Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Golf Is Simple As 1-2-3

When it comes down to it golf is a really simple game, but a lot of us including myself sometimes make it seem more difficult than it is. Golf can be boiled down to getting a golf ball from point A to point B in the least amount of strokes in the shortest distance from tee to green.

Now this all may seem extremely obvious, but if you put yourself in that mind set it will actually help you score better. You can break down golf into it's simplest form of hitting a golf ball a few times onto a putting green and then putting the golf ball a couple of times to get it into the hole. So this is what we have:

1. Hit the golf ball off the tee into the fairway. It doesn't have to be 300 yards, but in the fairway. Swing within yourself and concentrate on getting the ball in the fairway and not trying to out drive everyone in your group.

2. Hit your approach shot concentrating on giving yourself the best chance possible of hitting it onto the green. If this means you have to hit away from the pin guarded by a bunker to give yourself a higher percentage chance of getting it on the green then do it.

3. Hit your putt with the confidence of making it instead of trying to avoid a 3-putt. If you're always putting to make sure you don't 3-putt then more often than not you'll 3-putt more because your putting with a negative mind set. With long putts of 20 feet or more there are times when a lag putt is the right thing to do, but putts within 20 feet you should always be thinking 1-putt. Even though you may not make a high percentage of them you'll be putting with a positive mind set.

I actually talk myself through these 3 simple steps before I play to remind myself that golf is really a simple game and to not complicate it. Just to play within myself and to hit the golf shots I know I can hit... not the golf shots that I think I can hit.

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