I bet if you count up your score at the end of any given round, you’ll find that you’ve easily thrown a half dozen shots away. Come on, be honest with yourself.

Here’s how it might go. Maybe you had first tee jitters but we won’t count that. But we will count what happens on the next 17 holes.

When I say, “wasted shots,” I’m not talking about those impossible lies, when your golf skills are not enough.I’m talking about what happens to you when things don’t go your way -- when you stop focusing, stop caring and lose your commitment to each shot.

Sure it’s tough when all of a sudden you can’t hit a decent drive or your irons are undependable. But why waste the next shot because you’re upset? For those of you who work my program, you have techniques to get you back on track. But do you remember to use them? Dust off my CD program and start listening again!

What’s most important is to keep breathing. Breathe away that mental tension. And breathe away the tension that can lock up your muscles. Just paying attention to your breathing will keep you focused. It means you’re still in the game -- that you care. Then when you step into your pre-shot routine for the next shot, your commitment will be there. You’ll breathe deeply as you hypnotize yourself to your target -- to the smallest possible point of that target. Not just a green but a sector of that green. Not just the hole but a blade of grass behind the hole.

Yes, you might have a few shots in a row that aren’t good. These bogies and double bogies happen to everyone. But why throw the round away? Why waste those next precious shots? Let go of the past. Stay focused on each subsequent shot as if it’s a whole new game. Breathe deeply. It will release your tension AND that great golfer inside you.

A positive attitude -- breathing away negative thoughts and staying present -- will make each shot an exciting opportunity for greatness. Stay open to possibility, and you’ll never waste another shot again.

Grab a 3-iron and get ready to play

We all understand the importance of warming up the body before a round of golf, but the lack of time stops most golfers from preparing the body. In recent articles I have offered flexibility programs for the locker room and utilizing the golf cart. This week I offer a short series of exercises, five minutes in total, using the club as for balance and resistance. Your fitness / flexibility level will determine the level of intensity. All the exercises are perfect for senior golfers, the inflexible golfer and the fit golfer. A little preparation will reap big results!

Side stretch:

Twisting with the club:

Down Dog with the club:

This pose stretches the shoulders, low back, hamstrings and Achilles. Place the feet four feet apart and the club approximately three feet in front of you. Walk the feet backwards, bringing the body to a 90 degree angle to the legs. Relax the neck. Inhale, draw the navel towards the spine and return to the starting position. Exhale, move into the pose. Repeat this dynamic stretch five times and then hold the pose for twenty seconds.

Standing forward fold with the club:

This pose targets the hamstrings, Achilles and core abdominals. Place the right foot approximately four feet on front of the left. Turn the left foot inward at a 45 degree angle. “Pull” the right hip back so the hips face forward. Inhale, draw the navel towards the spine and flex the quads. Exhale and hinge at the hips. Repeat five times and then hold the pose for twenty seconds.

Five minutes on the practice tee will pay big dividends on the first tee. These stretches work well on the golf course, but will help you maintain flexibility if practiced in the living room five days a week.

You can reach Katherine at her website,
www.KRTotalFitness.com
Email her here
Tel: 888-313-YOGA (9642)
Fax: 480-513-7129

Just as some practice greens have smaller holes to sharpen your accuracy, this exercise will amaze you at how BIG the hole actually is. Ask a friend to place a tennis ball 3 inches from a hole. Putt it in. Repeat several times while friend retrieves the ball from the hole for you.

Now have the friend place the ball 6 inches from the hole. Putt it in several times. Now go to 9 inches. Putt from each distance at least 5 to 10 times. Very simple.

 

Obviously the hole has never changed, but it can always be as big as it looks to you right now if you practice this exercise. Less putts ALWAYS mean lower scores. Have some fun with it.

If you swing something -- like a weight on the end of a string, or a pendulum, or a golf club -- and you leave it alone and do not interfere with it in any way, that object always returns exactly where it started. Always.

Be we are human beings, and apparently we find an extraordinary number of ways of interfering with the club's motion, especially when there is a golf ball in front of us! I've observed thousands of golfers who have beautiful, rhythmical, effortless motions , but it's always their practice swing! Put a golf ball in front of them and they "morph" into someone entirely different. Why is this? What meaning does that ball have for people that it seems to change everything they do?

Swinging a golf club correctly and effortlessly is not a difficult thing to do. Some of the finest golf swings you will ever see are those of three, four, and five year old kids. How tough can this be to do if a four year old can learn to do it in a matter of minutes? What's going on here with adults?

The answer is a simple one. Children learn through distinctions and through awareness. Adults attempt to learn by "thinking about it" and trying to "do it right." No human being has ever learned a physical skill by accumulating more information about it. It's the physical awareness, the physical distinctions, that allow us to learn, and thinking during the action prevents this awareness. With golf in particular, we are making learning way too complicated, and we are not having the fun that we intended when we took up the game. Just set the club in motion and be aware of it as it is swinging, and you will find that something magical often takes place.

David A. Williams
Author of the golf instructional video, "Golf - If you don't know…You can't do it!" and "The Master Golf Swing Program."
Teaching Professional since 1973
PGA member since 1984
602-952-9419 or 1-800-653-6929

* There is one teacher of golf whose understanding and wisdom far exceeds anyone I have ever met. His name is Manuel de la Torre, and it was through him that I became familiar with the principles of swinging a golf club originally taught by the late British golf professional Ernest Jones, author of the legendary book, "Swing the Clubhead". I have also been influenced greatly by Fred Shoemaker of "Extraordinary Golf," whose brilliance in the fields of golf instruction and human learning is truly remarkable.

Many golfers have written to me about the exciting improvement in their game! I never tire of these stories, so please keep sending them! They help me better understand how to fine-tune my program.

I'm a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist with offices here in Scottsdale, Arizona. You can call me at 480-483-6941 or you can email me here or from my website, www.OwnTheZoneGolf.com.