Habits

UNCONSCIOUSLY we are forming habits every moment of our lives. Some are habits of a desirable nature; some are those of a most undesirable nature. Some, though not so bad in themselves, are exceedingly bad in their cumulative effects, and cause us at times much loss, much pain and anguish, while their opposites would, on the contrary, bring as much peace and joy, as well as a continually increasing power. 

Have we it within our power to determine at all times what types of habits shall take form in our lives? In other words, is habit-forming, character-building, a matter of mere chance, or have we it within our own control? We have, entirely and absolutely. "I will be what I will to be," can be said and should be said by every human soul.

There is nothing more true in connection with human life than that we grow into the likeness of those things we contemplate. Literally and scientifically and necessarily true is it that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The "is" part is his character. His character is the sum total of his habits. His habits have been formed by· his conscious acts; but every conscious act is, as we have found, preceded by a thought. And so we have it - thought on the one hand, character, life, and destiny on the other. And simple it becomes when we bear in mind that it is simply the thought of the present moment, and the next moment when it is upon us, and then the next, and so on through all time.

One can in this way attain to whatever ideals he would attain to. Two steps are necessary: first, as the days pass, to form one's ideals; and second, to follow them continually, whatever may arise, wherever they may lead him. Always remember that the great and strong character is the one who is ever ready to sacrifice the present pleasure for the future good.

So how does this relate to golf

When we golf we develop habits, good and bad, and sometimes it takes concentrated effort as well as the help of a pro in order to change bad habits to good habits.  But we have to be prepared to make the changes.  If we continually fight against what the pro is telling us, thinking we know better, we won`t play any better.  It is only when we truly believe that what they are telling us is true and we follow their instructions that we become better.

So if you want to be a great golfer (your ideal), you must work towards that every day, practicing what will get you there and eliminating those bad habits that keep you from reaching your ideal.

To your golfing success

Fran

Getting The Most From Golf Lessons

We think that a Pro would critique harshly, but they are honest, positive and very helpful.

Lessons at the local course aren’t as expensive as you might think and they are worth it because your game will improve rapidly and cause you less frustration, making the game much more enjoyable for you.   Of utmost importance, is being honest about your game. The Pro will ask you what you want to start with; driving, chipping, putting or whatever you feel you need help with.   Listen carefully and follow the instructions. You may have doubts if the Pro changes your stance, your grip or your swing; the Pro knows best.   Don’t hesitate to ask questions. Don’t worry about if the question or concern in stupid-they’ve heard it all before and will not make you feel like an idiot for asking. If you don’t "get it", tell him/her that you’re not getting it. You should never walk away from a lesson with unanswered questions.   You can concentrate on one thing during a lesson, or several. You might start with a lesson in driving; get the right grip, the right stance, the right swing, the right follow-through in one lesson, and then practice it. Next time, you might work on your short game, or putting.   You’ve invested in the equipment, doesn’t it make sense to learn how to use them to their advantage and improve your abilities?   Happy Golfing
Fran

Golfing For Seniors

8 Things To Becoming A Great Senior Golf Pro


Eight things will help make you a great senior golf player. There is attitude, concentration and focus, recovery of the game, practice, fitness, technique and foundation, balance and distance. Keep in mind that these are the foundation to becoming a seasoned golf player and will help you become as good as the pros and maybe even a pro. You need to play the game of golf with determination and stay with what works for you the best.

Your attitude about the game has to be focused on the win. Having a positive, "I can do it" attitude is the only way to succeed as a professional golf player. If you want to play the senior golf tournaments, you have to work up to it and dedicate your time to enhancing your game. Your concentration and focus, plan your shot before you even reach the tee. Never change your mind once you are over the ball. Second-guessing yourself does not make a pro golfer. When you address the ball, you already know where the ball is going and how you are going to get there without any hesitation.

Talent and recovery are what help you win the game. If you have a talent for thinking and hitting the ball right where you need it to be, you have a better chance of coming in with a scratch shot, however even the senior golf pros do have an eagle or a bogy here and there. If you do have a bad hit, you need to know how to recover from that shot and make your next play make up for the previous bad shot. This is all apart of golfing. If you have a two over par on the previous hole, try to go under par on the next hole. It is all in the recovery and the planning.

To become a senior golf pro, you need to be fit and practice. Just because you have been playing golf for years does not mean, as you get older you do not need a little more fitness in your day. You need to stay in shape and practice your game regularly. Keep in mind, you might need different equipment as you get older and this is going to require plenty of practice time with the new equipment to improve your game.

You need to learn techniques that lead to a solid foundation in your game. A senior golf pro does not stop learning and improving their techniques. You want to change as your age changes to get the same distance that you were getting before you started reaching the senior age. You are going to need your balance and your Zen for golfing to play with the pros. If you keep practicing and stay fit, you should be able to play golf well into your nineties if you wish. Most importantly, keep your distance or enhance your distance to stay in the game and compete on the same level as the rest of the senior golf players.
 
