Say It’s So

Stephen D. Simmons

Editor and Publisher                 StrategicGolfer Instructional Series

I was invited to play golf this last weekend with a friend of mine and it’s a story that has to be told.

Tim and I know about how powerful the instructional message is we write about inside StrategicGolfer.  When you see it in action, especially for a higher handicaps, and how the creative side of golf if allowed to surface can overcome significant golf swing flaws, it’s a message hard for me to surpress.

Its Saturday afternoon and a beautiful fall day in south Texas.  The temps are around 85 degrees and while there are thunderstorms in the area, none of them will bother us this day.

My friend is an 18 handicap golfer give or take a few strokes.  On easier courses he can break 90 but this day we are playing a private layout that is blanketed by tree lined fairways, heavy rough, very deep green side bunkers, and small undulating greens.

I don’t get to play his course a lot but its a real gem.  Nick Price and other tour players compare it to the Valderrama Golf Club in Spain.  Exacting tee shots, lots of doglegs, elevation changes, and small target greens.  Needless to say this is not a pushover golf course.

My friend gets off to a slower than hoped for opening hole.  The opening hole is not long but requires a very exacting tee shot and approach shot into a heavily fortified green.  He makes double and we move on.

While standing on the tee of the demanding par 3 second hole he starts to describe his strategy for this hole.  He wants to intentionally hit a shot that end ups short of the green and then chip and putt for par.  The green side bunkers are severe and he knows his limitations.  He does exactly what he intends on his tee shot, hits a pitch shot, then lips out his putt.  He almost makes the par he strategized from the tee.

As we walk along on our golf journey that day he continues to tell me what his strategy is for some of the more challenging shots he faces.  He is offering this information to me unsolicited. 

All of our golf nstruction on StrategicGolfer.com emphasizes the importance of playing with pictures.  Pictures give the brain a much clearer sense of what the intended action is than words.  Pictures are more in line with feeling and golf is all about feeling, tempo, and touch.

When golfers try to execute based upon specific verbal ques the outcome will be suspect. What do you think would happen if you tried playing golf like this?

"I’m going to keep my left arm straight until the 9:00 position on the back swing and then I will rotate the forearm 45 degrees to the right and back which will allow me to set the club in a parallel position to the target line….."

I don’t know why my fried was in such a verbalizing mood last weekend but I did not interfere.  I let him continue to tell me as much about his strategies as he wanted to.

On the toughest golf hole on the course, a 440 yard dogleg right par 4, playing uphill and into the wind, he pictured a strategy that would play to the right side of the fairway to minimze the length, hit a three wood to within wedge range, and then pitch and 2 putts for a "bogie".

He did everything he intended but made his 6 foot putt for par.  4 net 2….hmmmmm.  Later he pictured a shorter club on a dogleg right par 4 from the tee to keep the ball out of the rough.  From there is strategized hitting a 3 wood to somehwere around the green with his pitch and putt strategy.  He hit the green in two.  While getting ready for his putt he said I should be able to two putt this for par.  I said why not 1 putt for birdie.  He one putted for a natural birdie…3 net 2….hmmmmmm.

The more he verbalized his strategizes the better his pictures were.  He played great and I think it was his personal best on that course.  This picture development process is one of the most important aspects to playing great golf. 

Most golfers chase the perfect swing.  They spend hours trying to develop something that does not exist.  Try spending that time learning how to develop a picture based strategy.

Its Called Visualization