PLAY BETTER GOLF
There were two big tournaments this past weekend, The PGA Championship and my club’s Senior Championship. I don’t know about you, but as I watched the final round of the PGA, I was totally impressed by Brooks Koepka’s error-free-2-under-par back 9, which resulted in 2-shot victory over Tiger Woods. For the tournament, Koepka had a 264 total (16-under) on Bellerive’s par-70 course.
Koepka’s cool-under-fire victory was in sharp contrast to my NET 11 OVER performance in the Willits flight, which was the third flight. I went into the tournament somewhat optimistic given the fact that I had taken two lessons from our pro, Andy Fisher, in the previous 10 days. Unfortunately, Andy’s good work disappeared under the pressure of the medal-play format. In other words, too many blow-up holes.
However, based on what Andy has been teaching me, I believe that I can develop a more reliable swing and putting stroke. Of course, that means practicing more often and working on my attitude. In order to improve both my mechanics and my mindset, I thought I would go to the GREATEST GOLFER OF ALL TIME, who we all know is Jack Nicklaus, not Tiger Woods. (Just for fun, let’s review the numbers in the Majors: NICKLAUS -- Won: 18; 2nd Place: 19; 3rd Place: 9. WOODS – Won: 14; 2nd Place: 7; 3rd Place: 4.)
Perhaps below, you will find either a helpful tip or a bit of inspiration from JACK:
- Nobody – but nobody – has ever become really proficient at golf without practice, without doing a lot of thinking and then hitting a lot of shots. It isn’t so much a lack of talent; it’s a lack of being able to repeat good shots consistently that frustrates most players. And the only answer to that is practice.
- Stop swaying. An absolute “must” in your downswing is to keep your head behind the ball until after impact. The biggest mistake by most amateurs is that they sway their head and upper body forwards before impact.
- Concentration blocks out pressure. If you make mistakes and look for excuses, you lose your concentration and feel pressure. I try to keep from doing that.
- I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head.
- Getting good at this game, then staying good, is a tough and lonely and endless journey, with lots of dead-ends and other frustrations to strain your body and stress your mind along the way.
- Instead of consciously trying to turn your shoulders, let the club flow back as far as your body will allow. If you force it, you’ll tend to lose your grip at the top.
- I’ve had a lot of majors where I didn’t play well until the last round. Keep yourself in contention; that’s the name of the game. I usually ended up shooting a good round and all of a sudden, somehow, I won.
- Good time requires good swing form, so when your timing goes off, look back into the fundamentals of your action – particularly your takeaway tempo and transition from backswing to through-swing.
- Instead of consciously trying to turn your shoulders, let the club flow back as far as your body will allow. If you force it, you’ll tend to lose your grip at the top.
- Most putting troubles stem from being scared or indecisive, or both.
Play Away!
Allan (Handicap down to 12 despite last weekend’s performance.)
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