2014 Winter Improvement Plan

The rainy season has landed on the Pacific Northwest with a vengeance. The last good day to play golf was a week ago. We’ll have a few good days here and there, but if you’re in a rainy climate, too, spend your golfing getting better for next year.

Here is a practice program for winter of 2014-5.

Swing. Learn to hit the ball straight. All good golf depends on this. My Six Fundamentals show you how to do that.

Chipping. If your ball is three feet off the green and the pin is 30 feet away, do you routinely leave the chip tap-in close? There’s no reason you can’t learn to.

This is the easiest shot in the game and expectations are so low. You don’t have to get the ball in the hole, just close to it.

I’m serious about this now, get a lesson and have the pro teach you the shot from start to finish. I did a few years ago. I was a pretty good chipper, but I told the pro, “Pretend I’ve never chipped before. Teach me how to do it.”

What he showed me was entirely different than what I had been doing, and much more effective. It will be for you, too.

Pitching. If you’re from 30 to 90 yards from the green, can you guarantee getting the ball on with one shot? You might be surprised, if you counted, how many strokes you lose if you can’t guarantee that simple result.

This winter, when you’re at the range, buy two buckets. One is for your full swing, the other is for pitching. Only for pitching. Learn the shot, calibrate your wedges to hit the ball to pre-determined distances. Pitch every time you visit the range.

Do not take this shot for granted. When you get up and down from 60 yards, you’ll thank me.

Trouble shots. Learn how to hit the ball off uneven lies. I have YouTube videos on all of them.

Learn how to hit the ball low, and how to hit it high. Learn how to draw the ball, and fade it, intentionally. Learn how to hit out or rough.

I’ll be making videos of those skills come the first sunny day. Once you have the idea, they don’t take much practice at all.

Putting. Learn to make 3-foot putts by doing the circle drill. Go all around the hole hitting 3-footers, the length of your putter. Take ten putts to get around the circle.

Memorize the feel of hitting a 30-foot putt. Learn how to adjust for an uphill putt and a downhill putt. Do this every time you visit the range.

Then go play putting games that you make up. I won’t tell you what mine are. Have your own fun on the practice green, and stay on it putting for at least twenty minutes.

Thinking. All those skills won’t help you as much as they could if you can’t use them effectively on the course. That comes down to your state of mind when you’re hitting the ball. My book, The Golfing Self, shows you how to make sure you are mentally ready for every shot.

You spend lots of time training your body, why not train your mind as well?