Trade In Your Anxiety for Ownership

When I was teaching golf full-time, the most common emotion that I noticed in my students was anxiety.  This wasn’t unique to me; it was true of every teacher I knew.  Students are anxious because they’re trying so hard to get things right, but the much surer path to playing better is owning your swing.  In this lesson, I’ll explain how you can start walking down that road.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You want a more consistent, repeatable swing

You jump around from one swing thought to another

Conformity Is Killing Your Swing

Golf is a sport of conformity.  Between the dress codes and rules for etiquette, no other sport I know gets people so anxious about doing the “right” thing.  This extends to the golf swing: golfers talk about trying to “fix” their swing as if there’s a Platonic Ideal for what it should be.  That idea of perfection also bleeds into how we talk about our swing – most people think there are right and wrong things to feel and words to use.

If you’re going to own your swing, you need to set aside these ideas.  There is no perfect way to swing a golf club.  There is not a right or wrong thing to feel or way to describe it.

Pay Attention to Yourself

Most golfers have no idea what their body is doing during the golf swing.  This isn’t because they’re bad athletes; it’s because they’re overly concerned with the result of every swing, mistakenly thinking that other people care about it.

The first step toward owning your swing is paying attention to yourself.  The next time you’re at the range, put the focus on your body and make swings.  Don’t try to change things, don’t try to control things, just swing the club, and note what you feel.  Is there pain anywhere?  Where do you feel exertion?  Is there tension or restriction somewhere?  What makes a swing feel good or bad?  And, finally, what feelings are connected to good results?

I’ll offer two keys to keep in mind when you’re going through this process.  First, go slow.  If you hit a stinker, don’t be in a hurry to race away from those feelings and hit another.  No one cares about your bad shot, and racing to the next one just cheats you out of the chance to learn.  Second, don’t judge.  This is not an exercise in self-flagellation or evaluating your abilities.  You’re just here to learn what your swing feels like.  Those feelings are not good or bad, they just are.  Take note of them and keep going.

Find Your Own Words

After you’ve spent some time gaining awareness, you can start to put things into words and creating cues.  The biggest thing to remember here is that your words don’t have to make sense to anyone else.  You can say that your swing works best when you feel some “bing” in your left elbow.  You can strive to put some “oof” into your right hip.  As long as you know the sensation that connects with those words, they’re good cues.

Once you have those cues, write them down.  These are your swing feels, and they’ll be your North Star when your swing gets lost.  I have a page of notes on my phone that I refer to whenever I start to feel like golf is a foreign concept.  My notes likely wouldn’t make sense to anyone, and they wouldn’t help most players even if I “translated” them, but they don’t need to: they’re my swing feels.

Feelings Change

One of my favorite things about my notes is the way that they’ve evolved.  In a way, it’s like a history of my golf swing.  I can look at the first note and remember when I needed to emphasize that sensation.  Being a gear nerd, I can also remember what clubs I was playing when I had those feelings.  Then I can look forward and see how it has changed.  “This is the note I made after that lesson…this is the cue I used to stop hitting shanks [more on that HERE].”

I say all of this to let you know that your feelings and cues will change over time.  That doesn’t mean you should hopscotch from one swing thought to another, but it does mean that your body may feel or react differently from one day or week to the next.  For example, I’ve been working on “opening” the club more early in my swing.  Though I have stuck with that thought for several months, some days I need it more than others.  Some days it feels easy and natural, some days it feels hard and laborious.

The Ultimate Goal

Your target in this journey is not a perfect swing.  Even if the perfect swing did exist, you couldn’t expect to own it for more than a moment.  The goal is awareness and understanding.  If you go to the course with a knowledge of what your swing feels like and how to keep it on track, you’ll be well on your way to playing your best golf.

Further reading: I didn’t write this as a companion piece to Andy Hayes’s recent lesson, but it turned out that way.  Check out his lesson HERE

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The Fix for All Golfers

Yesterday I overheard a golfer talking about a new coach they were taking lessons from.  “We’ll see if this guy can fix me,” he said. 

Every golfer thinks they are broken and in need of fixing.  It’s a common ailment.  What if this mindset is keeping everyone from improving as fast as they would like?

I recently had the privilege of spending two days with legendary golf coach and expert in learning Michael Hebron.  One of his mantras was that we are not trying to do something “better,” we are actually trying to do something “different.”

Regardless of which swing philosophy or guru people ascribe to, if they are coming at it from a place of trying to fix something that is broken, they are making it harder than it needs to be.  When golfers are trying to fix something that’s broken, their mind is filled with criticism, worry, and self-doubt. 

Nothing is Broken

If people would like to improve as quickly as possible, they need to start by realizing that nothing is broken.  Bad swings and bad days are to be expected.  If a golfer can accept this, then their mind will be free to focus on things more helpful.

The Feel of the Swing

When you snap hooked that drive, did you do anything wrong?  No, you actually made a perfect swing to produce that outcome.  So don’t try to fix anything.  Pay attention to how the swing that produced the snap hook felt.  If you can stay in this mindset of awareness, eventually you will learn how to feel what type of swing produces a snap hook.  

What’s your biggest miss?  The shot you are most afraid of hitting.  Do you know what the swing feels like that produces that miss?  Or do you just know the feeling of anger and frustration that comes from hitting the shot?