Happy Golfing
 
Fran

P.S.  Check out more tips:  http://www.tips-on-golfing.com/

Golf quotes

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Nothing goes down slower than a golf handicap.

- Bobby Nicholas

Golf is a young man's vice and an old man's penance.

- Irving Cobb

Golf is a total obsession: the chess of sports, the only sport that requires total intelligence.

- James Woods, actor

The cause of stress during a golf match, or anywhere else for that matter, is largely within yourself.

- Thomas N. Dorsel

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Trivia:

Who was the first golfer to break 70 in all 4 rounds of a golf championship?

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Serenity is knowing that your worst shot is still going to be pretty good.

- Johnny Miller

The sport isn't like any other where a player can take out all that is eating him on an opponent. In golf it's strictly you against your clubs.

- Bob Rosburg

Golf is not, on the whole, a game for realists. By its exactitudes of measurement it invites the attention of perfectionists.

- Heywood Hale Brown, writer


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Trivia:

Who was the first golfer from Great Britain to win the Masters?

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Scroll down for Trivia answers



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Trivia Answers
1. Arnold Palmer
2. Sandy Lyle, a Scot, won it in 1988


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Your Personal Golf Pro

Your Own Personal Golf Pro at Every Game

Have you ever considered what the source of your problems might have been when you just finished a poor round of golf?

Many people will be surprised to know that most of their problems stemmed from the way they were holding their clubs.

You probably already know the situation I am about to describe. You hit a bad shot and then you tell yourself that the next shot has to be better to compensate and the pressure begins to grow.

Along with the increasing pressure is a tendency to grip the clubs too hard.
Tension has a tendency to make us do that. And then along with this tight grip we have on the club goes a corresponding loss of control.

The ball starts flying in all directions, and the tension builds ever more, until you look at your knuckles and they are white from the pressure. If your clubs had to breathe you would have choked them by now.

I had a playing partner who had a simple list of instructions that he would read when his game started to fall apart and at the top of that list was 'don't strangle the clubs'

It's simple and we all know about it, but this visual reminder was all that it would take to get his game back on course and ensure that the tension wasn't there in the rest of his game.

This technique of having written guidelines was so powerful that several other people started using it. It was like having your own personal golf pro walking with you and giving you the necessary instructions when things started to go wrong.

Those words would allow him to focus on the next shot and release all the tension that would have otherwise crept into his game.

Try carrying your own list of 'game savers' around with you next time and don't hesitate to read them at the first sign your game might be falling apart.

It is an incredibly powerful technique.

Here's to keeping things under control!

Fran

Rest and Recovery

If it really made sense to "let the club do the work," you'd just say, "Driver, wedge to the green, one-putt," and walk to the next tee. Thomas Mulligan

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Rest and Recovery

Many golfers do not allow sufficient time to rest during practice. Going to the range and hitting 100 balls straight through is tiring both on the body and the mind. Fatigue diminishes our ability to learn so a lot of your practice time could just be wasted time.

Incorporating rest intervals into your practice session can give you the most out of your training time.

Before heading to the range, find a field or a large grassy area and hit 20 to 30 balls. Once you've done this, take the time to go and pick them up. This will give you a break from swinging and a period of time to recouperate mentally and physically.

If you can't leave the practice range or can't find a private grassy area, hit 20 balls at the range and rest for ten minutes.

Keeping your range balls a few steps away will give you time to process each shot in the time it takes to retrieve each ball.

Here's to resting and recovering your game!

A Balancing Act

A Balanced Approach

Golf is all about balance. You need to get the right balance on your feet, in the movement of your body, in the swing of the clubs and so on.

Balance goes further than just the body however. You need a balanced approach to the game with your mind in sync with your body. You need to only consider the one stroke that you are playing and not let other holes impact on your balance.

When we get golf lessons we're taught about the distribution of weight on our feet and the weight distribution when we swing to strike the ball.

Many of the techniques seem foreign to the beginner but it is all about training the player to find balance in their game so the actions are effortless and natural.

Our balance should flow through with the movement of the swing in one fluid action to the striking of the ball and even after the ball has been hit with a balanced follow through. It is a natural feeling that will become second nature with practice.

It is through finding balance in your mind and body that you will start hitting consistently good shots. Without this it will be very difficult to find any consistency in your game.

Once you get your upper body correctly positioned behind the ball, you will find that you are naturally placing more weight on the back foot.

Try it next time you have a practice swing. Stand balanced on your feet with no more pressure on the front of the foot than the back. Position yourself behind the ball and gently swing through without making any effort to concentrate on the distribution of the weight on you feet.

