Taking your game to the Golf Course and/or
Playing Better in Tournaments

Have you ever had the experience of hitting the ball long and straight on the driving range only to have your game seemingly disappear before you could get to the first tee?  Maybe you play well with your friends and then struggle when you enter a tournament.  If there is a marked difference between your practice and play, or how you perform in tournaments, you will need to change the way you are practicing so you can improve your focus on the golf course.  It has been my experience; very few golfers hit the ball as well on the golf course as they do on the driving range.  Let’s put a stop to that!

There is an old saying.  On the golf course, you should play golf, not golf swing.  The biggest reason golfers have a tough time taking their games from the driving range to the golf course is they only practice their golf swing on the driving range and never get around to practicing golf.  When they get to the golf course, the added pressures of having one ball instead of eighty, the numerous water hazards and/or trees and several other self-imposed pressures can quickly expose a golfer’s lack of preparation.  All golfers get nervous, see the water hazards and can have negative thoughts.  The golfers who perform close to their capabilities on a regular basis simply have the ability to deal with these distractions a little more efficiently.  To perform at your best on the golf course and especially in tournaments, you will need to practice the techniques necessary to handle the distractions encountered on the course as much as you practice your swing.  It is important to realize that developing mental skills is every bit as important as working on your swing motion.  Golfers who have good mental skills and good short games are the ones who perform the most consistently.  Here are some steps you can take to improve your mental skills and bring your play on the golf course closer to your performance on the practice tee.

Step #1 – Develop a Pre-Shot Routine

Every good player has a series of steps they go through as they prepare to play EVERY golf shot.  The routine will ensure that your set up position is correct every time and will also occupy your mind so negative thoughts can be avoided.  If you don’t already have a reliable pre-shot routine, I suggest you ask a CPGA Professional to help you develop one.  I will detail the two parts of a good routine in future posts.

Step #2 – Start to Practice GOLF on the Driving Range.

Instead of bashing ball after ball with the same club at the same target, rarely even moving your feet.  Start practising what you will need on the golf course.  For each ball, pick a very specific target, go through your pre-shot routine and hit your shot.  After each ball or two, switch golf clubs, pick a different target, go through your pre-shot routine and hit the shot.  Some people who can’t get out and play as often as they like will “play” a round of golf at the driving range by simulating a round at their normal golf course.  For example, they will hit the club they would normally hit of the first tee, based on how that shot went they would then pick the club they feel would be needed next and so on.  Of course, using a pre-shot routine on every shot!!  The key is, by changing clubs and targets often you are preparing for the pressures you will face on the course and you are training your brain to work towards a target and not dwell on body movements or swing mechanics.

I am not suggesting you should not practice swing drills or focus on your swing mechanics to improve the quality of your swing motion.  What I am suggesting is by practicing these techniques and getting good at focusing on your target, you will give yourself the best chance to perform up to your capabilities.  The combination of improving your swing AND improving your mental skills will most quickly lower your scores and increase your enjoyment of the game.

Tell me about your on-course or tournament experiences and how you are trying to play up to your potential when you really want to.  Good luck with your golf!

Manage your game for better scores!

It has been my experience in teaching golfers who don’t seem to score as well as they should and watching my partners in Pro-Am events that course management is one of the areas that most golfers can improve on.  I have seen business people come from the office where they manage hundreds of employees and millions of dollars step onto the golf course and totally mismanage their golf games!

Before we get to the actual meat and potatoes of course management, there are a couple of things you can do to make good strategy more applicable.

1. Work towards having a repeatable ball flight.  Trying to hit it straight is the hardest way to play golf.  You should strive to hit shots that curve in the same direction most of the time.  If your golf shots curved 30 yards left to right every time, golf would be pretty easy.  You would just need to aim 30 yards to the left of your target and then swing!  If you aim straight at your target, most times, your shots will curve away from the target!
2. You need to have good alignment so you can set up towards your target every time and have the confidence that you are correctly aligned.  Practicing with alignment aids at all times will ensure your eyes will recognize proper alignment on the golf course and using a consistent pre-shot routine will help you aim on line all the time.  If you need help with either of these areas, see a CPGA Professional for assistance.
3. You need to know how far each of your clubs travels in the air.  If you don’t know, spending a little time finding this out will really help you with your club selection and confidence on the course.  Again, a CPGA Professional can help you with this area.  Note: The yardages for each club should be an average distance.  When I do my personal yardages I hit 10 balls, throw out the long 2 and the short 2 and then average the other 6.
4. Finally, practice your short game as much as you can because being a good chipper and putter will make managing your game a lot easier.

Okay, now for the tips on course management:

1. Hit the fairway.  Especially off the first tee, take a club you know you can hit the fairway with.  No, you can’t use your putter!  If you are having trouble with your driver, try to find some time to practice on the range don’t keep using it to whack your ball into the trees.
2. When you get into trouble, get out of trouble as quickly as you can.  Get the next shot back into play at all cost.  I know “God doesn’t like a coward” but he doesn’t much care for quadruple bogies either!  A conservative shot back into play will usually save you shots over the Hero Shot.  Trees are 90% air but remember, so are screen doors!
3. Take enough club.  If you take the time to find out your yardages for each club then this will be easy.  If you don’t know your yardages yet, take enough club so that you don’t have to hit your Sunday Best to get it there.  Ask yourself, “would I be hitting this club if I was hitting over water”?  In certain situations, like when the green is very sloped or the flag is at the back of a green, being short is a smart play, if not, take enough club and swing a little smoother.
4. Use the 70% Rule.  Don’t try a trouble shot you can’t pull off 70% of the time.  If you have played a bit of slice all day long, try to resist the temptation to hit that high, towering hook, around a tree and over that lake to a tight pin!!  If you have hit your iron shot on the wrong side of a green side bunker and the hole is cut very close to the bunker on the other side, take your lumps and try to make a longer putt rather than getting too cute with the pitch.  When you are in a defensive position, play a defensive shot.
5. Focus on as small a target as you can find and pick the appropriate target.  I ask my amateur partners all the time, “where are you aiming this shot?”  The usual response is “the fairway” or “the pin”.  To hit more consistent shots on the golf course and make your bad shots more manageable, you need to tighten your focus and aim at a very specific target.  The more precise you become with your aim, the better your shots will become.  If you were to play darts and simply try to hit the board every time, you would probable hit the board most of the time but you would miss it from time to time as well.  If you focused in and tried to hit the Bull’s Eye, you would never miss the entire dartboard.  So…pick a specific target for each shot.  A specific tree, a rake, a church steeple, anything will do, just make sure it is as small a target as you can find on your target line.
6. You also need to pick an appropriate target.  People always sigh and moan when the pin is placed really close to a bunker or water.  My usual response is that the middle of the green never moves.  In other words, pick a target that is realistic for your skill level, you don’t have to aim at the pin all the time.  Aiming at a target that is less threatening will increase your chances of making a confident swing.

Let me know if these tips have helped you.