‘Drive for Show and Putt for Dough’ is a famous saying in the golf world, but how do you get off the first tee with your esteem in tact when playing in a society?

I can get a little anxious prior to my first tee shot of the day, even though I know I’m a relatively capable golfer. Relative in terms of my handicap at least, which I know I can play-to comfortably if I don’t let certain things cloud my mind.

Start as you’re mean, then go on (no that’s not a typo)

Not that mean!

Making a positive start to your round of golf is paramount. Going about your business of attaining consistency can only be achieved if you have consistency of mind, body and soul.

Don’t worry, there are no spiritual or religious allegories about to spring into my writing, the term is purely a metaphor for aiming your game at a complete game, rather than a sporadic and sometimes peak-and-trough one.

Now, I can’t confess to totally practising  what I preach here on this particular subject. Peculiarly, I would consider myself as an insecure first tee man. I get all jangly and sweaty palmed every single time I step onto the first tee, even when I play a social round.

Perhaps you experience the same problem? It’s bizarre because I’m quite a confident person in everything else that I do. But that first tee just gets me every time. I can multiply that by nine if I happen to be up first to hit too. (nine just seemed like a good number, and besides, I hate tens – especially on my card.)

Put yourself somewhere else

Always a good turn out on our society days LOL

This is something I’ve been trying more and more just lately. It’s something that I’ve read about from lots of sources over the years but had never actually tried the approach myself.

It is important to have a psychological place in the mind that you can lock yourself away in once in a while, it’s that place you go to sometimes when you catch yourself day-dreaming. Perhaps for you that’s a number of different places, for me its just one or two.

I try to pick a mental place, a memory of when I did something that was quite good, something others noticed and commented on. It’s that thing you remember you did once when you are feeling tense or maybe even at a low ebb, and when you think of it you peak up a bit and stick your chest out, and in your mind you say to yourself “I did that”.

Sweep out the dust in your new place

When you’re in that place, hold it. Keep it front and centre in your mind and ignore everyone else around you until you’ve swept the dust out of your new place, metaphorically – in the mind. I’m using that phrase as a metaphor for playing a shot you’ve made a million times, because mentally you approached it as calmly as you would when sweeping out dust with a broom.

I don’t remember any instance where sweeping dust out of my house in real life stuck in my head. Perhaps because the task went ok every time and the dust never ended up out of bounds.

I’m sure there are better similes to make, but that is mine.

Routine Routine Routine

As I delve into this series of posts, we’ll be digging into the basic approach of the first tee shot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m only coming at this from my own perspective, I’m not a golf pro, nor a practising psychologist (never mind even a qualified one) or anything even remotely scented like one.

No, unfortunately I’m just going to give my own insight as usual, and if it strums your guitar then great, if not I hope you like the article for other reasons.

The basics, my basics, consist of pre-round preparation, which is really just getting myself into the frame of mind to play, it’s that start of the focus for the round ahead, the trigger that says start preparing right about now.

I like to warm up I make myself warm up, although this is something that I’m not quite fully in tune with yet, but I am getting much better at it and it is making a difference.

I think about my place, that place we talked about earlier, I don’t go there yet but its a reminder that I need to catch the bus there soon.

Have I done all the things I normally do before I play? mental check-sheet: cleaned my clubs, cleaned my shoes, tucked my t-shirt in from left to right, hanging the right side? (mmm.. maybe I’m getting a bit too obsessive.. note to self)

Have I got a drink, a chocolate bar, a spare glove, am I in the mood for a new ball or an old fister?, in other words the routine is more encompassing than just the few twitches and side glances you make before you hit.

In the next post I will hopefully show a brilliant example of a pre-hit routine by our one and only Captain Mr. Phil Mai (you won’t get your breath at this routine). I will need to take some video first, I will try and get this for the next post in this series. When you see it you’ll think it’s a gag, but it isn’t, it is his pre-hit routine on every tee, and sometimes for a warm up too.

