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Why Are Golf Handicaps Important?

Kevin O'Connell — June 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

A golf handicap is the best way to level the playing field between playing partners. It can also help determine which tee markers each player should be playing from.

How do handicaps enhance your golf course experience?

A well designed golf course should give players from each tee marker the same kind of experience based on their own abilities.

How can you keep track of yours?

If you are a member of golf course or country club your golf shop with have a handicap system that you can use. They usually are connected to your state golf association. It is important to record all your scores for accuracy. They even have a score system to figure out what you shot if you happen to pick up on a hole.

Good free smartphone apps to track your handicap

Titleist App featuring My Game section allowing you to post scores and track stats.
GHIN Mobile from USGA: Your state or regional golf association uses the GHIN service and this app is connected to that allowing you to upload scores and view your current handicap and scores away from your home course. No more sandbagging or asking: What’s your real handicap?

photo credit: danperry.com

Three Keys To Playing Your Best Golf After A Break

David Horne — March 18, 2011 — Leave a comment

Yesterday I teed it up for the first time in 2011. In fact it has been over six months since I last played. For some reason my first few rounds after a layoff are pretty good. It isn’t until later in the season that the wheels typically fall off.

Here are three keys to play golf well after a break:

1. Play high percentage shots- One of the simplest things is to play high percentage shots. For example, hit to the center of the green instead of at the pin or use a putter from the fringe instead of chipping. I usually don’t try to take too many risks even if the rewards are great. Sure, it might cost me going low but I hedge against making big numbers.

2. Play with friends- Yesterday I played with two of my best friends. They aren’t great golfers but we have fun doing anything together. This kept the round casual and light. We weren’t grinding over 4 footers or playing a mini-major.

3. Dance with who brung ya’- I know you have heard this one before. I hate hearing it just as much as you do. The truth is, it works. Focus on the basics of hitting golf shots. Your first round back isn’t time to work on new swing changes from SeanFoley. After the round schedule a lesson to get a check up and layout your golf goals for the year.

These keys will help you play better after your layoff. I’m sure there are more. What are yours?

photo credit: mararie

In Game Improvement, New break, breaks, fallen, golf, golf equipment, keys, layoff, ping, play, play golf, playing, putter, reason, recreation, seasoning, sports, tee, three key, typically, wheels

Full Swing Simulation Training Part II: The 10-Ball Game

Tony Piparo — February 4, 2011 — Leave a comment

The 10-Ball Game is step three of a 3-part process to help good practice golfers become better players and competitors. After identifying those situations that cause you difficulty and your physical, emotional, attentional, and behavioral response to them, choose one that you would like to work on. Now follow the process listed below. For this example, we will use hitting to tight fairways.

Simulate the situation as best as you can on the range. Try to find left and right boundaries within which to hit. You might have to just imagine a fairway if your range doesn’t have any kind of markings.
Hit 10 balls with whatever club you normally hit in this situation. Be sure to use your pre-swing routine and include the selection of an intended target to direct your mental focus and an intermediate target within 2 feet of the front of the ball to align yourself square to your target line.
Evaluate the effectiveness of every shot. Any ball that finishes left or right of your simulated fairway or one that is not struck solidly is deemed not good.
Do not analyze what mechanical errors cause the errant ball flight.
Instead, close your eyes. This helps constrict the pupils and reduces the amount of visual information unconsciously processed by the brain.
Take a slow, deep breath (or more) to relieve any stress. Ninety per cent of all stress hormones can be removed through deliberate, slow, and deep breathing.
Smile. The simple act of smiling releases hormones into the body that reduce stress. You don’t have to have a reason to smile.
Using, your pre-swing routine continue the process until you’ve hit all ten shots in this simulated condition and then examine the following conditions.
- How well did you hit the first ball? You only get one chance on the course for each tee shot. The better you do on the first ball every time you use the 10-Ball Game to simulate tee shots in practice, the better chance you have when you play.
- How well did you hit the last ball? It’s important to recognize that if you hit one bad tee shot while playing does not mean all your tee shots will be bad. The better you hit the last ball well in practice, the better your ability to recover after hitting a bad tee shot while playing.
- How many shots out of ten did you hit well? Hitting 80% of your simulated tee shots well will give you the confidence to hit any tee shot well while playing or competing.

When you have improved your performance in simulated conditions you will experience more success while playing. Once you’ve eliminated one source of distraction address another problem area with the 10-Ball Game. You may find that eliminating one problem area helps you overcome other problem areas quickly.

photo credit: Reggie Alvey

In Game Improvement competitors, practice, simulation training, tee

Full Swing Simulation Training

Tony Piparo — January 24, 2011 — Leave a comment

Do you transform from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde when you take that long walk from the practice tee to the first tee? Many golfers do. Others are able to transfer their practice skills to on-course conditions except when the pressure is on. Hitting more good shots on the range won’t necessarily help you play or compete better if you are plagued by internal and external distractions on the course even if you hit every shot perfect on the range. There are two major differences between practice ranges and golf courses that cause attentional and mechanical breakdowns when playing. First, there are physical differences between these two environments. Practice ranges tend to be wide-open fields. Many times there is not a single target with which to develop a target orientation. There is also nothing to distract your attention. In contrast, golf courses are landscaped with streams, lakes, ponds, rivers, trees, bushes, forests, sand bunkers, OB and more. These not only beautify the course, but they distract your mind and trap the ball, especially if you have not developed a strong target orientation. The more these external distractions remain in your attention, the less your focus is directed to your intended target, and the more often your ball will find one of these “hazards.”

