The Performance Secret from Tim Day – GolfTEC Coach and Store Manager, Santa Monica, CA — featured in the November 2009 GolfTEC Momentum Newsletter.
How to Take Your Practice Game to the Course
You arrive at the course an hour before your tee time. You stretch out, hit some balls, putt and head out on to the course. As you begin to play, you start slicing the ball. Naturally, you think back to your last GolfTEC lesson on holding the hinge during the downswing, and try to apply that. Now your slice is going twice as far and sending your frustration level sky high.
On the range
All of this could have been prevented by properly preparing for your round. Next time you play, try taking these steps to help take your practice game to the course:
- Begin by stretching out and hitting balls as you normally would.
- Once you’re warm, start to play holes in your mind:
- Hit a driver as if you’re teeing off—use range flags to simulate the fairway edges
- Hit an iron to a specific target—simulating an approach shot
- Hit a wedge to simulate getting up and down
- Repeat this process changing the clubs, distances and targets
- While hitting your shots, pay attention to your shot dispersion. Many tour players when warming up will see if they are fading or drawing the ball. Then when going out to the course they will play to that shot. Most amateurs try to fix the shot or fight hitting their natural shot—causing them to struggle and grind out the round. The time to work on your swing is after the round and with your Coach during your next lesson.
- Go to the putting green and roll some putts from varying distances getting a feel for the speed of the green.
On the course
Once you step up to the first tee, visualize the shot you hit on the range during your pre-shot routine and play to your dispersion pattern. If you were fading the ball, aim to ensure that a fade will not get you in trouble. Or as another Pro once told me, “Dance with the date you brought.”
There is one very important rule to this tip: Never aim yourself into trouble—just in case you happen to hit that dreaded straight shot!
Posted by GolfTEC 
