The Mental Game...Play To Your StrengthsWritten by Bob Power
This is how I use to play, see if you recognize it.On my way to course, in back of my mind I was going to have my best round ever. Getting to course I would sign in and go to first tee with little or no warm up. I would swing club a few times, tee up ball and with butterflies or shaky knees boom, I would shank it in woods, or slice it bad, or top it about 100 yards. Frustrated I would go find my ball, normallly in a bad lie or have to lift it out of woods if I could find it. Then looking at green about 250 yards in distance I would get out old 3 wood and give it my best (worst) swing. Again I would shank it, top it, slice it or some other terrible shot. By time I was finished first hole I was looking at an eight or worse, and thus started another frustrating bad round. I did this over and over again for over two years. One of first things I figured out from listening to pros and experts was that golf was a mind set, and in order to play good golf to have to play smart. That means playing within your strengths. This is part of "good course management". That's right, course management is not just making good shots, it's also playing to course design and playing to your strengths as well. Let me give you an example of how I use my strengths now to lower my score. The other day I was playing our number 5 hole, one of hardest par fours I have played. Not in length, but in design. It's a dog leg left and you ned a really good tee shot over trees to fairway beyond to have any chance of reaching green in two. That's way most people would approach it. And if tee shot is not good most people are thinking boggey. But why? I hit my tee shot a little right of trees and landed in fairway about 220 yards from green. What would you do? Get out 3 wood and try for green? That's what I would have done, even last year. That shot for me, because I rarely play it or practice it, is a very high risk shot. Hitting that shot increases my chance from boggey to double boggey tenfold. I am not mentally prepared to hit that shot with confidence. But I was thinking par all way though.
| | IntroductionWritten by Bob Power
Welcome. Does this sound familiar? Shooting over 100 every round, spending time in woods looking for lost balls, flubbing shots, and generally leaving golf course in a frustrated state of mind. Well don't feel bad, your in good company with most weekend golfers. The question is what do you want to do about it?My name is Bob Power and i used to play golf just as I described above. My wife and myself started playing about five years ago. Although my game improved, ( I thought I was better than I was),I still needed to make some drastic changes to, not only play type of game I wanted, but to also enjoy game more as well. Many nights on way home from course my wife would ask me why I play if I didin't enjoy it. I would say that I loved to play golf, and she would say, "Well you'd never know it by your lousy attitude." Then of course I would get mad and tell her she was toallly wrong. Well, she was wrong about me loving game, but totally right about my lousy attitude towards it. About two years ago I was shooting well over 100 each round and loosing balls on a regular basis, not to mention my frustration level was at an all time high. One day I resolved to improve my game, but instead of starting with technical part of game, I started with mental and physical part of game. When I watched golf shows on TV I began listening to pros and expert teachers about proper approach to game. I started watching more programs on improving physical aspect as well. What I wanted was a good mental picture of what golf was, before I started to improve technical.
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