Golfing In Alaska (Short but Beautiful Season)

I was just reminded of a quote by Jim Flick, “Golf is 90 % mental and the other 10% is mental.”  I think he is right!  Well maybe 90% right, of course you need to have some sound fundamentals for your swing which include grip, setup, alignment, swing and follow through.  If you have taken a lesson or two you have been introduced to the physical side of golf. At least exposed to the fundamentals but where do you go to get the golf mental training that you need to learn how to visualize your shot and to keep you from the first tee jitters.

Once we know what we are supposed to do on the golf course the rest of the game comes down to actually performing.  That is the part which so often breaks down.  This important aspect of our golf game leads us on that wild goose chase to beat ourselves into submission on the driving range trying to hone our “muscle memory.”  While I agree that practice is vitally important, our golf mental training is equally important.  The attitude that we bring to the course, our ability to perform under pressure, the use of a good set up routine and visualization are the keys we can use to unlock the mystery of the game.

Here are five things that you can do for the mental side of golf that will help your game to improve:

1.    Have a goal for the day. On your way to the course make a decision about the score you will have for the round.  Aim at a score that is a few points below your handicap or to reach a milestone for your game, as in breaking 90 or 80 or par.  If you know the course well, think of a hole that you that you may have never birdied and make that a part of your goal.  Before you leave the car write your score down. Then, leave it in the car.

2.   If you are healthy and able to walk; then do so! Some courses insist that you ride and lots of courses are long, with huge gaps between holes. It will do a lot for your game and your planning if you walk and have your clubs with you at all times. This gives you two distinct advantages over riding.  One it is healthy, a two mile walk a few time a week is good for you.  Two you are able to approach the ball from a long way behind and assess the lie and terrain as you come up to it.  As you approach you can form an image in your mind’s eye of how the ball will look in flight and where you want it to land for your next shot.  Contrast this with riding up to where you are parallel to the ball jumping out of the cart running around behind for a brief look before you address and take your stroke and the difference is immense.

3.   Get a physical routine that puts you through an auto-pilot check list every time that you step up to the ball. Include a long distance target, a mid-range target and your ideal landing “picture” as you approach from behind. Then align yourself with your mid-range target, check your grip, stance, ball placement for the club you are using, knee bend, and a straight back.  When you have a routine that gets the physical into place in 30-45 seconds your confidence is increased dramatically.

4.    Be on guard for negative self talk. Do not let a bad shot take anything away from your game.  Bad shots occur in golf, when you make one, briefly analyze it for the break-down (usually a faulty setup or aggressive, intense swing) then forget about it.  Focus instead on the next perfect swing you are about to make. Dwelling on the past, especially with negative emotion will only intensify the situation. You know where this is going… your next shot or several will follow your dominant emotional state; visualize the positive.

5.   Play your own game, most golf courses are designed to increase the difficulty of the game with obstacles; ditches, water and sand traps.  You may be paired with someone who can hit the ball a country mile to clear some of these barriers.  If that shot is not in your bag, then do not try it.  There is no shame in hitting a straight shot down the middle, short of the obstacle, then going over it on the second try.  Using good course management you will arrive at almost every hole with a chance for par.  If you try to emulate someone else with different abilities, that you do not possess, you are straying from your mental side of golf and setting yourself up for trouble.  Do not let others distract you, play your own game.

These five tips will help you to develop your golf mental training. When you add them to your physical training you will have a winning combination to achieve lower scores.  Hit them straight and seldom!

Technorati Tags: golf mental training, Golf Routine, improve golf game, mental game of golf, Mental side of golf

Of all the aspects of the game of golf the mental side of golf is surely the quirkiest one.  Golf is a social sport and form of recreation.  When we play the game by ourselves we have only our own thoughts to listen to and think about.  When we play with others that whole scene changes and now we have three other sets of voices to contend with as we try to focus on the task at hand.  Of course there are the other golfers on the course as well, that slow foursome in front of you can be a source of irritation and a distraction as well.

I have been fascinated to watch over the years as a simple comment or out of place remark can lead to some very poor results; not only for your self but for others in the group as well.  When I show up at the course to play as a single I will get put into the company of the next available threesome; usually with a group of people whom I have never met.  This can make for some interesting groupings, as sometimes the group that I am joining is very experienced, and sometimes just the opposite.  Playing with raw beginner brings a whole new set of challenges to your game, at least for me.  I will find myself wanting to give the fellow a pointer or two; while knowing that lessons belong on the driving range,  it is tough to keep my mouth closed.

