Hi Robin,

In my opinion there are three types of golfer:

1) Scratch to 12 h/capp...........he/she is only off 12 due to work commitment, hence no time to improve or would be lower.

2) 12 - 18 he/she is getting there now, reasonable mechanics, usual short game failer and a few duffs per round.

3) 18 - 28 sometimes not always built for golf, not had lessons and sometimes just casual golfers or complete novices.


Ask yourself to put in order who gets more nervous in front of the starter? My answer:3,2,1........why, ability plays a major part in confidence, if you are in section one you are probably better than the starter anyway, hence more confidence, more confidence equals straight forward thinking, you know you are going to nail it. If you in 2, then you are not entirely comfortable with the shot coming up but you are confident if you do happen to catch the odd duffer like you do every week then you are confident you can laugh it off with "well first shot of the day" quitely thinking to yourself my next shot is usally a good one..........this is why he falls into cat 2. Number 3 guy is a bag of nerves or just doesn't give a monkies what happens, the starter has nothing to do with it, he doesn't hit enough good shots, so the law of averages is against him.

I assume you want to fall in to cat1, first of all as mentioned you ability needs to be at a level where you are comfortable with yourself, no-one is entirely comfortable with their ability not even Tiger......!!!
If you can nail 8 shots out of every ten you hit and at least catch the other two slightly thin or fat your there. All you need to do is give yourself the best chance to play better: This is done by directing you focus on the following:

Get to your ball and focus on the lie first, where the target is, distance, wind direction, can you play short and run up to the green, do you need to go for the pin, is there a safer side of the green...........once you have in your mind what you going to do don't change your mind.....................next set-up get everything perfect......as you stand behind the ball in your pre-shot look where to line your feet up not just the club, are you looking to fade the ball in a bit.....set up will give you the best chance of making a good swing.

On my course we have a loop of three holes from 15 which is by the clubhouse then we set off in a loop....16 par 5 and two par 4s the last being SI 3......I sometimes practice these three holes in summer at night, instead of doing the front 9, I start on 16 and play them three first, if no-one is there when I get to 18 I go again....................the reson for this is I used to blow up on the last few holes, I have been 2 over par on the 16th and finished with bogeys..........unfortunately this comes with experiance and no-one can tell you how to finish a round off..........it's like the imaginary drive you have over the trees for years you can't get over, then after more lessons and a new driver you catch one out of the middle and it just clears, next week you do it again, then all over sudden it's easy, like reaching a par 5 in two, once you get over the "I can never just hit a good three wood after a good driver" once you get up there you over the hurdle.........

The answer: Just focus on what you and I are capable of: setting up properly after we know all the information, switch off and let it go.

Hope this helps

Ian.

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Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................