For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Life Lessons
Do you expect things to go as planned?
Aug 18th
I saw this post earlier today and I couldn’t help thinking how much it relates to golf and the way we approach it.
So often, we set high expectations for ourselves, especially when we’ve been working hard on a particular aspect of our game, like chipping, putting, or driving. Then when things don’t go as planned we stop having fun.
Never give up
Dec 6th
Never Give Up
GMac’s victory at the Chevron this weekend over Tiger Woods is a wonderful example of not giving up.
He continued fighting even as things seemed to be breaking down around him. His miraculous bogey on 17 kept him in it. Tiger then hit it tight on 18 giving McDowell a must make putt with a lot of pressure. He made a gritty 15 footer for birdie putting the pressure on Tiger’s short putt.
On the first playoff hole, as they played 18 again, Tiger left himself with an almost identical distance for his approach shot. Graham had a shot from about 175 over the trees. He hit a good shot and left himself a nearly identical putt to the one he made to force the playoff.
A long term approach to golf
Nov 12th
It is a game I plan on playing for the rest of my life. A game that will teach me many lessons to come, introduce me to people who will become good friends, and open doors and opportunities. It has already done some of this, but I believe it will do more. They say golf is a microcosm of life. They say you can learn a lot about how a person handles adversity by how they handle the unlucky bounces, duffed shots, and OB shots a round, a season, or years of golf will dish out.
All of these things help me to cultivate a long term approach to golf. Look, I love getting new equipment, playing with the latest drivers and irons, just as much as the next guy. Love to try out the latest tour golf balls, and all the gadgets and gizmos that aim to help us play better golf. Only I don’t see them as quick fixes. I see them as tools that will help me in a long term goal to become the best golfer I can be.
Each of these tools helps with certain things. I haven’t seen a cure all yet, and I don’t think I will. They comprise my golf tool box. Like any tool though you need to understand what you can and can’t do with it, as well as what you are trying to accomplish.
Golf: A game for life
Aug 20th
I don’t think that many of my friends who don’t play golf understand why I do play and love this game. As Bagger Vance says:
What I’m talkin about is a game… A game that can’t be won only played…
Golf is a game that you can’t win. Sure, you can win tournaments and bets. You can win trophies, but you can’t ever master golf. You can’t perfect golf. You can experience perfect moments, but they are fleeting, they go as fast as they came. And you never know when the next perfect moment is coming. Golf, as many wise people have said, is in the journey. The journey to get better, to feel those perfect moments and everybody has those. They usually come at the end of a frustrating round when you’re ready to give up the game. Each one of those moments keeps you coming back for more.
Lessons from the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone
Aug 9th
This week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational provided a unique learning experience.
Did their expectations do them in?
We saw the world’s number one player, struggle to his worst finish as a professional, while the number two player in the world was coping with a new kind of pressure, the chance to take the number spot away from Tiger Woods.
So why weren’t Tiger and Phil able to muster anything better than +7 and +8 respectively? Was the course unfair? Hunter Mahan shot a 64 on Sunday to win by two shots. Goosen, Furyk, Harrington and Oosthuizen had good rounds in the mid 60s. So I would say that the course was not unfairly setup.
Use your natural autopilot to play your best golf
Jan 3rd
“Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course…the space between your ears.”
Bobby Jones
Ah, the mental game of golf. Have you ever noticed that some of your best rounds occur when you can just get out of your own way?
Tiger Humanized
Dec 2nd
It’s always sad when our heroes let us down.
It’s also a reminder that they are human and make mistakes. When someone is so good, so talented at what they do, that everything they touch turns to gold, it becomes difficult to see them as full human beings with flaws and conflicting emotions. I’m sure we can all think of heroes who have let us down. Andre Agassi recently confessed that he was abusing meth while competing on the professionally on the tennis circuit.
There are probably too many examples to name, and the truth is that almost everyone of our heroes would let us down if we dig deep enough. Together, between our heroes and us the fans, we create an image that is impossible to live up to. This does not excuse his behavior nor should it explain it away. It’s just a reality that we have deep connections to our heroes and they will eventually let us down.
Applying Fearless Golf
Nov 13th
How difficult is it to play Fearless Golf?
In ordinary situations, on your favorite course, on your favorite hole, with your favorite club, and with ideal weather it’s probably not that hard. But what happens when you are in a tournament, or there is some money riding on a putt, or you’re on the 16th hole needing pars in that last two holes to beat your best score. Is it easy then to play fearless golf? Probably not.
I think playing fearless golf requires awareness. You must become aware of when the fear mechanism is triggered and act accordingly. Too often we get caught up in the moment and instead of taking a moment to gather ourselves we push through, for whatever reasons we have. Usually we end up with a bad result, a hooked or sliced shot, a shot OB or into the hazard, or a stubbed chip, or a weak or overly strong putt.
I set out this morning to play Fearless Golf in difficult conditions on my home course (temperature in the upper 40s, wind blowing around 30 MPH, with a threat of rain on the way). You would think that in these conditions it would be difficult to play fearless golf. What’s the wind going to do to my shots? How much shorter will the ball fly in the cold? What are the greens going to be like? Will my hands be too cold to get any real feel putting or chipping?
I noticed the fear response came up a number of times. I pictured a drive being taken by a slice wind way right OB. At that point I had a choice. What do I do about it? I didn’t want to just hit then because I had a really ugly picture in my head. I told my self “You’re playing fearless golf, you’ve hit this drive great before lots of times.” I would then picture my ball flight as I wanted, relaxed by body, and especially my hands, and swung with confidence. I hit it down the middle in ideal position.
Fearless Golf
Nov 12th
I got a new book today, by Dr. Gio Valiante and Mike Stachura.
One chapter into I would considering recommending it. When I look at the differences when I am able to pull off great shots and when I’m not there does seem to be an element of fear in it. I think a lot of pressure comes from fear; fear of losing, fear of looking foolish, fear of slicing, fear of hooking, fear of hitting it fat, etc.
Do you ever notice when you are practicing that effortlessly a lot of shots come off great. Your chips are closer to the hole with several going in, your putts are firm, on line and track right in, your drives are long and straight? Then you get on the course and that ease is gone…
I think a big reason is that there are now consequences, penalty shots, lost balls (OB or in hazards), difficult lies etc. All of these things that can go wrong creep into your thoughts unless you are determined to keep a strong mindset. But like Dr. Valiante says, we actually get the fear response before we can even consciously recognize it. If we don’t do anything about it when we do recognize it (hopefully before we swing), then it’s too late.
The next time I go out to play, I’m going to make a point of approaching every shot with confidence and certainty that I can pull it off. Obviously it is unlikely that I’ll pull off every shot, but going into it confident that I can will make a big difference.
Tiger Woods Rulebook to Success
Nov 11th
A great article (here is the orginal article) about becoming successful.
The Tiger Woods Rulebook To Being A Huge Success
Written on 6/25/2008 by Alex Shalman, creator of the Practical Personal Development blog.
If you believe in evolution, you know there wasn’t some superstar golfer caveman from which Tiger Woods evolved centuries later. His talent and subsequent success were not a genetic lottery win — let’s take a look at 12 factors that we can adapt from this legendarygolfer.
