Notes and Charts

Aim : To spell out from the start that a precise knowledge of every single chart / distance / shot is not required for links mastery, and that a few simple rules and general trends are a much better place to start, which are then filled out over time with the experience of many games played.

Obviously I have included several charts here, but I dont like them and I never use them ! First of all I think they take away some of the fun from the game, reducing you to a poor old mouse clicker, secondly I think feel and experience gives far better results and thirdly you can summarise every chart you will ever see into a few simple rules which will allow you to make adjustments in your head to take into account the most subtle of factors, this of course is not to mention that the "charters" are generally the people who take bloody ages to play each shot and send me to sleep ! Still, if you want to refer to charts thats fine, just dont get too hung up on them....make notes of your own if you disagree slightly or you find your numbers are a bit different, customise them to your game, and know which numbers you can rely on, and whichyou shouldnt. My entire Links knowledge is summed up in these few rules...The default club distances are given in the game, so I know roughly how much yards each click of loft will give to any club, I know roughly how far the wind helps and hinders a shot, how much a sidewind drifts and shortens a club, and I know the half and full pace chips on norm/med greens and I know the 9 o'clock figure for putting on norm/med greens. And I bet I can go round a course and beat someone with every chart every released. I know basically 2 or 3 things about each club, and I have a couple of great stock shots, so I assure you a chart is not the answer to your game, and I reckon 90% of the top players play by feel and experience, and they play fast too, so bear in mind a chart is not the cure to your game, just an occasional guide from time to time. Much better is to make a few notes every time you play a round, if you hit a great or a poor shot, write down the distance, lie,uphill/downhill, wind speed & direction etc etc.. green speeds, then note your shot, club and loft and what happened to it,really you only need it for the approaches and maybe the odd drive....youll soon see little rules you can remember and shots that come in useful if you are in the same situation again, this to me is the ultimate "chart"...an accumulation of experience, of noting down your great and awful shots, and learning from them all the time. Remember that Links is based on some physics "engine"...and it seems (sadly) that no randomness has been built into it, what that means is that if you have a certain shot with a certain yardage, lie and wind then if you hit a perfect shot to the pin it follows that if you repeat that shot again and again it will always go to the pin, similarly the same shot on a different course will end up in the same place ( obviously unlikely the greens etc will be the same though !)....so, Links takes your input, which is your shot strength and snap and aim, throws those into some formula which account for all the factors of the shot and then your ball is plotted along its course until it hits the fairway/green/rough/hazard when more physics rules determine what happens to it then....the reason I mention this is to remind you that by learning the various things in this guide (hopefully by yourself through experience) you are effectively solving the problem of what equations Links uses to plot the ball's motion, this is probably a very complicated set of equations, and indeed anyone that has read Ted Jorgensen's "The Physics of Golf" will know it is a nightmare mix of coupled differential equations ! To cut a long story short (whew!) imagine the game of Links as a black box....your shot goes in one end and comes out of the other...what happens in the box you can't see and is very complicated...BUT, by learning a few simple principles and playing a lot you can work out where the ball will come out of the other end without needing to know what goes on inside !...and that's the twist, to be aware that to solve the engine of the game exactly would require mathematics of extremely complex order, but you can simulate all that complexity with just a few rules/trends and procedures....use your charts by all means as a basis to learn, but try to commit the most important things to "memory"... the more you rely on charts and numbers the more you are trying to achieve the impossible ( solving the entire Links engine ) and the more you are becoming a "mouse chimp" reduced to clicking a mouse for fun !..the more you know through feel and experience the more satisfying the game, and the more inventive you can become, and the more you feel like you are really playing the game. Let me ask you this, imagine I could write a program that simulated the Links engine ( wouldn't be too hard I reckon to get close) and ran in the background as you played..looked at your shot,lie,wind etc etc..and in the top corner of your screen told you the club, loft and aim and snap required to hit the exact target...it might be nice, you'd certainly win a lot, and get 54 every round, but how much damn fun would it be after a few rounds ? NONE....you'd be clicking your mouse and pretending it was a game...well, this is how I feel about excessive chart use...reducing the game more and more to hours of sums and analysis, and turning your round into a procession of clicks...no,no,no,no,NO thank you ! Do bear that in mind, eh......

Top Tips: Don't rely too much on charts, try to get a feel for general rules that apply across the board
Make notes when you hit perfect AND awful shots to learn from your games
Use the form provided later to record your rounds hole by hole making key notes on the important shots and results
Don't be afraid to use your own methods if you don't agree with a chart, or get different results to those you've read.

Back to Contents Page or scroll down for the blank chart for you to print out and fill in

Practice Notes Chart