If you can focus on doing things differently instead of always trying to get better and fix something that’s broken, your awareness will grow and so will your level of mastery in the game of golf.  You’ll learn what the swing to produce a great shot feels like.  This is different than testing out different swing thoughts each day and living or dying by if it happens to work.

For more on the feel of the swing, click HERE

Swing Changes

Often swing changes don’t work for people because they are trying to change something they aren’t even aware of.  How could you change your current swing if you don’t really know what it feels like?  It may sound crazy to say you don’t know what your swing feels like, but it’s true for so many people because their mind is on so many other things.

To make a change that actually lasts, before even spending time practicing it, you need to know two things: 1. What my current, natural swing feels like 2. The difference between my current swing and what I’m trying to do differently.  People tend to jump to focusing only on a new feel or swing position, and they aren’t able to get the change to stick.

Practice

When you practice, instead of trying to hit a perfect shot over and over, try to produce some of your common misses on purpose.  If you slice, first try slicing on purpose, then hook it, then go for a straight ball.  If you can do this with a mindset of awareness and non-judgment, you will learn so much more about your own swing, and how to produce different shots.

Never Hit a Bad Shot Again

It will take practice, but if you can start to play golf with this mindset, you will never hit a bad shot again.  The slice in the water was just a different outcome and swing than the drive right down the middle.  If you can see your shots this way, you will have less fear, doubt, and frustration in your golf.  And if you can play without fear, doubt, and frustration, imagine what a difference that could make.

The post The Fix Every Golfer Needs appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

Forget Your Vision

Every golfer has a vision of their perfect practice.  The weather is beautiful, the grass at the range is flawless, you’re standing next to a mountain of gleaming Pro V1s, you have nothing else on your mind, and your body feels amazing.

Take that vision and throw it in the trash because it’s getting in the way of your golf improvement.

This Is For You If:

You don’t practice because you can’t do exactly what you want

You only practice when conditions are perfect

Practice Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect

Your perfect practice scenario is rare and maybe impossible.  Speaking for myself, waiting until “everything else is done” means I would never practice.  There is always a work task, a home chore, an errand to run.  For those of us who don’t belong to private clubs, we’re always going to be hitting range balls off grass that looks like it hosts off-road races.  The putting green is always going to be too crowded, and the short game area too small – if it exists.

Everything Counts

The good news is that all practice – good, bad, ideal, and horrible – counts.  It doesn’t matter if you’re perfectly focused.  It doesn’t matter if your shots aren’t traveling their precise distance because the range balls are three years old.  Having a golf club in your hand builds experience and helps ingrain good habits.

Think about your golf practice like exercise.  Would it be better to walk for five minutes or sit on the couch?  Of course it’s better to walk for five minutes.  An hour with a personal trainer in a fully equipped gym might be better than that five minute walk, but that’s not always (or ever) an option, so we’ll take what we can get.

Make It As Good As It Can Be

Rather than waiting for the perfect scenario or whining about how our practice opportunities stink, we need to make the most of what we have.  If you have time to hit a small bucket, do it.  And when you’re there, make it the best small bucket it can be.  Focus on every shot.  Change clubs for each ball to make it game-like.  Pick specific targets.  Go through your pre-shot routine every time.

Will any of this eliminate the clown who’s playing music on a speaker ten feet away?  Nope.  And it won’t fix the turf or replace the range balls with Pro V1s.  But it will help you get the most out of what is available to you, which, in the long run, will make you a better, more skilled player.

Don’t Take Zeros

“Taking zeros” is what I call a day without golf (or exercise, or basketball, or whatever you’re pursuing).  When you learn to practice however you can, you’ll stop taking zeros.  When you learn to stop taking zeros, you’ll see your game improve dramatically.

“I’m too busy to practice every day.”  No, you’re too busy to do a big range session every day.  You’re not too busy for the minimum effective dose [more on that HERE].

“I live in a tiny apartment in a cold weather climate, so I can’t practice.”  If you wanted to find a way to practice, you would.  I have loads of ideas for practicing in any environment HERE.

Enjoy What You Get

The other piece of this puzzle is learning to enjoy every opportunity to put your hands on a golf club.  I’m frequently guilty of forgetting this lesson.  I’ll go the range to test a club with a sense of obligation or get on my putting mat with an eye roll.

This isn’t just entitled, it’s unproductive.  If we start with gratitude and enjoyment – “Even if it’s just putting 10 balls, I’m happy I’m able to take time to play golf” – it’s a lot easier to make your practice as good as it can be.  As much as it’s lionized in some sectors, grinding with gritted teeth only works for so long.  Embrace the joy of being able to play – in any way that you’re able – and you’ll get more out of it.

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A Lob Wedge Addict

Hello.  My name is Matt, and I’m a lob wedge addict.  I’m here to share my story, the things I’ve learned in almost twenty years of addiction, and how I’m playing better, smarter golf now.

How It Started

I started playing golf seriously around 2003.  I was a wide-eyed, uninformed viewer in the era of peak Tiger and Phil.  Which is to say, I never stood a chance.  When I put together my first set of golf clubs, a 60 degree wedge was a requirement.

