Move Less - Get Good

This is just a fun post about something I thought was kind of cool. It was the middle of winter, and it looked like it might snow, but that didn’t keep us off the course. We had just teed it up on #1 when a few flakes started to fall. We didn’t care and teed off. We always walked, so we started down the par 5. As we walked, it started to snow harder. We got to our shots and said, “Let’s just finish the hole, then walk back in.” So we hit our second shots. I hit a really good shot to the back of the green, where I had about 20 feet for eagle. Of course, by now, it was really coming down as we trucked to the green to finish. By the time we got there, the green was totally white—except for the hole. “Can’t stop now,” I said. “I’ve got an eagle putt!” Well, I’m sure you can guess by now what happened. I wasn’t sure how hard to hit the putt or how the ball would react as it rolled across the snow. Well, I putted, and the funny thing was how the golf ball collected snow along the way. It got...

The Three Stages of Focus in Golf. In my opinion, there are three types of focus, or thinking, needed to perform consistently and develop your golf game: before, in, and after “the moment.” Before the Moment The time during the off-season, before your round, between holes, or just before your shot—prior to your routine—is what I call “before the moment.” This is the time to focus on your options, your goal, and what you’re capable of doing. Then you commit: you decide what you will do. Each of these opportunities to focus may take a different amount of time and occur at a different stage, but they all contribute to the same goal: performing consistently and developing your game. In the Moment Trust your decision. No more thinking! At this point, you must be automatic, rehearsed, and familiar with what you’ll do over the next 15 seconds. This is “recalling an over-learned skill.”* It’s just like unlocking your car door. You can do that consistently because you learned it a long time ago...