My home course is a mountain course with lots of terrain and tree challenges.  Sometimes I find myself in the position of a tour guide; “Just aim at that flag on the top of that hill, it is only a directional flag, it is not the hole.” So the day continues as I comment on the hole coming up and make a few cautionary remarks about the narrow fairway, lay-up areas, and best club selection.  This is where I began to make my discovery, what I say can seriously affect the mental side of “others” shots.

With all the challenges presented by my course I need to be extremely careful when I describe them.  The second hole has a  narrow opening up the hill between two serious clumps of trees. There is a directional flag at the top of the hill which is actually placed a little too far to the left. If your drive goes anywhere to the left of the directional flag there is a tree on the other side of the hill which will block the approach to the green.  If I tell them “Don’t go to the left of the flag,” I have focused their attention on that instead of going to the right.  Over the years I have learned to be very careful with my descriptions so that I focus the listener on the proper action and not the negative consequence.

8th Hole At Raven GC Silverthorne

Another area where we affect others, is our attitude toward a certain hole that might have been giving us challenges.  Comments like: “I always”,  “This hole gives me fits “,  and “I knew that would happen!” will give the listener a negative image.  This happens even when the others have never played that particular hole.  We are told to remain quiet while the other golfer is making his shot, but often our remarks prior to the shot can have an effect on the outcome.

The last area deals with anger, obviously throwing a club is not considered good etiquette. However smaller demonstrations of anger as in cursing a bad shot, dropping a club or making loud noises can affect the play of others.  Think about this mental side of golf the next time you play.  Hit them straight and seldom.

Technorati Tags: golf mental training, mental golf, the mental side of golf

Did you ever have one of those magical golf days when you found the zone and your mental game of golf was totally dialed in? Those times when your putter is so hot, that you can’t miss from anywhere on the green, and the game of golf has gone on auto-pilot for you? What is the difference between that day and the days that every shot is a struggle?  Why is it possible to go out one day, put on a clinic of amazing golf shots, to return the following day and stand over the ball asking yourself what do I do next?

I have certainly had my share of those magical moments and poor golf days.  As I seek to improve my golf game I am discovering that the mental game of golf is just as important as the physical game. My buddy says “It depends on who shows up to the course that day,” and I think he is right.  The person who shows up needs to be focused on his game with total awareness of what he is going to do for each shot, without trying to force anything to happen.

The first obvious part to the mental game of golf is to leave the cares of daily life in the car.  I would even be so brazen as to suggest that the cell phone should stay there as well, (your mileage may vary) a ringing cell phone is a huge annoyance not only for you but for others. The bottom line is that you need to be able to totally focus on your game without being distracted.

Our golf swing can occur in less that 1.5 seconds and that gives us absolutely no time to think about what we should do or be doing during the swing itself.  I am sure that you have discovered that a random thought during the swing is a formula for disaster.  The mental side of golf means then that our decisions about what to do are already set before the golf swing occurs.  The time for making decisions is in your setup routine.

In your setup routine, you want to be visualizing the shot, deciding where it will land to set yourself up for your next shot. This is the critical point, the mental picture that you put together must be couched in positive terms. You see the shot completing exactly the way you want it with out any negatives. You must focus on a totally positive outcome. The trees, the lake, the sand trap or other obstacle need to be ignored in your mental picture. Conversely a picture like “DON’T hit it into the water” will put you in the lake every time.

Once you have made your club selection and start your setup, your thinking process needs to get out of the way.  From this point on it becomes a matter of performance, your body is now in charge of the activity.  This is the critical place where you let go and trust that your muscles, sense of feel and prior training will take over.

Golf mental training is being able to get your brain out of the way and turn your swing over to total trust in your body to actually perform.  You can learn to do this by incorporating it into your setup.  When you are approaching your ball and deciding where the next shot will be going, add that image of yourself making your best golf swing.  After this you can go through your routine knowing that your body now has that image and you no longer need to worry about it.  Try it, it works.

Technorati Tags: golf mental game, golf mental training, mental game of golf

525 Yard Par 4 at Raven, Yep Par 4

A few years back I got one of the greatest short game tips from Dave Pelz. His book the “Short Game Bible” is the classic for golf short game instruction. Dave and almost every “professional” in the world recommends that we know our distance to the flag. This is important so that we can know which club to select and how long to make our back swing to get to the pin. As you watch the professional golfers you will notice that ideally they want to put themselves in a position where they can come into the green with a full swing of the club. The reality is that as weekend warriors we seldom achieve that ideal.