You will find that this will come naturally with no effort at all and that is precisely how you should feel when you are striking the ball.

To a more balanced life

Fran Watson
P.S. Here are some links you can check out
www.golftipsmag.com
www.golflink.com/tips/videos
www.pga.org/improve/tips/
www.pgaprofessionals.com

Hole In One

How to Get a Hole in One

I've played some excellent golfers in my time but none impressed me quite like the old guy I played with on a weekend tournament.

Soon after we started he hit a hole in one and while everyone else was impressed he didn't seem overly excited.

Assuming it was his first hole in one, we all congratulated him only to find out that he had hit many holes in one in his playing career.

"How did he do it so often" was the question everyone asked. Simple - everyone else was trying to hit his or her golf ball into a small hole and he was shooting for a bucket.

Let me explain. He always visualized the hole as the size of the bucket and having that mindset made it possible for him to get so many holes in one.

After hearing that way of thinking I immediately used the same visualization for myself that day. I didn't get any holes in one but my putting was out of this world.

Every time I got on the green I knew the ball was going to land inside that huge hole, the size of a bucket, I could see in front of me.

It's a fact that good golf is more about your mind than any other factor. Sure you have to know how to hit a golf ball correctly. You need to have a good stance and swing, but those things can be taught to anyone. If you can master your mind you will master the game of golf and that's why so many people go back to the golf course week after week. They never seem to quite master it completely and there is a challenge with every stroke.

I am still shooting for my first hole in one, but in the meantime my handicap has come down.

To a Hole In One in your future!!

Fran Watson
P.S. Here are some links you can check out
www.golftipsmag.com
www.golflink.com/tips/videos
www.pga.org/improve/tips/
www.pgaprofessionals.com

Get A Grip

Get a Grip On Your Game

More precisely the title of this should be to get the 'Right Grip' and that means get one that is specifically correct for you.

You can't expect the grip on your golf club to be the optimum size for both you and someone else with bigger or smaller hands.

How can the grip on the golf clubs of a large man be the right size for both him and that tiny old lady playing alongside him?

What is right for her will probably be too small for him and a grip that is too small will make him tend to hold the club too tight.

Instantly there will be a problem with his swing if he is holding too tight.
Just changing the grip to a bigger one can alter a game dramatically.

Your hands are your link to the golf clubs and everything that goes on below that point. Your contact point with the clubs needs to be correct if you are expected to play well.

Don't be satisfied with the grips that the manufacturers supply, as they will offer a standard size to suit the majority of buyers.

You need to go one step further and find a grip that will allow you to control the club comfortably without having to hold it so hard that your game suffers.

A slippery grip will force you to hold too tight and that is something you don't want to contend with while you are playing.
Get grips for your clubs that are not only suited in size but also in the type of materials used as this can determine how tight you will hold them.

In addition to this, you need to warm up your wrists before play to ensure they are relaxed and ready for action.

Performing a few simple warm up exercises of rolling your wrist while holding your club lightly will help to reduce the possibility of injury.

Yours for a better grip


Fran Watson
P.S. Here are some links you can check out
www.golftipsmag.com
www.golflink.com/tips/videos
www.pga.org/improve/tips/
www.pgaprofessionals.com

Retrain Your Mental Approach To The Game

Golf is like a love affair. If you don't take it seriously, it's no fun; if you do take it seriously, it breaks your heart.- Arthur Daley

Making changes to your mental approach can see you take control of your game and slash your score faster than you might imagine.

In most professional sports, psychologists are an integral part of the coaching team and golf is quite possibly the sport that can benefit from mind power more than any other.

It is more than just self-doubt and negative thought that you need to eliminate from your game.You need to focus purely on the shot you are about to play.

There should be no thoughts about the last hole or the next hole.

You shouldn't be focusing on the water hole.How many times have you hit the ball into the water knowing that the ball would never have landed there if it were grass?

It is almost as if we will it into the water sometimes.This happens when you are so focused on the water that you can't play the shot, as you should.

This can be likened to a learner driver in a car when they are having their first lessons and find that they are veering towards cars that are driving beside them simply because they are so focused on those cars rather than where they are going.

If you believe you are going to slice the ball you are bound to do so.

If that bunker is constantly on your mind you can be sure that the next shot you play will be from the sand.

You need to train yourself to play one shot at a time and only give thought to that one shot.Nothing else matters - Not what your competition is doing or what your score is at that stage of the game.

Thinking about a bad score will only make matters worse.No matter how bad the round might be there are still opportunities to make the most of the remaining holes and that's all that matters.

Yours for a better golf game

Fran Watson
P.S. Here are some links you can check out
www.golftipsmag.com
www.golflink.com/tips/videos
www.pga.org/improve/tips/
www.pgaprofessionals.com