golf tips

The Mental Side of Golf

/ The Grateful Golfer / 5 Comments

glimmer is hopeA couple of posts ago, I asked for some help from The Grateful Golfer Community and I am happy to say, that I received some great responses. So much so, I thought they were worth sharing with everyone.

These great response did get my mental juices going and I feel better prepared for spring. As we all know, the mental side of golf is just as important as your physical prowess. Participating in a sport generally means competition, not always, but more likely than not. Golf is especially competitive either against someone or yourself; the intent is always to shoot our lowest score ever. The following are the tips I received and what they mean to me. Continue reading →

Golf is a Mental Game

/ The Grateful Golfer / 10 Comments

Confidenence

Golf is a mental game of confidence. It is a sport where the slightest thing can throw you off your game! The six inches of real estate between your ears is either your greatest friend or your worst nightmare. Continue reading →

Golf Balls and Cold Temperatures

/ The Grateful Golfer / 11 Comments
DSCF7212

Playing Golf in Cold Temperatures!

As winter continues to pound most of Canada, the discussions of the weather is never far away. During previous posts, I offered suggestion on how to play in cold weather to help improve your game. One area that I have overlooked is the effect of cold weather on your golf equipment. Specifically, your golf ball; after some research, I realized that this oversight might very well be robbing me of chance to score low in cooler weather!

There are three aspects of cold weather that affect your golf ball that every player should understand. They are not difficult concepts and they are easily rectified. Understanding how cold weather effects compression, ball flight, and feel on the club will ensure you are always ready to shoot your lowest score.

The optimum temperature for a golf ball is 80 degrees. As a ball’s temperature drops, it won’t compress as much off the clubface. For maximum playability, store the balls at room temperature.

Compression of the golf ball is a key fundamental to hitting the long ball.

“The golf ball is compressed and flattened by the force of the impact. The lower compression of the ball results in the ball; travelling farther as the club’s energy creates energy, transferring it to the ball. The ball’s compression handles the high-speed and impact of the club, and allows flexibility so that the ball can recoil and not break apart.”

6215.WA_Titleist-zone-5-Golf-ball-philosophyUS_09During cold weather, high-compression golf balls are not as effect or efficient because they are more difficult to compress. If you are playing golf in temperatures below 60 degrees F or 15 degrees C, I recommend a lower compression ball or a high-compression ball designed for colder temperatures.

Ball flight is a challenge in cold temperatures. As an ex-aircraft technician, I understand the theory of flight. Although cold temperature helps an aircraft take-off sooner; the same cold temperature shortens the your ball flight. Without going through the science of cold temperatures, it is enough to say that the air is more dense due to the slower movement of molecules. As golfers, we say the air is thicker. This thicker are makes it harder for the ball to travel in the air because it has to push its way through more resistance. The more resistance, the more energy required for your ball to travel the same distance in cold temperatures vs warm temperatures.

The last challenge of cold temperatures is feel. Everyone one of us has hit a golf ball at one time or another and felt a stinging pain in our hands. Immediately, we exclaim “that felt like hitting a rock!” Well, we should not be surprised because the materials that make up a ball are basically plastic and rubber (simplified version). As we all know, both harden when exposed to cold temperatures. Therefore, as we hit the ball and more importantly miss hit a ball in colder temperatures, the feel of hitting a ‘rock’ is amplified. My advice is to swing slightly less aggressively and club up! It will help save your hands and improve your feel!

I found the following at TheSandTrap.com where they quoted the PGA Teaching Manual as a source. As you can see, cold temperatures make club selection more challenging:

The temperature of a golf ball affects its ability to rebound from the clubface. The following chart is the approximate influence of temperature on the ball for a shot that would normally carry 220 yards at 75 degree temperature.