Going to the short game area, I was only carrying one club.  Every shot called for the lob wedge.  Chip shot?  Lob wedge.  Flop shot?  Lob wedge.  Bunker shot?  Lob wedge.  Bump and run?  Lob wedge.  The results were spotty, but the club was never blamed.  I was a new golfer – my expectations were low and any failures could be laid at the feet of my inexperience.

The Golden Era

The excuse of being a “new golfer” lasted for the duration of my college years.  I didn’t play that often, so it was easy to blame my shaky short game on a lack of practice.  I wasn’t a lob wedge addict at this point, just awash in ignorance.

What transformed me into a full blown lob wedge addict was the three year stretch after college – my Golden Era of golf.  I lived near a course and had a work schedule that allowed me to play virtually every day that the weather would allow.  And I loved the short game.  I didn’t go on the course every day, but I would spend hours chipping and pitching.  With only my lob wedge, of course.

The stupidity of my approach was overwhelmed by the number of hours I put in.  My short game became exceptional.  I stamped each new lob wedge “Otis” – up and down, just like an elevator.  My other wedges were little more than ornaments in my bag.  Despite ball striking that could generously be described as “hit and miss,” I routinely shot in the low 70s.  It’s the best and worst thing that ever happened to my game.

The Darkness

Here’s a math problem for you:

What do you get when you take an ill-informed approach and subtract all the hours of practice?

Answer: Bad results.

As my life changed, no longer allowing for hours of short game practice, my scores exploded.  This isn’t an unusual story, and I wouldn’t trade my current life for my old handicap.

The problem was that the dramatic change in my practice habits masked the lessons I should have been learning along the way.  Every time that I played, I reached exclusively for the lob wedge.  When it worked, it was validation of my strategy.  When it failed, I blamed it on my lack of practice rather than seeing that other variables were in play.  My lob wedge addiction had blinded me.

Seeing the Forest, Missing the Trees

I can’t put an exact date on it, but there was a point where I started to see a little pinprick of light.

My commitments outside of golf were growing, so my practice time continued shrinking.  My short game continued to deteriorate.  It was rare that I got through a round of golf without an embarrassing mishap around the green – stuffing the wedge into the turf or blading a shot across the green.

I decided on a solution as extreme as my current, failing approach: putt almost everything.  Regardless of how far off the green I was or what the conditions were, I was putting.  I wasn’t putting out of the rough, of course, but after years of being burned by the boom-or-bust lob wedge, I settled into the no-risk approach of relying on the Texas wedge.

While I didn’t have my arms around the solution yet, at least I was admitting that there was a problem.

Epiphany

99% of the time, testing golf clubs is not helpful for my game, but every now and then it opens my eyes to something important.

This past summer, I was testing a lot of short game clubs.  In a situation where I would normally grab my putter without thinking twice, I started hitting some of these test clubs.  The results were outstanding.  “Huh.”  I grabbed my pitching wedge and started replicating those results.  I changed the situation, and the pitching wedge continued to shine.  “Where has this been hiding all these years?” I wondered, as I started exploring the other unused clubs in my bag.

A Grown Up Short Game

After over twenty years of golf, I’m finally playing with a mature short game approach.  I’m using all of the tools in my bag – putter, lob wedge, pitching wedge, even the occasional long iron – and all of the shots I know – chips, pitches, putts, flops.

When I approach a short game shot, I’m considering the distance to the hole, the situation, and, perhaps most importantly, where my game is at.  If it’s my first round in two weeks, I’m probably playing the lowest risk option.  When my game is feeling great, I’ll let the lob wedge off its leash.

I’m laughing as I write this, thinking about the response of my 24 year old self.  “You old bastard, you’re just jealous.”  Yes, I’m jealous of the unlimited free time you had.  And I’m simultaneously gobsmacked at the stupidity of how you played this game.  My brain and your schedule would have been a hell of a combination.

The Bigger Picture

This lesson goes well beyond the short game.  Don’t be held hostage by your current beliefs.  Try lots of stuff.  Try stuff that you tried before that “didn’t work” – it’s possible you weren’t letting it.  Don’t let pride get in your way.  You don’t have to do things because they work for other people, but if something works for a lot of people, it probably has some merit.

In life and in golf, you should never be done learning, growing, and evolving.

The post Confessions of a Recovering Lob Wedge Addict appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

In the first part of this lesson – When to Take a Break from Golf [read it HERE] – I discussed the reasons why you might want to take a break from golf and why a break can be beneficial.  In this lesson, I’m going to discuss what to do if you’re struggling with your score or your feelings about the game but don’t want to take time off.

If Your Scores Are Stuck

There are lots of cliches that are appropriate for the golfer who isn’t improving.  I’ll use these two:

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

To be plain: if you want to shoot better scores, you need to start doing something differently.

Change Your Practice

Practice more, practice differently, or practice better.  The first one is self explanatory.  Practicing differently could mean spending your practice time differently (changing the ratio of putting/short game/long game) or changing the way you practice (random practice vs. block, for instance).  Practicing better means getting more out of our your practice by improving your focus, tracking your practice, or eliminating distractions.

Take a Lesson

If you haven’t had a lesson in a while, it could be time to get an outside opinion.  In one hour, you might find that you’ve been looking for answers in all the wrong places.

