My First Post

Welcome to my blog.
I have been motivated to start this blog because of encouragement from friends and family, my love for the game of golf, my frustration at not being able to coach anymore (because of my arthritis) and my desire to help the average golfer learn to enjoy the game.
Far too often I go out to play the game and expect too much of myself. We must accept that this is a recreational sport for most of us and as such many of our practice sessions are "live" - that is on the golf course in the course of a game. And frankly this is not where we should be practising. How many of us get into a motor vehicle and consciously think of turning the key, pressing the accelerator, changing gears, indicating, braking, checking the rear view mirror, registering the colour of the lights etc. etc.?
I would say very few, if any.
The reason being that we have done it so often that it becomes an automatic function.
Golf should be the same. It should be practiced outside of game time as often as possible. When you step up to hit the shot that it is called for the actual mechanics of the swing and the particular shot required should be automatic.
This is why the Pros are so good. They do not think of the shot mechanics, does it require a draw, a fade, a punch, where do they want the ball to land, how they want it to land, where it needs to roll to, what is the optimum spot for the next shot and so on. Once they have decided all those factors they simply step up and hit the ball.
You can bet your house on the fact that those little note books the caddies carry do not include technical elements of the golf swing but rather optimum landing areas, club distances, wind speeds, ground fall and so on.
So the first thing we need to accept is that unless we practice a lot shots will not be automatic for us and therefore our "margin of error" will be greater. Accept this and look to the next shot as a challenge and something to look forward to and enjoy.
Why go out and spoil what you have been looking forward to for so long simply because you are not playing as well as you would have liked? You're playing aren't you?
I remember once practising my chipping at my local club and a pro was also practising. I was obviously horrible at chipping and he couldn't take it any more so he walked over to me and said "Why are you not enjoying the most pleasant shot in golf?". Well hardly. I mean chipping is difficult isn't it?
However this pro then proceeded to explain a few things and got me to look forward to the chip shots, got me to actually start enjoying the unique challenge they presented. Just that single change in mindset improved my chipping. I went from a tense, panic stricken individual to a happy go lucky and confident chipper. I actually now look forward to chipping and don't mind in the least if I miss the green. Yes my chips don't always turn out as I plan but so what? It's not a war.
If you can adopt this same approach to the rest of your game you will be surprised how much more enjoyable it becomes.