How to keep it

The round level

Ten seconds a hole. On the Round Sheet you write the score, then circle three things: fairway (left, hit, right), green in regulation, putts. A penalty gets a tick. The note is one line, for the shot that decided the hole.

Before you tee off, fill the top: date, course, tees, rating and slope from the scorecard. Pick one number for the day and write it in the box. At the end you beat it or you didn't.

At home, one row on the Season Ledger. Every fifth round, average the last five scores. That column is the whole point of the suite: a slope, kept in pencil, that you can hold in your hand in October.

The shot level

When you want to know why, add the Shot Ledger. Every shot gets two marks: distance to the hole and the lie (T, F, R, S, G, P). On the green, feet; everywhere else, yards. Thirty seconds a hole.

At home, the Baseline Card turns each pair into expected strokes. Strokes gained for a shot is the baseline before minus the baseline after, minus one. Add them up by tee, approach, short game, and putting, and the four boxes will disagree with what you think your weakness is. Believe the boxes.

The greens

The Putting Ledger records every putt: feet, break, result, leave. Green Notes records the greens themselves. Draw each outline dot to dot, five yards to a dot, as you see it walking up from the tee. Arrows point downhill. Every pin you have putted to gets a dot and a date. A season in, you know where the pins go and why the Sunday putt misses low.

What the pages will not tell you

Every document prints its own caveat. The Index Page is an estimate, not a handicap. The baseline is an average golfer in the 10 to 19 band, built from public data and printed with its sources. The Club Distance Card wants the number you would bet on, not the one you would quote at dinner.