Do You Know The Problem in Your Golf Game?
Everyone who plays golf hopes to improve their game. Whether you are a 30-handicapper looking to break 100 or the scratch player hoping to break par more often, improvement is always top of mind.
But are you able to point out the problem in your game?
Identifying Your Problem
The first step in making any improvement is to understand whether or not you have a problem. That may sound a little heavy, but it’s the truth:
If you don’t think your game has a problem, then you will not be able to improve.
Think about the last round of golf you played. Could you have scored better? Most of us will say “Yes”… but do you know why?
Begin by asking yourself a few questions, and be as specific as possible:
How many fairways did I hit?
How many greens did I hit?
How many putts did I miss inside five feet?
How many shots did I hit thin or fat?
How many bunkers was I in?
Asking these questions isn’t meant to remind you of how bad you are. Instead, it’s to ensure you have a good understanding of your biggest opportunities to improve. It’s important to not worry about “why” these common golf struggles are happening. It’s all about understanding the current state of your game.
Once you have an understanding of how many times you missed a fairway, green, or putt, you’ll have a measurable, easily-identifiable metric on which to improve.
Be Honest with Yourself
As in business and in life, taking an honest, hard look at one’s self can be uncomfortable. Nobody likes to look in the mirror and see those extra pounds we put on from the weekend. We’d very much like to blame something — or someone — else for our poor results.
But to really improve, we have to be willing to understand that there is something we can do better.
It will be difficult to remind yourself of all those bunkers you were in, or how many greens you missed. Nobody wants to think about that five-foot birdie putt we missed. We’d love to forget all those chunked wedges or topped hybrids.
As golfers, we are prone to ego. We prefer to tell stories of “the one that got away” rather than how we failed! This is natural, but it’s also a defense mechanism all people have to make themselves feel better.
In order to improve, however, you have to feel the pain. Otherwise, what’s the point of improving if not to alleviate that pain?
Next Steps
I will cover more ways to think about improvement in this series, but it all begins here: understanding that there is a problem in your golf game.
Notice that I didn’t type “understand WHY the problem exists.” That comes later; instead, focus on understanding IF a problem exists without jumping ahead to WHY… and certainly not to HOW WILL I FIX IT.
Stay tuned for more installments very soon.