Stepping up to the plate

Stepping onto the tee should be carried out like Cary Grant entering a cocktail party, not like a lemming who’s three back from the front of the queue on base jump day. When you’re in your place you can do this, well I can at least, because that’s my good-distraction from what is about to occur.

We’ll go into this more later in the series.

If you got this far then you’re either mad (hopefully just as in nuts) or possibly just a little intrigued as to what is going to come later? Watch out for the sequel to this post coming soon..

If you want to share your tee nerves, go right ahead and comment, we won’t laugh – we promise, I mean come on – I’ve just bared my arse big style.

Images courtesy of: World Gurning Championships, Augusta National.

Believe what you will, but a new brand of golf equipment is about to hit the market and make very light work of being stuck in the trees and the rough.

We’ve been given a sneak preview of the new wonder clubs, and we thought it only proper that we should write about it so you can start to save your pennies for it’s market launch.

Course management heaven – the end of Rescue Clubs

What rough?

The Chainsaw Wedge comes in three handy lofts, the 56º Pine Hacker, the 60º Oak Savage and the 64º Twig Nibbler.

Now you have to weigh up which one of these clubs is most likely going to suit your exploits in the trees because weight is probably going to be a problem. Carrying these clubs around is hard work but bound to save you tons of shots in a short space of time.

Now don’t get me wrong you might need to purchase the specialist bag being offered, the Lumberjack as it is being termed under its covert development project name. Apparently it will only come in red and black checkered pattern, but plans are afoot for Victoria Beckham to design a slimmed down version of the real thing (!)

Exploit the rule of Unlimited Practice Swings

Here’s where we can let you into a little secret for the successful use of your new Chainsaw Wedge. If you take 5 or 6 practice swings with gay abandon, then the whole area around your ball is magically cleaned up, leaving you with a perfect lie every time.

Looks like there's no way out, eh?

Stuck behind a tree? no problem for the Chainsaw Wedge – the 56º and the 60º have been designed with your problem in mind, half a dozen practice swings with one of these babies guarantees a perfect line to the green in seconds.

Over hanging trees or deep rough a problem? You’ll probably need the 64º Twig Nibbler – fast and reliable, the beauty of this club is that gives you a beautiful line to the green with a single practice swing, so you never need to worry about drawing unnecessary attention to yourself.

Look! Just 4 Practice Swings Later!!

The “Oak Savage” made light work of this golfer’s woes. You’d be nuts not to buy one these!

Accessorise

To complete this amazing new golf tool, you can choose from the purpose made bag, above, or a set of complementary head covers designed by Real Life Veterinarians that really do appear as lifelike animals, the battery powered version will even graze on the grass if the Rules Referee happens to come and check you out – perfect cover story.

These babies will fool any Marshall or Referee - or your money back!

A brand new range of balls, codeword: Project Bricks, are also in development. These new balls will withstand pounding after pounding with your Chainsaw Wedge, the manufacturer is even developing a cheap version for driving ranges! Wow.

Designer fuel - you can choose from regular 2-stroke fuel, but this tends to draw unwanted attention due to the noise factor, instead the developers have again turned to Top Secret Agents who have a patent pending for a new fuel called LSD.

The developers say that this new fuel emits non-toxic vapours which are harmless and that make the whole course seem so easy and friendly that you will probably want to go this route.

Stockists

Yet to be decided we are told by those in the know, but likely the new equipment will be offered exclusively to a major golf retail brand who will also offer a tailored fitting service. Watch out for the launch marketing campaign starting soon……….

Inspiration for this post: Bob Smiley’s Blog (one of the funniest posts I’ve read in a long time.. and one of my favourite blogs for the writing style.)

You’ve been there when the group of grump-meisters behind you are getting impatient and starting to encroach on your personal golf space. Maybe you’re playing with your son who has just started the game, or with your grandfather who plays off 42 in reality? It doesn’t really matter, the problem is not you it’s them.

