Bel
|
Home |
Driving Range & Miniature Golf |
Learning Center |Golf
Pro Shop Golf Tips Articles by Jay Perkins, PGA Professional  •ON THE GREEN• Article Six To lower score, making few bad shots more important than nailing great shot BY JAY PERKINS Many times I talk to my students about their rounds of golf to find out where improvement needs to be made and to get them to think about their rounds of golf. Inevitably, somewhere in their analysis the statement will come up that they hit the ball pretty well, however, they had two or three holes where they threw away a lot of shots. They will say something to the effect that if they could eliminate those two or three holes, they would have had a decent round. What they are describing is pretty darn accurate. Many good or great rounds of golf get ruined because on two or three holes the golfer made some bad choices about how to play a particular hole or made a judgment error on what type of shot to hit or type of club to play. In his book, Tommy Armour wrote, “It is not solely the capacity to make great shots that make champions, but the essential quality of making very few bad shots.” In the same book he said that if you watch the practice tee of any major tournament you will see many players hit a very high percentage of perfect shots with every club in the bag, however when you watch them play they will hit a lot of perfect shots, but they will make a lot of bad ones. According to Amour, this is due to faulty judgment and poor execution, the least pardonable is poor judgment. They exceeded the limit of allowable error. How true this is of all golfers, not just recreational golfers, but tour players as well. The solution, Armour says, is simple. If you apply the following rules or practical principles, you should eliminate many errors in a round of golf; play the shot you've got the greatest chance of playing well and play the shot that makes the next shot easy. What great advice for all golfers. We can all think back on our rounds and find some particular hole or shot we fell asleep on, meaning we don't know what we did or why we did it a particular way. Whatever the case may be, that lapse in judgment cost us a good round or even a great round. We all would do better if we learned our own capabilities and played within them. For some reason golfers try and hit shots that they should never be trying to hit. For whatever reason they feel that that one shot, if pulled off, will make a difference in the overall scheme of their round. In a few very rare cases it might, but if a record were kept on how many of those shots actually bettered the score, most would have done more harm than good during the round. Picking the correct club is one of the most crucial decisions for golfers. They need to feed as much information into their golf computer banks as possible before choosing a club. According to author Carl Lohren, a lot of poor shots are the result of uncertainty about club selection. The best solution lies in knowing what distance you hit each club. The best way, says Lohren, is to spend about 20 to 30 shots per club during practice sessions finding out the average distance you hit each club. You can tell this by coming up with the primary distance for each club, which is determined by where the balls are clustered. Take the middle range of the shots, not the longest or shortest, and this will give the golfer a good idea of how far he or she hits that particular club. Some other facts that are important in the shot making decision are: getting the proper yardage for the shot, consider the lie for the shot and which club will give the best result, wind conditions, terrain conditions, your own mental state of mind that particular day. All of these variables have to be considered before playing the shot. All of these factors have a great bearing on your confidence level, which ultimately has a bearing on how you approach the shot mentally and your chance of success or failure. Be creative and invent the types of lies you may encounter during a round of golf. Don't just hit every shot from perfect lies, because you definitely won't have them on the course all the time. Practice curving the ball in case you have to get out of trouble. Learn how to intentionally slice or hook the ball, if necessary. If you have any questions regarding this tip or others, please feel free to e-mail me Jay Perkins at jperkins@pga.com. I will be happy to share with you any thought or ideas I have on the swing or your game. Good luck and thanks for visiting us at www.belairgolfcenter.com. Stay balanced and have fun! Harford County resident Jay Perkins is the PGA Professional at Bel Air Golf Center in Kingsville. Read more about Jay Perkins. More articles |
Your Complete Center for Golf
Home | Driving Range & Miniature Golf | Learning Center |Golf Pro Shop
3103 Belair Road, Kingsville, Maryland 21087-1016
Route 1 just below Mountain Road
410-817-GOLF (4653) | 410-817-4107 (Fax)