The Long Drive Swing

Archive for July, 2009

How to Keep the Past from Repeating Itself, or probably why Tiger didn’t make the cut last week at the British Open.

“I always make a bogey or worse on this hole.”

“I hate the way this hole is laid out.”

“I always play terribly on this course.”

These are but a few of the hundreds of comments that I have heard from golfers with whom I’ve worked as they speak about particular golf holes or golf courses.

It can be difficult to get past failures and struggles on a particular hole or at a particular course out of your conscious mind.  How can you improve on your performance at those holes or courses that have always been a challenge?

Make sure that the course management strategies utilized for the hole are a good fit for your game. It is astounding to me how many players hit the same type of shot over and over again on certain holes despite having had little success with their strategy. The course book may not suit your game! Once those adjustments are made (if necessary) then it’s back to the thinking about what shot YOU should play.

Past hole “troubles” is just one form of outcome thinking. If you’re thinking about how you played previously, you’re thinking about possible results or outcomes for your golf shot. Shifting your attention to what the shot requires – “Ok, I’ll hit a driver toward that chimney in the distance so that the ball ends up on the right side of the fairway”- may redirect your mind and overcome the negative thoughts and pictures from the past. Try to remember similar golf shots (drivers hit to particular targets) that were a success. They will fill your mind with positive pictures of beautiful long drives instead of short toppers and slices.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the past is not the future. In other words, past failure at a particular hole or course does not have anything to do with playing that hole today. What challenges most players in this situation is not the hole itself, but the memories of playing poorly in the past.

Failure is being generated in your own head!

Every golf shot, every hole, and every round of golf is an opportunity to produce something new. Pay attention to the prospect of creating something positive and productive and give less “power” to the thoughts and pictures of your previous misfortunes!

Want to master your mental game and banish those negative thoughts from ruining your best shots? Check out: mental secrets.

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Nullabor Golf Links in Australia is 842 MILES long!

Some of the holes are borrowed from other courses, but the course promises to be a little on the difficult side. From Tee to Green is usually a normal distance, but Green to Tee can be 42 miles or more! Even a long drive swing champion is going to blink twice at Nullabor.

The owners plan to leave existing conditions between Tee and Green, and will clear “debris” from the fairway. Sounds to me like you better drive the green or lose your ball in a canyon or billibong (what ever that is). Luckily we have information about improving your golf swing, getting more power into your swing, and exercises that will prepare you for this ordeal! Long drives will rule here.

Green is also a loose description of the area around the flag. Some are sand greens that are raked, oiled, and rolled to preserve smoothness. I bet there are some putting surfaces that are solid rock too. What ball do you play under these conditions? Actually this might be better suited to Frisbee Golf. At least the frisbee is bigger and easier to find. Though trying to retrieve anything in a herd of roos would be difficult.

Apparently the scenery along the Eyre Highway is “unlike anywhere else in the world”. When there are a bunch of plaid clothed golfers looking for the $5 Pro V1 they just hit into a thicket full of snakes, I bet it’ll be the eerie Highway instead. Dead golfer ghosts everywhere.

Hey, it’s true, you can’t make up this kind of silliness.