I flew down to San Antonio to play golf with some friends recently. Having spent the past few months longing for sunshine, we played as much golf as we thought reasonable. I landed on Thursday and left Sunday, and we squeezed in 5 rounds. Overall, I was happy with how my game held up. The time spent in the gym and walking has clearly paid off, as I played my best golf on Sunday.
On my fifth round, I figured out the secret to playing more consistent golf. It’s getting out to golf consistently. This realization is not particularly helpful, as I always want to play more golf. To make it actionable, we need to figure out what about playing more actual rounds has value in terms of improving my game. If we can’t get out to golf consistently, how do we extract the maximum amount of value from the rounds we do play?
Playing lots of rounds has a number of advantages you can’t get elsewhere. The range and simulators are great ways to keep your swing in shape when you can’t play, but rounds of golf offer you a variety of shots with varying lies, yardages and targets. It also offers you one opportunity to hit a shot. I haven’t found a way to replicate these conditions outside the golf course.
There is also something to be said about hitting a good shot under pressure with a good stroke. I’ve been grinding my putting, and had a 5 foot birdie putt I needed to make. I followed my routine and made the putt. That feeling is going to stick with me a lot longer than any of the practice I’ve done on the putting green.
I made a good stroke because of the practice I had done, but that work was cemented by hitting a good putt using the mechanics I’ve been trying to implement. The course is the place where I convert practice into reality.
Accepting that my rounds are where I convert practice to improvement forces me to change my perspective on a “normal” round of golf. I’ve been contemplating how to approach non-competitive rounds, wondering when I should “practice” and when I should try to score. If I lean in to the concept of rounds being a proving ground for what I have been practicing.
Of course, this requires that I remain focused on the course. Try my best to implement what I’ve been working on. Most importantly, when my game is off, I fight hard to get it back on track. Basically continually build the grind mentality. There was a recent Practical Golf podcast where Jared Tendler talked about the importance of making your C game work until your game was back online.
The conclusion from all of this is if I want to play better golf and only have a limited number of full rounds that I can play in a given month, I need to take them seriously for 18 holes and work on hitting the best possible shot as much as I can. This has the added benefit of forcing me to practice my focus, but really, I have around 80 opportunities a round to implement my practice, I need to take full advantage of each one.
There is a certain amount of challenge here, as golf remains a hobby for me. I am supposed to be enjoying it, and forcing myself to focus can be a challenge. That said, I hate playing mediocre golf. Unfocused rounds where I casually hit the ball aren’t particularly enjoyable to me either. I’d rather fall on the side of focusing too much, instead of too many casual rounds. I simply don’t play enough golf right now for my rounds to not be productive.
Of course, I will not be perfect in this endeavor, but I can continually strive to be better. To find the swing that works when my game goes off the rails. To figure out how to scrape together a scrambling par or save a mediocre bogey. All that work will hopefully coalesce into long term success on the golf course.
My goal is always to play as much golf as I can. To play so much I take a day off because I’ve played too much golf. I have plenty of other demands on my time, so this is not often possible. The reality is, if I want to play my best golf, I need to make sure the majority of my rounds are pushing me towards my goal. The scores matter less than the attitude. I need to be constantly working to perform under pressure, and the golf course is the only place I have found that forces me to do so.
Overall, it’s a good goal for me this year. To see each round as an opportunity to convert theory into reality and bring my swing to the course. A bad score is not a failure if I am focused on implementing my practice and figuring out the flaws in my approach. Whether or not I can fully embrace this mindset during a round is the biggest challenge!