F1 Golf is the Pits

Where do you start your round of Golf? on the putting practice green? on the first tee? on the 18th tee?

A post about when to start your preparation for a good round of golf.

The 7 P’s

(Prior-Planning-and-Preparation-Prevents-Piss-Poor-Performance)

Starting before your journey to the course, before you even put your clubs in the car, take your time getting to the course or it all goes wrong in the carpark.

I used to be the world’s biggest abuser of pre-round preparation on myself, still now a situation will sometimes wreck my round before I’ve even woke up in the morning.

Has it happened to you? Probably, but maybe like I used to, you just cast it aside and get on with your round and don’t come back later to ponder on what could’ve been.

Some context

I first started to think about this particular problem way back in the mid-90’s when I used to live and work in Michigan, USA. I used to play a great course, Fox Hills Golf Club, the memories of that place are ever present, I had some brilliant years there, and learned a lot about golf from the guys I used to play with regularly. A lot of what I write about today, and what I will be writing about in the future, really comes from those years that I spent in the good ‘ol USofA, playing, partying and living with some of the best people a man could ever wish to know..

Some background

So it was just after lunch I left work to head off to the regular Thursday afternoon golf league at Fox Hills, stopping by to pick up my really good friend Tracy Taylor, we used to travel there together frequently. Sometimes Tracy would ride with his Cousin Vinny (no relation to the great film of the same name).

This day, as usual, I was running late, was obviously going to miss having a few chips and putts before the tee-time to get warmed up, when an interesting conversation started that I’ve remembered ever since. Tracy asked me if I thought my league position was anything to do with the fact that I’m always in a race with myself to get somewhere on time when the reality is more akin to ‘what degree of late’ you are.

How do you function off the first tee when you just ran down the parking lot (that’s a car-park to us Brits, and as Tracy used to say – only Americans can Park in a Driveway and Drive in a Parkway) carrying your trolley and your bag under each arm, sweating your nuts off in 100% humidity? I couldn’t function like that he said. So what do you do? I asked him. This is what he told me…

Golf preparation starts at breakfast or before

I start at breakfast, I check out the golf scores in the newspaper first thing in the morning but I never check the Hockey scores – too fast a pace, if I thought about hockey before golf I’d be in the frame of mind for hockey, not golf. (Hockey is massive in MI – I’ve still got my Steve Yzerman shirt!! Go Red Wings)

I eat my favourite breakfast, steak and eggs, and a good portion too because I don’t want to eat again until I’ve finished playing in the afternoon, playing on a full stomach doesn’t bode well, and playing hungry is just as distracting. I don’t listen to any rock music (Tracy was an awesome guitarist, no.. correction, he was a really awesome guitarist!), no on golf day I just listen to straight forward normal music, no Howard Stern on the radio or anything like that. (for Brits – just imagine Ozzy Osbourne as a morning radio DJ, you’ll get the idea)

I go to work early, I finish work early (now that’s one thing us Brits need to cotton onto, work as distraction of life and not life being a distraction to work) I go to the course, I have what you might call a loosener at the bar (Bloody Mary), I go out onto the range and hit a few, do a bit of putting – chat to the guys about golf and then casually stroll on over to the tee…. and wait for you to turn up chasing yourself onto the tee in a tiz cos you’re late.

Beautiful feedback

Now, I wouldn’t say that the conversation hit me like a blinding light or anything like that, it was good feedback, it told me firstly that the other 22 guys who turned out each week were getting a little bit pissed off with me turning up like a freshly spat cannonball each week, and it was impacting their game too. It was the first thing I decided to put right, and I did make an effort to be on time, or actually if I was going to be unavoidably late – I’d just phone well ahead of time and sit it out for the week.

At that time Tracy was always in the top three of the league year in/out, we were actually about the same overall skill level, just different approaches to the game and slightly different skill sets… I came 23rd first year (out of 24) and 21st second year (out of 23). I mean, there was a guy with just two fingers on one hand who beat me week in and week out – and was a higher handicapper than me. During a weekend round I’d shoot much better in comparison, so it was really just a case of time management for me during the week.

Only you can change you

Over the coming months, the winter particularly as you can’t play golf in Michigan in the winter – there’s anything up to a couple of feet of snow almost permanently – not to mention temperatures like we never experience in the UK (perhaps 2010 excepted). So the following season I’d already got the mindset to be on time, and I added to this by being early for a change and made a determined effort every week. My handicap didn’t really improve during the year but I actually played less golf, a lot less than normal due to being busy at work.

That year (1998) I came third in the league, and in 1999 came second by just a couple of points only losing out on the last 9 holes of the year. I shot my first round ever in the 70’s gross (76 to be precise). It was a lesson from the school of life that has stayed with me to this day. Even today I still run round like a headless chicken more of the time than I’d like, but when I play golf I’m almost always early, I always hit some shots and warm up, take some chips and putts on the practice green.

These days I play only a fraction of the time I used to, but my golf hasn’t really deteriorated that much. I try to manage my game better, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, but the good thing is that these days it’s rarely due to racing to the course, throwing my shoes on as I hop down the carpark tripping over my clubs and spilling stuff all over the place.

Calamity knows no inertia

If you want to act like Charlie Chaplin in a Formula One Car (now that does conjure up some images), don’t expect to play decent golf any time soon, and don’t expect to maintain a solid golf partner either.

This was an extract of my personal experience, if you want to comment then great, but actually it feels good to have just written that down.