Creditable Golf habits...

Self Talk and Bogey Golf

Habit ‘Five’

Silence the Conscious Critic

When it comes to creating sound golf habits, this is a biggie. Using affirmations as opposed to criticism is the key. We spend a lot of time criticising many of our shots before, during and after their execution.

We see our ball in the bunker and think, “I never make sand saves when it counts”. Or the ball lies on the fringe about 40 feet from the pin and we anticipate a 3-putt by telling ourselves, “The way I’m putting today, I better get this close.”

Then there’s the usual, ”Let me find the fairway for once with my damn driver” or “I always top my 3-wood from a tight lie” and “I can’t find a green today.”

Now, lets start using some good golf habits and turn some of these into affirmations.

When I can get myself into this way of thinking, my ball seems to float out of the bunker and land much softer than usual. My attitude towards the remaining putt is always more positive as I feel I have carried out the shot with more commitment.

“If there’s one part of my game that I enjoy and can rely on, it’s my touch around the green.”

I stay in the present and consider that this shot has much more to do with self belief as skill. It's the only part of the game where age, fitness and power play no part. It is enhanced awareness and concentration that play the biggest role here.

“I love my driver, it is fun to hit and I always feel a buzz when I pull it out of the bag.”

I do feel a buzz when I take my driver out of my bag because if it was not in there I would yearn for it on those longer tee shots.

I have learned to use affirmations or to drop into a silent mode when I am unable to make one with any true conviction. Most of the time my affirmations are quite simple and not essentially golf related. For example:

I feel healthy and fit today.
My mind and body are performing as one and there is great trust and rhythm between them.
I am going to enjoy my time with my playing partners today and endeavour to make their day just as enjoyable.

There is a great article I once read and it backs up what I think are great golf habits. It stressed this point,

It does not matter if your ensuing round is important or not, always try to be the player in your group with the best attitude. Better still imagine there is a special trophy for the best attitude in the entire field of players and you want to make sure your group put you forward for it.

"And today's winner of the 'Best Attitude Cup' is once again...

Patrick McHugh

And guess what everyone he also won todays' scratch prize with a fantastic..."

Yes, that's right, in this frame of mind affirmations just flow and when they do we often play much better.

Go on, try this but don't give up after a few bad shots, just re-affirm until it becomes second nature to do so.

Habit ‘six’

Play bogey golf until you are breaking 80 regularly.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, bogey golf is a much easier game and played properly you will widen your scope of interest, which improves concentration, focus and attitude.

I would go as far as to say that every course should be tackled as level 5's until your handicap gets down to at least -4 or -5 and even then I wouldn't jump to normal par.

With the present handicap system, most people's handicaps are on average between 5-10 shots worse than their allowance. It has to be as they are rewarded with 2,3,4 or even 5 times '0.1' depending on how much under their handicap they play.

However, no matter how bad they play the penalty is only one single '0.1'. You all know the Mathematics and are aware that during the season if we manage to beat our handicap on 10% of our rounds, not outside the normal golf habits, then its been a successful season.

The second reason to play bogey golf is because the word 'par' translates to 'professional average result' and although we all strive to reach the lowest score possible, I don't think most of us would expect to be put into this category.

I play off scratch but always allow myself the priveledge of playing bogie golf on the four longest par fours. I adopted this long ago in my amateur days as one of my first improved golf habits. This gives me 8 or 9 holes which are now par 5's and I regard each and every one of them as good birdie opportunities.

A low handicapper should do this and should play bogey golf on selected par 3's for every number over scratch. For example,
a 5 handicapper would have 9 par 5's and 9 par 4's and a 14 handicapper 18 par 5's. For the even higher handicappers, the long par 4's and par 5's would be changed to 6's and so on.

I do hear a few 14 handicappers laughing at the very thought of calling a 3 on a short hole an eagle but that is how I do it with 'Leela' and it works well. She has been working on this as one of her latest improved golf habits. The first nine holes on our course are tough with two par 3's, four long par 4's and three par 5's.

With bogey golf she often comes in with around 43-45 and has this down as 2 under to level par when I ask. She heads into the easier nine holes with the same tactics and there's a great knock-on effect and she often plays 2 to 4 under for them.

Now how many of you 14 handicappers out there regularly break 90 on a par 72. Well play this game with improved golf habits, e.g. bogey golf and you will be achieving it more often. By the way, hold on to your plus-fours because you may be quite surprised how low you can really go!

For the higher handicappers, don't forget to change the par 3's to 5's before adjusting the par 5's. It is just easier to count this way and the bonus of improving you score to par by two shots on the par 3's makes for a better attitude.

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