A post about the ignoramus buffoons who are not only damaging your round, they are also damaging the reputation of the course and the club.

Golf Course Bullies

It’s an appropriate title to give to people who believe that, like all bullies, they are safe with their kinsmen around them and can intimidate anyone that they choose to, just because they can.

It’s a sad situation because these golf bullies, certainly in my experience, are normally very good golfers – but with one fatal flaw – their ego. It’s almost what you could call a self-fulfilling prophecy because the better some get at golf the more arrogant they get too. I really despise this attitude in some golfers.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m sure that 90%+ of these people are never like this away from the golf course, which is something of an enigma to me.

Ever heard of a role model?

It makes me wonder sometimes who these people aspire to, it’s almost as if they want to be respected as a good golfer – by intimidation.

Now don’t get me wrong, I suppose some of these people are not even aware that they are doing it. Why? perhaps because it is accepted behaviour in the culture of their country club? This is something that I will be writing about in a later post.

It grieves me when I see a couple of burly guys on the course with a young kid and they are doing it, firing balls up behind the group in front, it’s no wonder that some young kids get the impression that intimidation is ok, the only problem there of course is that youngsters have broader boundaries so they are more likely to take that kind of behaviour and practice it away from the golf course.

This is not a good situation for golf in general. Thankfully it is just a microcosm of golfing leisure, but none-the-less I see it almost everywhere I play from time to time.

Have the icons of golf got a part to play?

Sure, as in all people of celebrity, the leading golfers on TV have a big part to play here. When ego centric golfers watch someone famous throwing their teddy out of the pram having a spat on the course they think they can too, they must think they are in a play-off for the Claret Jug or something akin to it, during their 9 holes on a Sunday afternoon.

Celebrity has THE lead role to play in all aspects of social culture, they are the world’s role models at the end of the day, and when they sow the wrong seeds – ‘Triffids’ grow.

As proof of that you only need to go and watch some of the talented young kids on your local driving range. They’re not trying to be Maximus ‘Sugar Ray’ Leopard (great golfer & the local golf course bully) they’re trying to be Ian Poulter, Tiger Woods Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey, Ross Fisher et al.

How much damage can one idiot do?

The idiocy of some golfers when they fire golf balls up behind you in an attempt to intimidate you is sacrilegious. What these idiots are potentially doing is driving potential new members away from the club, and driving new comers to golf away from the game. Long term, if left to fester, this could have a damaging impact on the health of their local club.

This is more apparent when you go into a club that has that certain ether about it, it’s snarky and moody and you see some members walking around doing their best impression of a Rooster, like they’re the cock of the club, and they normally are…

I’ve been to some courses on several occasions and see this same type of behaviour time and again, not to me personally, but I watch other groups playing in tandem just getting on enjoying their game, with a group of ego-roosters playing up so close behind them that from a distance they look like an 8-ball group.

There are at least three courses where this has been so prevalent that I won’t ever return there, even if they offered me a free membership, and the saddest aspect is that they are perhaps among the finest courses I have ever played (and trust me that’s a lot of courses all over the world).

The courses I am referring to here are all in the UK, but that doesn’t mean this is a UK only problem. In fact some courses I played in the USA had Rangers permanently out on the course, some because they were really excellent courses and made sure everyone had the best possible time on the course, but others were more like Door Men on your local nightclub – go figure for yourself.

It only takes a small clutch of people like me, who talk to other visitors at the bar, before the club’s membership list starts to look pretty skeletal in a few years time.

Is golf moving into a new world?

I think it is, golf is so much more accessible these days by such a broad range of folks from all walks of life, and this, as in anything that grows to be more ubiquitous has to accommodate both incumbents and new entrants, and also change to survive.

