Most golfers think that course management is what you do to get out of deep trouble. It is more than that. Course management comes into play on every shot with some shots being more important than others.
A good mental game includes good course management. Efficient course management is your ability to play around the golf course the way it was designed by the architect, avoiding the trouble and placing each shot in the best position to hit the next shot. It requires you to plan and concentrate before every shot.
The golf course is set up so you will make hundreds of decisions. Course management is smart golf; thinking positively to avoid mistakes. The game of golf is about managing imperfection. Golf is about managing yourself around the golf course without letting your ego take over (Tin Cup experience).
When you change the way you see the world, your world changes. When you change the way you see the golf course you can see opportunities. You see the obstacles and make plans to avoid them.
Your course management depends upon a myriad of things including your skill level, your personality, course conditions and the pressure of the situation. It is important to have a strategy for playing each hole so you will be prepared ahead of time to handle the feelings that might arise to deter you.
You can be a genius at course management if you are confident with your wedges and putter. Then it won’t matter if you miss greens.
You have learned from experience how to manage your home golf course well because you know your plan. When you play a new course, you need to concentrate on creating the shots you want.
Golf is a game of manoeuvring the ball around the course and having fun doing it.
It’s club championship time shortly. It’s an exciting time for many but it can also be a nerve-wracking experience that, for many players, ends in disappointment. A lot of golfers perform far below their potential and expectations in the club championship because they’re not as prepared as they could be. They don’t arrive on the first tee with as much confidence as they should. Also, many golfers aren’t sure how to be their own best coach – how to effectively execute shots and a sound game plan under tournament pressure.
1.Plan ahead. Give yourself the necessary practice and playing time to prepare for the club championship. Be clear on your preparation for this event at least three weeks prior – write it down. Block your calendar and plan sufficient practice time and pre-event rounds.
2.Practice effectively. Good performance in tournament golf is largely attributable to consistent tee shot execution: minimal errors and penalty strokes, high percentage putting conversions in the 4-10 foot range, and sound wedge play. Spend a high percentage of your pre-event practice time and effort on these skills to build competence and confidence.
3.Hole out in casual rounds don’t fall into the trap of not holing your short putts in casual rounds before the club championship. The habit of accepting “gimmies” – short putts in the 2-5 foot range – is common place. Expect to be nervous and miss a lot more of these critical length putts in competition if you don’t practice holing them out in your regular social rounds. If the putts are in fact that easy, then putt them in the hole.
4.Coaching check a week or two before the event it is a good idea to have a coaching session with your Professional – not a technical session but rather a session on key scoring skills and to discuss your game plan and execution strategies. Tap into your professional’s experience and expertise.
5.Set realistic goals in sports, less than 10 per cent of participants can expect “career” performances in major events. Preparing your best beforehand makes this highly probable. Know your skill and performance level, for example, a typical 12 handicap may likely have a 79-85 scoring range. Set up a game plan and shot strategies that are in alignment with your range. Don’t try to play a game that you don’t have. Don’t force shots – let the magic happen!
6.Create a written game plan. Write down how you plan to play each hole. Know your tendencies and where you feel the most confident and the most vulnerable on the course. Be appropriately aggressive and don’t be shy to play cautious on holes that are potential blow-ups for you. your plan should be focused on enabling you to hit as many greens in regulation as possible and planning for the most probable up and down conversion spots when you miss greens.
7.Focus on deep breathing to get relaxed over your shots. When golfers peak perform they are in a calm and relaxed state over the ball. Focus your energy and attention on using your breathing. Here’s a technique. Breath-in deeply through an imaginary straw and completely empty your lungs when you exhale; soften your body tension and lower your mental tension when you are over the ball. as the great George Knudson said, “don’t play golf to relax – relax to play great golf.”
8.Think the “right” stuff. Players perform their best in competition when they engage the right side of their brain – this is where the athlete lives. Right brain thoughts are “external” on the target, tempo, desired flight and simple performance cues like “full back and through” or “smooth roll.” Be careful not to play “golf swing” in competition: this can be a deadly performance buster – it is left-brained thinking on technique or a “to do” list. Leave this thinking on the practice tee.
9.See yourself succeeding. Visualize and imagine yourself executing your game plan – escaping from trouble and hitting good shots. Winners see themselves winning before they begin. Moe Norman always said that Jack nicklaus had the Green Jacket on his breakfast plate on Thursday before the first round of the masters.
“Players perform their best in competition when they engage the right side of their brain – this is where the athlete lives.”
