THE MISS
Lately you have been playing by rote. Same shots, same misses, same targets, same, same, same. Your game has gone flat. Your scores are plateauing, and it is just not as much fun as it was. What’s going on?
THE CURE
Don’t worry, it’s not Low T. You are a victim of the times, caught in the rut of playing golf by the numbers and not by feel. You have lost your mojo… temporarily.
Because the game of golf has put such a tremendous onus on power and cookie cutter, torqued out swings (it is a wonder how some of the PGA Tour players manage to keep their rib cages within their thoracic cavities), sometimes the art of golf can elude the average player. This wave of robot like efficiency has all but removed some of the most fun shots to play. Unless your name is Bubba, it is nearly impossible to spin the new hard-as-rock, three-piece golf balls. Much of the fun of curving the ball has gone the way of sansabelt slacks and mustaches so many of the players wore in the 1970s. We have wedges of every flavor these days, almost one for every yardage. It has become plug-in golf. So get unplugged. Play with some feel. Get some golf balls you can compress and spin a little easier, and play a round from the next tee set forward. See each hole as your palette. Paint you shots with a little pizzazz. Carve a cutter into the right side of the fairway. Play one back in your stance a bit and hit a low bullet. Hit some half shots. Chip a dead hands 6 iron into the wind from 120. Choke down and hit a pitching wedge from 65. Yeah, you get a charge out of blasting one. Who doesn’t? Chicks still dig the long ball, but playing with your foot to the floor all the time can become a bore. The real fun of the game is in the creativity it engenders. Give into it and enjoy yourself.
MAKING IT STICK
Play nine holes with just your driver, seven iron, wedge and putter. Completing this exercise will require a lot of creativity. Because you will have so few options, you will be forced to manufacture shots you normally wouldn’t. You will start to understand through necessity how to hit a low boring shot with a seven iron, or a high soft one. You will have to hit a wedge third shot to some of the longer par 4’s. You will hit half and three-quarter shots and start to bring some feel back into your game. Playing with limited equipment will take the limits off your imagination. And don’t be surprised if your score is as good as or better than usual. Seve only had a three iron when he was a kid. He grew up with a little creativity, doncha think?
Register for world class online golf instruction with PGA Master Professional Paul Rudeen featuring sportscaster Heidi Watney at PaulRudeen.com
