Originally Posted by LowPost42

Copied from my GTO journal...

I just completed the first 9 holes of the season. The course opened today, so naturally I had to play.

I shot horribly. 67 with 7 penalty strokes and 20 putts (no 4 jacks, though, and the greens were quite shaggy).

However, the lessons learned today were profound.

Lesson 1: I tried to employ the idea of a 'think box' and a 'play box'. Standing behind the ball is the think box - where all the considering and thinking happens. Practice swings and feels happen here. Standing beside the ball (address) is the play box - no thinking allowed!

Lesson 2: Visualizing the shot is important. Very important. When I didn't have a clear idea in my mind what my shot should look like, I didn't hit the ball very well.

Lesson 3: A specific target is important, too. The same result from not visualising came from not having a specific target to aim at. The ball just went willy-nilly, and I had nowhere to aim.

Lesson 4: YOU CANNOT HIT A BALL WHILE THINKING MECHANICS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every time I tried to hit a ball while trying to conciously widen my backswing or not roll my wrists or try to set my hands properly resulted in horrible contact. This goes hand in hand with...

Lesson 5: Being in balance produces better swings. On every poor result, I did not feel balanced at some point in the swing. When I did feel balanced, my shots were in play.

Final lesson: A good preshot routine goes a long way to solidifying the above.