10.Just play, enjoy the opportunity to compete and challenge yourself. expect some mistakes and deal with poor shots. Don’t make the tournament bigger than it is. Your identity and personal self-concept are not related to your golf score in the club championship. Smile and have fun!
The shot routine is one of three routines associated with playing each golf shot. This one is usually called the pre-shot routine and is often considered the only one. The three routines are the decision routine (selecting club, shot type and target), shot routine (from standing behind the ball to hitting the ball) and the post-shot routine (responses to good and poor shots).
Learning a strong mental pre-shot routine is the single most important thing you can do to improve your mental game, and your golf.
But not just any mental routine. Your mental routine must:
Compliment your learning style
Ease you into narrowing your focus
Free you to hit athletic, artistic, creative, right brain shots or putts
And tap into your powers of self-fulfilling prophesy!
Sound complicated? It’s not. In fact, an effective mental pre-shot routine
Simplifies your thoughts
Makes the game easier
Allows you to think the same for every shot and putt, whether it is to win the Masters or a friendly round with your friends.
We regard the mental pre-shot routine as one of the essentials of a strong mental game. It lends to a very challenging sport….
Consistencey
Longevity
And simplicity
We have long used the pre-shot routine as an excellent and effective standard for measuring and monitoring skill development in all other parts of your game.
The Three Step Journey to a Great Mental Pre-Shot Routine
Tip:
To make this fun and easy, start by assuming that you are of two brains. Let’s call the left brain the “thinker/analyzer” and the right brain the “athletic/creator”
The vast majority of errors in technique begin with poor set-up, so by adopting the correct set-up you will be on track to improving your pitching.
Like most short shots, the set up for the pitch shot is designed to achieve control rather than power from the shot. Setting up correctly is Continue Reading→
Builders take great time and care to ensure a building’s foundations are stable and correct, otherwise the building can’t be developed correctly. So it is with a golf swing. You can identify a good golfer by the way they stand to the ball, likewise a golfer with poor posture is identified as one who limits their potential.
Ground force: why great golf swings start from the feet Continue Reading→
Around the green create a shot easy or more difficult to a specific target. Using 1 ball, you must hit 10 shots to that same target. Before hitting each shot you must run around the green. Once back at the ball, run through your full pre-shot routine prior to hitting each shot. After you have hit your shot pick up your ball and start to run around the green again. Repeat 10 times. It is important to note the quality of shots early in the drill compared to the last half of the drill. Do they drop off? What can you do to help deal with the lack of breath or the heart beating more quickly? Allocate points in relation to where the shot finishes. 5 points if you hole out, 2 points if the ball finishes within 1 club length, 0 points if outside of 1 club length.
Repeat this drill a various stages of you practice.
Place 2 coins on top of each other an inch behind the ball on the target line. Three inches in front of the ball place 2 more coins on the target line. Your putting stroke should cause the putter to miss the coins behind the ball, and then hit the coins in front of the ball after you have hit the putt. This drill will immediately get you hitting down on your putts instead of scooping them. You will start to see and feel the ball roll better. Your contact will also become more solid on the putter face.
This one goes out to all the young players with goals of being a professional player. Oh and everyone who values their precious time.
I am sure we all agree that every avid golfer desires to spend more time at the golf course practicing and playing golf.Imagine having more time to iron out the swing faults, perfecting the putting routine and working on aspects of the short game. You can see it now right, all that extra time at the range and on the course making a major difference to your game, right?
Time spent at the driving range is precious. Arriving with an idea of what needs to be worked on is important. The golf professionals on tour make Continue Reading→
Why do some athletes avoid recording statistics, setting plans and sticking to them and putting their hearts on soles on the line? Part of the reason lies in the words of Colonel Jessep “they can’t handle the truth”.
It is rare with all but the best athletes to hear something like “I have followed a structured preparation plan to the letter and am ready to compete, confident I will do well”.
Much more common is “I haven’t been able to prepare as I would like, so hopefully I’ll go ok”. This is both preparing for the worst and having a ready-made excuse in advance.
It takes courage to fully commit to a plan and declare you have done the work and are ready to put your performance on the line.
During your warm up start with, chipping, pitching, some bunker play, move into your mid irons, 7 iron, 5 iron, and then into your 5 wood, hybrids, driver. After you have finished with your driver move back to your wedges to create a lightness and softness in your arms then move to the putting green. Start with short and long putting to a tee rather than a hole. Do some speed drills and then finish off on the green knocking in 5-7 putts from 2 foot to feel confident with how you are rolling the ball.
It is not about the swing now; you have warmed up, trust yourself and enjoy the doing.
