THE NEED FOR SPEED
Intended audience: All Golfers
The easiest way to drop your handicap is to improve your putting. For most golfers, putting accounts for at least 40% of their score. If you?re a golfer who has more than three putts per round, try this basic strategy to improve control of your putting speed and shave strokes off your handicap.
Step 1: Rapid Fire
Place four balls onto the putting green 30 feet (10 paces) from a hole. Hit four putts to the same hole without taking any time for practice strokesbefore or between each attempt. Pause only after you?ve hit all four putts to reflect on how close they are to your target. We can call this the rapid fire stage. Just react?like you did when you learned to throw a ball. Your eyes and brain processed the distance and you adjusted your speed based on trial and error. You should repeat this step until you can end up with your balls spread within a 6ft radius of the hole. It should take two or three rounds to complete this.
SaveCancelCloseEdit FileWhen finished, click Save or Cancel below. Change PermissionsReadWriteExecuteNow, place the four balls in random locations with different distances and breaks from four holes. Again, without thinking about how hard to hit the putts - ?Rapid Fire?! Pause only after you?ve hit all four putts to four different holes. Repeat this process until you can finish with all your putts within 6 ft of the hole.
Step 2: Cruise Control
Take two balls and pick one hole. Once you hit the first putt and the ball is rolling, do not look up. Keep your focus on the spot from which the ball left and try to guess if the ball is long, short or beside the hole. With this exercise in prediction, you are heightening your level of learning. The learning experience is equally good if you predict incorrectly. Similar to failing a test, you are more likely to remember answers to questions you got incorrect.
Putt the second ball to the same hole and go through the process of prediction. This repetitiveness trains your mind to get the answer right on the next test! It is like your body is on cruise control ? you are training muscular memory and reactive skill to putt without thinking.
Repeat this process again and again. You?ll soon find your reaction will be almost immediate and most times very accurate, leaving you close to the hole and eliminating costly 3-putts.
? Cameron McCormick
Director of Instruction
Brook Hollow Golf Club Dallas, TX
THE 300 POUND PENCIL
Intended audience: Intermediate to Advanced golfers
A question I?m often asked is, ?Why can I perform so great in practice but on the golf course I crumble?? It?s an interesting problem, experienced by many. Often we can perform some 5 strokes below the level of our handicap when practicing only to go to the golf course and perform 5 strokes above our handicap.
Here?s the difference: Most golfers set out to practice with the best intentions but often become stuck on one facet of their game - technique. They spend far too much time focusing on technique, dragging ball after ball from the stack, swinging the club and watching where it goes. Golfers easily become immersed in the mechanics of how to swing, losing sight of the core concept of the game - target. Soon enough they may get into a rhythm and could even start hitting consecutively good shots. They then think, ?I?ve fixed all my problems.?
The golfer then moves to the first tee expecting the same beautiful results. The major difference is now we have to write down a score. I call it, ?the 300 pound pencil.? The results are most often drastically different than those experienced on the driving range. The rest of the day is spent wondering why.
The solution: You must practice like you play - train for performance.
Take time between shots on the range. We have as much as 3 ? 4 minutes between shots on the golf course.
Pick out a specific target as you start from behind the ball (looking out at the range).
Challenge yourself: Break your practice up into small tests. For instance, you can set aside 10 balls and see how many you can hit within a specific target area.
Vary the targets and the clubs from shot to shot. You could even play game like scenarios with a partner hitting drives, approach shots and chips or pitches.
Keep sessions short and productive. Don?t let the number of balls you hit determine the quality of your practice. Short but regular sessions are far better than long infrequent sessions. If you?re hitting it good on the range don?t stay, all you?ll do is find a way to hit it bad. Rather go and play some holes.
Use your time effectively. If you have 1 hour, spend the bulk of your time training the weakest component of your game. In doing so, you are getting the biggest bang for your buck.
You can reduce the weight of the ?300 pound pencil? by putting yourself under pressure in practice. Through purposeful practice, you will begin to perform on the golf course as you do on the range.
? Cameron McCormick
Director of Instruction
Brook Hollow Golf Club Dallas, TX