The second difference is the consequence of hitting a bad shot. On the range, there is no consequence. All you have to do is put down another ball and re-hit. On the course, every bad shot adds at least one stroke to your score. If score is important – and it usually is – then this can create stress and anxiety that internally distract you from your target orientation. Stress and anxiety are instinctive, unconscious, and primitive reactions to threat and fear that trigger the fight-or-flight reflex that helped our earliest human ancestors survive their hostile environment. Unfortunately, this powerful reflex has not evolved since the time of cave men and women and so the potential for mistakes and failure experienced on the golf course will cause the same kind of reaction as if you were being chased by a saber tooth tiger. Your pupils dilate, bringing in more unconscious information into the brain. That makes it more difficult to focus the mind. Eye movement is increased to help you survey the horizon for danger. That makes keeping your eyes still more difficult. Your muscles tense, interfering with the fine motor control necessary to make a good swing. Ignoring, denying, suppressing, or repressing your awareness of your stress response does not result in good performance. You have to learn to inhibit the reflex or reverse it once you become aware of its presence. What better place to learn this but in practice. I have developed a practice strategy that I refer to as the 10-Ball Game to help you alleviate the external distractions and internal demons that turn good practice golfers into poor players. Its part of a 3-step process that improves your on-course performance.

Identify those situations where you typically make mistakes (i.e., first tee, water hazards, etc).
Identify your thoughts, emotions, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors that may contribute to your performance letdown.
Simulate on-course conditions at the practice range to develop the skill and instill the confidence necessary to perform as well on the course and in competition as you do in practice. This is where the 10-Ball Game comes in.

Next time I will describe the 10-Ball Game process.

The Pressure to Succeed (part one)

Tony Piparo — November 9, 2010 — 1 Comment

Today’s post is part one of a two part series on The Pressure to Succeed. Dr. Tony Piparo is a Sport Psychologist and former golf professional and has worked with golfers of all ages and ability levels develop the skills necessary to play their best golf more often. For more tips on how to improve your golf performance visit The Peak at www.peakperformanceblog.com

The 2010 Ryder’s Cup is now just a fading memory for most golfers. Unfortunately, it’s probably still a nightmare for Hunter Mahan. If you remember, he asked coach Corey Pavin to give him the last tee time in the singles matches on that final Monday with the US trailing the Europeans 9 ½ to 6 ½. The US made a great comeback with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson playing stellar golf and winning their matches. It finally came down to the last two matches pitting Ricky Fowler against Italian Eduardo Molinari and Hunter against Irishman Graeme McDowell. Ricky, down four holes with four to go, played flawlessly, birdiing the last four holes to tie the match and give the US a ½ point. Now Mahan only needed to halve McDowell to secure the victory for the US. Unfortunately, Mahan needed to win the last two holes to accomplish the comeback miracle. But it wasn’t to be. Mahan hit his tee shot just short of the 3-par 17th green while McDowell’s tee shot luckily found the right rough between the green and the green-side bunker. Had his ball trickled in the bunker, par would have been much more difficult and Mahan could have potentially won the hole with a par, setting up a final hole showdown.
With the weight of his team mates, the entire US, and his own reputation on the line because of his request to be in this position, Mahan knew he probably a miracle to have any chances of winning the hole. With millions of people worldwide watching, Mahan stepped up to his ball and proceeded to chunk his chip. It never made the green. And that was that. I’m sure most Americans who watched this Monday afternoon drama sat in stunned silence. Color commentator and former PGA professional, Johnny Miller, in a tone of despair said it perfectly, “We’ve all been there.”
Yes, we’ve all been there. We chunked our chips, probably more times than we care to remember. But we’re not part of the golfing elite. We’ll never be selected to play in a Ryder cup. How can this gifted professional golfer chip like a weekend duffer? Had he struck the ball solidly he would have had a chance, slim I’ll grant, but a chance to chip it in none the less. He’s probably holed thousands of chips in the past, some in do-or-die situations. So how could this extremely gifted golfer fail so miserably to execute a simple chip? Pressure!

You don’t have to be playing in front of thousands of on-course observers and millions more world-wide via television and the Internet to succumb to pressure. Pressure affects all of us at some time or other even if we’re playing in our weekly foursomes for a quarter a hole or just for fun. Golf is an achievement activity and any time an outcome in an achievement situation is important and uncertain we experience pressure to succeed; the more important and uncertain the outcome the greater the pressure. Because we have failed in the past where the outcome is deemed important and uncertain, the pressure to succeed creates fear of failure. Fear creates stress and stress triggers our fight-or-flight reflex.
No matter how physically skilled we may be or confident about our ability to succeed, any self-doubt, no matter how slight and fleeting creates fear, even if it goes unnoticed, and the downward cycle of stress, fight-or-flight, and the potential for failure ensues. Do you think Hunter Mahan had any thoughts that he might not hole that chip? I would bet that he knew his chances were slim even if he executed the shot perfectly. Do you think that he experienced any self-doubt? I would dare say he had plenty, even if he didn’t realize it on a conscious level.
Could he have done something about it, to at least give himself a fighting chance? Absolutely! Did he? I’m not sure, but if he did, whatever he did, didn’t work. However, most golfers are so concerned about what they have to do and worried about failure or making mistakes that they don’t recognize the signs that indicate a stress reaction. That’s been my experience with most of the golfers I’ve worked with. When I ask them about what they experience when they get stressed out, they say that they don’t know. So my suspicion is that he was too busy worried about what he had to do and the miracle it would take that he forgot to take the necessary steps to reverse the stress reaction and stop the fight-or-flight reflex.

Part two will be posted on Thursday…

photo credit: eschipul