Learn Your Game

I say it all the time: if you’re not shot tracking, you don’t really care about your score.  Every player at every level will learn something they did not know if they track five to ten rounds and carefully examine the stats.

Change Your Strategy

Are you playing strategically, mathematically optimal golf, or are you just following your gut?  Much like people who don’t shot track, those that play by old cliches like “drive for show, putt for dough” are leaving shots on the course.

Work on Your Mental Game

Rounding out the trifecta of “Things Most People Should Do But Won’t” is working on your mental game.  Pick up a book by Dr. Bob Rotella or check out In The Zone mental training HERE.

If You Aren’t Having Fun at Golf

These suggestions are all about your enjoyment of the game.  If you don’t like them, I’m going to strongly suspect that you’re unhappy about your score and should try something from the list above.

Stop Keeping Score

This is my single best suggestion for enjoying golf more.  As someone who put the pencil away over a decade ago, I can personally attest to its effectiveness.  Most golfers are unhappy because of their score.  I’ve even seen players walk off the 18th smiling then get upset when they add up their card.  If the scorecard is what’s making you unhappy, get rid of it.

Play Different Formats

If your scorecard is making you unhappy but you still want to compete, play different formats.  Try match play.  Try Stableford scoring.  Pick a gambling game like Wolf and focus on winning the bets rather than adding up the strokes.

Use Fewer Clubs

For the average golfer, who is used to carrying a “full set” of clubs, nothing will shake things up like playing with fewer clubs.  Cut your iron set in half, carrying just the odd or even numbers.  Dump a wedge or two.  Play without your driver.  You’ll hit different shots than you’re used to, which can be very enjoyable.

Create a Constraint

Carrying fewer clubs is one constraint, but it’s not the only one available to you.  You can choose to never hit the “right” club.  You can decide to hit a fade on every shot or a draw.  You might decide that you won’t hit a club a second time until you’ve hit every other club at least once.  Experiment.  Get creative.

Record Your Good Shots

Carry the scorecard purely for writing down the best shots of your round.  When you make a long putt or pipe a perfect drive, close your eyes and lock in the feeling, then write it down on your card.

Focus on Gratitude

Golf gives us a lot to be grateful for.  You’re outside.  You’re probably with people you like.  You’re able to move around and create shots.  Focus on the positives and you’ll be quickly on your way to having fun on the golf course again.

The post Alternatives to a Break from Golf appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

A Break From Fun?

For a lot of us, the idea of taking a break from golf sound crazy.  Golf is something we love.  For most of us, it’s something we don’t spend enough time doing.  We sneak out at the crack of down to get a round in or smash a bucket of balls after work as the sun sets.

But sometimes, a break from golf can be a good thing.  In this lesson, I’ll discuss when you might want to take a break from golf and how it can help your game.

When to Consider Taking a Break

There are two main reasons why you should take a break from golf: score and emotions.

If you play golf strictly or predominantly for score, and your scores aren’t improving, you may want to take a break.  There are several reasons why a break can be beneficial to your scores – I’ll discuss them in detail shortly – but it can also be worthwhile simply to stop beating your head against a wall.  Not meeting your scoring expectations can be frustrating and demoralizing, which leads us to the feelings bucket.

Golf is supposed to be fun, recreation, relaxation.  It’s not your job.  It’s not life-or-death.  If you’re not enjoying your time on the course, it might be time for a break.

That’s not to say that every moment on the golf course needs to have you doing cartwheels.  Golf is hard.  That difficulty is what makes it satisfying when you succeed.  But if you’re not looking forward to your rounds, it might be time for a break.  If you look back on your round and realize that the dominant emotions are stress, anxiety, fear, or apprehension, there are probably better places for you than the golf course, at least for a time.

What’s the balance of fun and score?  Matt and Andy discuss HERE

Scoring Benefits of a Break

There are several reasons why a break from golf can help your score.  First, it can give your body a chance to recover.  Golf is a physically taxing game for everyone, even the young.  You’re going from stillness to maximum speed to stopped in about one second.  There’s also the high speed collision with the earth (hopefully just on iron and wedge shots).  This can lead to back issues, tennis elbow, shoulder problems, and more.  Taking time away from golf can allow your body to recover so that you’re not just getting through each round but excelling and enjoying it.

Time away from golf can also give your brain time to recover.  The score-obsessed golfer is probably also a player who has a lot of swing thoughts and ideas about the game.  This can be great – thinking about strategy and technique can lead to a lot improvement – but it can also be burdensome on the course.  Playing good golf requires a balance of active thoughts and calm focus.  A break can help tilt the scale towards the latter.

Finally, taking a break gives you a chance to reset your expectations.  A lot of players’ score issues are rooted in pressure created by unrealistic expectations.  These players were happy when they first started shooting 90 (or 80 or whatever the number is), but now it’s a miserable grind.  Taking a little time off can allow you to enjoy your baseline score again, no matter what it is.

Emotional Benefits of a Break

In a word: reset.  If you’re not enjoying golf, it’s probably become too routine and your expectations are probably out of line.  Getting away from the game can fix both those issues.