Often we are faced with situations where that full swing will get us in big trouble even with a super high lofted club. This is where short game practice is critically important if we want to improve our short game. On most driving ranges there is a short game practice area, that is marked with some of the distances to the pin. Those distances are usually from the practice tee to the practice green, but what about when you practice from 40 yards out or 25 or you name it. Typically these distances are not marked. The reason you need to know these distances is so that you can develop repeatable short swings with different clubs to give yourself an arsenal of strokes for your memory banks to repeat.

When I first heard this idea, I literally took a 100 foot tape measure out to the course on a very slow day so that I could measure the distance to the pin and see what it looked like. After a few holes I was able to tell when I was 50 yards out or what ever yardage in round terms. You can do the same at a practice facility so that you will begin to know what 100, 75, 50, 25, 15 yards look like. Very quickly you will get correct the feel for your short distances.

Study and Learn Your Distances

Now that you have the feel for it, you need to develop a swing to match your judging distance. Most of the “professionals” will teach some variation of this method. Basically it is this. For each of the wedges you carry and even your 7,8,9 do you know how far they will travel with a quarter or a half or three quarter swing? This is something you might have to take a while to find out but when you know it, the information is very valuable to you.

Armed with the knowledge of how far a ball will travel you can begin making some good decisions when you are close to the green. More in a moment, but first a couple of caveats.

You will find all kinds of opinion on alignment.  Arnold Palmer said to stand open, others will say straight. The open alignment is probably better to keep your body from blocking the shot.  Next, most of the “professionals” agree that for short shots the hands should lead the club-face. This means that you set up with the ball closer to the back of your stance and you hands will be in front of your target-side leg.  (left leg for the right-handed)  With your weight favoring your target side you will then hit through the ball and finish high for the typical pitch shot. This setup will also tend to de-loft the club meaning that the angle of the face (being more upright) will now act like the next lower club number which means more distance.

Now. Imagine you are a clock! Okay?

Your head is 12:00, Your feet are 6:00 your target side is 1-5 and your back swing side is 7-11. What you want to know is; how far does a 7:30-8:00 o’clock swing travel for each of your wedges ( I carry 4) . Next, the same information for a 9 o’clock swing. Finally, the same information for an 11:00 o’clock swing. You will discover that some of the different wedges will travel the same distance for different swings but once you are finished you have 12 to 16 shots in your bag that you are confident to make and you know the distances each will go. For those shots that go the same distance there will be a big difference in loft.

Build Your Arsenal

For instance a 60 degree lob wedge may travel 25 yards with an 11:00 o’clock swing, while a 48 degree pitching wedge may travel the same distance with an 8:00 o’clock swing. However, the difference of course is loft which gets the lob over the bunker to a close pin and stops versus the pitching wedge which will roll 10 feet after it lands on the green.

When you are armed with all these shots in your golf bag your short game gets to a new level in a hurry. The great thing is that you only really have to learn 3 repeatable swings to have 16 in your arsenal.

Hit them straight and seldom!

Bobby Eldrige put out his Pitching and Chipping video a few years back. I have used it to dramatically improve my short game it is the same system that I have described above.

Visit his page at Purepoint.com

Technorati Tags: golf short game instruction, golf short game practice, Golf Short Game Tips

Golf training is a never ending pursuit for the golfer who has been bitten by the allure of golf.  As golfers there is always something more to learn and improve upon.  When you spend time on the range you find yourself wondering what this or that shot would look like on the course. When you are on the course you only get one chance to make your best golf swing for that particular hole.  The goal is to find a way to take your best golf swing onto the course every time you go.The Ultimate Golf Society may be the answer  for you.

As you think about your round of golf coming up tomorrow.  What are you planning for tonight? Do you know you can go online and get all your questions answered ?  Do you have a routine for when you arrive at the course?   If you are like me, you like to arrive at least an hour early and hit some balls to warm up. Then head for the practice green and get a feel for the speed and break of your putts.   If there is time, you go over to the practice chipping green and work on your short chips as well.  With any luck you will be able to demonstrate your best golf swing on the tee box.

This game has so many aspects to it.  On the tee box you want to hit the ball as far as you can;  then you get to the green and try to slow your shot from  deep rough to a close pin. Of course the putting green can be a whole different story.  I played last year for the first time on “rolled greens”, after the morning cut they bring in a heavy roller and mash the grain down.  Wow, if you hit the ball too firm and miss you are easily 12 feet beyond. If you gently tap it the ball literally moves like a snake back and forth.   I felt lucky to get away with a two putt on most of those holes and three was my average.