Unfortunately, not all change knits together nicely and it is just a fact of life that change can be a catalyst for turbulence. Sounds powerful that doesn’t it, in real terms it means that when a new person, group of people, or even culture change appears in a lot of stuffy old country clubs that it is resisted by the incumbent tenants (and I mean tenants and not members for good reason, read on)…

The other kind of golf course bully

…Now you might say what has that got to do with bullies? Well, sometimes you see another type of bully in the country club. It’s the one whose Great Grandfather is buried under the 18th green (metaphorically speaking) and even though he doesn’t own the course – he thinks he owns the course.

Some of these people are just not accepting of new comers, sometimes they are so brazen about it that they will openly berate new comers whilst in conversation with their fellow ego-roosters in the bar, or on the course. The numbers of times I’ve over heard conversations like this in a clubhouse, and I just wonder to myself what they would think if it was their own kids joining a new school, would they tolerate it? No chance, they’d be grilling the headmaster in a nano-second.

Typically, a lot of us Brits just aren’t complainers, I don’t mean moaners – we’re brilliant at that, but complainers take action, and this is something I very rarely see in this kind of circumstance. It must happen, good clubs have clear rules and procedures for making a respectful complaint, others though, you need to sit in front of the ‘Reich’ before you can make newspaper headlines, meaning some clubs care more about censorship than fellowship.

Later I will be writing a post about this topic, and it will be centred on how to complain to your country club – respectfully.

Hopefully, some clubs that read this may even give me a head start by offering their procedures below, in the comments section.

Hopefully some of the headlines in this article made the hair on your neck stand up, that was intentional – because it is the kind of language and behaviour that bullies perpetuate. It needs to stop, but it will only stop if you make a stand or make it to being Prime Minister, and you can make a stand by complaining in a respectful way and making an appeal to your peers.

Bullies might think they are safe in their group of 4, but you need to realise that there are 65 Million* in your group just waiting to help you out. (* the generally accepted population of the UK)

If you want to be a soft complainer, just forward this article to your Reich Rooster at the club, they should get the message – unless it gets censored – in which case forward it to all the members – that’s the power of the internet.

Like the article? Does it touch on your personal experience? If so, tee a comment up below, and rip one.

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.

I don’t know why but sometimes I can play a great punch shot and other times my ball is up in the air rattling the lampshade, but I just don’t know why?

A post about the importance of playing a punch shot well and a plea to seriously handy golfers to come and give us all some insight into ways to improve our punch shot abilities.

Knowing when to use a punch shot

Like most mid-handicappers I have a reasonably good grasp on how to approach the game, certainly to the point that I know roughly the right shot to play, the problem is executing the shot the way I’m drawing it in my head.

Most times when I use a punch shot I’m either a little too far out for a pitch-and-run so I use the punch shot as a heavy-gauge pitch-and-run shot, with reasonable success mostly.

The problem for me is when I’m say, 100-150 yards out from the green, or I’m in the rough (light rough) playing my second shot, or thirdly facing the green in a brisk wind.

Executing a good punch

Now I know what I’m supposed to do, I think..

I normally take the club back short, i.e. not a full take back, and I try to stop the club as soon as I can after I’ve hit the ball – you know, like slam the anchors on – emergency stop style.

Now I must be reasonably proficient at making contact with the ball, because it’s not that often that the ball gets a mind of it’s own and absconds into the never never squirts off left or right. The contact for the most part is decent, the problem is that my punch is more akin to a fast chip, it springs up to a height that even the dodgiest salesman would have trouble selling as a punch.

Consequently, the distance control is awful and because of the height I don’t get any real run-on.

Knowing which club to use

There must be a reason for this, because my club action doesn’t seem so bad – possible I’m using the wrong club? But I’ve never really understood the formula that you follow for selecting a club for a punch shot – do you go up a club or two? or down a club or two?

Hopefully, one of you swinging ninja’s will help me out here and anyone else that reads this post

Do you have some advice to contribute? Maybe a comment, if you do then tee it up below, and rip one!