When you’re playing every week, it’s easy to lose your appreciation for all the things that make golf great.  You’re seeing the same faces, playing the same course, and probably hitting the same shots.  That kind of routine can get old, but absence will make the heart grow fonder.  After a little time away, your friend’s tired jokes will be funny again, and your home course will be a bit more vibrant.

Resetting your expectations is just as important.  Golfers are great at constantly raising the bar for themselves.  This is fine to a point, but it can get self destructive.  Taking time away gives you a chance to realize that you’re not going to be a Tour player or knock down every flag.  No one cares what you shoot except you.  Being away from the game can give anticipation and joy a chance to catch up (and hopefully run past) stress and anxiety.

You can also consider getting away from The Biggest Lie In Golf HERE

How Long to Stay Away

How long you need to stay away from golf is entirely personal.

If you’re break is emotion-driven, I think your feelings will tell you when you’re ready to come back.  When the excitement and anticipation start coming back to you, you’re probably ready to get back on the course.  This could be as little as a couple weeks if you’re just a touch rundown; it could be a couple months if you’re more severely burned out.

For those players looking for a score boost, I would suggest taking at least a month off.  This gives your body a sufficient amount of time to heal, your mind time to clear, and your expectations a chance to reset.

What if you don’t want to stop playing golf?  Click HERE

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Simple Works

As a young coach – in both golf and basketball – I was preoccupied with making sure my students knew how much I knew.  I filled all the available air space with jargon and instruction, convinced that each student’s improvement was directly tied to how many words I said to them.

Now, whether I’m teaching a fourth grader how to shoot a basketball or a fifty year old how to stop slicing, I frequently pare my teaching down to this: hold your follow through.  In this lesson, I’ll explain why this simple idea has so much power.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You want to improve your swing

You have too many swing thoughts

You want to learn about your swing flaws

The Many Virtues of Holding Your Follow Through

One of the primary virtues of “hold your follow through” is its simplicity.  Every player – from the seasoned, scratch golfer to the complete beginner – understands what it means.  We’ve all seen the PGA Tour logo.  Try to look like that when you’re done.  Simple.

Relatedly, this straightforward edict acts as an eraser for the litany of swing thoughts many golfers carry around.  If you’re thinking about holding your follow through, you can’t be worried about your wrist flexion at P2.5.

By erasing swing thoughts, this phrase also relieves a lot of psychological pressure.  All those swing thoughts build up a mountain of expectations: “I need to flex my wrist at the top of the swing so that I can square the face at impact.  If I don’t, I’m going to slice it and look like a hack, oh no oh no oh no.”  It’s no wonder some players get stuck over the ball.  When I ask them to hold the follow through, I’m taking on all the responsibility for the outcome.  If they hold their follow through, they did their job.  Easy.

One more benefit is that “hold your follow through” is an external cue.  Research on motor learning shows that, across sports, people make changes faster with external cues than internal cues [learn more HERE].  External cues allow the golfer to be an athlete and accomplish the goal without micromanagement.

When I ask a player to hold their follow through, a myriad of good things tend to happen.  They usually finish on balance with a proper weight shift into their lead foot and a full turn toward the target.  Typically, they finish the swing with their club over their lead shoulder.  And, often, they do a better job of “releasing” the club face and getting it square at impact.  Pretty good for a “simple” four-word lesson.

Succeed or Learn

One of my favorite things about holding the follow through is that it gives the player feedback that’s easily understood.  All of those benefits I listed a moment ago – weight shift, full turn, balance, “completed” arm swing – come with a clear indicator in the follow through.

If the student finishes the swing standing on their trail leg, we both know they didn’t shift their weight.  If their chest isn’t pointed to the target, they didn’t turn.  If the club isn’t over their shoulder, they may have made a tentative arm swing.  All of this feedback turns into a straightforward cue for the next swing.

This is in stark contrast to most internal cues which require video confirmation.  Needing video not only delays the feedback (a killer to learning), it makes the feedback harder/impossible to get when the student is on their own.  For more on why I hate filming golf swings, click HERE.

A Cue for Your Entire Game

Finally, while the idea of holding your follow through definitely has the most dramatic impact on the full swing, it’s an idea that you can use in every part of your game.  Personally, I find it most helpful in the short game.  I tend to get “stabby” with my chips and pitches, not shifting forward and completing the swing.  Holding that unpleasant, incomplete follow through is a harsh prompt to do better.

On the green, we’re not making dramatic turns or weight shifts, but there are still lessons to learn.  If you’re trying to make a flowing, smooth stroke, you’ll want to see that follow through get the putter head well past the address position rather than stopping at impact.  We can also watch the club face and feel the pressure in our feet for clues about why our putts are starting offline.

“Hold your follow through” isn’t going to make you sound like a PhD of Golf Swing Jargon, but it might be the fastest route to better results.

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Not Another “Easy” Fix

Across any endeavor – sports, fitness, personal finance, etc – the most common form of clickbait is advertising one “easy” thing that will make all the difference.  The allure is obvious: who wouldn’t want to see massive growth from one effortless change?

This lesson is different.  I’m going to suggest something that’s incredibly hard.  I think it’s worth it – it will dramatically improve the results you see from practice – but it’s not easy.  If you’re ready, read on.

