There are many penalty areas in golf that may affect your play. Each comes with its own challenges including what type of relief we are allowed. Relief from a penalty area is one of the most misunderstood rule in golf. Many players do not know the difference between red and yellow stakes when it comes to relief. After playing many tournaments over the years, I watched many players make the wrong call with respect to relief because they did not know all the options available to them. Well, today lets clarify the different relief options in order to minimize the number of extra strokes we have to add to our final score.
Continue readingAdding A Stroke For No Reason In Golf
Every golfer I know and play a round with will add a stroke or two for no reason. Whether it is a loss of concentration (usual reason), a poor decision or a swing hitch extra strokes are added to our final score just because. These errors are always prevalent in a amateurs game, however it is the avoidable mistakes that really frustrate me after the fact. The challenge is I know the I am making a mistake, but continue down that course of action anyway. A par becomes a bogey, a bogey becomes a double just because I was refused to change my thinking and proceeded down the path of extra strokes. This is so frustrating don’t you think?
Continue readingGreen Dot Red Dot Chipping
I talk about chipping a great deal at The Grateful Golfer. The reason is because most amateurs, myself included, spend at least half the time chipping around the green during a 18 hole round. We know that greens in regulation or GIR is the king stat, however most of us are below 50% during most rounds. Hence, offering chipping tips is a great way to help you the reader and to focus my game in order to shoot low golf scores. And today, we are discussing the Green Dot Red Dot chipping tip.
Continue readingChipping In Cold Weather
The definition of cold varies from local. Additionally, the player themselves will determine what cold actually means and for my purposes, cold is when my hands require mittens to keep warm in between shots. That temperature does vary for day to day. The shot in my game that is affected most by cold weather is chipping around the green because my touch is drastically reduced due to cold hands. Additionally, my equipment does not perform the same and this change needs to be accounted for on all shots. Overall, playing in cold weather is a challenge for all players. Fortunately, there are steps we can take to counter the cold weather in order to shoot our best score on that day.
Continue readingGolf Season Is Over – So, Now What?
This time of year happens without fanfare. At the end of each golf season, I wonder what I am going to do with my extra time. Of course this is said with tongue and cheek because I always seem to fill my time with something. After washing my clubs yesterday, sad day for me, I came to realize that I am on the back nine of my career. Time is clicking away and as such the number of times I will hit the links is becoming limited. At this time, the only thing stopping me for golfing (excluding the cold weather for the next six months) is myself. Life has so much to offer and I want to do it all. Hence, golf sometimes takes a back seat and that is okay. With all this in mind, what is next? What am I going to do for the next six months as I wait for my local course to reopen?
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