Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
If I said to you there was a way to get better at golf just by thinking differently and doing things differently rather than physically changing your swing most people would be interested in that concept. Because I think as golfers will try to improve or try to improve the fastest way possible and now and you know if we can find a shortcut to doing that then that's more the better isn't it. So I think one way you could change your approach to playing and hopefully improve your score would be to think a little bit more about the process of what you're having to do on the golf course rather than the outcome of what's happening. So process versus outcome so works on the principle that when you're hitting a shot you need to be thinking about the swing that you're making and how your behaving rather than where the ball might go you know if you stood on the sixteenth tee at Augusta par three over water sixteen you could stand there in and scare yourself silly that there's water over here there's a bunker over here the trees over here I've got to hit the ball over there and there's lots and lots to go on that hole in the outcome of that hole. Is not an easy shot necessarily but if I said to you just take a seven iron and use it straight the middle of the green then maybe the the process of that is easier to consider than the outcome of the actual shot. So tip a seven iron lined it up nicely make a smooth swing or lock the outcome is pretty good because I was focused on the process. So I think more process think less outcome or the considerations might be that if you played an entire round of golf playing it perfectly safely every decision every fifty fifty.
Should I go for the corner or should I play to the middle of the fairway should I go over the pond or should I lay up if you took every decision on the safe side on the cautious side you can almost guarantee your scores will improve I'm not necessarily not necessarily suggesting the game wouldn't be less exciting I'm sure would be pretty boring but your scores would probably come down because you're playing it safe. The other consideration to improving your scores without really changing what you're doing or practicing any differently would be to understand your stats. So track your stats and then read your stats to understand what's going on. So stats could be things like how many fairways you're hitting. How far are you hitting? How many greens in regulation how many bunker shots how many putts how many bogeys how many birdies? So all these different stats can help you understand what's actually going on in your game and that should then give you an idea of what you can spend your focused practice time on because if you're driving ninety percent down the middle of the fairway and then you go to the driving range and spend time driving you might consider you've wasted time because if you're taking forty puts in around forty puts is a problem missing one fairway out of ten is not a problem. So use your stats to understand how best to use your practice time to play it safe when you're playing and think more about the process less about the outcome and I think that's three ways to help you improve your golf without actually changing what you do.
2018-09-10 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
If I said to you there was a way to get better at golf just by thinking differently and doing things differently rather than physically changing your swing most people would be interested in that concept. Because I think as golfers will try to improve or try to improve the fastest way possible and now and you know if we can find a shortcut to doing that then that's more the better isn't it. So I think one way you could change your approach to playing and hopefully improve your score would be to think a little bit more about the process of what you're having to do on the golf course rather than the outcome of what's happening. So process versus outcome so works on the principle that when you're hitting a shot you need to be thinking about the swing that you're making and how your behaving rather than where the ball might go you know if you stood on the sixteenth tee at Augusta par three over water sixteen you could stand there in and scare yourself silly that there's water over here there's a bunker over here the trees over here I've got to hit the ball over there and there's lots and lots to go on that hole in the outcome of that hole. Is not an easy shot necessarily but if I said to you just take a seven iron and use it straight the middle of the green then maybe the the process of that is easier to consider than the outcome of the actual shot. So tip a seven iron lined it up nicely make a smooth swing or lock the outcome is pretty good because I was focused on the process. So I think more process think less outcome or the considerations might be that if you played an entire round of golf playing it perfectly safely every decision every fifty fifty.
Should I go for the corner or should I play to the middle of the fairway should I go over the pond or should I lay up if you took every decision on the safe side on the cautious side you can almost guarantee your scores will improve I'm not necessarily not necessarily suggesting the game wouldn't be less exciting I'm sure would be pretty boring but your scores would probably come down because you're playing it safe. The other consideration to improving your scores without really changing what you're doing or practicing any differently would be to understand your stats. So track your stats and then read your stats to understand what's going on. So stats could be things like how many fairways you're hitting. How far are you hitting? How many greens in regulation how many bunker shots how many putts how many bogeys how many birdies? So all these different stats can help you understand what's actually going on in your game and that should then give you an idea of what you can spend your focused practice time on because if you're driving ninety percent down the middle of the fairway and then you go to the driving range and spend time driving you might consider you've wasted time because if you're taking forty puts in around forty puts is a problem missing one fairway out of ten is not a problem. So use your stats to understand how best to use your practice time to play it safe when you're playing and think more about the process less about the outcome and I think that's three ways to help you improve your golf without actually changing what you do.
