You go to the driving range and bust your driver down the middle again and again. You hit your irons high and right at the target again and again. Without thinking too much, one shot after another comes off as good as you could hope for. You can hit fades, draws, and low shots at will. When your hands and back get too sore to continue, you head home full of satisfaction and optimism.
Bright Saturday morning, your first tee shot is weak or, worse yet, really, really bad. Your next shots are shaky and when you hit and 8 iron at a par three or into a green, you wonder what the outcome will be before you hit it. You are happily surprised when a shot comes close to the way you planned for it to and you, unexplainably hit really bad shots in situations that you shouldn’t. You blade your wedge across the green. You leave your puts five feet short or knock them five feet past. You think or say to your partners, “Geeze. I hit these clubs perfectly at the range, but I can’t do it on the course”.
The problem is that you are thinking that you can’t or that you might not. You know how to hit these shots. The information that you need to hit good shots is physically stored in your brain. That is an undeniable fact. Otherwise, you would have to learn how to do it all over again each time you go to the range. Unfortunately, the information that you need to hit bad shots is also stored in your brain. You have to pick which one you’re going to hit.
You don’t have to think about how to do it or run through a checklist before you hit. You just have to accept that you know how to do it and then let yourself do it. When it is your turn to hit on the golf course, follow these steps:
· Be happy that you get to hit the ball and relax.
· Feel the wind and note the distance.
· Pick your shot.
· See the shot and accept that you know how to hit it.
· Pick your club.
· Relax and see the shot knowing that you know how to hit it.
· Stand behind your ball and see the shot that you know how to hit while moving your club back and forth smoothly.
· Relax, step up to your ball, and aim your club.
· Look up and see the shot.
· Accept that you know how to hit it.
· Just let yourself hit it.
Follow this process when you are putting, chipping, or hitting out of bunkers. Do not think about what the possible outcome will be. When you see the shot you already have. Your shots won’t always come off the way you see them. There are things outside of your control like wind gusts and sudden noises that interrupt the picture of the shot you are seeing. On a given day, your back may be sore or you may just be tired so the shots that you can hit will vary. Only pick shots that you can hit. Don’t try to hit shots on the golf course.
If you only pick shots that you can hit, accept that you can hit them, and then let yourself hit them, you will play better golf.
Web Smith has been writing and developing documentation for technology companies for over 30 years. He has been the founder of 7 technology companies and created the collateral that launched them. He has played golf for over 30 years.
He is an industry consultant and currently owns ewebsmith.com, ewebtelecom.com, and ewebproducts.com. He runs his own copywriting business from websmith.com/copywriting
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