I enjoy the course management side of the game quite a bit. When to get aggressive, when to throw backwards just to make sure my next shot does not have a good chance of being in jail, when to throw to the base of the pole, when to give it a run, etc.
Not keeping score or throwing a bunch of shots until I get a good one, would take away that enjoyment for me.
As for tournaments, i have not yet played one and may never, but I am certain playing with better players would help me improve faster by showing me different types of shots, lines, techniques etc.
But doesn't the poorly thrown shot, causing you to have to scramble, stay in your mind? I would have trouble just hoping that same shot comes around again, just waiting causes me problems haha.
I suppose my thinking has always been this for example; If this hole is a par 3, and i want to be able to birdie it, this hole is mostly about the tee shot. If I can learn to throw this shot, give myself an inside the circle putt consistently, then that is the best way to achieve the desire goal/outcome. The experience I gain in upshots, scrambling and long puts I will never be able to rely on making regularly because the probability is just too low does not assist me in my goal of being able to consistently play that hole for birdie, the tee shot does, so that is what I will spend my time on. I realize the experience I dismiss is applicable to other situations, but again, scrambling and long puts will never be part of a reasonable plan of attack. Upshots will, but on a hole where thats the play, or the best i do, ill practice upshots then. I suppose ultimately I am driving at the idea that experience playing yourself out of trouble, saving par are skills that are essentially only necessary in competition. Which would me you are spending your time gaining experience with skills under scrutiny mostly during league or tournament play....yes/no?
I think I have an idea in my mind which drives what i do as well. Regarding muscle memory and repetition, I think it would be best to always add the feel of executing the shot properly versus not doing so. Meaning, if I throw a bad shot, then just play on, I've added the wrong way to throw that shot to my muscle memory and thats it. I think its probably even worse to repeatedly add experience to muscle memory which is the same bad shot multiple times. With respect to that notion, is why i want to at least throw the poorly thrown shot properly at least once. Ideally, I would want to repeat the properly thrown shot as many times as possible. Here I am talking about shots which I know i have, ones which tend to cause irritation because we know we should make that throw, we made it, or similar shots, many times before.
Well i see the benefit of exposure to superior ability. What about exposure to the best ability there is in the form of tournament videos. Is seeing goodness in person more beneficial than seeing it on a screen. I can replay actual humans lol, cant play them at 1/4 speed.
Again, 2 nights, no sleep, forgive me.