I've been working pretty hard lately on the mental side of my golf game. Although my scores haven't improved hardly at all in the past 3 or 4 years, I do see improvement in the parts of my game that were weaker years ago. As a result, I have decided that my brain is the reason why I haven't seen some more improvement in my scores. I have historically had a decent short game, but with the improvement of the full-swing part of my game, the short game seems to have left me. I'm somewhat of a feel player, and I think that if I can just concentrate more on the course, I should be able to get consistently in the low 80's.
Although my scores haven't shown it by being lower, thinking better on the course has helped me to avoid (so far) the occasional mid 90's scores that I would achieve when I had a bad hole or two and let it ruin what would normally be an average or above average round.
Perfect example: Yesterday I was 2 over through 5 holes (pretty good start for me) when I pushed a 5 wood out of bounds on a par 5 that does not set up well for me. I realized pretty quickly that I was not totally commited to the shot and should have backed away. Frustration did set in for that hole and the next, but I was able to come back with a par on the 8th, and finish with a decent 44. A month ago, I would have let the "bad luck" of hitting O.B. stay with me and would have probably finished with something like 47 or 48. But yesterday I was able to re-commit myself to the mental side of my game and finish up fairly well.
It's difficult for me right now. It's a long process and I'm nowhere near where I want to be yet. But if I want to improve as a golfer, I think this is ultimately the path I'm going to have to take to get there.
0 comments:
Post a Comment