INSTRUCTION: 10 steps to monthly medal success
Lady Golfer Editor Mickey Walker explains how, by following these simple steps, you can improve your game and your medal performance...
Play to your potential, not your handicap
MOST adults want to feel comfortable, and spend most of their lives taking few risks.
This is often referred to as “being in their comfort zone”. In golfing terms, we often mentally keep track of our score as we’re playing.
If after nine holes we find ourselves playing well under our handicap, we may well then have a couple of disaster holes to get us back on the track of playing to or around our handicaps.
Make a genuine effort to achieve your best score on each hole that you play regardless of whether you’re playing above, to or below your handicap.
Top players don’t limit themselves by their thinking, but less successful players do all the time without realising it.
Find time to warm up
IDEALLY, you should allow yourself enough time to hit a few shots to loosen up before you play. If your course doesn’t have a practice ground, they may have a few nets.
I know, you can’t see where the ball has gone, but the purpose of these swings is to get your golfing muscles warmed up, and find the rhythm of your swing for that day.
Plan what you eat
DEPENDING on what time you tee off, you need to plan your meal times accordingly.
To allow your body to digest what you’ve eaten, it’s best to eat at least two hours prior to playing.
If that’s not practical, or you’re anticipating a slow round, take some protein or slow-release carbohydrate snacks with you.
If you take health food bars, check the sugar content. It gives you an almost immediate boost, but doesn’t last.
A meat or cheese sandwich on wholegrain bread is ideal, or for convenience it’s hard to beat a banana.
Don’t, though, forget to take any uneaten bananas out of your bag when you get home!
Keep hydrated
OUR bodies and brains need to keep hydrated to function at their optimum. Many golf clubs and drinks manufacturers are constantly pushing glucose drinks.
Again, check the label to see the amount of sugar.
The other type of drink to avoid is those containing caffeine, so if you are a coffee drinker, have decaffed, or limit yourself to one before playing.
It is hard to beat water. With golf being such an emotional game, anything that helps to keep us on an even keel mentally has to be good.
Be non-judgmental
SO often when we have no or very low expectations, we surprise ourselves and come in with a good score.
On the other hand, we’ve all had the experience of entering a Medal with grand plans only to come in well above our handicap.
It is a cliché, but making no judgements or having no expectations, either way, is the best frame of mind to start in.
Driver not always best
WHEN I ask golfers what their favourite club is they seldom, if ever, say driver.
The fact that it is the longest-shafted club in your bag and has the least amount of loft means that it needs some degree of precision to control the ball.
If you’re struggling with your driver, don’t fight it, try using a more lofted wood or even an iron off the tee to get the ball in play.
Nothing is more destructive or soul-destroying than not getting off the tee.
Be target-orientated
SO many players dwell on the hazards in front of them, and as a last mental instruction before they swing tell themselves things such as “Whatever you do, don’t hit it into the water.”
The funny thing is that because the brain cannot distinguish between a negative and positive instruction, the very thing that you’re trying to avoid is the thing that you’re attracted to.
Strangely, it is only golf where we think this way.
For example, would you make a shopping list of all the things that you didn’t want to buy at the supermarket?
Of course not, so don’t do it on the course. The last instruction or piece of advice that you should be giving yourself is where you’re trying to send the ball.
Next time you play, if you find yourself standing on a tee focusing on where you don’t want to send your ball, step away and instead ask yourself where you do want to hit it.
Delete the bad shots, store the good ones
IN just the same way that we press the delete button on our computers when we receive junk mail, so we should do the same when we hit a poor shot.
Conversely, when we hit a good shot, press the store button, and relive it repeatedly.
I’ve heard so many golfers who seem to take delight in telling their friends about how badly they played a particular shot or how a certain hole always ruins their round.
We add power to something by what we say, whether internally to ourselves, or outwardly to others.
If you’re the sort of person who gives a running commentary about your golf, pretty soon nobody will want to play with you!
When in trouble, get out of it!
SO often when we’re in trouble, we go for the near impossible shot, and end up compounding the problem.
If you are out of position, your main objective should be to get back into position losing as few shots as possible.
It isn’t the first poor shot which causes us to have a high number on our scorecard, but the poor shot that we follow it up with. Be smart rather than greedy!
Remember to have fun!
IT’S very common that we only appreciate something after it’s gone.
There are many reasons why someone takes up golf, but the bottom line is that unless we’re playing golf for a living (and probably even then) we should be experiencing enjoyment from it, for some, if not all of the time.
No matter how we play, there are always positives to be taken from a round, or lessons to be learned.
Don’t be one of those people whose happiness is dependent on their performance.
If you can keep a reasonably calm and sunny disposition, you won’t have many down times in your golf.