For three weeks, forget scratch, 180mph, swing speed, handicap movement and strokes gained. Your only objective is to eliminate catastrophic holes by keeping the ball in play and making predictable contact from 60 yards and in.
// The objective
Your best golf is already good enough. We are not raising the ceiling. We are making your bad golf less expensive.
This came directly out of a recent run of golf — a stretch that produced a 12-greens-in-regulation 80 and a 92 inside the same fortnight, three blobs in one round and three no-returns in another. The pattern was consistent: my good golf kept appearing, and a small, repeatable cluster of mistakes kept undoing it. The reset is the deliberately unglamorous response to that pattern.
Stop Doing These Immediately
For the next 21 days, a hard list of things I am not allowed to do:
// Off limits for 21 days
"Long and loose" remains the only full-swing feel. If a genuine technical issue appears, it goes to Ryan rather than something I try to solve myself mid-round.
The Weekly Structure
Only four golf activities each week. That is the entire allowance.
// Four sessions, no more
Up to two normal gym sessions stay in — but golf-specific experimentation comes out of them. Mobility becomes part of the warm-up rather than another separate project competing for attention.
Session One: Predictable Contact
The same session, run identically for all three weeks. No creative variation — repetition is the point.
// Ten-minute technique block
Hit simple chips and pitches using only these cues. Do not add another one.
// Twenty-minute wedge block
One ball at a time. Change the distance after every single ball.
30
yards
40
yards
50
yards
60
yards
Use the same reliable flight unless the lie forces another choice. Record only whether the strike was solid, usable or poor — nothing more granular than that.
The target is at least 80 percent solid or usable contact. Proximity is secondary for now — strike quality is the only thing being trained here.
// Fifteen-minute short-game block
Play nine different one-ball shots around the green. The target is not to get up and down — it's to put every first shot safely on the green.
No hero shots. No repeated attempts. No technical changes during the game.
Session Two: Scoring Practice
Nine holes, either on the course or as a realistic range simulation, played to three rules.
// Three rules for nine holes
The controlled driver or the appropriate fairway wood is the second serve here — accept being 10 to 20 yards shorter. After every poor shot, the line is the same one:
The previous shot is finished. What is the lowest-cost route from here?
Score the session only on decisions, not on outcomes:
The target is zero aggressive mistakes. A good decision that produces a poor outcome is still a good decision.
Putting Maintenance
Fifteen minutes, once a week. One putt from each distance, repeated twice with a different slope and direction each time.
10
feet
20
feet
30
feet
40
feet
50
feet
60
feet
The target is to finish within 10 percent of the original distance — from 40 feet, inside four feet; from 60 feet, inside six feet. Finish by holing five consecutive putts from four feet. Do not work on the stroke — this is a distance-control session, not a technical one.
The On-Course Rules
Only one swing thought allowed, and only one strategic thought.
// The only swing thought
"Long and loose."
// The only strategic thought
"Where is the double bogey?"
Identify it before choosing the club. If trouble is found, the objective changes immediately depending on where I am:
Bogey after trouble is a successful recovery.
The Three-Week Progression
// Repetition is the point
Week 2 and Week 3 do not get more complicated. That's deliberate — the temptation to add something new the moment a drill feels comfortable is exactly the instinct this plan is designed to override.
What Gets Recorded
After every round, only four things get written down:
Then one sentence: "The one behaviour I will repeat next time is..." Not a technical essay. Not a new practice plan. One sentence.
What Success Looks Like
By the end of three weeks:
// The reset, reduced to six words
Ball in play. Green in reach.
Two putts.