Can a Bogey Make You Smile?
By Kandi Comer
Golf is a crazy sport. Sometimes when you start to learn the game it seems so easy. Then you start to play and you start having some good results and bam the game gets harder. You have even taken some lessons to speed up the learning process and those lessons are just not working. What have you done to make the game so difficult? It is called THINKING!
Everyone starts out playing golf for fun and just to enjoy being outdoors with friends. Then you get a taste of success by winning a small bet among your friends and then you try harder to do better next time. The next time you go out to play and you are playing your best round ever on the front nine and you then you go to the back nine and beginning on hole 12 you are really trying hard to shoot your career best score. Everyone in your group is reminding you how well you are playing and you are really excited. Believe it or not the wheels start to fall off and you can just not do anything right. Before you know it you are totally frustrated, you can just feel the tension throughout your body as you try to recover to continue your career round, you get quiet and you are no longer having fun and out the window goes that great round.
You tried to think about everything your golf professional has told you about your swing, your putting, your chipping and on and on. Now not only are you not having fun, you have become a mechanical robot and the emotions start to show. Oh yea and your golf professional is awful. How can this happen with all the lessons you have taken?
You have to answer a few questions. Why did you start playing golf? Usually the answer is for fun. Are you still having fun and enjoying the game. Your game should never determine if you are having fun. If your game and how you are playing determines your enjoyment than you have gotten way too serious. Having fun releases tension and less tension creates good golf shots.
Second question. Have you practiced enough since your last lesson so you can totally trust your swing? There is not a magic dust that a professional can put on you to make you better without practice. You know you have practiced enough when you go to the golf course and all
you have to think about is your routine and target. No mechanical swing thoughts should enter your mind while you are playing.
Third Question. Do you go through the same routine on every shot? You should have a routine that you go through on every single shot. In your mind you want to play one shot at a time and if you go through the same routine for each shot then every shot means the same. You want to do this for all 18 holes and then add up the score when you finish. This why players on the tour do not look at leader boards. They are focused on the present and know if they take of the present then good things will happen.
Fourth question. Can you block out your fellow golfers when they start trying to give you advice? I am always amazed how golfers always want to help their friends when they are not playing well. First of all there is not one swing for everyone. When a golfer is told something from a golf professional that thought will not work for everyone. That is why you are paying for a private lesson. It is just for you. So you must learn to block out all the free advice you get from your peers.
I promise if you do the above steps, the game will remain fun and you will start winning those side bets more often. So remember keep the tunnel vision and get rid of the Thinking Cap and the fun will come.
S² Tip
Having fun releases tension and less tension creates better golf shots.
Success Story
Congratulations to Jennings Milholen of Silver City, NC for winning the final event of the Winternational junior golf series. Milholen canned a twenty foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to capture the victory. Jennings win came over the heavy favorite and reigning junior player of the year David Kocher. Way to fight Jennings!
In Another’s Words…
“Golf is a game in which you yell ‘fore,’ shoot six, and write down five.”
-Paul Harvey