This will be my first round of golf since last Thursday. The long breaks between rounds is nothing new at this time of year and I am glad to be heading out to play. We moved our tee times to around 0930 hrs now because of the cold, dampness, and possible frost warnings. It is going to be fun and I plan to work on two things and two things only.

The first deals with approach shots; I am aggressively going to hit the ball to the pin. I do not care what club I have to use (clubbing up is important during fall golf), but I am going to fly the ball to the hole. The reason for this is the greens. They are damp and soft; thus they are very receptive to approach shots. I have found over the past few rounds that I stopped being aggressive and as a result notice my first putts are increasing in length. Time to put a stop to that…..if I can.

Focus on hitting the center of the fairway off the tee and stop worrying so much about distance. I have accepted that my drive will be a bit shorter, so it is time to zero in on the next best thing. Hitting the fairway every time off the tee. This means I need to stop trying to overswing to maintain distance and revert back to my smoother tempo and let the ball fly where it may. Being in play on the short grass will definitely have a greater benefit than being 10 or 15 yards farther in the rough.

I always like to work on something when I play. I have decided to focus on being more aggressive on approach shots and in play off the tee. Both are very important regardless of the time of year, but during these cooler temperatures, their importance is amplified.

Do you try to work on something specific every time you play a round golf?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!