As we get into the dog days of summer and the heart of the golf season I hear from many avid golfers that they seem to have hit a wall or feel their game as well as desire getting stale. I thought this might be a great time to break away from the theoretical and present some practical ideas that you can incorporate immediately into your practice time to renew the spark we all feel each spring and break through that wall. It’s a great time to remember to turn frustration into fascination. After all it is a game! The great and ageless baseball pitcher and philosopher, Leroy “Satchel” Paige had the right attitude, “Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt and dance like nobody’s watching.” To those great words of wisdom I’d like to add, swing like you’ve never missed.
Over the past several years I’ve had the good fortune to be contracted by TaylorMade Golf to travel throughout New England and help golfers of all levels find the right equipment to help both their game and enjoyment of same. This year alone, I did more than forty such events. Amazingly, not once did anyone tell me they struggle because they hit the ball too far! Everyone, it seems, perceives that they would be much better off if they could just hit the ball another ten yards.
If you have been paying attention to this column since its inception, I continually promote the premise that performance equals potential minus interference. Craving an additional ten yards is indeed not the magic bullet. In fact in most cases it’s “looking for game in all the wrong places!” It only serves to create interference obscuring where we really should be focusing.
Dr. Bob Rotella has a very interesting exercise that he uses with college golfers. If indeed you fall into the “if only another 10 yards” category mentioned above, I suggest you try it. Here’s your chance to be the “king (or queen) of swing” for a round. On each par 4, you get to place your drive in the middle of the fairway 15 yards ahead of where you normally hit it. On the par 5s place your ball, lying 2, inside of 100 yards at your favorite distance for hitting a wedge. The par 3s, tee up at the distance you hit your 8 iron. Let me know how you do. Dr. Bob reports that under these “perfect drive every time” conditions even the best college players struggle to break par. News flash, the most important shots in golf at any level take place inside of 120 yards! The purpose of the drive is to get the ball in play.  
The lesson to be learned here is to focus on opportunity. You will lower your scores much faster by spending ninety percent of your practice time pitching, chipping and putting. To keep it fun, turn your practice sessions into a game. See how many chips in a row you can land on your golf towel. Instead of practicing your putting, practice making putts. Place balls around the hole a foot away and watch them all go in. Now do the same thing from 2 feet and then 3 feet. Get used to seeing yourself sink putts. A variation of this exercise can be done at home by putting the ball over a dime. By the time you stand over your next “pressure 3 footer” the hole will look like a crater!
Another fun game to play is “Worst Ball.” This can be played alone but it’s even more fun with 2 people. Each player hits 2 drives and chooses the worst one and picks up the better one. From the location of your “worst” one, hit two more shots. Again choose your “worst” one picking up the other and playing 2 shots from that location. Keep this up, including putting, until each of you holes out your “worst” one. A great goal for the scratch golfer in this game is to break 40 for 9 holes. Whatever your 18 hole handicap is, cut it in half and add 5 for nine holes. See how well you do. Don’t get discouraged, keep it fun.
The benefits of Worst Ball are plentiful. You will learn to stay in the moment over each shot because if you happen to hit a good recovery shot you’ll be forced to repeat it or abandon it and play the less desirable one. Also you will really have to tap into your creative side to pull off some of these recovery shots. Mark Twain said it best when he said “you can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” After a few rounds of “Worst Ball,” you’ll find yourself playing “regular” golf with a new found sense of confidence and creativity.   
Lighten up and have fun. Be your own best friend out there. Eliminate negative self talk. Catch yourself doing something good. And hey… swing like you’ve never missed!


Mr. Molden is a nationally recognized Performance Consultant / Sports Behaviorist and pioneer in the science and application of Psycho-ergonomics in both sport and business. He’s worked with, coached and interviewed hundreds of elite athletes, PGA Tour stars, top collegiate golfers, entertainers, high-profile business people and entrepreneurs. He invites your comments and questions. Please send them to Rich@Wired4Winning.com