Originally, I was going to title this article “Fighting My Swing and Losing”. However, I realized that this in not inline with how I want to approach my golf game. Instead of focusing on the bad part of my game, I think I need to stay on positive path to improve my changes of lowering my golf scores. So, it is important that I remind myself that I need to focus on how to improve without focusing on the negative side of my poor results.

Over the season, I tried to exploit my successes and forget my challenges. Of course I did not always find the right path, but at least I tried. One of my greatest successes this year was my ability to hit the ball off the tee. I have always been able to find the fairway most of the time, but this year I had more success than during any other year. What was my secret?

I actually focused on three things. First was aim small, miss small. I focused and a very small point and found that if I let my swing do its job, I was able to hit this mark (or close to it) more often than not.

Second, I committed to my swing, always. I decided not to second guess my decision on how to play the shot. I found that if doubt is in my mind throughout my swing, it usually resulted poorly. trying to steer any ball is folly and I try to avoid this at all times.

Lastly, I tried to be aggressive (most of the time) with my aiming. I weighed the risk/reward for many shots and found that by taking a bit of risk, I was able of improve my ability to score. An extra ten yards here and an extra ten there did result in easier second shots. I did not always take the aggressive line, but when I did, it worked out well.

The next step to improving my game through a positive mindset is to build on my successes from last year. I have committed on focusing on my approach shots, but that discussion will have to wait for another day. For now, I will continue to be grateful and focus on the positive aspects of my golf game.

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