TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR GAME
TEE SHOTS
The farther you can hit the more fun you have… This is a common saying among golfers and nothing could be more truthful. On the other hand, this can be dangerous for your game, because the farther you want to hit the ball, the more room for mistakes and trouble will arise. The reason for this is very simple: The driver shots are the most difficult ones! Players forget that when swing the driver, a small change on your position or the weather or the way you hold the club in your hands and even if there is no change at all, two shots will never be the same.
The variations are far too great to expect that you will get exactly the same results every time. So, when stepping on the tee block with your driver in hands, the best way to approach the shot is not to think about it. Don’t try anything new though, if you didn’t do well on the last tee shot and you think you have something wrong with you mechanics, leave the fixing for the driving range. When playing a round of golf, you ARE PLAYING GOLF and not PRACTICING GOLF. Obviously, before a competition, you will actually play a practice round to get to know the course better and familiarise yourself with the hazards and options the course gives you, but that is different. In this situation, you are studying the course and trying to learn the most you can in order to get less surprises on the official round. Practice is important! The only problem is that we have very limited time to spend on the driving range trying to fix the problems we encounter on the golf course.
Anyhow, it is possible though to hit a few balls just before the round start. I would strongly suggest that, for several reasons: one, you can warm your muscles and have less possibilities for injuries; two, this will give you an idea of how you are hitting the ball that particular day; three, this information is important on the pre-game planning and the decisions you will be taking to find solutions for your bad shots. Knowing yourself well is a big part of the game, especially when you are not hitting the ball so well. You have to be aware that some shots should not be attempted because your body is not behaving as it does most of the time.
Actually, if your body is not performing the way you expect that day, that’s fine, you shouldn’t worry about, but just make sure that you find the ways to hit the ball that do not require too much effort from your part. What I mean to say is, don’t force the shots. Still to this day we haven’t heard of good shots in golf when you force your body. When it comes to the mind game, everything counts, it’s like a snow ball that grows as we progress into the field and when we realise, it’s too late to do anything about it, the ball has already consumed you. Avoid this from happening and the way to do this is: hit a few balls before the round starts and be aware of how aggressive you can hit the balls.
The variations are far too great to expect that you will get exactly the same results every time. So, when stepping on the tee block with your driver in hands, the best way to approach the shot is not to think about it. Don’t try anything new though, if you didn’t do well on the last tee shot and you think you have something wrong with you mechanics, leave the fixing for the driving range. When playing a round of golf, you ARE PLAYING GOLF and not PRACTICING GOLF. Obviously, before a competition, you will actually play a practice round to get to know the course better and familiarise yourself with the hazards and options the course gives you, but that is different. In this situation, you are studying the course and trying to learn the most you can in order to get less surprises on the official round. Practice is important! The only problem is that we have very limited time to spend on the driving range trying to fix the problems we encounter on the golf course.
Anyhow, it is possible though to hit a few balls just before the round start. I would strongly suggest that, for several reasons: one, you can warm your muscles and have less possibilities for injuries; two, this will give you an idea of how you are hitting the ball that particular day; three, this information is important on the pre-game planning and the decisions you will be taking to find solutions for your bad shots. Knowing yourself well is a big part of the game, especially when you are not hitting the ball so well. You have to be aware that some shots should not be attempted because your body is not behaving as it does most of the time.
Actually, if your body is not performing the way you expect that day, that’s fine, you shouldn’t worry about, but just make sure that you find the ways to hit the ball that do not require too much effort from your part. What I mean to say is, don’t force the shots. Still to this day we haven’t heard of good shots in golf when you force your body. When it comes to the mind game, everything counts, it’s like a snow ball that grows as we progress into the field and when we realise, it’s too late to do anything about it, the ball has already consumed you. Avoid this from happening and the way to do this is: hit a few balls before the round starts and be aware of how aggressive you can hit the balls.
APPROACH SHOTS AND THE SHORT GAME
I usually compare a golf game with the process of creation of jewellery, the tee shot represents the raw jewellery still to be worked, the approach shot is the processed jewel and the putting the complete ring ready for sale. The approach shots are the shots within a range of 200 yards and the short game for the purpose of discussions of this book we will say shots within 100 yards of the pen.