Before I go any further, I want to credit the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown [check it out HERE] for inspiring this lesson.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You’re ready to get serious about improving your swing

You are a disciplined golfer

Get Focused

The uncomplicated but difficult message of this lesson is that you need to focus your practice on one thing if you want to see real improvement.

“What?  That’s it?  That sounds really easy.”

No, it’s really difficult.  It’s not complex, but it’s hard.  I’ll explain.

Let’s start with the first requirement: knowing the right thing to focus on.  To do this, you need to know what’s really hurting your golf game.  Thankfully, there are a couple ways to figure this out.  One approach would be to take a lesson and have a coach tell you the biggest problem in your golf swing.  That could be poor contact, poor club face control, etc.

Alternately, you can look at your shot tracking data [Shot Scope V5 review HERE] to determine which part of your game is hurting your score and drill down from there.  As an example, you might see that your short game is suffering, mainly 20-50 yard shots, and mostly due to poor distance control.

Once you’ve got the diagnosis, the hard work of focusing begins.  For the rest of this lesson, I’ll use the example of minimizing fat and thin strikes with your irons.  You buy a bucket and set up your practice station.  The first swing is good.  Then you hit one fat.  The next ball is perfectly struck, but it slices.  What do you do?  This is where most golfers lose the plot.  Rather than staying focused on their goal, they chase that slice like Dug in Up (“Squirrel!”).  The focused golfer pats themself on the back for the perfect strike, ignores the slice, and keeps moving forward.

The graphic above is a perfect encapsulation of this idea.  If you are constantly chasing squirrels in practice, you’ll get a tiny, tiny, tiny bit better at a lot of things.  If you focus on one thing, you’ll see real improvement.

The Phrase to Erase

A key to progressing on this disciplined path is eliminating the phrase “I have to” from your golf vocabulary.  This is a game that you decide to play; nothing about it is “have to.”

Instead, realize that everything within golf is a choice, so use the phrase, “I choose to.”  This change is powerful because it allows you to ignore all the squirrels.  You don’t have to fix the slice.  You don’t have to fix the toe shot.  You choose to focus on hitting the ball before you hit the ground, because that’s the most important thing for your game right now.

Not Everything Matters Right Now

Right now, the Dugs in the crowd are furious.  “Everything matters!  I can’t go out on Sunday and hit slices!  I need to fix that!”

They’re not wrong.  If you want to play good golf, you can’t have a wild, unpredictable slice.  However, you can only fix one thing at a time.  That’s why the first step – diagnosis – is so critical.  Find the thing that’s causing the most pain and address it.  I have an entire lesson on what the real focal points are HERE.

When it’s no longer a problem, we can move on to other things.  But understand that nothing gets fixed with five swings.  Your focus should not change within practice sessions.  Whatever you came to the range to fix, stick with it the entire time.  If you allow yourself to change within a session, you’re back to chasing squirrels.

The Feeling of Control & Accomplishment

Ignoring slices and toe strikes will create a certain amount of psychological discomfort at first.  You may feel like you’re embarrassing yourself with those “unfixed” slices.  Pro tip: no one cares, you’re experiencing the Spotlight Effect [learn more HERE].

That feeling of discomfort will go away after a time, and you’ll be left with a feeling of control.  You’re no longer running aimlessly after every squirrel; you’re systematically addressing the flaws in your game.  When you leave a practice session, you’ll have made real improvements which will show up on your scorecard.  It’s hard, but it will be worth it.

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“I’m Better Than That”

This is the biggest lie in golf, and it’s one that every golfer I know has told.

Some golfers tell The Lie out loud, trying to protect their pride by tongue-lashing themselves.  Others silently tell it to themselves after a bad shot.  But no matter how it’s communicated, it’s a lie.

In this lesson, I’ll explain why that lie is hurting your game and how you can play better with a healthy dose of the truth.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You get frustrated with your game

You want to shoot better scores

“You Are What Your Record Says You Are”

This line from coach Bill Parcells cuts to the heart of The Lie.  If you are the player who hit the bad shot, you aren’t better than the bad shot.  That’s not to say that the bad shot is all that you are or that you aren’t capable of better sometimes, but denying that the bad shot is part of your game is folly.

The full grown version of The Lie is the player who says, “Well, I shot 94, but…” and then explains how they actually shot 85.  It shows a detachment from reality that won’t help them improve.  Those nine extra strokes were not the result of the golf course conspiring against them.  The sooner they take responsibility for the mistakes they made, the sooner they will be on their way to fixing them.

Understanding Peak, Range, and Probabilities

Every player has a range of shots that they’re able to hit.  A 30 handicap can hit a solid approach shot, but they can also hit it three inches fat or slice it off the planet.  And those bad results are far more likely.

As we move toward scratch or Tour players, the high quality shots become better and the bad shots become less likely.  What’s important to understand, however, is that the chance of a bad shot is never zero.  Players on the PGA Tour can hit shanks or miss three-footers.

The Frustrating Middle

Being a mid-handicap player – someone between those two extremes mentioned above – may be the most frustrating.  As a 10 handicap, you’re an above average player.  You’re capable of hitting really nice shots.  But you can also hit terrible shots.  It’s not out of the question for you to lay the sod over a chip or duck hook your drive.

To stop telling yourself The Lie, you need to understand your peak, your range, and your average.

