Ever spend the days leading up to a club-tournament or important company outing working diligently to get prepared only to have the wheels come off the day of the event? You've invested hours a day for the past few days beating balls, using the latest in technology, and maybe even hitting the gym. In your spare time, if you have any left with the extreme attack of time by our competing priorities, you've devoured the latest Golf, Golf World and Golf Week magazines and watched as many hours of Golf Channel programming as humanly possible. But will it be enough?
You have convinced yourself that you're ready. You've cleaned the clubs that you haven't cleaned in months. You packed extra Titleists and a couple extra gloves because the tour players "rarely use the same ball for more than a hole or two" and heaven forbid you're seen with a less than "perfect pearl colored glove". You may have even picked out what you are going to wear days in advance.
You've done all you can to be prepared to play your best. What you may really have done is set yourself up for failure.
To improve your game, lower your handicap and actually increase your enjoyment level during the round, incorporate these foolproof tools into your arsenal:
1. Get Honest with Yourself
The first step in most self-improvement programs is recognition of one's self. Be honest in assessing your abilities. I said be honest....not harsh or "brutally honest", just honest. There may have been a day when you could carry the corner of the hazard from 230 or reach all of the par 5's in two on your local track, but in reality, that day likely isn't today. Many a player can benefit by taking their honest appraisal of their skills and abilities and formulating a personal plan to play the golf course more efficiently and within their capabilities. (See #6 for a more in-depth look) The important part is to start the entire process by being honest with yourself and starting to play within your abilities.
2. Post all your scores (good, bad and even embarrassing)
In my 23 years as a club professional, I was constantly amazed by how much different the member's scores were in tournament play and especially in events hosted away from our facility than what they were under normal group play. On one hand, you have the universal problem of players failing to post all their scores or intentionally scoring higher than they should during casual play. Most would call that "sandbagging". The pursuits and purists would call that cheating. That's another conversation saved for another time. For now, let's focus on the other side of the equation, the player who consistently scores higher than usual anytime a scoreboard is visible. Club professionals refer to this as the "vanity" handicap. It's used in areas of great influence like the boardroom, locker room and most often anywhere outside of their county of residence they can find a conversation in which they can gloat about their "single digit handicap" at the "prominent" club that they belong to, but rarely shows itself under the peer pressure of an event. I've even know a player to manipulate his scores or even add fictitious scores to get his handicap to a "+" handicap and then never post another score. This allowed him to travel the world and produce his USGA GHIN card from his "noteworthy" club (which he always had at-the-ready) to instantly "become somebody". In reality, lowering your handicap starts with posting all of your scores, good, bad or embarrassing because the USGA handicap formula is set up to give an accurate assessment of one's abilities. While it may be nice to see a lower index, there's something particularly settling under pressure to know that you don't have to play better that your potential to win.
3. Stay away from the practice range
Yes, that's correct...stay away from the practice range. How many times has a tour player lost an event because the missed a full swing? While I believe that there must be time allocated to honing your ability to produce repeatable full swing shot execution, the object of the game is to score. Scoring is the most highly sought after characteristic of our game and at the same time, the most neglected facet of our focus. Go to any course (public / private / resort / executive or goat ranch) on a weekend morning and look at the practice areas. In most cases, you'll find a SRO (standing-room-only) practice tee and a practice putting green with less than a dozen tracks in the early morning dew. If you want to score, then focus on areas related to scoring. Scoring happens within feet of the hole, not yards. Putting has confounded throngs for centuries. It has cost the greatest to ever play the game to lose major championships and often time cost many aspiring tour players their entire career. However, putting is also the most powerful equalizer in our game. You can absolutely negate an opponent who hits it 40 yards past you by being a better, more consistent putter. You can make par on a hole without touching a single blade of grass that the course architect included in his routing of the hole by simply making a putt. Focusing on putting and getting the ball in the hole will have the greatest impact in immediately lowering your scores and increasing your enjoyment.
