If you want to learn golf the fastest way, I strongly believe to play better golf you all need to understand what areas of the game to focus your attention on.
Short Game 35%
This area is anywhere from 40 yards to a green and inside that yardage and can be chipping and putting. It’s amazing to think that if we were to two putt every green we would end up having 36 strokes just on the putting green! If you shoot 90 and have that many putts in a round, 40% of your strokes are just on the greens! That doesn’t even take into affect how many shots around the green and up to 40 yards out a player might take. If we were to calculate all shots taken from 40 yards and into a green, I bet the percentage of strokes would be more in the 50-60% range.
To this day it’s disappoints me to see so many players spending the majority of their practice time on the range and not around the short game area. In my first email I mentioned that this was one of my top 10 reasons players don’t improve and I am simply stressing the short game again to draw your attention to how important it is. Personally I have had some great rounds where I wasted strokes around the greens and felt so un-satisfied with my score and the end of the round. On the other side I have had many great rounds where I hit the ball very poorly but was able to shot a low score because of my short game. Those rounds are so much more satisfying because I was able to create something out of nothing essentially. Not only that but it really gets under the skin of your playing partners!
If you are a member of a course, I highly suggest working on your short game around and on a actual green. This recreates a real life round and makes it a much more efficient practice session. If you don’t have this luxury, seek out a driving range in your area that has a really good short game facility. Another option is to play a course at a quiet time by yourself and drop a few balls around a green and work on your short game.
Mental Game 25%
I am firm believer in positive thinking in all aspects of my life including on the course. To put it in an easy way, if you don’t think your going to hit a good shot or play well before a round, then you’re most likely not going to! Before a shot, be sure to think positive by visualizing and feeling a successful shot.
Not only is the mental game thinking positive, it’s having a steady attitude on the course. If you hit a bad shot, simply shake it off and focus your energy into the next shot because there is nothing you can do to change the past and that bad shot. The more energy you put into thinking about a bad shot, it distracts your mind from the most important shot ahead, that next one.
The mental game is also not getting rattled when your opponent hits a great shot that forces you to hit an even better shot. In situations like this we must think that our opponent is going to hit a great shot and we will have to do the same.
Being prepared for a round is also another key to the mental game. When I was about to play a big round, I would visualize hitting great shots on the course I was about to play and would picture myself walking off the 18th green with a smile on the face after playing a solid round. I would also walk through a round the night before and go over what clubs I would hit off each tee.
I really hope that you see how the mental game focuses our minds on playing well by going over the things I have listed above and that you spend more time working on on these things.
Course Management 25%
Thinking your way around a course is proper course management rather then just hitting shots with little to no thought. I see so many players hit shots that they have no business hitting. Start to think about playing a course based on your playability. I made a great post coming up with a personal par on my blog and I suggest you to check it out if you haven’t here.
Sound course management is all about playing within yourself and understanding risk reward situations and choosing the right club. If you have 200 yards to the pin and must carry it 190 yards to clear the water in front of the green, you must decide if you can get there or not with a solid shot. If you can hit the ball consistently 200 yards with any club, then go for the green. if you can’t then lay up but when you do, lay up to a yardage that you feel comfortable with. Too many times players lay up to a yardage that is a weak part of their game and they end up hitting it in the water sometimes because of a bad mental game or because they just don’t know how to hit that shot.
Full swing 15%
It’s hard to believe that the swing only makes up such a little percentage of the game but this is because there are so many other areas that influence us and our swings. I have seen players with what I would call awful swings shot great scores. On the other side of the fence I witnessed golfers with great swings shot terrible scores. Why? Because they lack in all the aspects I have listed for you above.
So simply do not think that just because you have a great swing that the you will automatically shot lower scores. Also don’t think that you need to spend countless hours perfecting and grooving your swing just to shot lower scores because you’re not happy with it. The swing is important but just not as important as you think.
I’m saying that you should probe a little deeper into working on other areas of your game and notice that golf isn’t all about swinging the golf club.
Fundamentals 10%
Fundamentals are what forms our swing and the ability to play all sorts of shots. It’s important to firstly have strong fundamentals when learning the game or to check the fundamentals when something goes wrong with your swing. They build the foundation to performing sound, quality and consistent golf swings.
RSS Feed
