For the love of this damn game.
Golfers built their own unique vocabulary for certain shots of achievements. There are some amazing things golfers take credit for when it comes to playing with golf balls. Through the … Continue Reading We Need to New Golf Slang Term
Once you play a golf course three times, there arises one hole that has you number and throws your scorecard down the kitchen garbage disposal. You will be chugging along hitting your normal shots and then turn the cart path to THAT tee box and your heart drops. This hole creates more snowmen than a Vermont winter. After that damn hole, your mental game wobbles near ruins and you struggle to find your groove.
Sometimes we lose sight of the purpose of playing golf. It is supposed to be fun god dammit. Everyone should be smiling. Stop taking yourself serious and loosen up. If … Continue Reading The 18 Rules to Enjoy a Round of Golf
When you replaced the sand trap with the spoon, you removed the trap form your mind and shot profile. Now swing nice and easy to your target, the pin.
Too many players do not take time to read the green on their chip. Aim your chip base don the green’s breaks and roll your shot to the pin and not past it.
I know it sounds simple to save save strokes by not losing golf balls and you have thought of that before. But when did you think it? In the car ride home from the course, right? You grip the steering wheel doing the math in your head. “If I hadn’t lost the driver on 3 and the water shot on 6 and 2 on 11 and the drive on 17, I could have broken 90.”
One afternoon, I went to my local pitch & putt/miniature golf spot, Golf Land, to work on my 60° wedge that I found in my old golf bag. I figured this a great place to try out this club with no real consequences to my ego or handicap. I had played the course ages ago and little had changed except all the development around it.
I began to think of what golf in heaven would be like. Common conceptions of heaven is everything is perfect and there is no pain or strife. Most people would think that golf in paradise is every tee shot would be a hole in one. For those who play the game with any level of proficiency, golf is the pursuit of personal excellence not necessarily scorecard perfection. This could mean that a great day is to break 100 for the first time or to sink that one thirty-foot putt or beating your best score or finally mastering a sand shot. I imagined golf in the great beyond more in terms of the Norse Valhalla: a gathering of hackers and aces in an endless enjoyment of the game.
There are two shots in golf that get the ego inflated quickly: hitting the green on a par 3 and having 220 yards left on a par 5 after your … Continue Reading The Best Par 5 Strategy
To get the most out of the driving range, I find it best to spend half my time practicing chipping. I got tired of flubbing chips or sculling shots across greens. It paid dividends and my score dropped. Why ruin two shots to get you just off the green by having no faith in your chip shot?
Sometimes in golf, we face a challenge where the fear of failure may creep into out minds when we step up to take a shot. Maybe we need to carry a bit of water or the bunker shot looms in our future or our last shot went poorly landing us in this predicament.
I sometimes find a movie quote will help me overcome this fear through the fond memories of the movie and the messages in the words.
Some clubs are for special occasions like a lofty wedge or long-range wood. How often do you practice with these clubs or do you keep that 3 iron in the bag for Par 5s when you are 230 yards from the green to try for eagle? What is the percentage of success for that shot? Not trying to dwell on the negative but if you are depend on miracles each time you step up to the ball, you are asking a lot of yourself.
Not all scorecards are created equal. It depends on the course manager and the level of players that define what the scorecard can tell you. There is information that can help set your expectations of your performance.
Each part led to the next and I settled into my stance over the ball. I took in a breath and before I could exhale like a sniper ready to pull the trigger between heartbeats a doubt entered my mind.