1) Warm- Up: Warming up is the easiest way to get your mind at ease and get yourself ready for your round. Do no show up 4 minutes before you are set to tee off and expect yourself to be ready. Even if you have "always done it that way". If you are honest with yourself and truly want to get better you will take some time to hit a couple shots on the range, hit a couple chips, and then roll a couple putts on the way to the first tee. This doesn't mean you need to devote 90 minutes to a full-scale tour level warm up. But, give yourself at least 15 minutes. Spend 5 minutes stretching out your body and preparing for the round. Give yourself at least 5 minutes to work through a couple wedge shots, then a couple irons and a few driver swings. Lastly we all know short game is going to be where we take the most strokes throughout the round. Spend your last 5 minutes getting the feel of the speed of the greens, whether that is chipping or putting is up to you but getting the speed of the greens is going to benefit you through the entire round.
2) Have a Goal In Mind: Give yourself one or two attainable goals, but make sure they are something you can accomplish or come close to accomplishing. It will help to make these goals qualitative and not quantitative. For example, you can give yourself the goal of committing to each shot before you hit it, not hitting 8 fairways. Having a positive goal, like committing to each shot or envisioning each shot before you hit it is going to narrow your focus and improve your results. It is an easy way to keep yourself in the game after a bad shot or bad hole.
3) Practice Perfectly: When you head out for a practice session, it is imperative that you have something you want to accomplish. You can't afford to get to range and aimlessly and mindlessly hit 50-100 balls with no goal in mind. Take 5 minutes from the parking lot to the plot of grass you are going to hit from to give yourself something to accomplish. There are so many things you can improve upon. Whether it is just alignment, or tempo, dialing in your wedge yardages. But you have to give yourself something to work on. Don't waste your time by going out and mindlessly whacking balls. It will not only not help you get better but has a good chance of actually ingraining some bad habits, and making you worse.
3) Practice Perfectly: When you head out for a practice session, it is imperative that you have something you want to accomplish. You can't afford to get to range and aimlessly and mindlessly hit 50-100 balls with no goal in mind. Take 5 minutes from the parking lot to the plot of grass you are going to hit from to give yourself something to accomplish. There are so many things you can improve upon. Whether it is just alignment, or tempo, dialing in your wedge yardages. But you have to give yourself something to work on. Don't waste your time by going out and mindlessly whacking balls. It will not only not help you get better but has a good chance of actually ingraining some bad habits, and making you worse.
4) Practice Real Situations: When you go out to practice, do you hit 15-20 8 irons in a row? When you head to the chipping green, do you hit the same chip 5-7 times? When you head to the golf course and are playing a round, do you ever hit the exact same shot? Why do we practice differently than we play on the course? Next time when you practice, try practicing shots that you actually encounter on the golf course. Don't always practice the straight forward bump and run shot. Practice the shot that is slightly on a downhill lie and over a bunker, that is the shot that scares you and that is the shot you need to be able to accomplish. How many times have you been behind a tree off the tee? Why do we never practice a low curving shot that would get you back into position on the hole? Do you ever practice downhill shots, side-hill shots? Most amateurs will never practice anything but flat lie, perfect conditions and then we wonder why when we get on the course we can't hit the same shots as we hit on the driving range. Maybe it is because nothing is the same, the rough is longer, the lie in uneven and the conditions are all different. When you are practicing try using half of your practice time to practice real life situations you would find on the course. Hit shots off of uneven lies and out of the rough. The results of those trouble shots can save more shots that you think!
5) Play To Your Strengths: Playing to your strengths is something every tour pro does each and every time they play. You will not see Zach Johnson trying to reach many par 5's in two and you will not see Bubba Watson lay up on many par 5's. Why? Well where are their strengths? Zach has a great wedge game and feels confident laying up and then attacking on his 3rd shot, while Bubba's strength is in his length and ability to hit long accurate shots. This is something that we should all do every round. It is a very simple concept but something that not many amateur golfers do on a regular basis. For the next couple rounds take inventory of things that you do well on a regular basis, and know areas where you struggle. The goal here is to know your strengths so you can leave yourself in that position to most amount of times possible. Give yourself the best chance to succeed throughout the round!
These tips are meant to be applied to your game with very little practice time. In other words you are going to have to learn how to physically play to your strengths or have a goal in mind. You do however have to think about what you are doing while you are out on the golf course or when you come out to practice. You should have a goal in mind, be confident and optimistic about what you choose to accomplish that day and stick to it. These tips are going to help you if commit and make a converted effort to accomplish them while you are out on the golf course.
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