John Hughes Golf Tips 9.20
MAKE GREAT DECISIONS
I hear the term “course management” a lot. The only people who can truly manage the course are the superintendent and the starter. You, however, can manage yourself. Which is why I get out on the course with all my clients to discuss and practice “self-management.” And the biggest part of self-management is making great decisions based upon skills you currently possess.
The first decision I suggest you make is keeping track of statistics versus score. Statistics are the details, the deeper and more complete story of your rounds. Statistics provide a window into totally understanding your strengths in real time, as well as the areas of your game that leave a little to be desired. Knowing your stats assist you with how you can organize your practice time. But I believe the most important part of keeping statistics and not score is keeping focused on the task at hand. All too often, my clients tell me they were experiencing the round of their life and started thinking about score, only to lose their best score in the final holes. Keeping on task is something we do regularly off the course, in life, business, or with other hobbies. So why not golf?
I also advocate using the term and strategy of playing “conservatively aggressive.” But I define this strategy a bit differently to reflect your current skills.
“Conservative” I use only for a decision. Siding on the conservative side with your decisions can sometimes rub your ego wrong. However, your ego can make a go at the swing if your decision is one that allows you to swing freely with your current skill set. In other words, if you make a conservative decision to play a shot, you’re allowing your ego to make an aggressive swing with no fear.
An example of this is always taking the correct club for the carry length needed, versus trying to bully a smaller club to a yardage your stretching to reach. The conservative decision is taking one more club, so you can make a regular swing and insure the shot makes the green, versus landing short.
Another example is finding the right “window” to hit a shot from trouble, say from behind a tree to a green. If your normal shot is a fade and you can play a fade around a tree, this is a conservative decision that allows you to play a normal shot. All too often in this situation, I see golfers try to hit the “super hero” shot that is opposite of their skill set. These golfers normally remain in the same or worse situation they make the bad decision.
To make a conservative decision that allows you to make a normally aggressive swing, always check you lie first, to insure the club face can make clean contact with the ball. Adjust your club selection accordingly. Be sure of the distance you need to hit the shot. And if the situation you’re in prohibits you reaching that distance, take a club that places you back in play, in a position that affords a normal swing from that point. And if your normal trajectory is consistently low or high, choose those low or high window that provides you an opportunity to make a normally aggressive swing.
You can add all this up in a simple phrase: play to your strengths. And if you are keeping detailed statistics, you’ll have a better understanding of those strengths.