The approach shot is very important when it comes to the mind, because this is the place where you are tempted to do things you think you can do but most of the time you can’t, in other words, this is the place where you will take chances. There’s actually nothing wrong with that, as a matter of fact, this is one of the things that makes the game fun, on the hand, learn to analyse the situation as a whole.
If you take your chances because your game is going great there’s a very good possibility of having your game going even better or if you taking chances because your game is NOT going well… Well, let’s say you are just getting deeper and deeper into debt! If your game is not going well, your mind is already having a war within and questioning everything you do, your mechanics, your decisions, your planning, absolutely everything so, when it comes to the approach shots, try to step away from all of this thinking process and NO MATTER what club you select to hit the shot, regardless of the day you are having (good or bad game), one thing has to be in your mind and one thing only: COMMITMENT.
This is an important aspect to realise, when you commit with your decision you are actually sending a message to your brain to calm down and focus on the target you want to hit, you are sending a message that no matter what happened up to this point and no matter what will be happing after the shot because the result is not part of your processing decision, all you can do is hit the ball the way you think and how you want; you are sending a message to your brain that YOU are in control. It’s interesting to notice that the process of making decisions and the doubts that may arise with those decisions we take on the golf course are very similar to the ones we do in life.
That’s why golf is so similar to life, the decisions you make, the mistakes we have to deal with and the solutions we may come up with come from the same process of thinking. In life, some decisions and the process they take may last longer or take a long time to take form, in golf they happen instantly. So, if you practice your mental game and the thinking process regarding the decisions you make, commitment and the way you deal with your doubts and even anger, you are actually practicing for life.
The mental approach of this game is not only a way to have fun and enjoy a game but also a way to exercise your mind and having peace with yourself and more confidence when dealing with real life problems. One of the most important functions of our body is breathing. When you breathe properly, you increase the supply of oxygen to your system and everything flows better.
Take step back before a critical shot and take a couple deep breathing before you hit the ball, try to clear your mind and focus into the target, at that moment, nothing else in the golf course matters; it’s not about how good golfer you are, it’s not about the outcome of the shot or what everyone will think about you after you hit it; it’s only about you and your target. Everyone knows that focus is a crucial part of golf and if you are just about to hit a shot, commitment and focus are the ways to go.
But really, who knows actually, how to define focus and commitment? A good and concrete definition of both of them is important to understand what you are actually doing when it comes to the pre-shot routine. There is a ritual, a process that you need to have in place to achieve focus and commitment. It’s called Pre-Shot Routine!
THE PRE SHOT ROUTINE
Habit, this is the key word when it comes to a pre-shot routine. Doing the same thing over and over again before executing a shot, puts you in the state of mind that you need to achieve focus and commitment. Now, the pre-shot routine is actually very personal, YOU will have to find out what works best for you, such as: stepping behind the ball and look at your target, address and then hit or just address the ball, look at the target and then hit, each one of us has a different way of doing things and we have to find the ones that help us to perform to the best.
Play with your eyes, meaning; look at the target and don’t think about anything else other than the target. Select the club you want to use and nothing else matters, you’ve already made your decision, you’ve already analysed the situation, you’ve already selected the way you want to approach the green – if you want to be to right side of it or to the left or even to the centre of the green. A good way of selecting the clubs you are going to use and trying to get the best of the shot is thinking of range of targets as they approach the green, for instance: if the target you want to hit is between 180 and 200 yards, target the green but not any particular side of it, just try to put the ball on the green. As the distance gets shorter your target can get a little tighter such as from 150 to 180 yards of the green, target the centre of the green in a range of 20 to 25 feet to the hole and as the target gets in between 100 and 150 yards, target the shot to be within 10 feet of the hole.
