The basic purpose of a golf lesson to anyone other than a new golfer has two elements. The main one is to diagnose the setup and swing problems. The second is often overlooked but is the ultimate purpose of the lesson: know how the student is playing. Knowing what is happening on the course gives great clues to setup and swing issues. It also gives good insight to the student's playing ability. This is important because swinging and playing, although intertwined, are two different things.
The more serious students are about playing well, shooting low scores and doing it consistently, what happens on the course becomes more important. Their stats and knowing what they feel is good, mediocre and bad is critically important information for their swing lesson.
I gave a lesson to K, my 12 year old lefty student who I have been teaching for over 6 years. K knows all the terms and points of the swing, so all our swing lessons are basically tightening up, fine tuning his Technical Excellence (TE) in his setup and swing. Like DJ and all my long time students, even me teaching myself, 'TE is the key.' Fine tuning TE on a golfer is as critical as race car mechanics checking their race car after every time it goes out on the track. Fine tuning TE is the Key because in the PPGS, our main mantra is, 'The setup determines the motion.' We can't have the swing we want if we are not setup properly for the swing to happen.
K is playing a good schedule of junior golf tournaments on the local, regional and national levels. Playing well, scoring well and winning are important to him. He had just returned from playing in a national level event in Pinehurst. So the first order of business was to find out how he hit it and then get his stats and info about his playing. He hit it pretty well but scored poorly.
Along with tightening the TE and making the necessary swing adjustments caused by the TE being out of order, I always spend time with K and his Dad on discussing his stats and how he played shots in his last few tournament rounds. These discussions are critical to helping K develop into a quality player. Having a Technically Excellent setup and swing makes one a good swinger and is one serious component of being a player. The term 'player' means one is skilled at maneuvering around the course and getting the ball in the hole with minimal strokes.
The key here is the ultimate purpose, goal and reason to play golf is to score low playing the course. Not just being able to setup and swing well on the range and being a 'Range Player.' You have to be able to take your setup and swing to the course and get the ball in the hole. So K and his Dad and I spend a good amount of time discussing his shot evaluation and execution and playing strategy, especially when we do our occasional playing lessons.
This lesson, like all lessons, started with Dad and K giving me a briefing on the last couple of tournament rounds ball striking issues and fairways and greens stats. K was driving the ball well but missing many greens because of a lot of thin iron shots coming up short. At this point, K jumped in and said that although he hit a lot of thins they were good thins in that many got on the green. The problem was short game when he missed the green. He did not have a good up and down percentage.
So here we go. K already knows a big problem is that his short game is off and needs work. But the big question I asked him was how was his execution? Did he hit good pitches and chips overall or a lot of poor to bad shots? Did he feel his shot and club selection were good for the situation or after the shot, did he feel he chose the wrong shot or club for the shot? K felt that overall his execution and club selection were good, but the ball did not react as planned and should have for the execution. He was consistently coming up short and had an occasional one go way too far for the way he hit it.
I knew the answer was wet and soggy, but asked K anyway about the overall conditions of the course, especially the greens. He said wet and soggy and the temperature was on the cold side. Knowing I would ask, K came right out and said that he had rain gear and hats and gloves and worked hard at staying warm.
I started by saying that soggy greens are the most difficult to chip and pitch to as you cannot really know if the ball will bounce and roll out. You land on a fairly firm spot and get good to too much rollout. Land on a soft spongy spot and it can stop dead or barely roll out.
Thus, Rule #1 when playing soggy greens is you have to walk up on the green and walk near the line to the hole to check out the firmness or sponginess of the green. Rule #2 is to use less lofted clubs than you normally would for the shot.
Bringing the ball in on a lower trajectory reduces, as I call it, the 'Impact Penetration Factor' so the ball will roll out more. The penetration factor is greater, that is the ball going deeper into the green making a bigger and deeper ball mark, the higher the trajectory or arc of the shot. So, on wet and soggy greens we bring the ball in lower, for less penetration. In fact we are looking for it to more or less hit and skip or skid, not dig and die or stop like a brick landing.
This lower trajectory, less penetration approach works. But, like anything in golf, shots coming off exactly as planned, is not a sure guarantee even with perfect execution. This now takes us to the after shot evaluation stage. This can be done immediately after the shot and should also be done in post round evaluations.
The first big question is simply, was it the right shot and club for the situation? Yes or No. IF No, then what was the right shot and club? And once that decision is made, it is filed away in your memory bank for future reference. If the answer is Yes, then a completely different mental approach is needed.
If yes it was the correct shot and club and good execution and the result was not what you anticipated, you did your job well. The point here that I stressed to K and his Dad is all you can do is make good assessments of the situation and conditions, choose the shot and club, and then setup and swing. If you setup and swing well and execute your decisions, AS PLANNED, you give yourself a good pat on the back and a say to yourself, 'Well done!'
What you cannot do after good execution is second guess yourself. And worse than that is never, and I mean never, beat yourself up or get angry and disgusted or depressed about it. Golf is tough enough to deal with when you make wrong or not so good decisions and/or poor to bad swings.
Golf is filled with good breaks, which are great, and bad breaks and they hurt whether the execution is bad or good. The problem with bad breaks happening on good execution is that they are harder to swallow and deal with and leave us open to disappointment and depression and then trying too hard. That is why I always tell DJ and all my students before every round F&G&P. Fairways and Greens and the P is for Patience. Patience breeds control, a level head and clear thinking.
Lastly, as regards bad breaks which can drive one to insanity on the course, especially when they happen off a good shot, is you have to accept it as part of the game. Some call it the 'rub' of the green. The best answer I ever heard about dealing with bad breaks was given by Gary Player when asked how he handles the bad breaks he said, 'A good player makes his own breaks.'
I believe what Mr. Player was saying was keep your head high, mind clear and go play smart golf.
Shortly we'll look at what I did to get K's setup back into Technical Excellence.
The Surge!