Golf Dreams - When Practice Doesn't Go Well

Well you know the old saying practice makes perfect.  Some days you practice and it doesn't go perfect or get better.  I had one of those days yesterday.

I went to the range and worked on hitting my warm up drills, worked through my drills with fading and drawing the ball, finishing with putting and chipping.   Normally I meet my goals and everything seems to be in place with tempo, rhythm and distance control.

It didn't work yesterday.  My tempo was off, my shots were not going how I wanted them to and my distance was weak.  It is like I didn't have enough energy.

Just to let you know, those days happen also.  When you have that kind of day and it doesn't seem to get any better below are a list of what you can do.

1. When getting frustrated when not working, change to another drill
2. Take a breather and rest removing yourself from the range for a short time
3. Work through it the best you can.
4. If still not working call it a day and start again tomorrow.

Sometime it is better to just stop the practice that isn't working and get back to it at a later time.  It could be that something else is keeping your mind occupied so you cannot use it to control what you are working on.

Until next time, if at first you don't succeed, try try again.......

Golf Vacation Cont'd Wyndham Fairfield Glade Crossville Tennessee - Sites

Well I am back at the blog and I promised on one of the last blogs that I would provide the wonderful pictures of nature during our vacation at Wyndham Resort in Crossville Tennessee.

While playing golf and walking the nature paths below are the photos we took of the wildlife and flowers.








Now that you have seen the beauty of the Resort I hope to see all of you at the resort from time to time.

Until next time, on a windy golf day keep your ball flight low.....

Practie Continued - Practice Versus Playing

Playing a round of golf is fun, challenging and a great way to spend the weekend with your buddies.

As a golfer I have a lot of fun playing with my friends, co-workers, business friends and acquaintances.  I think it is the most relaxing part of the game.  You get to have great conversations, tell jokes, cut up, even sometimes shoot off a firecracker in their backswings.  After the round you sit have a few drinks and tell stories of how you did for the day.  That is relaxing at its finest.  It helps take your mind off the troubles of your life and worries of work for a few hours during the day.  Unless, of course, you have to bring that phone with you and ruin your game altogether.

As a professional golfer I still have those days stated above, but spend most of my golfing time at the practice range, chipping and putting area perfecting my game.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy practicing also, because I make games out of what I am practicing on.  This way I don't get bored and can practice for hours.

You see the way you look at things in your mind determines what you are doing is boring or exciting.  I think that if you are bored at what you are doing then you are more than likely truly not interested in this endeavor.  So my recommendation is that if you are bored at whatever you are doing than you have two options: change your attitude and perception of why you are doing whatever you are doing or, stop doing it.

I have enjoyed golf my whole life.  I have played and had a lot of fun over the years. A lot of good memories and a lot more memories still to come.  The decision I made to play as a professional changed my outlook on the game I love.  I still have fun at it, I just have to work more at it instead of playing just on the weekend, or a couple times during the week.  I choose to practice for hours an on my free time to compete at this high level instead of playing rounds upon rounds of golf. 

Now, as far as playing, I have found that a lot of times you go to the course with your buddies you don't have time to hit the range to warm up.  I recommend to at least do some good stretching and swinging of one of your long irons to loosen up before you hit that first shot.  You do not want to pull anything on the first hole except the ball.  With that being said I want to give you some of the new rules of golf I heard:

• You can take as many drives off the first whole as you want until you get the one you want, because everyone knows you don't have time to warm up before you start
• If you loose your ball in the high rough, trees you shouldn't have to take a penalty stroke because, eventually someone will find the ball and then it becomes a stolen ball and why should we be penalized for someone stealing our ball
• On the putting green if the ball roles over the hole then it is considered to be holed, because everyone knows that the rules of Physics out rule the Rules of Golf.

I do believe that no matter what level of golfer you are that practice is an important part of your game.   The better golfer you want to become the more practice you should be doing.  As far as instruction to get better you have to do three things.

1. Gain more knowledge in the game
2. Get lessons from a qualified Professional
3. Practice what you have learned and have been taught

Along with practice the other big area of interest in improving the game of golf is course management.  I will be talking about that later on.

Until next time, If you find yourself getting frustrated in what you are doing, stop and do something else for awhile......