August Tip-of-the-Month

It's late summer and by now you've devoted most of the summer to practice, and tournament golf.  Maybe you've had a few lessons, maybe not, at any rate you should be on top of your game.  The fact is: some of you are, and some of you aren't!  I'll go as far as to say that some of you are pretty frustrated. "Why haven't my scores dropped?  I've worked hard.  What is the matter?"  I've heard all the questions before… because I've asked them!!

Let me first say... YOU'RE NORMAL!!  Golf can be a frustrating game.  Perhaps all you need to do is change your mental approach to it!  Let me give you a few ideas.

Were you as thrilled as I was to see Danny Summerhays win on the Nationwide Tour last year?  I can't begin to tell you how tough that is!  But I hope you caught his comment in the paper the next day.  It was something like this... "It really doesn't matter the tournament or the field… playing good golf is a matter of picking your targets, hitting the shots, and playing the course." 

You could make a sermon out of that advice!  It is so true!  Golf doesn't care who you are, it simply rewards good shots, well-thought out, and executed well... period!

Are you approaching your game with that kind of simplicity?  Or, are you (Like too many juniors I see) letting PERFECT stand in the way of GOOD!  Have you forgotten that golf is a game… full of good bounces and bad… putts that lip in and lip out… it is simply the nature of the beast!  The key in my view is YOUR ATTITUDE!  Do you embrace the challenge, or do you "duck and cover"?  If you love golf, you'd better learn to love ADVERSITY!  Believe me you'll have plenty of it before it's all through!

Think of the meaning of the Robert Service classic… "The Quitter"

"It's easy to die

It's easy to crayfish and crawl,

But to fight and to fight when there's no hope in sight

AH, That’s the best game of all!

And when you come out of each grueling bout all beaten, battered and scarred,

Have one more try,

It's easy to die,

It's the keepin' on livin' that's hard!"

Keep at it and keep smiling!

Mike Reid