Know your game, your shape shot, distances, strengths and weaknesses.

Aiming Utilise the tee ground to your advantage: If you draw/hook the ball – tee up on the far left of the tee and aim up the right side of the fairway. This enlarges your landing area. If you fade/slice the ball – tee up on the far right of the tee ground and aim up the left side of the fairway. This also enlarges your landing area. Trust Your Instincts My typical shot is a draw. There are however certain holes or certain courses where I cannot visualise this shape shot for various reasons such as: Wind direction Slopes Tree location. It would be foolish to try and hit the draw on this hole. Instead hit the shot you can visualise, be it straight or a fade. It is astonishing how much the mind plays a part in your golf game. Do not fight against it. Visualisation If you are able to picture the shot you want to play you are already one step ahead of most of your opponents. Positive mental attitude plays more of a part in the golf swing than you think. All the top professionals these days have their own personal mental guru.

Approach Shots
Know your scoring clubs!

These are your wedges. A typical scenario is:
Gap wedge 48 degrees- distance - 118 yards
Pitching wedge 52 degrees - distance - 102 yards
Sand Wedge 57 degrees – distance – 85 yards.

If you can become this accurate with your distance knowledge then you can begin to leave yourself these particular distances from the green rather than 50-60 yards which then becomes more o a ‘feel’ shot and more difficult.

Know Your Short Game Strengths
Are you a good

• Long chipper
• Short chipper
• Long putter
• Bunker player.

Imagine this scenario:
The flag is at the front right of a green, protected by a bunker in front of it. There are no bunkers anywhere else around the green.

• If you were a good long chipper/long putter it would make sense to take one more club than you thought therefore eliminating the troubles of the bunker.
• If however your chipping was poor but you were excellent from sand then it would make sense that you could attack this particular pin position.

The ‘In Between’ Shots (not a full swing)

• As you are closer to the green, natural instinct suggests that these shots are easier. WRONG!
• They are massively under practiced
• Require a degree of feel
• Take note how a professional executes numerous practice swings with the intent of visualising the shot they are about to play.
• They are feeling the length of backswing
• The speed of the swing through
• The contact with the ground
• Visualising where the ball will first land.
  

After The Round
Noting the following information gives valuable feedback to yourself so that you can
outline your weaker areas of your game. This can be helpful to form a practice regime and
suggested lesson course.

• number of fairways hit
• number of greens hit
• number of putts
• number of up and down (chip and single putt)
• number of sand saves (sand shot and single putt0

General Points to Remember Go easy on yourself. If you are truly concentrating and try to hit the best shot you possibly can, then you have done your all. Remember it will not always come off but a positive saying, which I tend to remember, is: ‘Its not how many problems we have on a golf course, it’s how we deal with them’. Positive mental attitude. Every shot is a new one and it could be the best you have ever hit.

"Practice makes perfect, or so they say,
But only if you're doing it the correct way,
Through the Golfsupport website and your PGA pro,
You'll have all the information you need to know!"