gacesq

Why is it that I hit Mickleson like shots in the backyard but I pick my head up, skull, blade and chunk all my chips and pitches on the course? I'm desparate here. I have no confidence now and dread any shot around the green. Any ideas? or should I save the money and quit......

Your back yard is very different the the course. You have to hit the perfect shot on the course with no room for error...hitting the exact club to the correct spot. In your backyard, I am sure you give yourself a lot of room for "success". This relieves all the pressure on your self. I would be willing to bet that if you put a big bucket 20 yards away and you gave yourself 1 shot to have to hit it in, that you would make it 5% of the time...so it is really all about acceptable ranges of errors and consequences for failure.

What you are doing on the course is more of a mind game then anything. You probably have the techniques ok, but the execution and the fear of failure is right there in your mind and that freezes you. The tricks to learning how to remove that fear and play without worry of failure...lies in your ability to practice successfully under those same types of pressures. If you can't do it in practice, then you are probably not going to do it when it is for real.

I do point value games in practice. I constantly evaluate and test my abilities in practice. So doing things like what I have here on my site should be a good start. You will know what ranges and values will challenge you appropriately. Hope this keeps you going and not to give up yet.

http://mysite.verizon.net/gregjwillis/Competition.htm

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I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino