Golf Rewound Greatest Posts!

[Bigvivec]

Every now and then one of us posts a real gem on the boards; a post that is worth copying and pasting to use for reference in the future because the post was just that good...
So I have some favorites that I will post that I have already saved, most of which are in the realm of practice tips and swing instruction, but would like to see some of the favorites that you have beyond these catergories...so go hit the archives and bring out the oldies but goodies!

[Bigvivec]

How to Break 80
by PA Playa
*This was in my pocket the day I shot 79 and in the 70s for the first time*

I have religiously done this shortgame routine for the past three years, and even though my swing has struggled a bit with inconsistency since then, my shortgame has never been more solid.

And it's pretty simple, really. I just go to the course for an hour in the evenings, a couple of times each week, and work on getting up and down with chips and pitch shots. I play one ball, and work my way around to each hole position on the green. I use only one wedge. And, of course, the putter. My goal is to simply get up and down 3/4 times. If you want to keep some sort of score to maintain your interest, as in some type of game, so be it. What I've learned using the one wedge method is it forces you to become creative in your shot making around the green. And this really developes feel and confidence.

I averaged 29 putts per round last season, and it had just as much to do with my chipping and pitching than it did with my solid putting. It's an investment that you will benefit greatly from.

Above everything else, for a vast majority of us, the game is a game of "recovery." You're not going to hit every fairway, nor will you hit every green. Nor will you get up and down for par out of the sand each time, or even from the fringe every single time. It's not necessarily how bad the result is from a specific shot, but more about how you recover from that shot. Typically, THAT is the difference between shooting a great round, and walking to the car after the round filled with frustration and regret.

More than anything else, breaking into the 70's is more of a mental barrier than physical. Although your swing doesn't need to be textbook, it does need to adhere to a few basic mechanical principles. And it needs to be fairly consistent, lest you not know what to expect. So assuming that you do have a good, repeatable swing, the rest of these things would apply.

Shortgame -- the quickest way to turn a bogey into a par is learning how to chip and putt. The average golfer swings driver 14 times each round at most, but 70 percent or better of the strokes accounted for during a round of golf come from inside 100 yards of the green. I'm not saying to NOT become a good driver of the ball. But DO become a better wedge player, and a better putter. When you're getting up and down to save par better than 1/2 the time you miss a green in regulation, you're heading in the right direction. You're at least giving yourself a chance.

Course Management -- know when to play aggressively. Know when to play for bogey. Bogey isn't a score killer. Double bogies are. I use a general rule of thumb that I think could likewise apply to you as well: Always make the next shot easier. And above everything else, stay away from penalties.

Mental Game -- you need to have confidence, but you also need to keep your emotions in check. Don't get down on yourself after a bad shot or a bad hole. It happens to all of us. Look at it as an opportunity to RECOVER. Keep your head in the game, stay focused, but relaxed. Don't add numbers up and get ahead of yourself. I don't like old cliches, but "one shot at a time" carries more weight than any other truism in golf.

Finally... love practice and playing. If you're getting out and doing these things on a regular basis, you'll be well on your way to breaking 80.

[Bigvivec]

Thoughts on the Full Swing
Author and 10 year Master Teaching Professional, W.E.B.

I wouldn't order it either. The best thing a person can do to find their own natural swing is this. Start your practice swing from your finished position. Don't swing up to it, start there. Once there, (the full finish), relax both shoulders and drop your hands down just below your heart. Hold that position for 3 seconds and then swing all the way back to the top of your backswing and without stopping there, swing hard enough back to the end of your follow-thu/finish so that you hear the sound of the club essssssing or whoooooooing just behind the ball. Repeat until you feel all is right, then go ahead and set up and hit your shot. Don't try to do anything but hit the ball solid and finish in balance. You just pre-programmed it to happen so stop trying to make a swing happen! If you finish in balance and your right knee (for right handers) is pointing at the target after having completed the follow-thu and you have then relaxed the shoulders and dropped your hands, you will have found the swing for you that you can repeat without thinking about it, time after time after time.

Keys:
1. In an effort to get under the ball and to help it up most golfers tighten the right shoulder . By relaxing the right shoulder at the very end of the swing, in time, (very quickly) it will learn to relax through the swing, thereby removing all tension and force from your swing.

2. Make sure the club shaft releases back to the ball at the correct time. (Just behind the ball). The essss or whoooo sound happening there ensures the timing of the swing is right! This gives the added kick for distance and prevents a golfer from steering the golf club. When a golfer uses his hands and or arms to try to make the ball go straight, that action always causes the club to slow down as it approaches or is in or past the hitting area. The essssss just behind the ball ensures that the club is graining speed and swinging free!

3. Use your hands and arms to deliver the club to the ball, use your set-up to take the ball to the target! Last. If a golfer finishes in balance and their right knee is pointing at the target, they have automatically (without thinking) made the correct weight shift, which is the key to everything. If the movement of weight is wrong, your balance will be off, causing you to make some type of adjustment somewhere in your swing, thereby slowing the swing down, thereby affecting the timing of that swing.

Rest assured, if you finish as I stated, everything behind you will have been correct. One cannot finish in that position if anything behind you was wrong. The thing about the balance swing practice position is this. The lifting up effort before-the-hit, or during it, and or in the follow-thu and or the steering throws a golfer's torso backwards, stopping the weigh transfer, leaving some if not all of the weight on the right foot. (Notice how if the right knee is pointing at the target, (at the finish) ALONG WITH THE RIGHT HEEL having released from the ground, there is no way you can have any weight remaining on that heel! Everyone of my students when having their swings video taped, (using this system for and as their pre-swing) their next actual swing was inside-to-out and back to the inside and all the swing was on plane! Save your money, just start all your practice swings from were you would like to be when you finish and then use your shoulder position at set-up/and set-up to determine where the ball goes. Think hit it solid, RIGHT HERE in FRONT of you, (Don't try to hit it out there or do anything with the ball) and let it fly. Ball starts right set up more left. Ball starts left set up more right! Sounds simple, but for some reason just about everyone has trouble the first few times starting the backswing from finish. Just think and go there. Where would I want to be when I finish and what would I feel like? After 5-10 times it will become simple. If on the course you start missing shots, you lost it. More then likely you are back to steering! Get back to making the essss behind the ball and it will quickly come back!

[Bigvivec]

Grip Pressure
Mr 3856a
*I love this post and refer to it often...*


Back on track w/ an awesome drill

Well, after having 2 really good sessions with the new teach and one where I just struggled completely, I took 5 days off without swinging a club and went back to see him today.

The good thing about this guy is that he can explain things in many different ways and has a lot of different ways to make you feel what he's trying to get across, so if one thing doesn't work, he keeps trying different things until he gets through. Well, today he got through.

This is a great drill. He started off by telling me that he would bet me that if I would do this drill for 10-15 minutes a day for 2 weeks, I'd be hitting the ball the best I ever have or he'd give me a dozen balls. Said he'd never paid out on this bet, and he won't be this time, either. Here's the drill:

Take your address position without a ball, and take your normal grip pressure. Now, assign this pressure a number from 1-10. It doesn't matter what the number is, just give it one. Now, starting from your address position take your normal backswing and stop at the top. The goal is to have that same grip pressure at the top as you had at address. If it was a 3, you want it to still be 3 at the top. If it was 6, you want it to be 6, etc.

Do that 5 times, just swinging to the top and maintaining that grip pressure.

Now do full swings, one at a time, say 10 of them. Again, you want the same grip pressure at the top and after your complete follow-through as you did at address. Focus on keeping your grip pressure at that same number, whatever it is.

Now here's the kicker: now do 10 full swings in a row, without stopping, with the same focus on maintaining that same grip pressure. From address to the top, down and through, straight through again to the top, down and through, over and over without stopping, 10 swings.

He said where people usually change their grip pressure is when they change directions. When you're doing the 10 straight swings without stopping, you're changing directions 20 times. See if you can get all the way through that just focusing on keeping that same number.

Now step up to a ball, and with that same feeling, swing, again, focusing on keeping that same number. What this does is relieve all the tension in your forarms, which was just absolutely killing me. I was trying to choke the daylights out of the club. Once I stopped doing that, it freed up my entire swing, and I went from hitting some nice, high fades to some absolute dead straight rockets in like 10 minutes.

He said if I keep working on that drill alone, in 2 weeks I'll have a nice tight draw. The results were immediate. Give it a try!

[Bigvivec]

Mikey's Four Keys
Mikey300

I'll keep it simple, there are four big keys to developing a decent golf swing:

1) is tempo, as mentioned before,try to keep it smooth and somewhat effortless,

2) keep a medium, consistant grip on the club

3) (this is big) keep your chin up and steady through out the swing.

4) (another big one) keep your right knee flexed but braced. do not let it sway way back or straighten up. your knee should stay over the top laces of your shoes. can't stress this enough.

there's obiously much more than that, but it's a start.

[Bigvivec]

The Walk Through Drill
Ringer


My walk through drill.

You don't need a ball but it really helps with multiple aspects of the swing.

YouTube - www.golfinstruction.biz - Walk Through Drill

[Bigvivec]

On going low


14and18

The first advice I will offer will be on course management...

Too many players try to be too heroic on the course. I find that when I manage the course, I stay in control of my game, and rarely have a BAD hole. I may make bogeys, but rarely make doubles, because I stay away from trouble, and if I find trouble, I get out of it as quickly as possible. Some may find this style of play boring, but I am proud that I am a two-handicap, and if its boring, so be it!

Some things to consider:
1. Know how far you hit each club, and use that knowledge off the tee. One theory is to play to the 150 markers off the tee. So, if the hole is 360, and you can safely hit a 2-iron, 5-wood or 3-wood 210, then keep the driver in the bag.

2. On the tee, try to see where the trouble is, and aim away from it. Or, if you know that the fairway narrows in certain areas, play to the widest part of the fairway. Example: You can see that fairway bunkers pinch the fairway at about 200 yards. Hit enough club to carry the bunkers. On the flip side, if you see the bunkers pinch the fairway at 250-260, hit your 220-230 club off the tee, so there is no chance you can reach the bunkers.

3. Learn how to hit a low punch shot. When you get in the woods, use it. Unless you are very confident you can safely hit a full shot out of the trees, punch the ball back into play. Make sure you hit the correct club, to make sure you get under branches/limbs, get your hands forward, so you catch the ball first, and commit to the shot. If you can find a way to punch, say a 6-iron, back into the fairway, and leave yourself around 100 yards to the hole, you still have a chance at par, and most likely a bogey, but you eliminate the chance for a terrible hole, which not only hurts your score, but may hurt your psyche for the rest of the round.

4. In heavy rough, don't try to be a hero. Too many inexperienced players choose a club just based on the distance to the hole, and then hit an awful shot. If they are 200+ yards way, they are trying to "muscle" a 3-iron, and its not a smart play. In heavy rough, take your medicine, and hit a lofted club to advance the ball as far as you can, and get back in the fairway. It is the smart way to avoid disaster.

5. Back to knowing how far you hit your clubs. This is very important for shots of 120 yards or less. Most players carry pitching, sand, gap, or lob wedges, each with a different loft. If you hit your PW 120 yards, but are 80 yards to the hole, don't try to finesse a PW. Use one of your more lofted wedges, take a normal swing, and the ball will go the proper distance. For example, I hit my lob wedge 60-75 yards, and my sand wedge 80-95 yards. If i am 92 yards out, I am confident I can hit a full sand wedge, and I know I can't go more than 10 feet past the hole... and if it spins back, even better. Take a few minutes before your round, on the range, and hit full shots with your wedges, to see how far they go.

Some of the putting practice I do...
-The practice green I use has 9 holes, all separated by about 15-40 feet, so I play a "round" using a par of 18 for the 9 holes, and I see how low I can go. I may do this several times around this make believe course, until I am satisfied with what I am doing, and making improvement.

-To practice lag putting, I take three golf balls, aim for a hole 60-80 feet away, and try to get down in 6 putts or less. It's not easy!! I don't stop until I do it. If you ***** up the first few times, no big deal, because this is also good practice for 6 footers.

-I finish with 3 footers, trying to make 12 in a row, from all angles around the hole. I choose a hole that is on a slight slope, so I get to practice uphill, downhill, left to right, and right to left breaking 3 footers. If I miss one before I reach 12, I start over again. I don't allow myself to leave the putting green until I achieve my goal. Try it... it's hard! It teaches focus, muscle memory, and discipline. It's kinda cool, I can struggle to get to 12, and once I get it, the "pressure" seems to be off, and then I keep going... have gotten up to 31. This is a great drill to get used to putting the ball in the hole, hearing it go in the hole, and making yourself used to making these testy putts during a round.


Petermo

As a 60 year old with 52 years of golf behind me (handicap 4) and still playing in provincial and national competitions, I have had to reassess my approach to golf fairly regularly as flexibility and strength have declined - what it really comes down to is to review the basics and the objectives of playing i.e. getting the ball in the hole in the minimum number of strokes and ignoring the ego issues like distance off the tee and clubhead speed. Some thoughts -

1.The Importance of Alignment

Lots of senior (and other) golfers fall into bad habits, very often resulting from impatience and the desire to get on with the game. The result – shots are hit without proper care being taken on lining up the shot. Jack Nicklaus stands behind his ball and lines it up on his target by using a divot, leaf or other imperfection about ½ a metre in front of his ball as an intermediate target. He then aligns himself to his target in the following order – line up club, feet, knees, hips and shoulders.

This is especially useful to right eye dominant players (for r/h golfers) who tend to open up their shoulders to the left of the target when aiming and who then hit the ball without squaring up. The result – over the top pulls or the dreaded slice.

Watch how carefully the top pros set up to the ball and how, almost without exception, they concentrate on squaring up to the target line by approaching the ball from behind.




2. Using the 15th Club*

Most seniors don’t use the smarts they should have developed over the years they’ve played this game. The most common topic of conversation is the comparison of driver performance – perhaps we don’t want to acknowledge that we’re getting older but where’s the sense in looking for 5 or 10 meters with a club we only use 14 times a round? Yet almost all experienced players can match the best by concentrating their practice where strength and club head speed don’t count – in the scoring zone.

The difference between good and really good is almost always in the player’s ability to operate in the scoring zone from 120 meters in. Almost all of us can get to within 100 meters of every hole we play in two shots yet how many seniors take their punishment when in thick rough and put themselves in play instead of trying to hit the green?

How many seniors carry 3 wedges to take the guesswork and finesse out of the shots of 100, 80 and 60 meters?

How often do we practice our putting with a purpose – distance control on the longer putts, direction on the shorter putts?

Even taking the 36 putts we’re allowed, we should never score more than 81 if we hit only 50% of the greens in regulation and that allows for no up and downs. For older players par on the greens should be 30 putts, but that means practicing at the business end of the hole and forgetting about the “Oohs and Aahs” that greeted the 300m drives of 20 years ago!

* “ My 15th club – the one between the ears” – Bobby Locke


3. Be Realistic about your Driving Distance

Jim Flick, one of the most respected golf instructors and authors about the game feels that one of the greatest problems most golfers (of all ages!) have is an “open ended” distance that they believe they hit their driver. The majority of players have a pretty accurate range for every other club that they use through the green, typically 220M ( for a 3-wood, 150M for a 7-iron, and so on. Not many experienced senior players would stand on a short hole and pay too much attention to the clubs used by their playing partners but when they have a driver in their hands, ego comes to the fore! Many times with less than satisfactory results.

To improve your scoring why not work out your actual average distance off the tee based on a number of rounds at your course – be honest with yourself, even if you persist on embroidering the truth at the 19th!

When you play to hit your average distance off the tee you will almost immediately improve your driving accuracy and also will be able to plan your play of the course to suit your strengths which may well be 5 and 7 woods instead of hard-to-hit 3 and 4 irons.

Try it – your cunning as well as your score will impress the youngsters!!

___________________________ there's no fox like an old fox!!

[Bigvivec]

Rawhiti wisdom...

rawhiti robber

I find to aim for bogey or par is a recipe for disaster for me.
it means im not playing 1 shot at a time and if i fail at that goal its bogey or worse.
first shot is to place the ball in play in the safest place that gives me a chance of being on or beside the green with my next.
2nd shot , check the wind and pin position.
depending how far out i will normally play to the side of the green that gives me more room to chip if i miss , or away from trouble and/or chip INTO the wind.
my home course has tiny greens with nasty rough around most edges maybe 3 feet from the green so conservative play is warranted .
other courses i assess each hole on its merit , and how well im hitting the ball.
3 shot this the goal ..BIRDIE.
if its not a putt then its a chip.
if theres a nasty downslope behind the hole or anything else stopping you going for the hole its a lag , and easy par.
otherwise , check wind , break , your lie and where the ball will pitch and kick to.
get it rolling as soon as possible.
keep it as simple as possible.
and put it in the HOLE.
if the birdie fails you start again.

with this method i make the odd birdie , a LOT of easy pars.
and well , you can live with bogeys.
i think half the problem we get onto bogey trains and cant get off them is cause we start thinking PAR.

oh , another big tip !
LET THE CLUB DO THE WORK

I just keep it simple . dont try and overhit ANY shot.
the driver is only for holes when you need it to reach the green in 2 "with a controlled 2nd shot " -BUT ! can also afford to stray a little
never risk losing control of the ball
most important shot - the chip , if it isnt a lag then your chipping it in !!!!! not at !!
if it misses you start again .

[Bigvivec]

Thank you Harvey!
Acebgd12

Here's a little quick tip, however, if you want to shave five strokes off your game in two weeks. It's not a shortcut, it requires work. Spend 80-90% of your practice time on chipping and putting, the other ten percent on your full swing. I guarantee if you do this for two weeks, you'll shave up to five, if not more, strokes off your game.

Just a few thoughts. Take the for what they're worth- some tips from a 15 year old amateur

[pick-it-up]

Good stuff, man!

I'll gather up some of my fav's and post them here later.

[Bigvivec]

JC's Boot Camp

jcgolfpro


Golf Team Practice Schedule

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems as some high schoolers are having to "freelance" practice. Here is our schedule and an explanation of the drills:

Pre-Season Practice Schedule

Practice is at 3:00pm Monday-Thursday

Mondays ? Play 9 holes (Blue Tees).

Tuesdays ? Range/Short Game
- 20 Balls on the green each at White and Red Flags
- 20 Balls on target with tee shot
- Pelz Club Drill
- Chip 3 different lengths 20 balls each with 50% up and down conversion.
- Complete ?Going Home Drill?

Wednesdays ? Short Game
- Yardstick Drill 1
- Yardstick Drill 2
- Ladder Drill
- Putt 9 Holes (Score 22 or less)
- 9 Up & Downs (one spot, all 9 holes, 3 different clubs)
- 6 CONSECUTIVE Up and Downs

Thursday ? Play 9 Holes (Blue Tees).

Chipping & Putting

Goal: Achieve a simple ?shoulders only? stroke with chipping and putting. Focus on maintaining your triangle and eliminating wrist movement.

Drills:

1. Chip-In Drill
a. Pick one spot around the putting green and chip to each hole until you hole a chip. Utilize the proper club for each shot to practice with the three club chipping method. Vary your spot and distance from the green each day you perform the drill. Attempt to hole one chip in EACH hole.
2. Up & Down Drill
a. From one area around the putting green, chip balls to each hole utilizing the proper club for the shot. You must get up and down to proceed to the next hole.
3. Ladder Drill
a. Set tees at 3, 6 and 9 feet. Stroke 10 putts from each tee. You must make 7 from 3 feet, 5 from 6 feet and 3 from 9 feet. Repeat this drill at 3 separate holes.
4. Yardstick Drill 1
a. Place stick with top edge lined up with the hole. Place the ball on the stick about 3-6 inches from the end. Stroke the ball down the stick focusing on keeping the putter square to the line and the stroke down the stick. Must make 20 putts in this manner.
5. Yardstick Drill 2
a. Place stick as in Drill 1 but this time use four compass points and make 5 in a row at each point.
6. Putting Feel Drill
a. Practice 10-20 foot putts while looking at the hole. Line up and then look at the hole while you make the stroke, feeling the stroke flow back and through.
7. Pelz Club Drill
a. Place a club 2 feet behind the hole. Putt from 15 feet keeping 6 balls in a row between the hole and the club. If the ball goes in the hole, comes up short, or hits the club, start over. After completing 15 feet, move to 25 and repeat.
8. Going Home Drill
a. Hit a chip shot and then putt it in the hole. Keep going until you fail to get up and down. This is your ?Going Home? number. Each time you practice, perform this drill to the best of your ability to meet or beat your number.

[Bigvivec]

On putting...


Mikey300
On the golf channel monday night, they had a clip of tiger putting short putts just with his right hand; the idea is to keep his right palm continuing towards the target longer which in turn, keeps the putter head going down the line longer. When you go back to putting normally, you can really feel your right palm take control. Tried that today, it really helps.

Buns
Ditto to that.... though I have to admit to liking the feeling of the back of my left hand.... same thing really.



telluwhat
Drills?!? You want drills?!?
Here's a few my golf instructor showed me last weekend.

