Page 15 - Summer2020GTP
P. 15
GENERAL SECTION HEADER
IMPROVE YOUR
IMPROVE YOUR
GOLF PRACTICE TRAINING
GOLF PRACTICE TRAINING
USING P-M-I MISS IDENTIFIERS
USING P-M-I MISS IDENTIFIERS
By Arlen Bento Jr.
o you or your students still have a lot of Another example of how the P-M-I Miss
Dmistakes on holes that are keeping your Identifier system works is we had a good player
score from being lower? You may need to look who was having a tough time backing up a low-
at how you miss on the golf course to make 70s score on the second day of a 36-hole golf
improvements. tournament. The player would score a 73 on the
For many players, understanding how and why first day, then come back the next day with an 81.
they miss on the golf course is a very important This is very common in golf.
part of game improvement. If you study your golf We broke down his golf scorecard using P-M-I
game as we do in our golf instruction programs, Miss Identifiers and found that the majority of his
including my “Bento Golf Method,” you start misses were coming with his 6-, 5- and 4-irons that
to see tendencies. These tendencies define a he was using to hit at the flag on longer par-4 holes
player’s game and show how them how to make and longer par-3 holes. We developed a strategy
improvements. for him not to hit at any flags with those clubs, play
Years ago, I came up with a concept that I call for the middle of the green, and making sure that
“P-M-I Miss Identifiers.” This concept has been very if he caught a really good hit that the shot could
successful in the development of my players. not get to the back of the green. This strategy
When you play golf, you miss shots. Over time, the eliminated 2-3 shots per round and protected his
idea is that you need to identify and categorize birdies from bogeys or worse on these long shots.
those missed shots and eliminate them from your His scores went down and he was able to shoot
scorecard. more tournament rounds back-to-back in the low
For example, I once had a player who was 70s that earned him a college scholarship.
stuck at scoring in the low 80s. After looking My P-M-I Miss Identifier system offers an analysis
over a few scorecards and using my P-M-I Miss of your golf round by looking at how many misses
Identifier system, we determined that his 3-wood you create on your scorecard. To use this system,
was costing him 3-4 shots a round. Before his next you need to go back through your round and
round, we took out the 3-wood, used a 5-wood identify every miss or mistake that you made
instead, and he shot a 75. We spent time working during your round – anything that costs you a
on the 3-wood over the next few weeks to figure stroke!
out why the 3-wood was not working well. We There are three types of misses in every golf
made improvements and inserted the 3-wood round in my P-M-I Miss Identifier system. The first
back into his bag. This is a simple example, but the miss is a physical miss (P). A physical miss is just a
concept is powerful and creates the basis for my bad swing or bad technique. When you analyze
P-M-I Miss Identifier system. Continued on page 13
12
SUMMER 2020 Golf Teaching Pro
