A couple of days ago, I mentioned an episode of Playing Lessons from the Pros on The Golf Channel. In general, I think this program is of great value for most golfers. These thoughts are kind of feeding from my previous post about discipline. I’ve watched this show for a long time, and it has always impressed me. For those who have never seen it, the basic premise is simple: we get to spend half an hour on the course with a player from the PGA, Champions, LPGA, or Nationwide tours. Some current players, some former players. Many of the all time greats have been featured. Over the course of the program, they play a round of golf surrounded by cameramen. They talk about all kinds of things like preparation, course management, recovery, shot techniques. Basically anything and everything about the game of golf. The reason I’m so high on this show is that we get to do something that most people never get to experience. We get inside the mind of a professional golfer
Digging For Discipline
To be successful in my journey, I need to be able to do more than hit a driver 300 yards or be a decent lag putter. I need to mentally groom myself for success. That includes every facet of my life. Recently, I was talking to my friend, The Happy Rock about goals. He remarked that my to-do list should really have some time frames attached. Goals without target dates can be dangerous because they leave us an out. We tend to put things off and not maximize our time because we don’t have deadlines staring us in the face. Pretty soon time passes and we’re still at square one. I’ve said in the past that I’m not putting a deadline on my overall goals, but there’s no reason that I can’t come up with some target dates for the individual steps. I thought about it for a while and started to think about the things I’m doing to accomplish my goals and I came to the conclusion that I have a discipline problem. It’s
Pre-Round Warmup
Doing a pre-round warmup is important for shooting better scores and preventing injuries. This is something I need to get better at. Too often, it’s tempting to just check in at the pro shop and head right to the first tee. To perform optimally, we need to prepare our minds and bodies for the rigors of the game. Physical Warm up Getting the blood flowing and stretching out the muscles gets us loose and prepared to swing the golf club at peak speed and efficiency. This equates to power and consistency right off the bat. If we don’t stretch prior to the first tee, then it can take several holes to loosen up and get into a good swing groove. Trying to jump right into full swings also increases the chance for injury in muscles, tendons, and ligaments that are cold and tight. This can result in sprains, strains, and tears. At the very minimum, it’s good to hit some balls at the range before teeing off. Start with some half wedges, focusing on slow,
Use The Tee To Your Advantage
Most people know that the teeing ground consists of a rectangle whose width is defined by the two tee markers and whose depth is defined by two club lengths back from the markers. Too often, I see people just going right to the center of the tee markers and hitting their drive without consideration for their typical shot shape and to the shape of the shot they intend to hit on that hole. One of my favorite course management tips: tee up your ball after careful consideration of the shot you’re about to hit. For example, assume your typical shot is a slice. If you tee up the ball on the right side of the tee (close to the right marker) and aim for the left side of the fairway, you have a lot more room for the shape of the shot you typically play. If it does what you expect, you’ll be in the middle of the fairway. If it unexpectedly goes dead straight, then you’re on the left side of the fairway. And
Play It Like A Chess Match
Effective course management means you should be playing the game like a chess match, thinking a few moves ahead. When you start the day, you know several things including your skill level and what your current tendencies are. For instance, maybe for the last week, your tendency has been to draw the ball, and your consistency has been off with a number of thinly-struck toe hits so your misses have been short and left. You should be attacking every hole with that information in mind. Before you stand over every shot you should be thinking where you’re trying to hit the ball and where a miss is most likely to go. Then you need to evaluate how likely you are to miss, and what the consequences are for the next shot if you do miss. If you’re hitting a driver off the tee and a sweeping hook that goes shorter than you expect has you flirting with an out of bounds area, then you really should be thinking of a more conservative approach if you
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