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Saturday, June 1, 2013

Practie Continued - Practice Versus Playing

Playing a round of golf is fun, challenging and a great way to spend the weekend with your buddies.

As a golfer I have a lot of fun playing with my friends, co-workers, business friends and acquaintances.  I think it is the most relaxing part of the game.  You get to have great conversations, tell jokes, cut up, even sometimes shoot off a firecracker in their backswings.  After the round you sit have a few drinks and tell stories of how you did for the day.  That is relaxing at its finest.  It helps take your mind off the troubles of your life and worries of work for a few hours during the day.  Unless, of course, you have to bring that phone with you and ruin your game altogether.

As a professional golfer I still have those days stated above, but spend most of my golfing time at the practice range, chipping and putting area perfecting my game.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy practicing also, because I make games out of what I am practicing on.  This way I don't get bored and can practice for hours.

You see the way you look at things in your mind determines what you are doing is boring or exciting.  I think that if you are bored at what you are doing then you are more than likely truly not interested in this endeavor.  So my recommendation is that if you are bored at whatever you are doing than you have two options: change your attitude and perception of why you are doing whatever you are doing or, stop doing it.

I have enjoyed golf my whole life.  I have played and had a lot of fun over the years. A lot of good memories and a lot more memories still to come.  The decision I made to play as a professional changed my outlook on the game I love.  I still have fun at it, I just have to work more at it instead of playing just on the weekend, or a couple times during the week.  I choose to practice for hours an on my free time to compete at this high level instead of playing rounds upon rounds of golf. 

Now, as far as playing, I have found that a lot of times you go to the course with your buddies you don't have time to hit the range to warm up.  I recommend to at least do some good stretching and swinging of one of your long irons to loosen up before you hit that first shot.  You do not want to pull anything on the first hole except the ball.  With that being said I want to give you some of the new rules of golf I heard:

  • You can take as many drives off the first whole as you want until you get the one you want, because everyone knows you don't have time to warm up before you start
  • If you loose your ball in the high rough, trees you shouldn't have to take a penalty stroke because, eventually someone will find the ball and then it becomes a stolen ball and why should we be penalized for someone stealing our ball
  • On the putting green if the ball roles over the hole then it is considered to be holed, because everyone knows that the rules of Physics out rule the Rules of Golf.
I do believe that no matter what level of golfer you are that practice is an important part of your game.   The better golfer you want to become the more practice you should be doing.  As far as instruction to get better you have to do three things.

  1. Gain more knowledge in the game
  2. Get lessons from a qualified Professional
  3. Practice what you have learned and have been taught
Along with practice the other big area of interest in improving the game of golf is course management.  I will be talking about that later on.

Until next time, If you find yourself getting frustrated in what you are doing, stop and do something else for awhile......

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