"Bring Your A-Game Every Time"

I read another advertisement that offered a free, 3-step blueprint that will shave four to five strokes off your game and allow you, within 8 weeks, to bring "your A-game to the course every time." Sign me up! Imagine shaving five strokes off your game and playing your best every time you tee it up. Well, if you believe that, I've got some prime swampland for you.

Man, these snake oil salesmen cheese me off. Bobby Jones said that anyone who was dumb enough to believe he could go out every day and play golf as he pleases is a greater fool than ought to be left at large. Golf just isn't that sort of game. And, if it was, it would not be nearly as enthralling. Let's face it; golf is like a box of chocolates. You never can be certain how things will go every time you tee it up. It is not subject to being mastered the way snooker or chess can be. There will always be the element of luck involved, even if you are able to find a consistent swing.

What separates the champion from the also-rans is what is between their ears; the ability to size up every situation and pick the right shot; the ability to concentrate and try your hardest on every shot, not just the difficult ones; and the determination never to quit.

Walter Hagen was a great player and very much played to the gallery. He was said to act as though the hard shots were easy and the easy shots were difficult. In some respects, he had the right idea when doing so, because by not over-thinking the tough shots he probably avoided becoming too tense, and by working hard on the simple-looking shots, he probably ensured that he did not experience a let-down by being too casual about the shot. 

Concentrating, and giving every shot your full attention, is required to play your best golf. However, it's easier said than done. There are very few golfers who are able to do it. As for the notion that you can have your A-game every day; you need to, as my wife likes to say, "nip that in the butt."

Don't Hurry, Don't Worry

Walter Hagen famously said, "You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way." It was great advice for living and for playing golf. Worrying and hurrying are two things that can ruin your swing and your game.

With respect to the golf swing, Bobby Jones said that no one ever swung the club too slowly. And he identified two points where most golf swings go wrong--the takeaway and the first move from the top. If the takeaway and the change of direction from the top can be accomplished in a leisurely fashion, good things can happen.

How many times, especially when it's a difficult shot, haven't I taken the club back nice and slowly, only to lurch at the ball from the top and ruin the shot. Hurrying the strike is a killer. There is, after all, no need to hurry. The ball isn't going anywhere. 

But Bobby Jones also said that many golfers think they are concentrating when, in fact, they are only worrying. And worry causes physical as well as mental tension. Tense muscles don't help the golf swing. They might be good for bending iron bars, but they don't make the club head move faster.

Someone said, "you don't play golf to relax; you relax to play golf." There's a distinct difference. We want to be engaged in our golf game. We don't want to relax, we need to try to play as well as we possibly can every time we tee it up. It is in the throwing yourself wholeheartedly into the playing of the game that we derive the most benefit from it. But, again as Bobby Jones said, we must fight tension whetever it may be found when we are swinging the golf club. A relaxed body can really whip that club through the impact zone.

So, I think the Haig's motto is a great one for us golfers. Don't hurry, don't worry. Pick your shot, take the club back slowly and leisurely, and make that change of direction nice and smooth. And while you're walking or riding the course, stop and smell the flowers. Enjoy the birds, the trees, the deer, even the gators, you come across in your travels on the links. We are, after all, only here for a short visit.