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MARCH 2016
Monthly tuition to get you on top of your game by Advanced PGA Lady Professional, Katie Dawkins
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Based at Meon Valley Golf and Country Club
COWDRAY PARK GOLF CLUB Everywhere you want to be
Drive for Show Putt EGGCELLENT for Dough. Is that true?
EXECUTION Standing over a ball that is neatly propped up on a tuft of grass is an exciting moment in many a golfers round. For some though it is at the exact moment before they swing the club back that the nightmare scenario jumps into their mind in glorious Technicolor. How wrong can this shot go? All they need to do is swing back and through to a finish and the ball soars onto the green but instead some kind of erratic movement jerks their swings out of control and the ball clatters into the nearby woods never to be seen again.
My article last month explained how beneficial random practice is. I gave you an exercise to do where you had to count several pairs of numbers. One pair was repeated several times in the sequence, while the others were all different. I am sure that those of you who added the pairs of numbers found that the answer came very quickly and easily on the repeated numbers, after you had added them for the first time, whilst each of the random numbers took more time and effort to work out. This little test demonstrates that the brain doesn’t have to work too hard once it has done something once. How easy is it to hole a putt on the second attempt!!
The cries of "WHY!!" follow swiftly by "EVERY TIME... I KNEW THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN." Whilst their playing partners comment in a less than helpful manner about how sublime the practice swing was. A familiar scene? How on earth do you stop the nightmare thoughts jumping on board an otherwise serene and controlled ship? Here are a few ways to help you stay in control, in the moment and help you execute the shot as you know you can not as you feared you might!
I remember years ago when the Spanish players, such as the great Seve Ballesteros, came and dominated play on the European Tour. They all seemed to have magical short games. Seve, in particular, displayed tremendous imagination when selecting shots. I remember listening to the late great Henry Cotton making the comment that Seve seemed to play many difficult shots as though he had done it before. The truth is he probably had - in practice!!
Firstly your mind is a more than powerful tool. Possibly the most powerful tool you own. It's yours and nobody elses, therefore you are in control and CAN control it. In the same way that the images of the poor shots can enter the frame so too can images of the GOOD ones. It's just a matter of training your brain. Spend some time on the range hitting shot at a time as if you were on the course. Go through your pre-shot routine. If you don't have one this will help. Stand behind your ball, do a practice swing. Visualise your ball heading toward and landing beside your target. Address the ball and keep that image fresh. Keep your swing smooth, brush the mat/grass and finish. Take a moment to hopefully admire your shot. Step off the mat, choose another target and go through the routine again. If a negative thought jumps into your head as you are over the ball step away. Take a deep breath and start again. By doing this on the practice ground you will learn to have a clear head over the ball. Also you'll find you won't need to step off the ball on the course, you'll have
mastered the art of calm composure through your practicing. So you won't need to be readdressing your ball umpteen times. Take it on the course and try it. A few holes of practice out there will be so valuable and hike your confidence up. Even better book a playing lesson especially if you have "demon" holes where disaster strikes on an all to regular basis. JUST A THOUGHT When you do a practice swing the focus is on making good contact with whatever the ball happens to be sat on and swinging to a full finish. So try and take the ball out of the equation once you've addressed it, call it a second practice swing. Focus on brushing the grass (or tee) and finishing. Let the ball just get in the way. This is a good way to defeat those demons. Also a good way to stop the "your practice swing is brilliant" comments. Good luck. Kick start your golf this Spring with lessons at Hamptworth Golf and Country Club or Cowdray Park Golf Club. Email me on katiedawkinsgolf@hotmail.co.uk for availability. Happy Easter and Happy Golfing.
You will understand how Seve and the other Spanish players developed such great flare and imagination if you go to Spain and watch how the youngsters practice. They don’t stand on the edge of the green with a bag of Pro V’s and hit countless shots at a couple of holes. You will see them compete amongst each other in trying to bring off all sorts of weird and wonderful shots. They probably don’t think of it as practice, rather just having fun, without realising that they are in fact learning. A former Masters Champion, Ben Crenshaw, was a revered putter and short game player. As a lad, he was only allowed to practice his short game with one ball, by his coach, Harvey Pennick. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of watching Tiger Woods practicing, you would see him hit all kinds of different shots. As part of his practice he tries to hit all the nine ball flights, i.e., low, medium and high draws, fades and straight ones. I think you get the message. Make your practice challenging!! If you look at the title to this article you will see that it has nothing to do with practice!!
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“Drive for Show - Putt for Dough” is, I suppose, one of the best known sayings in golf but is it strictly true? Shots Gained, a new way of measuring golf performance, says that it’s not. If you don’t know about Shots Gained, it’s basically a way of judging each shot against the average outcome of that shot. Shots better than average have a “positive strokes gained” while shots worse than average have a “negative strokes gained”. A survey was conducted of 240 golfers, who competed in at least 200 rounds on the PGA Tour between 2004 and 2012, to determine the average strokes taken, from every conceivable distance and situation from the tee to the green including putting. Who do you think was the number one in “strokes gained” in that period? You guessed it, Tiger Woods. Tiger gained a staggering 2.79 shots per round on the average Tour Player. A breakdown of this total showed that his strokes gained per round was as follows - driving was 0.58 of a shot, putting 0.63 and his approach to the green was 1.58 shots better per round. No wonder he was so dominant. If you want to read more on this fascinating way of looking at the game, you can buy a book called “Every Shot Counts” by Mark Broadie. Pictured : Tiger hitting a Stinger in 2007. More on Shots Gained next month. Martin Butcher
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