Golf is a game of misses and the golfer that misses best, usually wins. But, you can't always base the progress of your game solely on your scores. If your misses are steadily becoming better and better, that means you're improving, even if your scores are not.
I just wanted to spend some time today to discuss how to gauge your improvement. It can be hard to see the same scores over and over, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should give up.
This is a big mental hurdle for some golfers to overcome. They simply can't understand why their scores don't improve, regardless of how much better their actual swing feels. It goes hand in hand with my 5th rule of the PPGS. Instead of worrying what you did wrong on a previous shot, the rule is to forget about it and do the next one right!
The low scores will come, as long as you're confident in what you're doing. The first step is to start hitting it more consistent and straight. The scores will come after that. And, if all else fails, that's what I'm here for. You can come to the website at any time to search for answers to a problem you're having. There's an extremely high likelihood that I've already covered it in one of my daily videos or full length videos.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
So True
Some weeks ago I played in a comp and my long game was the best it had been ( which is my C game ) problem is my short game ( which is my A game ) was crap. I counted 9 times when I was 5-10M from the edge of the green and fluffed every shot, ended up with so many double bogeys it was embarrasing and so was the scorecard.
This is starting happening with regularity and I'm putting it down to the fact that since I started hitting the ball with my right hand ( ie. skipping a rock ) it's messing up my chipping which hits the ball with the back of my left hand,
ie I follow through with the back of the left hand facing the target as long as possible, if these two hands start arguing with each other, then I'm in trouble.
Try skipping a bowling ball.
Hi Neil,
It has long been my goal to do everything in the golf game right side dominant. I've managed to make my chipping, putting and full swing all feel right side dominant.
I had that same conflict with the hands that you describe with my full swing FUS until a couple of weeks ago. I'm a good rock skipper but that visualization never worked that well for me in the golf swing. I was looking for a swing thought that would give me good extension and release after impact and a better follow through.
This may be a strange visualization but bear with me. Instead of skipping a rock, I tried visualizing rolling a ten pin bowling ball down the target line. I don't know if you've ever bowled before, but the thought of throwing a 10 pound ball just naturally seems to get both of my arms and body working together better than thinking of skipping a rock. The arms are more relaxed and swing faster with less effort while the body supports the swing. There is no feeling of having to really gun it through the ball, to get club head speed and a good T-Finish. They both just happen with less conscious effort.
The Bowling Ball?
Dave, thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try and see what happens.
Just came back from a long stint at the range this evening to work on a couple of things due to a horror game on Friday as everthing was going totally left, the worst it's been for a long time.
Worked on the Bump and also My Butt to the Ball ( that's the club's not mine ) nothing was happening, what got things going was forgetting about both of these and hitting with both hands, with head held back after impact, smacked a few beauties and dead straight. Funny how some things make other things happen naturally, without any conscious effort.
On the chipping, I experimented some weeks ago on changing this to be right hand dominant to be similar with the long game, but this is when I drifted away from my A chipping game. Deep down I know I have to change, but it's difficult when this part of your game has been your saviour for so long.
chipping
Neil
If your short game works why change it. If its not broke don't fix it.
Short game
Yep, I agree. No reason to change something that works.
I can't say that I've ever "changed" any short game shot anyway. All I've ever done is expand to new techniques to cover different situations.
Very few short game shots are exactly alike and a one size fits all approach is never going to be as effective as having multiple options.
My one and only short game rule is to never use any more effective loft* than the shot requires and never depend on spin any more than the shot requires.
*When I say effective loft I am not referring to the loft of the club (although it could mean that). I am referring to the loft at impact. I hit many low short game shots with high lofted clubs.
Short Game
Mike, I don't want to but the problem is the right hand seems to sub conciously take over some times. Chipping is all about feel and you cant have two hands working against each other. it's either the left, right or both, not somewhere in between.
rule no5
i have to say i am not really in agreement with rule no.5. 'who cares' ? i do ! if i hit a bad shot and my playing partner points out what i did wrong surely it would make sense to concentrate on not doing that again? i know Don is saying that if we concentrate on doing the fundamentals right then bad shots shouldnt happen but i live in the real world where they do happen ! so if i am doing something wrong i am going to concentrate at least a bit on correcting that while at the same time trying to do the fundamentals correctly. regarding scores, i rarely now go over 100 and occasionally crack 90, hoping to stay under consistantly soon.( difficult tree lined course btw )
cheeers. richard in the UK