1. Run a 6' yellow chalk line on a straight putt (roll a ball to the hole with your hand to make sure the putt has no break). Next, put a tee in the ground just in front of the hole to hold the end of the string in place. The yellow chalk will leave a faint yellowish green line on the practice green.

Grab 4-5 balls. Hit your first series of putts about halfway up the line (3'). Hit them until you can make 4 in a row. Then, move back to 6' and do the same.

2. Grab 3 tees. Put one at 10', one at 20', and one at 30'. You may need to bring a measuring tape to get the distance right. The goal is to get within 18-24" of the tee. Hit several putts, alternating tees (don’t groove hitting to just one tee).

That should do ya!

VJCouples
Put a line on your ball. Aim it in the direction you want to start the ball moving. I always point my putter in the direction I want it to start and line up the line on the ball with the putter shaft. Now all I have to do is worry about speed. If you sense a break, play a little bit more than you think. You will at least give your ball a chance to make it close. This is because if you give it good speed and not enough break, your ball will roll farther away from the hole on its way down the slope. You won't believe how much this helps.

Ravenous Bugblatter B
I'd suggest reading the following:

http://www.golfdigest.com/instructio...1quieteye.html

A couple of weekends back, I shot a 96 with 43 putts. If you do the math, you'll see that with a 2-putt average, I would have had an 89. So in my quest to break 90, I went searching for something to get my putting in order, get it more consistent. That's when I found that article.

Read it. Understand what it says, began adopting a quiet eye method in your routine. I got around yesterday with 33 putts on greens that are still bumpy from aeration. Those 33 putts were part of my first sub-90 round.

I think I've learned what I need to focus on to become a good putter. Save yourself some pain, and learn what you should be doing.


jcgolfpro
How about this one...

Take a dime and place it on top of a penny. Now make a stroke putting the dime off of the penny. Once you can do it routinely, you can be sure your head is still and you are making a smooth stroke. I GUARANTEE better putting through this drill as it forces you to contact the ball just after the bottom of your putting stroke thus almost eliminating the initial skid from playing the ball too far back.

JPsuff

There's an old adage in golf that says "If your backswing is longer than your follow through, you're headed for trouble".

Try shortening your backswing.

A good drill for your problem is this: Setup for your putt as you normally would but don't take a backswing. Simply "push" the ball toward the hole from address. This will educate your muscles as to how a proper through swing should feel. Once you've developed a feel for that through swing, start working with the idea of making your through swing double the length of your backswing.
If you take the putter back, say, 3-inches make sure your follow through is at least 6-inches. If your backswing is 10-inches, your follow through should be 20-inches and so on. All of this teaches acceleration and you'll quickly develop a feel for moving the ball toward the target rather than just tapping it and hoping for the best.

Anytime I get a case of the "De-cels", I go back to this practice technique and usually within minutes I'm back on track.


Hope this helps!


-JP


PA PLAYA
There is nothing more frustrating than standing over a putt and praying that it drops, because in all likelihood, most of us aren't THAT close to God.

[Bigvivec]

Maintaining your composure...
JPSuff


Two things:

1. You DO have anger problems

2. "Pride goeth before a fall"

And, for the record, we both know that 80 is hardly a bad score, but if you're like me, you know you can play better and it ticks you off, (been there far too many times myself).

As a former club thrower, pouter and whiner, and having had more than my share of bouts with the "Poor Me's", I too thought many times about throwing the clubs into the nearest pond and trying something else. (But there were never enough people around to watch me do that. I mean, what's the point of a grandiose exit if there's no one there to see it, right?)
I blamed everyone and everything other than myself for my shortcomings. I saw everyone else as "idiots" and thought that I was the only one who had any idea of how this game ought to be played and no one could tell me otherwise.

Then one day I just decided to take a hard look at myself and I realized that I was responsible for my own good time and that anything I produced in life or on the course was a direct result of my attitude and my actions. I decided then and there that if anything was going to change, it had to come from me.

One of the best psychological "tricks" I learned to modify my behavior with was to preface any negative comments about myself with the phrase, "I used to".

"I used to get angry and throw clubs"
"I used to get down on myself"
"I used to be judgemental of others"

You'd be amazed at how that simple phrase can change things. It has to be spoken to another person because simply thinking it to yourself allows you to ignore it. When I announced to a group of people, (like on the first tee), that "I used to get angry", then I'd look like a real dope if I then proceeded to bend a 4-iron around a tree if I hit a bad shot with it. So, when I inevitably hit that bad shot, I'd look around, see the people I just told that I didn't get angry and I'd collect myself, move on to where the ball ended up, and plan my next shot. (That's how you can let a prideful ego work FOR you instead of against you).