What do you do on the course – manage it or mangle it?

A post about the mindset required to enable course management in any sense, and a plea to seriously handy golfers and coaches/pros to give us all some insight about the how to part of course management.

I really hope that this post develops into a good conversation and debate about the whole gamut of course management. As usual I will not pretend to be a coach, because I’m not, but I will give my observations and thoughts on the aspects I feel some kind of qualification to comment about, purely in my capacity as an amateur golfer.

Early on in this post it might be prudent to define what I mean by Manager and what I mean by Mangler, so here goes:

Manager: Someone who is able to control their thoughts and state of mind, to the point that they can enable course management to be caused in real time, and can be switched on at will, resulting in the course, the round and scorecard card being managed.

Mangler: Someone who’s emotions take precedent over their state of mind and therefore is unable to press the mental button that says “Switch On The Course Management Now”. Hitherto course management skills are not practised because they haven’t been mentally called for, resulting in a mangled state of mind and terrible results.

From my own perception, it seems that many golfers do not manage the course, manage their round or manage their mindset in any capacity, or at least not to the extent needed for real improvement. It is my opinion that skill at golf is only one aspect, and a small one really, in the whole plethora of aspects that go toward that thing that constitutes – your game.

Now I’m not going to extrapolate every minute detail and sub-category, but in the main, the big headings (in my own opinion) could be summarised as this:

• Your skill level
• Your mental aptitude
• Your dogmatism
• Your ambition
• Your will to improve
• Your ego
• Your capacity for enjoyment
• Your anger management

It is no accident that I arrived at this list, because it is wholly based on my own understanding of me, and since there is such a thing as the six degrees of separation, then if I understand me I must understand you, at least in some small way.

So what’s all that got to do with course management you might ask? and it would be a good question, which I will hopefully try to explain below.

Taking each heading I will try to give my own take on the guff behind the heading, in the context of what it contributes to my ability to your ability to enable course management to kick-in, not manage a course per se. Course management, like golf itself, is a tenant of the mind. Your mindset must be right to allow you to be in a frame of mind to manage the course, this is before you actually apply any of the course management skills that you already have or want to try.

I liken this to when you’re mouth is in the mood for something sweet, your mind was telling you it needed something sweet before you actually went to the larder and ate something sweet. Unfortunately it’s never quite this straight forward with course management, as the mind often gets overridden by something else from the list above first before you can get to the course management larder.

Your skill level

This is finite in my estimation, everyone has a capacity to play at a certain level, everyone’s is a different level but it’s kind of fixed non-the-less, a ceiling if you will, and when you reach it you either accept it or retire. This depends on another aspect from the list – your capacity for enjoyment.

I accept that some people have what might be termed as ‘natural skill’ but what this really is I couldn’t comment, I guess some people just have a better aptitude for some sports than others.

Perhaps that’s why professional footballers, just for example, are often good golfers and sometimes good enough to be pros, but professional golfers are never professional footballers? I could understand ‘natural skill’ in this context because it would infer that professional team sports players also make good individual sportsmen but the reverse is not quite so straightforward? Perhaps? What do you think?

Your mental aptitude

This may not necessarily be the correct terminology, but I’ll try to clearly explain what I mean by it. It’s your ability to think clearly when other distractions and emotions are baying for your mind’s prime-time. Prime time being the thoughts that are front and centre in your mind at that particular point in time, it your ability to control your own thought space and place what needs to be there rather than what wants to be there. It is also your ability to keep to reality rather than some home-made fiction (dogmatism). Like the 28 handicapper whose got himself in a fix in the rough, bad lye, and thinks he’s going to play a low rising draw with a 3-Wood to get out of trouble – insanity.

If you are naturally strong minded then you may already have an inbuilt advantage to help you deal with this. Essentially speaking, if you can’t control your own thoughts you are a mangler, because you are allowing things to become a mess, perhaps more than necessary to the point that otherwise could normally be rescued. For me it’s black and white with very little grey area, because it’s a case where you either have this ability or not.

