sgtidball:Okay. That helps, but how would one accomplish that? Is it simply a matter of many, many practice rounds before taking on a ranked round? Or, must many $ be invested in high end equipment; plus time spent charting clubs, balls, etc. before playing ranked rounds?
It depends how you want to do it. The easiest way is to play CC red tee stuff but you don't seem to do that and fair enough.
I think the way you're doing it seems just fine. To varying extents everyone charts their clubs but that needn't involve a sheet of distances or the like, it could be a mental note of how far each shot goes and how wind and elevation change that. More serious charting obviously helps. Your equipment looks fine and you're getting there.
I've never really seen the point in practice rounds, unless you have something specific you want to practice. A ranked round may not always help your tier progression or your understanding of how to play but it will never hurt either.
If this was about the Aussie I'm guessing it is then he does play red tee CC stuff and when he's not he doesn't score any better than you, four worse over nine sometimes.
Maybe some folk tier up too quickly and I don't really see the attraction in that.
Good luck :-)