Score Card From Lakota Canyon Colorado; Yes those are real piles of rock along the right hand side

One of the joys of golf is getting to play different courses. Each course is unique and each will have some things that are deliberately designed to frustrate the casual golfer.   So, how do you maintain your handicap when you go to these different courses for a one time experience?   In most cases you are not quite sure of what to expect.

Having sound fundamental skills is essential to enjoying the game.   When you get into trouble, the ability to recover critical.

That's me in the sand, 100 yards out at Bear Dance

I know the professionals play a different course every week,  but you and I  probably play a different course 5 to10 times a year with most of our time spent on our home course.

Tracy Reed spent over 20 years analyzing the golf swing.  He put together Golf Swing Control and released it as a book to selected few.   A client convinced him to put together a golf training video, which was released in 2008.   (That video completely turned my game around)  On his Blog he has an 18 minute slow motion critique of Tiger Woods golf swing; which is the best explanation of the complete process of a golf swing you will ever see.  Last October he put together The Ultimate Golf Society to make sure that as golfers, we are prepared for what ever a golf course can throw at us. This website features discussions and training on all aspects of the golf game.

This is a membership website, a 21 day trial is available for a buck and then it will cost you  a monthly fee.  You will get access to Tracy Reed live in a monthly training call, access to videos on all aspects of the game, short game, putting training, a member forum and much much more.  For a buck it is well worth the visit.   With help for all aspects of your golf game available 24/7.

The Ultimate Golf Society

The Bullets below are just a sampling of what you will find:

• Putting and Chipping
• Long Game
• Mental Game
  
• Golf and Business
• Monthly Coaching  Call
• Golf Humor
• Member Questions
• Featured Resources
• Discussion Forum
• Member Profile
  

The Ultimate Golf Society

Technorati Tags: golf setup routine, Tracy Reed, Ultimate Golf Society

For many years in my golf experience, my golf game was terribly inconsistent.  I would go out one day and shoot a pretty good game on one day and come back the next with a horrible performance. I have heard that same lament from countless other golfers.

One answer from a dear friend when asked was; “Depends on who shows up at the course that day.” Nice answer, but it is a lame excuse for my poor performance when I know that I am capable of doing much better. Especially when, on the day before, I executed that same shot so perfectly.

My search for consistency has been partially satisfied by developing a repeatable setup routine.  I had heard and read that all the professional golfers used a golf routine but watching them it was hard to distinguish what they were doing.

What is involved in a golf routine? How do you develop a good golf routine? The answer is mostly a matter of deciding to learn how to focus.  I am sure you are  impressed with your favorite professional as you watch on Sunday afternoon and he seems to just calmly go about his game in spite of the hundreds of people around.  That is a demonstration of the power of having a routine.  If you watch closely you will notice that they will repeat certain subtle behaviors over and over.

With a golf routine your focus is on going through a mental check-list of things that you will do every time you take a golf shot.  The focus keeps you from deviating from that pattern until it becomes an unconscious habit.  A good golf routine will include:

• Course Management; knowing the lay-out of each hole and having a strategy for playing that hole.  Know when it is best for your game to lay up or to go for it.
• Assess the lie of your ball;  making the proper club selection is critical .  Maybe your 7 iron would be a better choice to get out of that deep rough, even though it will not go as far as you need.
• Knowing your limits; if your ball is in a difficult position the best way forward may be a backward or sideways shot.  What are the percentages of hitting through a 3 foot opening in the trees 20 feet away versus a sideways shot back to the fairway. It may cost a stroke but a ricochet could cost you several.
• Develop a consistent setup routine; for addressing the golf ball; once you have developed that routine then do not deviate from it at all.
• Focus on the next shot; when you make the shot it is finished; getting the ball up and in the hole is the only thing that matters.

• Do not dwell on any bad shot you may have; this is a game wrecker and cause for most of the inconsistency that a casual golfer will experience.

I pay particular attention to my actual setup.  By forcing myself to go through the same routine every time I eliminate the assumption that my grip is correct and actually look down and check it.   By verifying the line of my intermediary target with my long range target I force myself to visualize my shot going straight down the middle.  When I set up behind the ball and check my posture, knee bend, back alignment and head I am at the very least giving myself a chance to repeat a reasonable if not excellent swing.

Give it a try.  If you don’t already use a good golf routine, I think you will surprise yourself at how much better you suddenly have become.

Technorati Tags: consistent golf swing, golf mental tips, Golf Routine, golf swing sequence