Your dogmatism

If you are naturally dogmatic, perhaps even just stubborn, then you’ll more than likely be that way with yourself as much as you are like it with others. This to me would be a lead-weight, this is not a good thing in the context of course management as it has the potential to create head-shots in the mind that the body can’t pull off. (see example above).

In any other part of the game I could see dogmatism being a semi-good thing if you were chasing the leader – where it would give you some determination even if you are detached from reality, but this post is about course management so we’ll just stick to that aspect here.

Dogmatism is kind of linked to ego also, but in the context I’m referring to here it means the total bull-headedness that can accompany someone who is far too confident for their own good – where whittling back just a little would bring them back into the realms of reality rather than fantasy, and help them to play sensible shots or even just take their medicine and play safe with a chip out.

Dogmatism can affect those with good mind control and also those without it.

Your ambition

Two steps forward and one step back, the product of this is still one step forward. How many steps forward you yourself want to take depends on several of the other factors in the list. Some people will be happy to just go out and play and if one day they shoot 80 and the next day shoot 105, and they are still happy (and if this sounds like you, then more power to you!). I for one would be distraught at that. So if you are compelled to improve then you probably will and this will be a factor in your response to getting yourself in the crap the occasional wayward shot or your overall view of your game.

Your will to improve

This differs from ambition, in the respect that if you are ambitious then you have the fundamentals to want to improve, but adding the ‘will’ to improve is the action point, its what will turn armchair ambition into get your lazy ass on the range direct action. If you are ambitious but have no will to improve then you are definitely something of an enigma, but more likely you are just plain dogmatic.

Your ego

Now by ego, when compared to being dogmatic, I mean the aspect of yourself that drives you to actually be good in reality rather than a legend in your own living room. When you have ambition and the will to improve, and you go out and do something about it, then you need a prize at the end of it. Well, adding another courtship feather into your already stunning plumage (your ego) is where this fits in. Its that ability to say “Look at the size of my course management!” that’s what ego is in this context.

Your capacity for enjoyment

If you just enjoy playing golf, have no real ambitions in your game but still enjoy golf to the nines, then this post isn’t trying to capture you as a hostage. It’s meant for people like me, who when they don’t improve they feel the need to choke the living shit out of something it has an adverse affect on their enjoyment of the game. People like me need to learn to course manage, but moreover need to “game manage”.

Your anger management

If you manage your anger well, probably naturally, then you’ll almost certainly not comprehend why others can’t. Again, it’s black and white with very little grey thing, you either manage your anger or you don’t. Not all anger is expressive, sometimes you give off a calm exterior whilst there are legions of marauding vagabonds hacking away at your esteem inside. To me it’s the biggest distraction factor of the lot, I fall squarely into the latter description of expressing my anger inwardly when I should just tear off the page and carry on. If you have the ability control your emotions, as opposed to being emotionless, then you have a definite edge.

Summary

So there you have it, what I consider in my observational capacity as being primary restrictive aspects in ones ability to induce course management, as opposed to the skill of applying course management techniques and skills. In much the same way as a bull that is seeing Red has no chance of comprehending calm any time soon, if you don’t flick that switch you are doomed to mangle.

What I would love is if someone reading this could give us some insight into ways to actually carry out course management, some basics and fundamentals, perhaps some tips in certain scenarios – you know, stuck behind a tree, on the edge of water, and so on. Maybe some more general advice on how to “game manage” as opposed to just course managing, how to “think” in certain situations as course management is not always just about being in trouble in the rough, you can also be 2 down with 3 to play and hitting the ball just fine – tell us what you do…

If you have an opinion about this post and want to make a comment, then tee it up below, and rip one!

Setting the scene

I stood on the edge of the water hazard, ball unplayable, half sunken into the silt on the shoreline of the small pool, being 4 under nett with 2 to play, well I wasn’t best pleased.

