Tom Dyer is from Melrose, MA and was introduced to golf through caddying at an early age.  He was 3-Time All American at Salem State and made it to the 1987 final sixteen in the U.S. Amateur.  Some of his professional achievements include winning the S.E. Florida Assistant Professional Championship and qualifying for two PGA Tour events in 1995.  In 2005 he was awarded Southeast Chapter PGA Teacher of the year.


Taking Your Game from the Range to the Course

 

If you warm up by hitting practice balls prior to your round you have inevitably experienced days where you warm up poorly and play great or hit the ball really well warming up and then play awful.  What makes it so difficult to get ones range swing to the golf course?  The answer lies in how we practice and prepare to play.  All major sports are practiced on their field, court or rink.  Golf is the only game you go to a hitting range away from the real field of play to warm up and practice.  How one utilizes the practice area will determine how well their game travels to the course. 

 

There is no question that all players need to spend some portion of practice time working on their swing technique. Beginners need more, advanced players less.  The key is, this type of practice should not occur prior to play.  Pre round warm up for peak performance should focus on balance, tempo-timing and tension reduction. 

 

Ones best golf is most certainly not played with a voice in your head reciting various swing techniques that must be executed to insure a good shot.  Playing golf at your best must be done in an athletic zone with a quiet, positively charged mind.  Golfers experiencing peak performance typically experience one or two of the following:

  • They have a feel/sensation of their swing.
  • A vision of their swing or ball flight.
  • They key in on the sound of their swing or the sound of pure contact.
  • A relaxed and engaged feeling – like a little kid with opportunity to hit a ball at a target with no consequences.

 

How does one learn to have a quiet positive frame of mind and a sense of how to hit their best shots?  You guessed it – through practice.  Below is a list of a few things all players should practice to insure more good shots and lower scores. 

 

  1. Practice varying your swing speed to identify your optimum speed for pure contact and accuracy.  Most great players have a sense of swinging below their maximum speed for their most consistent accuracy and solidity of the hit.  To identify your best speed practice shots using what you sense as 40 percent of your fastest swing, 60 percent of your fastest swing, 80% and 100%.  Identify what speed produces the best results.
  2. Practice balance.  Strike shots with your feet together and then progress to hitting on your right foot only and left foot only.  To stay in balance one must swing at a pace below your maximum speed.  Training a stable base and good balance will not only help to identify proper tempo but also prepare you for maintaining balance on the different sloping lies the course frequently presents.
  3. Warm up and practice playing golf.  Hit one ball with one club to a specific target.  Then on the next ball, change the target and the club.  Never hit ten balls with the same club to the same target – that’s not how golf is played.

 

  1. Rehearse tying some positive emotion to all acceptable shots. Strive to attach no emotion to poor outcomes.  Anchoring good shots can be as pronounced as a Tiger Woods fist pump or club twirl. Anchoring can also be subtle and invisible like an inward smile.  Train your brain to remember the good so those memories can be called on again and again in all like situations in the future.  How do you reduce your heart rate or stress level when faced with a difficult shot?  Have some recall of successfully playing a similar shot in the past.  All golfers who took up the game at a young age dreaming and rehearsing hitting a great shot to win a big tournament. If positive emotions are tied to successful shots hit in a practice situation and then you recall that positive feeling prior to playing a shot in a real situation, you increase your chances of pulling off a successful shot tenfold!!! It is no mystery the greatest golfer of all time Jack Nicklaus has minimal recall of his poor shots but can vividly describe in detail numerous great shots he has played during his career.

 

In summary, use the majority of warm up time to rehearse (as well as a portion of each practice session) the skills described and your scores will go down and enjoyment will greatly increase!!!