4. Do more than drive by the gym
I know this sounds cliché', but you must be present to win. In today's game, a player without a regimented fitness program is at an extreme disadvantage. Back in my "playing" days, I used to joke with friends and family that the closest thing I had to a fitness program was "working for a guy named Jim". The joke quickly became a reality as I continued to work for Jim because I found it harder and harder to compete with my peers in PGA sanctioned events. One of the fastest growing segments in today's game is golf-specific training. I would be remiss if I didn't inform my readership of the benefits of TPI. TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) leads the way in preparing golfers of all ages to play to their potential. TPI focuses on flexibility, range of motion, and postural stability. It's pretty easy to get started. Simply go to www.Titleist.com and click on the TPI tab. From there, locate a TPI Certified Fitness Professional in your area. Your initial consult will be a series of assessments and evaluations, "benchmarking" per se to determine what areas need special attention. Your TPI professional will then start you on a series of relatively easy to do at-home exercises to increase your ability to allow your body to get the club in the proper positions as well as ensure that the proper sequencing of muscle groups is occurring throughout the swing.
5. Learn from the Pro's
Nothing beats one on one time with your local PGA Professional. They are highly specialized in teaching the game of golf, but like the old adage, "no two Golf Professionals are the same. We all teach from the same five physical ball flight laws but our principles and preferences in regards to instruction vary. There are a lot of great teachers out there, and it's your job to find the one that's the best for you. This is generally harder than it sounds however. A great teacher is one who understands the physics of the game and has spent time learning to apply them in various situations. They also understand the different learning styles they will be confronted with and are comfortable teaching each of them. With that said, the best teacher for you is the one that you feel most comfortable around; one that has earned your trust and respect; one whose communication style matches your learning style and finally, one who is dedicated to your success. We've all heard stories about teaching professionals who are more concerned about their success than yours. This is where your responsibility comes into play. Just as you would with a medical specialist, you must research your instructor before deciding to partner with them. Without a partnership, you can't be guaranteed that either of you are committed to success. Be cautious about what you watch and what you read as it pertains to instruction and discuss these ideas with your instructor before implementing them into your program. Most of what is communicated via print media or television is either extremely generalized to fit large sections of players or targeted at the 1/10th of 1% of the most talented players in the game. Find the best teacher for you and invest in the future of your game, but make sure they ready and willing to exhaust more time in helping you score rather than building a great swing.
6. Plan for success
This is the single most under appreciated part of our preparation to play to our potential across all levels of ability. While I don't know most of you, I would strongly believe that very few of you would ever set out on a transcontinental drive without mapping out a plan or at least purchasing a GPS unit (for those of you like me without a "smart phone"). This is why good educators are so effective...they have developed a lesson plan for their students. There is no randomness to their plan. Happen chance and hap hazardousness fail to enter the classroom of a good teacher. The application for you, regardless of your abilities and skill level is to develop a plan. Actually two plans. The first is worthless without the second and the second is unnecessary without the first. Take a moment to re-read that. It's really an important concept and will take a certain level of commitment on your behalf to formulate. The first plan is your developmental plan. This plan is a combination of a multitude of plans including targeted, skill specific practice plans; fitness and nutritional programs and a timeline complete with goals. This plan should be formed over a series of discussions and appraisals with your instructor. It should happen within the first 3 sessions that you have with them. Failure to formulate this plan will likely result in an unorganized, unsuccessful approach to improvement. The second plan should be created after you have seen success to a certain extent in your developmental plan. This plan focuses on playing the golf course within your comfort level, utilizing your strengths and limiting the opportunities to be challenged by areas of weakness. Essentially, this is a strategy rather than a plan. The imperative is that you have a plan for each shot and each scenario before you even arrive at the first tee for your round. As my PGA mentor, Don Cook once told me, "your failure to have a plan assures that you are planning to fail."
Darin Hoff is the Director of the nationally recognized Player Development Academy headquartered in Orlando, FL. Darin is a PGA Certified Professional with over 20 years of experience including over 7 years of service at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club and Lodge, site of the annual PGA Tour's Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he served as their Head Golf Professional. He is also a Certified Putting Instructor by the Frankly Academy as well as a Titleist Club Fitting Expert and Staff Professional. Darin created a unique program called "Script for Success" which has been featured by PGA Magazine as a Best Practice amongst 26,000+ golf professionals and was a speaker at PGA Magazine's 2011 National Club Fitting Conference in San Antonio, TX ("The Time is Now...It Starts with Us"). For more information about Darin and the programs at The Player Development Academy or to schedule a session, please visit http://www.playerdevelopmentacademy.com.
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