Drown you bitch! Just seemed to involuntarily spring out of my mouth as I glared at my ball there in the shallows. A guy, playing with what I assume was his son, was looking for his ball in the small copse next to the pool, they were playing the adjacent hole coming the other way, well if looks could kill, I had to apologise for the language..

Why don’t I ever lay up? Even when my telegolfic wisdom tells me I’m going to screw it up!

Taking your medicine

I’d got the minutest inclination to play it, but with thoughts of Jean van de Velde (1999 British Open – Carnoustie) in my mind, and apart from the fact it would be outright cheating I decided to recover it and take a drop.

I hate taking my medicine on the course but I also know it’s the only way not to make things even worse. After some reflection, it was this particular incident that gave me the inspiration for a series of posts that are loosely related: (including this post)

• Manager or Mangler
• Divot or Landscape Gardener
• Punch Your Lights Out

Hopefully one of you readers will impart their ‘qualified’ view into this series at some point and give the rest of us a glass full of wisdom. See my normal approach is to be observational about watching your game and rhetorical about my own. That’s what I want to do with these planned posts – ask your opinion – your advice – how you do it, no matter whether you are qualified or not.

One thing I won’t do in this blog anywhere is try to give anybody the impression of that I’m qualified to advise, or anything similar – because I’m not – but I think that learning your own lessons out loud can sometimes sound like qualified advice, when in reality it is just from the school of life (which is a school I’m a big believer in).

So this post is an introduction to the forthcoming posts mentioned above, they will be published over the coming few days and need your insight to be completed.

So if you have a viewpoint then tee it up below, and rip one.

What! you can’t be missing that loveless text filled horror story, surely?

If you really want to recap on what the original information page said at the Home page of this site then all the original content is below.

If you landed here from a search engine, close your eyes now and click here for the new home page.

Home

I am just in the process of rebuilding the web site. I was never happy with the previous web site and since discovering WordPress I think you will all agree that the new site will be well worth waiting for. For now this front page is just an information page but if you look around the rest of the site you will get a flavour of what’s to come.. A much prettier and meaningful page will appear here once most members have had the chance to read it and register. (that also goes for any visitors to our site, please look around, our other pages are far more interesting than this!)

What’s new in this site?

In a nutshell, this:

• The site is much more interactive, you will be able to discuss, debate and participate in every part of the site
• Find information much easier and faster, using the navigation, tags, or categories or the search box.
• You will be able to pay for subs and enter/pay for competitions through the web site. If you can’t make it into the club then this could be a good option for you.
• You can set up payments to be one-time or monthly recurring, for example you will pay for a competition by using one time payments, you could use monthly recurring to pay your subs. you could also pay a whole year’s subs using the one-time payment also…
• The ability to make payments will come in the next few weeks, you can still use the entry form to enter the competition on the competition page in the meantime see here
• Blog – members will be able to post information on the site, anyone can comment on your posts, this is the discussion aspect see the blog.
• We will start advertising on the site, hopefully this will contribute to the society. This will rely heavily on ALL members contributing and thereby making the site popular, if you don’t bother posting new content then don’t expect the advertising to work.

You want something adding to the site?

If you have anything that you want to be added to the site then please let me know now as there is a window open for requests until end January 2010. After that it will be whenever the next update to the site happens, which will probably not be until the end of the summer 2010.

The new site should be available by the middle of January 2010 but will be getting developed on an ongoing basis for about six weeks after the launch. Just keep checking back and remember if you want to request something on the site then just ask me.

What is a Blog?

For the people who live in dark corners, the blog is just news and discussions, it’s not called ‘news’ because it’s interactive and isn’t just restricted to ‘news events’ we can use it for anything that we want. The aim is to get everyone in the society contributing regularly and hopefully some external people too.. the more popular the blog gets the better it will be. You can even access it through your mobile phone… those who have one (it’s a wireless device, not a radio, that you use to talk to other people on – like an audio blog!)