Life is much better since I decided to stop being so ** off at the world and my golf game has improved as well. Now, when I get into a slump or if I'm just having a spate of bad rounds, I tend to look at what it is that I am doing incorrectly rather than throwing blame across the landscape. And you know what? It's usually something I'm doing wrongly -- imagine that!

I know this sounds overly simplistic, (and it is), but the point is that whatever we do, WE, DO. It's all about high ego and low self-esteem. We get mad because we feel foolish after a poor performance but that's because our over inflated ego sees us as tour pros but our low self-esteem tells us we aren't and never will be. The trick is to bring the ego and sef-esteem into balance and set realistic goals. For example, in the spring after four months of not swinging a golf club, it would be silly to think that I will simply arrive at the course and immediately shoot a 74. It would be nice, but it's not bloody likely. Could we be tour pro's? Maybe. But you don't get from sea-level to the top of Mt. Everest in a single motion and you don't go from "King of the Muni's" to Oakmont in one swing either.
Instead, I set simple goals and as I reach them, I set more complex goals and I work THROUGH the bad shots rather than allowing them to get me angry.
One important thing to realize is that no one else can "make" us feel good or bad and when we perform a task or swing a golf club. It is WE alone who are responsible for the outcome and it is WE alone who decide how we feel. There's an old cliche that goes: "When you point a finger at something, there are three others pointing back at you".

I know that sounds corny, but it's true. (That's why it's a cliche)


Do I still get mad? Of course I do. But it's no longer blind rage. Now, it's more curiosity to find out what caused something to occur and the fun part is devising a solution. It's much easier on the psyche to work towards a solution than it is to dwell on a fault.

But hey, if you want to quit, then quit. I'm not gonna tell you not to. But all I can say is that life is waaaay too short to get all jammed up over such trivialities as whether I hit a good drive or make a putt. Even the pro's don't take it THAT seriously.

I have two rules for life:

Rule #1: Don't sweat the small stuff.

Rule #2: It's ALL small stuff.


Good luck!


-JP

[cosine]

Here's a great post from Fourputt regarding choosing a ball to play:

I had always been a believer in premium balls. Back in the days when I was playing my best golf, I played Titleist Balata Tour 100's. IMO, they were the best balls ever made for feel and controllable spin. But they only lasted for 9 holes at best before you beat them out of round... and one skull shot would leave a gash all the way through to the cover to windings. Back then I was single, had no real expenses outside of rent, car payment, and golf. At $25 a dozen, they were still affordable. But at $50 a dozen, I just can't stand to even walk to the checkout with a box of Pro V1's.

If I could justify the money, I'd probably by playing Pro V1's, but $50 a dozen is just too steep. I now play either Nike Power Soft or Bridgestone E5's. Both are good balls, and once you adjust your short game to playing them, Scoring isn't that much of an issue. My handicap has dropped more than a point this year, down to 13.4 now, and I'm still scoring very well (low round of 81, several 82-83) using the more affordable balls.

I used to be in the camp with the players who think that a better ball will help you score better. Now, I'm not so certain that it's a true relationship. Certainly the BEST players are helped by a ball that they can control precisely. But for 95% of us, it's more important that you match your swing technique (especially your short game) to whatever ball you are using.

I do feel that it's important to always use a ball with similar playing characteristics if you want to be consistent, but it isn't necessary to use a ball that will stop on a dime. The problem with that is, that we golfers of average and below average ability don't make consistent enough swings to get the benefits of a precision ball... that precision only comes with a precisely controlled swing. Players like us will actually hole more chips with a ball that rolls after it hits the green, because that extra roll gives the hole a better chance to get in the way of the ball. Now you can focus on line, and if your distance is a bit off, the pin might just do its job and knock the ball into the cup.

So for those of you out there who think that you have to play a premium ball in order to play good golf, I'd advise you to really think about that. IMO, that is a mostly just a myth.

[pick-it-up]

This post from fourputt has helped me a GREAT DEAL! I can now hit from a downhill lie without any problems.

Need Some Tips on Hitting from Downhill Lies