking notes after each round can truly be helpful and The 20th Hole makes taking those notes easy to do in a meaningful and organized format.

STAT BOOK REVIEW FROM THE GOLF GUIDE

2009-05-08T19:11:00.005-04:00

Nick Ciattei, the publisher of The Golf Guide, a magazine covering all aspects of golf in the Mid Atlantic Region, recently reviewed The 20th Hole for his Spring edition. Here is the review.

"I hit 12 greens, got up and down 3 times with 26 putts." There is at least one at every club, and you might be him or her. I'm talking about the golfer who takes the game seriously enough to remember most of the key stats from the round. The 20th Hole - Stat Book and Log for Golfers, put together by regional teaching professional Matt Gullo, allows you to track statistics from 40 rounds and 50 practice sessions. The golfer can record goals, track progress, and keep notes. Gullo has included several sections with instruction and tips making this an excellent addition for someone just getting started. Basically, it's a record book for players as well as useful on-course reminders. "Now, how many beers did I have at the 19th hole?"

More information on The Golf Guide can be viewed at www.golfguideinc.com.

STAT BOOK REVIEW FROM PROS N HACKERS MAGAZINE

2009-05-07T00:04:00.005-04:00

This book review is from Adam McCaa, the publisher of Pros N Hackers magazine. This review was posted at www.prosnhackers.com.

How good would you be if you understood your stats on the golf course a little better? How many fairways do you hit from round to round? How about putts or greens in regulation? I’m a firm believer that an analysis of stats is the way to improvement. Statistics do not lie, and while I don’t need extra reinforcement to let me know that I’m in need of improvement, I relish the chance to pour through my stats just like I do the professionals on www.pgatour.com.

Matt Gullo, a USGTF Teaching Professional based locally in Northern Virginia at the Every Body Golf School, has published a unique log/work book that can benefit any level of golfer. It’s called The 20th Hole: Stat Book and Log for Golfers. The 19th hole is where you sit and chat about your game, the 20th is where you write about it. But we’re not talking about diary entries about how hot the cart girl was or what you ate at the turn, just spaces for quick comments, goals, achievements and every on-course stat imaginable.

One of the most unique aspects of this book is the feel. It just feels like learning. Like a school workbook. Homework for golf. Now before you shudder, I should clarify, this is not homework that you are going to mind. Because instead of worthless algebra equations and run of the mill geography lessons, you’re really helping your golf game. I would call it the ultimate record of course management.

STAT BOOK AND LOG FOR GOLFERS - FEATURES

2009-05-06T22:18:00.004-04:00

Features of this book include:

• Track statistics such as fairways in regulation, greens in regulation, putting, sand saves, and up and downs for 40 rounds.

• Summarize and take averages of statistics after every 5 rounds in order to detect any trends in your game.

• Analyze your game for 40 rounds in order to pinpoint strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies.

• Log notes and keys from 50 practice sessions or lessons in order to remember swing thoughts, tips, drills, and mechanics.

• Start your own golf record book for scoring records, greatest shots, best courses played, etc.

• Set golf goals and track progress.

• Add to your golf shot repertoire by learning new shots.

• Review golf fundamentals, swing thoughts, the pre-shot routine, how to practice more effectively, and golf in the off-season.

Overall, this book is designed as a resource for you to organize and keep all of your golf information in one place. In combining your personal golf information with the instruction provided, this book can help you pinpoint the specific areas you need the most work on, and help you improve your overall game.