Riccio's Rule Can Predict Your Score + Cheat Codes for Every Type of Sloped Lie

TIPS & DRILLS
Upslopes, Downslopes, Side Slopes… Don’t Worry, We’ve Got Cheat Codes
Learn Bryce Cope’s go-to setups for every type of lie

golftipzone

View more on Instagram

To Recap…

Sometimes you pipe a drive right down the middle but the slope of the terrain leaves the ball a foot above or below your feet. Or maybe you have a sidehill lie. Luckily, Bryce Cope has all the setups covered here:

-BALL ABOVE YOUR FEET: Aim a bit further right and choke down on the handle. Swing at 80% and take an extra club than you normally would
-BALL BELOW YOUR FEET: Aim left of your target line and keep your weight on your heels so that you don’t fall forward with the slope.
-BALL ON UPSLOPE: Move the ball up in your stance. Tilt your shoulders to align with the slope (to avoid chunking it) and take an extra club to off-set the increase in loft created by the slope. It may also help to aim a bit right as it’s very easy to hit a draw from this lie.
-BALL ON DOWNSLOPE: Move the ball back in your stance. Put your weight forward and tilt your shoulders in line with the slope. Make a controlled 3/4 swing and plan for the ball to run out a bit upon landing.

PRO TIP: You will never experience anything but a perfectly flat lie on the driving range, but you will almost certainly have these sloped shots on the course. So if you’re able to spend some practice time out on the course, drop a few extra balls and challenge yourself across a variety of lies.

Practice breeds confidence and predictability, two of the most valuable tools you can ever have when you’re trying to post a score.

COURSES
Seth Raynor’s Unfinished Business Gets Its Redemption Story Nearly 100 Years Later
Golf Digest’s Best Renovation of 2023

Lookout Mountain Club
Lookout Mountain, GA

Lookout Mountain Club sits just a few miles from downtown Chatanooga on an incredible piece of property ~2,500 feet above sea level. The course was originally slated to be the centerpiece of the Fairyland Mountain Resort (which interestingly enough, is recognized as the birthplace of mini golf). The famous Seth Raynor was hired to bring the course to life, the same man behind Sleepy Hollow, the Yale Course, the Greenbriar and the original Lido design on Long Island. But fate would not be kind to the property, and the club experienced a rollercoaster of plot twists. First, Raynor passed away in 1926 at the age of 51 before construction had even begun. His associate, Charles Banks, took over, but it became so expensive and difficult to build on the mountain’s solid granite foundation that Raynor’s detailed vision was never fully realized. The course was in fact completed, but even forgoing much of Raynor’s plans, the course still landed as the 2nd most expensive course ever constructed at the time with a cost of $400,000 (roughly equivalent to ~$7 million in 2024 terms).

Due to the exorbitant expense required to get the course up and running, the club didn’t have the money needed for proper maintenance. Greens shrunk after monster storms blew through the area, bunkers lost their shape over time and tree growth over-crowded the layout through the years. And then came the Great Depression, ensuring Raynor’s vision for Lookout Mountain would not be realized for many decades.

But 70+ years later in 1997, a refurbishment was commissioned to restore the course to its original layout and dimensions. Raynor’s template holes came to life again: the Biarritz 4th, the Short 6th, the Alps 11th and Redan 13th are prime examples. What’s more, architects Tyler Rae and Kyle Franz were contracted in 2022 to oversee another massive overhaul. Every course map available was tapped and Rae/Franz visited numerous other Raynor layouts across the country to resurrect the contours and subtle details for which Raynor was famous. All 18 greens were completely rebuilt from scratch, and the result was a Golf Digest Best Renovation of 2023 award.

As one recent player wrote, “You get views off the side of Lookout Mountain on almost every hole. "Bold" is the best way to describe this course- it's like they took 80% of Camargo Club and mixed it with 20% of Tobacco Road. The hardest thing in golf is to aim away from your target and on several holes you have to land a shot 20-30 yds away from the flag in order to get it close. This distinctive feature not only adds challenge but also sets the course apart in terms of character as that is rare to find in the US, particularly in the southeastern states."

Rates: Lookout Mountain Club is a private course so if you happen to meet a member, do everything you can to get an invite

Check out these project photos from renovation architect @tylerraedesign

STATISTICS
Stat of the Day: Riccio’s Rule - Can This Simple Equation Really Predict Your Score?
presented by…

The Stat: At the First World Scientific Congress of Golf in 1990, Lucius Riccio, Ph.D., presented his findings that greens in regulation are the most predictive statistic of score. He found that if you take your greens hit in regulation and multiply it by two, and then subtract this number from 95, the total will be roughly your average score.

Though this rule is hardly perfect, Riccio found that across 4-5 rounds, it’s predictive accuracy is equal to plus or minus 1 stroke 90% of the time.

The Takeaway: Missed fairways and 3-putts will absolutely contribute to higher scores, but the short shots around the green are what can really kill a decent round. So greens in regulation are going to be your best friend.

If you are a mid-high handicapper, aim for the fattest areas of the greens (i.e. away from trouble) and prioritize GIRs, even if that means you end up a bit further from the hole on your first putt.

TODAY’S TRIVIA
Answer to Win BOTH of our Wild Golf Holiday Gift Boxes
(1 winner chosen on 12/31/24 across all December trivia entries, 1,000 correct respondents minimum)

LIKE THIS EDITION?
Forward it to a friend! —> —>

SPONSORSHIPS
Feature Your Brand in this Newsletter!

We have a growing audience of 20K+ loyal readers and an additional 21K Facebook + 16K Instagram followers. If you’d like to promote your brand or course to our audience, click the button below!