Rare Bird Society

Andrew Miller

2020

Rare Bird Society (RBS) is a place for golfers to keep track of their scoring metrics. Golf is not a game of perfect, rather, it is a game of minimizing your mistakes.

Some commonly tracked statistics are overall score, putts per round, greens hit in regulation, and fairways hit off the tee. RBS adds one more to the mix, which is referred to as the "anyway stroke". While the first four metrics can often give a pretty clear picture of how the round was played, they give no information as to the mental state of the golfer. A poorly struck shot will not show up on the scorecard, and while a single mistake won't tank your round, it sure can tank your mental state, which will absolutely send your round into an downward spiral of mistakes.

The anyway stroke was derived from a common phrase I found myself saying: "I wasn't mentally prepared, committed and ready to hit the shot, but I HIT IT ANYWAY". Over time, I have found that proper mental preparation for the shot allows for the body to respond naturally to the swing. In other words, if your mind is still calculating the shot or paying attention to outside stimulus during the swing, it is more than likely going to be a bad shot. Some examples of my common "anyway thoughts" are:

The anyway stroke requires a great deal of personal honesty, just like the game of golf. Sometimes, a bad shot is just a bad shot, even if you were prepared for it, and sometimes an anyway stroke can result in a good shot. You'll need to find out for yourself what your anyway strokes look like, and record them honestly. If I had to guess, you will have more of them than you think the first few times you play.

1. Register/Login

Users can register and login to save scores. The registration is a simple username/password combination, accepts strings in any format (lower/uppercase, numbers, special characters)

2. Score Entry

To enter a score, click the "Add Round" button from the dashboard. Select the desired course from the list, then select if you are entering total scores or hole by hole scores. Totals will ask you for score, putts and anyway strokes, and hole by hole will ask for the same statistics by hole. RBS is best utilized hole by hole.

3. View scores

To view your saved scores, click "View Rounds" button from dashboard. This loads your saved round data and displays the totals from each round as a datapoint on the screen. If hole by hole data is available, the round will appear as a link. Clicking on the round will provide score card data.

Andrew Miller