Peak Performance

This is the one that most golfers know best.  What are you capable of doing when everything goes right?  It’s the most fun element to think about, and it’s a key to good strategy.  If you have the horsepower to hit it 225 yards off the tee, you shouldn’t aim at the lake that’s 220 yards away.

That said, many golfers dramatically overestimate their peak.  This is the golfer who waits for the green to clear from 275 yards out after driving it 210.  Learn your actual peak – distances, shot control, etc – instead of playing on hopes and dreams.

Learn about your peak, range, and averages with these tips HERE

The Other Side of Your Range

Most sports psychologists would caution against negative thoughts, but it’s important that we’re aware of what kind of bad shots we hit.  I know that a snap hook off the tee is never out of the question, and I’m capable of thinning a routine chip.  That doesn’t mean I hope for those outcomes, but, if I’m going to operate in reality, I need to be aware that they exist.

We can go a step further and consider what situations make those bad outcomes more likely.  Do you slice more when you’re under pressure?  Do you hit it fat when faced with a forced carry?

In practice, we can work on eliminating these poor shots.  When we’re playing, we need to know they exist so we can minimize the damage they can cause.  Here’s an example: if I haven’t played lately, thin chips are more likely.  That may lead me to use my putter around the green more often, especially if there’s trouble long.  I’m not throwing in the towel, I’m not giving up on the idea of ever being a good chipper, I’m just adapting my strategy to my strengths and weaknesses.

Averages

The most important thing to know about your game is your average outcome with each of your clubs.  This starts with distance.  You can’t score well if you’re constantly expecting to hit the ball your all-time best distance; play for your average carry.  Similarly, while we all love hitting a laser at the flag, those are rare.  Play for your most common shot shape.

And remember that with every shot, you are aiming your whole shot pattern, not a single point.  The size and shape of your shot pattern will change from club to club, and you need to think about getting the biggest chunk of that shot pattern into the best position possible.

Play the Odds

If you know about your peaks, ranges, and averages, what should you do?  Play the odds.  Most of the time you’re going to hit an average shot.  Pick a club, a shot, and a target that will give you a good outcome most of the time.  Give some consideration to the extremes, especially when there are stroke hazards involved, but play for the fat part of the bell curve.

Laugh it Off

Have you ever seen someone throw a tantrum when they find out their Powerball ticket isn’t a winner?  Of course not.  Everyone knows that most lottery tickets are losers.  You buy a ticket to have a laugh and a chance at something great.  When it doesn’t go the way you hoped, you give a wry smile and move on.  If it does come through, you can be elated.

We should treat golf much the same way.  Most of our shots are going to be average.  That’s fine.  Go hit the next one.  When one of the bad ones pops up, laugh it off.  Go hit the next one.  And when you’re lucky enough to get one of those shots from the top 1% of your range, recognize that it’s special and enjoy the hell out of it.

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The Trouble with Modern Greens

During my recent golf trip to central Oregon, I had the opportunity to play Tetherow Golf Club [review HERE].  This David McLay-Kidd design features very large greens.  This led me to an interesting question: do the large greens favored by modern architects negate the value of greens in regulation?

Get caught up on the first ten installments of the Course Management Basics series HERE.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You play courses with large greens

The King of Stats

Greens in regulation (GIR) is the king of golf stats because it’s the one that correlates most closely with handicap.  If you hit about 7 GIR per round, you’re likely to be a single digit handicap.  Hit 10 or more and you’re flirting with scratch.  But do the benefits of hitting lots of greens diminish when you playing on larger greens?

The Data

First, thank you to Shot Scope for providing the data for this lesson.  Their data is pulled from millions of shots hit by thousands of golfers of all handicap levels.  If you want to start tracking your shots and playing smarter golf, click HERE.

If we were to boil this down to one number, it would be 30 feet.  That’s how much closer you need to be to negate the benefits of being on the green.  Golfers who are 21 feet from the flag and off the green require slightly fewer strokes to finish (between 0.04 and 0.17, depending on handicap) than golfers who are on the green but 51 feet away from the cup.

What is the benefit to being on the green?  That depends on the handicap.  Comparing like distances – 21 feet from the hole – on and off the green, the difference in strokes to finish is 0.22 for scratch players.  For those with handicaps of sixteen or more that jumps to almost 0.5 strokes.  While this highlights how much better scratch players’ short games are, it also indicates what a massive advantage it is to be on the green.

Before moving on, let’s spell out the two obvious inferences.  First, if you’re off the green but more than 30 feet closer, that’s a win.  If 30 feet closer confers a small advantage, being 50 feet closer should give us an even larger advantage.  Conversely, if you can’t get at least 30 feet closer, just get your ball on the green.

Real World Application

Obviously, golfers do not get to stand in the fairway and decide between being 51 feet away on the green or 21 feet away in the fringe.  They need to hit shots that will have a variety of possible outcomes.  Because there are so many variables in play – the size and shape of the green, pin location, hazards, shape and texture of the surrounds, the player’s tendencies, etc – I can’t give you a single, simple rule for how to play.  Instead, here are a handful of things to consider so you can make the best decision for your game.

Note: these ideas are listed in order of importance.  If you’re a newer player, or simply trying to play smart for the first time, start with one or two.  When those ideas become second nature, add more.

