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ANALYSIS TOOL ARLEN BENTO, JR.
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., USGTF Member, Jensen Beach, Florida
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
at how you miss on the golf course to make low-70s score on the second day of a 36-hole
improvements. golf tournament. The player would score a 73
For many players, understanding how on the first day, then come back the next day
and why they miss on the golf course is a very with an 81. This is very common in golf.
important part of game improvement. If you We broke down his golf scorecard using
study your golf game as we do in our golf P-M-I Miss Identifiers and found that the majority
instruction programs, including my “Bento Golf of his misses were coming with his 6-, 5- and
Method,” you start to see tendencies. These 4-irons that he was using to hit at the flag on
tendencies define a player’s game and show longer par-4 holes and longer par-3 holes. We
how them how to make improvements. developed a strategy for him not to hit at any
Years ago, I came up with a concept flags with those clubs, play for the middle of
that I call “P-M-I Miss Identifiers.” This concept the green, and making sure that if he caught a
has been very successful in the development really good hit that the shot could not get to the
of my players. When you play golf, you miss back of the green. This strategy eliminated 2-3
shots. Over time, the idea is that you need to shots per round and protected his birdies from
identify and categorize those missed shots and bogeys or worse on these long shots. His scores
eliminate them from your scorecard. went down and he was able to shoot more
For example, I once had a player who was tournament rounds back-to-back in the low 70s
stuck at scoring in the low 80s. After looking that earned him a college scholarship.
over a few scorecards and using my P-M-I Miss My P-M-I Miss Identifier system offers an
Identifier system, we determined that his 3-wood analysis of your golf round by looking at how
was costing him 3-4 shots a round. Before his many misses you create on your scorecard. To
next round, we took out the 3-wood, used a use this system,
5-wood instead, and he shot a 75. We spent you need to go back through your round and
time working on the 3-wood over the next few identify every miss or mistake that you made
weeks to figure out why the 3-wood was not during your round – anything that costs you a
working well. We made improvements and stroke!
inserted the 3-wood back into his bag. This is a There are three types of misses in every golf
simple example, but the concept is powerful round in my P-M-I Miss Identifier system. The first
and creates the basis for my P-M-I Miss Identifier miss is a physical miss (P). A physical miss is just a
system. Continued on page 14
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SUMMER 2020 Golf Teaching Pro ®