  • Yards — Temp
  • 226 ——- 105
  • 224 ——- 95
  • 222 ——- 85
  • 220 ——- 75
  • 216 ——- 65
  • 214 ——- 55
  • 205 ——- 45
  • 196 ——- 35

It gives the reasoning of rubber being a poor conductor of heat.

I also asked golfers what temperature they would most like to play in and this is what they said:

It is not surprising that just about half the respondents like to play in 80 degree weather. I am sure it has as much to do with the playing temperature as well as the performance of their golf ball.

Golfing in cooler temperatures does pose challenges from most golfers. Understanding the effects temperature plays on your equipment can help mitigate mistakes before you tee up. Selecting the proper golf ball is the first step to shooting your lowest score regardless of the temperature.

Do you change golf balls depending on the temperature?

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

The Time to Fix Your Golf Swing

/ The Grateful Golfer / 6 Comments

Focus on remedies, not faults! – Jack Nicklaus

Ask any player and they can tell you exactly what is wrong with their swing. They use all the current terms and can describe exactly what is causing their challenge. Some use it as a crutch to not improve and others embrace their swing faults as a source of frustration. Words like casting, blocking, closed club face on impact, decelerate through impact, flip shot, and un-cocking their wrists are common terms thrown about at the 19th hole as players describe their poor rounds.

Fixing a Swing

What is wrong with my swing!?!?

As always, the great Jack Nicklaus speaks volumes with just one sentence! The process of being a better golfer is about identifying your faults, but more importantly, focusing on the remedies that will make you a better player. If the same players above are asked how they plan to fix their faults, there is a very good chance that their silence would be deafening and awkward at the same time. If we did not know better, we would assess that they never thought to find solutions to their swing challenges and have accepted their current state of play.

I have never been one of those players to idly let my game atrophy; I have goals and dreams to always play better at my favorite sport. To make a change in my swing, it is important to first change my thoughts and then to have a plan to change my engrained poor habits. Both take time to develop and achieve; also we need the confidence that the end result of lower scores will be worth the frustration experienced while making changes.

The actual time it takes to break old habits and create new ones is unknown. Every person is different and changes come at different speeds. “But there are some steps you can take to increase your chances of success in the endeavour, including:

  • Take small steps. Don’t try to do everything at once.
  • Only try to change one habit at a time.
  • Write down the habit you want to change, and write down specific plans for achieving that goal.
  • Repeat the behaviour you’re aiming for as often as you can. The more a behaviour is repeated, the more likely it is that it will become “instinctive.””(How Stuff Works)

Time is a major factor when making changes to your golf swing. Depending on the amount of time dedicated to being a better golfer, if used effectively, can produce quick and positive results that lead to lower scores.

Focusing on remedies, not faults is a simplistic and profound process to being a better golfer. For those wanting to improve, time is a critical factor to success. Regardless of the amount of time you have, by following the process above, you will create new habits that will result in lower golf scores in your future!

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

 

How to Swing a Golf Club

/ The Grateful Golfer / 4 Comments

Swinging a golf club is deceptively difficult, totally frustrating, produces gratifying results and is poetry in motion all at the same time. Many amateur golfers are in constant pursuit of that perfect swing to fit their game. Routinely making changes, many players never find what they are looking for; however, their journey always continues.

I talked before about the best golf swing and concluded that each player has that perfect swing inside themselves if they just trust that it will come out when it is ready. But, that is not enough sometimes!

Some players follow the lyrics from Billy Crystal’s song You Look Marvelous; “Nando, don’t be a schnook. It’s not how you feel, it’s how. You. Look!” No matter the scoring results they want that poetry in motion look. There really is not wrong answer to how to swing a golf club!

Just to prove what I mean, take a look at some of these great players:

It is interesting that some of the best players of all time had unique swings that were self-taught! Regardless of how they looked, every swing had one thing in common; it was repeatable! And could they repeat their swing. This is an interesting point for players to take away:

How to hit a golf club consistently and effectively, with success, comes in many forms. Only you know the right form for you!

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