“Shotgun, Not Sniper Rifle”

I’ve discussed this concept before, but it bears repeating.  Scott Fawcett, creator of the Decade Course Management System, is responsible for the phrase, and I think it’s the one thing that will make every golfer a better player instantly.

What he’s saying is that your golf clubs create a shot pattern that covers a certain area.  Depending on the club and your skill level, that pattern will change in size and shape, but it’s never a single dot.  You need to think about placing the entire shot pattern safely when you pick a target.  Keep this in mind from tee to green, and you’ll start making better decisions.

Eliminate Hazards

Whether we’re playing on big greens or small greens, staying out of hazards is essential to scoring well.  We need to be aware of OB, water, sand, and less obvious hazards like steep depressions or areas with tall grass where we might lose a ball.

Keeping the ball out of trouble sounds obvious, but it requires discipline.  When the flag is on the side of the green near a hazard, you need to move your whole shot pattern away from it.  That can be tough, but it will pay off in the long run.

Here’s another stat from Shot Scope that will help you stay on the disciplined path: 0.52.  That’s the average penalty, across all handicap levels, for hitting into a greenside bunker.  Keep in mind that number does not assume that you’re getting a GIR, simply that you stayed off the beach.  Bunkers, especially for higher handicap players, are a major driver of higher scores.

Green Undulations

Generally, these big greens that we’re discussing are also full of sharp undulations and steep tilts.  They also tend to play firmer and faster.  This has a couple implications.  First, you need to hit your approach high and soft or plan for some amount of roll out.  Second, the ball is likely to move once it’s on the ground.

This second point is my focus.  Consider the green above.  This is an upside-down saucer or turtleback green that runs off in every direction.  The day this picture was taken, the pin position on the front was fairly friendly – a little long is fine, and short leaves you a simple chip.  But what if the pin was near the back edge?  The average golfer would play the flag number, hit a “good” shot, and then watch their ball run off the edge of the world.

Before hitting your approach shot, consider where your ball is going to land and where it will roll to.  If certain landing spots will roll into hazards or end up miles from the pin, try to remove those landing spots from your shot pattern.

We can also consider using the green’s slopes to our benefit.  The green above is #18 at Sedge Valley [review HERE].  You can see how it has friendly banks on both the left and right side of the mouth of the green.  This is a smaller green, so those banks won’t impact where we place our shot pattern.  On a larger green, however, these features could allow us to pick a more aggressive target, knowing that a shot that’s a little left will be shoved back toward the middle.

Evaluate the Surrounds

Whether the greens are big or small, we should also take a look at the undulations in the surrounds.  On small greens, we should consider this because part of our shot pattern is likely to be off the green.  With larger greens, we should think about the surrounds because they might be a better place than the far reaches of the putting surface.

As a general rule, we’re thinking about the same things that we did on the green: if my ball lands in a certain area, will the slopes make things better or worse?  Where will my ball finish?  Will this lead me to a hazard, closer to the pin, or farther away?

Let’s look at a couple examples from Tetherow to illustrate.  In the photo above, we can see that the green is heavily segmented – any long putt is going to be tough.  But are any of the surround areas better?  No.  Closest to the flag, the surround falls away steeply.  The same is true on the right side (from our perspective).  There is some fairly safe space on the far side of the green, but it’s narrow.  In this case, we’re better off playing for the center of the green and accepting that we might have to navigate some challenging putts.

In contrast, the green above has a very mild surround, with the exception of the bunkers.  With the flag all the way back, the center of the green is probably the best play.  However, if the flag was in the front or middle, we should take advantage of the flat surround on the front side to eliminate the sand from our shot pattern.

Is Flag Hunting Good Again?

“Flag hunting” or “pin hunting” are terms used to describe aggressive play and, often, poor course management.  In the amateur context, I use them almost exclusively negatively, talking about players who shoot the flag with their rangefinder and play that number with no regard for anything else.  But, with larger greens and our 30 foot rule, is flag hunting the way to play?

The short answer is, “No.”  As we’ve just discussed, there are a myriad of factors we should be considering before picking a target.  So while the flag may end up being a good aiming point, it’s never a good idea to aim at the hole without regard for anything else.

Is the Middle of the Green Ever Bad?

Again, the short answer is, “No,” but we can offer a little more depth and nuance.

The average green is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 square feet.  If we assume a fairly normal shape, that’s about 70 feet on each side.  From 85-115 yards, the average 15 handicap has a dispersion that’s around 90 feet left-to-right and front-to-back.  All that to say, with a wedge in their hand, a 15 handicap should probably aim for the middle of the green and be happy with any GIR.  That’s why many pros and coaches have said some variation of, “The middle of the green never moves” or “The middle of the green is never bad.”

It gets a little more complicated when we get to large greens or greens with unusual shapes.  Take the boomerang-shaped green at Mammoth Dunes (above): should we be aiming for the skinniest part of the green because it’s the middle?  For most pin positions, the answer is probably no.

When you’re in doubt about the value of the middle of the green, remember what we’ve discussed here.  Consider your whole shot pattern.  Avoid hazards.  Think about what the ball will do when it lands.  Follow those three steps, and you’ll see your scoring improve.

Find more Course Management Basics HERE

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