Cheers,

Daz Lunn.

Clean your Grooves Fool!

I was reading an article the other day that suddenly made me realize there might actually be a gizmo-gadget for golf that I don’t actually own. The article in question was 100,000 Sold…But Have You Ever Used One? (Golf Groove Tools) and I suddenly realised that whilst I do look after my clubs, that cleaning alone is not maintenance.

I have not tried one of these tools yet, but having said that, my clubs and wedges are only a few months old anyway and since I haven’t played as much as I’d like then currently it might not be a problem per se, but I thought what if I cop a stone with a shot from the nasty bad and damage the face? It never occurred to me before.

My previous set of clubs, Ping Zing’s, I had for years and when I look at the grooves now they are in terrible shape. Full of scum and deposits, bits of what looks like hardened mould. Most of this would certainly wash off, but the grooves look shot – I think maybe I should have given them some groovy TLC a long time ago.

So I think I’ll be investing in a tool pretty soon, I won’t post the information about the numerous products here because Golf Spy has a great article that you should read, and there you can find a review of which product they thought was good from the featured ones. I wouldn’t want to be accused of stealing someone else’s thunder anyway – god forbid, blogging is difficult enough without someone stealing your wares!

If you don’t like any of those you should just Google it, I’m sure there a million similar products in the UK. Which brings me to the call for action from you – let me know which groove sharpener tool you think is the best – why it works for you – how much it cost and where you purchased from.

When you win at Golf do you understand why? I often don’t but in saying that I don’t win all that often, however I am rarely outside the top half of the results.

A post about why you win at Golf when you just swing and nothing else..

The headline is a take on the famous football chant – you only sing when you’re winning, but the likeness stops there. When you win at golf you basically won the battle of the mind, and everyone that plays golf knows only too well that to conquer the game (if that’s even possible) you need to conquer your mind first.

easy to hit - expensive head cover

When you play in a group where someone is swinging out of their boots, have you noticed that they have an aura about them? They just seem to give off something, I can’t describe it but you’ll know what I mean.

Everything about them exudes calm and confidence and no sign of distractions, this can often have a positive effect on your own game that day too.

When I play with someone that is going through this I often feel the urge to barrack them if there is money on it I normally approach it in one of two ways, I either don’t talk about it at all during the round for fear of jinxing their game, or I chip in with the odd God I hate you comment of praise and let them talk about if they want to, it’s a strange experience being the observer sometimes but it’s nice to see someone just swinging for fun and pulling it off.

on the thought train

If you’re playing a crackerjack round yourself then you will also know where I’m coming from, it’s that feeling you get like walking on air, like you weigh less than your socks (I wish), again it’s almost indescribable but it’s like you can’t do a thing wrong.

If you’ve ever experienced that natural flowing game which you can occasionally pull out from what seems like nowhere then you’re on my thought-train.

When you play natural – you win natural, why? Well I guess it is perhaps because you don’t need to think about it, your mind is clear, the shot was executed perfectly before you even addressed the ball. You see it in others that are winning, they know they’re winning, everything about them shouts – I’m just swinging, and nothing more.

It’s more memorable when you win, probably because you left the 18th Green without having to do any kind of mental analysis about what went wrong, so your head is free to be filled up with only good stuff, not to mention your ego. You don’t need to stay up til bedtime churning it all over getting yourself in a tiz because you’ve suddenly decided to chuck it all in and sell your clubs – come on you know you’ve done it!?

When you think, hesistate, observe the weather to the point of distraction, try to figure out the wind speed to 3 decimal places, try to super psycho-analyse every mortal factor and draw the atomic relationship chart in your head before you hit – you lose!

When you just swing, and nothing else – you win!

That’s my observation at least – what’s yours? If you have a view about this post – place a comment below.