The point is, you don’t have to spend too much time thinking about the approach shot and where you want the ball to land on the green, select the club you are most comfortable with to do the job, take the steps you always take before hitting the shot and just do it! The secret for this type of shot is not having your thinking wondering everywhere when you are trying to concentrate on your target, the results are not dependent on you (up to a certain point) but if you disregard the results and don’t care for them just before you hit the ball, then usually you will be satisfied with the outcome of you shot. So, find out what you need to do before hitting the shot, what you need to pay attention in order to get better focus and concentration but at this point you must be asking: “how do I know that the pre-shot routine I’ve chosen is the best for me?”, “What if it’s too slow and I start slowing everyone else down?”.
Those are very important questions, the best pre-shot routine for you is the one that will let you be comfortable with your shot and at the same time clear your mind of any other aspects of the game, slowing people down for instance. Once you have a routine in place and start doing it, you will see that this will become automatic and faster as you go along with the game and as you apply it, your shots will become more solid and consistent leading to better scores, more confidence and fun.
PUTTING
Definitely, putting is one of the most important aspects of golf. The more practice with putting you can have the better you will score. If you don’t like putting, then you will have more difficulty of playing a good round than others who can put well. The key for putting well relies on basically the way you actually play the game; if you are aggressive this will reflect in your putting, if you are too conservative, this also will reflect. So, putting is actually the gage that tells you how you are controlling your emotions and what type of emotions you need to work on. Everything we do from the tee up to the green is large scaled and happens progressively taking more time than putting.
Once you are on the green, it’s easy to notice that you thinking starts getting faster and more repetitive, taking into consideration the several aspects of the surface of the green and the nuances of the terrain that may take the trajectory of your ball away from the hole. Putting is actually a complex type of shot, it depends on the way you aim your putter to the ball, the way you hit the ball, if your wrists are closing or opening, what’s the speed the ball travels to the hole, balance of the ball itself, etc… The thing is: putting needs practice for one to achieve peace of mind when on the putting green. Also, it’s important that you try to use always the same brand of ball either on the practice green or on the green when playing the game.
The reason for this is that every ball actually has an inner balance that’s dependent on its centre of gravity. What that means is, the ball is built under certain engineering process that when combining different materials can not guarantee that the distribution of those materials will be uniform on the final product. This causes the ball to have a very little more weight to one side than the other and this can influence the ball’s travel on the green changing it more to the right or to the left of the line you saw. So, it’s not always about the terrain and/or the speed of the green but also about the ball you are using to put. Now, the brand to be used actually is up to you, as long as you use the same one for putting every time. When you do that, the possibility of having balls that will behave similarly on the green is greater and your chances of making the put can have a significant increase. Practicing putting is actually easier that all the other type of shots, you can practice home, at the office and even on vacation at the hotel. All you need is the putter and the ball; you can use a mug to simulate the hole or another ball as the hole and try to hit it every time. A good way to practice putting is actually doing short puts, in the range of 5 to 6 feet. This gives you a feel of how you are holding the putter and what type of moves you are executing when hitting the ball.
The techniques to achieve a good performance on putting you can find in any book of golf such as: look at the hole with your head over the ball before you hit it, don’t move you head when executing the shot, etc… Reality is that, as anything in golf, there is not a right or wrong way of doing, there is only YOUR way of doing. If you think it’s better look at the ball as it travels to the hole after you hit it, then that’s exactly what you have to do; if you think that you can hit the ball better by standing on the side of the ball rather than behind (as I’ve seem some good putters do), then that’s exactly what you have to do.
The point is, don’t fight what your mind tells you, listen to it and find the best solution to accommodate what your mind is asking you to the technique you want to apply. You may even have to invent a new technique to achieve your goals, who knows the point is; when it comes to putting, practice and mental aspects are intensified and that’s the only part of the game in my opinion that separates both technique and focus or mental approach to equal levels. So, consider the speed of the green as you must be familiar with before the game starts by practicing a few puts on the practice green, read the line of put you want the ball to take, consider the warnings of your mind before putting, for instance: if you are thinking that you may go too far past the hole if you try to pass it, then probably you will.
Have a put that nears the hole but it doesn’t cause you to have an extra stroke on the way back. Calm down your mind, trust it and hit it, this usually causes a good result and improve your confidence when on the putting green.