discussion

Are You Ready?

/ The Grateful Golfer / 6 Comments

Are you ready for golf season?  Are you ready physically?  Are you ready mentally? Are you ready with the right equipment?  Are you ready?  Are you ready?  Are you ready?

As the last of the snow leaves northern Canada, many golfers are frantically running around asking the these questions over and over.  The anticipation of playing soon is raising their anxiety level because after 5 months putting on their carpet, it will soon be time to hit the links.

Preparing for a golf season is something unique to each player.  Everyone has different ideas on how their season will unfold; they have dreams of the elusive hole-in-one; breaking 100 or 90 or 80 or even 70; or winning their local club championship (or flight).  So how does someone prepare for success in the upcoming season?

Some focus on fitness.  At Golfsmith.com, Brian Hill from Demand Media suggests that working on your upper body, core, lower body and flexibility is the way ahead. Callaway Director of Fitting and Instruction, Randy Peterson, talks about looking after your equipment, starting early and working on your short game in the early stages of the season.  At mindbodygolf.com, Rick Williams, a PGA member, tells how he uses various tools to keep fit and flexible during the off-season.  All of these suggestions and hundreds more can help prepare you physically for the upcoming season.  Personally, I believe staying fit for golf is a year-round process, but everyone has to decide for him or herself what level of commitment they are willing to put forth.

However, is fitness the only area that needs preparation?  How about being mentally ready for the up coming season?  Mental preparation is as important as physical preparation to succeed in golf.  Napoeon Hill‘s famous quote:   What ever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve is so true for golf!”  So what exactly does all this mean?

Dreaming of success on the links gets everyone excited.  At golf-mental-game-coach.com  suggests that preparing for a round of golf (which can be applied to the season) each player should establish their rhythm, preview their round, and have a game plan.  These three points can be very important to lowering your score.  At the Heart of Golf, Rick Semple lays out an off-season process to use mental imagery that will prepare anyone for swinging the clubs successfully at the start of the season.

If you are like most golfers, all of this can be overwhelming.  There appears to be no right or wrong answer.  However, preparation can be boiled down to one simple concept: managing expectations.  That is it.

Managing one’s expectations is the basis to an awesome golf season.  Before the season starts it is helpful to establish a couple of goals.  Make them reasonable, but something you have to work at to achieve.  Think big and do not worry about the details; they will take care of themselves.

For example, this year’s goal is to break 80.  Start to focus on this idea.  Just quietly think about breaking 80.  Do not dwell on the details, but just mull it around for a little while.  Next ask what part of your game you should work on to achieve this goal; your swing, short game, off the tee, etc.  Once you have selected the focus area, break it down further.  For example, if you have a tendency to three putt, work on your lag putting.  Finally, write down what you have been thinking.

Go through this process a couple of times.  After a short while, a realistic game plan for the season will unfold.  You will have managed your golf expectations, written it down (thus making it real) and reduced the mental anguish not changing anything, but expecting different results.

Golf is fun.  Each player has different goals, expectations, and aspirations. Regardless, golf is meant to be enjoyed.  How are you managing your expectations this year?

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

Golfing Superstitions

/ The Grateful Golfer / 6 Comments

Superstitions are a strange anomaly for golfers.  Regardless of your handicap, every golfer has a superstition or two.  They are all based around “luck” that we have no control over.  I would suggest that superstitions are more about our mental state and how we approach our round.  It is impossible to tell a person that when you spin around three times, jump up and down with your arms in the air, or turn your hat around after a birdie really will not help their game.  Regardless of what we say, superstitions are part of the game of golf – like it or not!

The Bleacher Report has a list of superstitions like:

  • Never use a red tee during your round of golf
  • Never mark your ball with any coin with a smaller denomination than a quarter
  • Never wash your ball if you are having an exceptional round
  • Carry a lucky club in your bag

These are just a few with many others.  Unfortunately, all these acts of craziness are created, stored and retrieved in 6 inches of real estate – the space between our ears.

better-golf-by-putting-better.com has an interesting article on superstition and is worth a read.  The article outlines may superstitions held by pros such as:  “Some golfers will only play with numbers one and three. Ernie Els regards the number two as unlucky and believes that there is only one birdie in each ball. South African Retief Goosen uses a ball with number four in the first round of the tournament counting down to number one in the final round. Vijay Singh goes in the opposite order.”  And we thought we were crazy!

Superstitions can be a positive or a negative.  I have several superstitions myself, but for the most part I try not to let them overrule my common sense.  For this, I am a grateful golfer.

So what do you think, do superstitions influence your game or not?

Where is Rory?

/ The Grateful Golfer / 2 Comments

As Tiger Woods won for the eighth time at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and vaulted to the top of the world rankings….where was Rory McIlroy?  One would figure that he would want to defend his world ranking, but I guess not.  So where was Rory?

According to Yahoo Sports, Rory was spending time with is girl friend in Miami.  Additionally, he was practicing at the Miami Municipal Golf Course hitting balls on the range.  He was cool and relaxed keeping his game tuned for next week.

Golfing Dweeb brought up some great points about journey-men golfers who have to grind it out from week to week.  He brings up points about how difficult it is mentally and how demanding it can be on your personal life.  Maybe Rory is playing select tournaments to make sure he has a well round life that he will always enjoy….everyone knows he has the talent to pick and choose.  Rory will have two-week rest (according to his website, he was not going to play at Arnie’s tournament anyway) before this weekends Shell Huston Open – will he be fresh or rusty?  I guess time will tell.

The question of the day is:  Is Rory McIlory doing the right thing by playing a bit less and being fresh for all the tournaments he enters?

 

 

What Golfers Will Do!

/ The Grateful Golfer / 3 Comments

Sergio Garcia is in the spotlight again.  The Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Golf and Country Club always produces things to talk about.  Right now, many media outlets are talking about Garcia’s climb up a tree to play the ball out to the fairway.  It can be seen at PGATOUR.COM.

I, however, what to talk about another shot that Sergio made during the second round.  Unlike Nicholas Thompson who hit the ball out of the water hazard to within 2 feet of the pin, Garcia hit a ball, it landed on the bank in the hazard and jumped back into the water.  He could not play the ball the second time and took a drop adjacent to the spot he took his swing.

While watching, I was confused how they figure out the point of entry in the red staked hazard.  I did not see the ball go into the hazard, but must assess that his point of entry into the hazard would not have changed regardless if he tried the shot or not.

I realize this sounds confusing.  Well I am confused.  I have not encountered this situation before so I need some help.  I believe that rule 26 applies, but since he took a shot, missed and it stayed in the hazard….does it still apply?  Can someone explain which rule to apply and number of stroke penalty Sergio Garcia should be assessed?

Entering the 21st Century!

/ The Grateful Golfer / 2 Comments

Today is a new day for those of us who have decided to enter the 21st Century.  I create a Facebook page called The Grateful Golfer.  I realize it is not a big deal for most, but I had a Facebook account, once, for about week.  Okay, stop laughing; I never thought it was important, but I think I will give it a try.

Interesting thing about this particular step….it relates to keeping up with technology.  I was reading an article Why the R&A and USGA Need a Major Reform after the Long Putter Ban by Troy Vayanos at Talking Golf Online about technology.  His point about whether to embrace technology or to limit its advancements for the love of the game makes me ponder its merits.  Ultimately, technology can even the playing field for amateurs and that may not be a bad thing.

Entering the 21st Century and embracing technology; I am still waiting for the snow to melt so I can go practice….too bad technology could not do something about that!  I am a grateful golfer – see you on the links!