Scoring Well In Golf
By Nick
Are you one of those people who know exactly how they are scoring during each round of golf they play? If this sounds like you I bet you have got to the 16th tee knowing you only need to par in to beat your personal best only for you to bogie all last three holes. How can this happen when you have played so great for the rest of the round? By working out where you are and exactly what you need to do you are putting added pressure on yourself - I should know as up until recently I did this to myself quite often. Many good rounds have been ruined by attempting to be too cautious or by thinking I need to be too aggressive in a competition only to find that a steady finish would have resulted in a win!
So how do you finish out a round to get a great score? If I look back at my good rounds I can remember that during playing I generally had no ideas what my score was while playing the 18 holes. I was focussed on my preshot routines and shot decisions when at the ball, and thinking about other things and chatting to playing partners. Unfortunately in a competition you need to keep writing your and one of your playing partners score down at the end of each hole - so how do you manage to stay away from adding up how you are doing?
Creating a game within a game
I read an excellent article by Adam Sprackling on the GTour web site called 'Accelerating Through the Line'. Adam suggests rather than playing one round of 18 holes, split it up into 3 seperate games of 6 holes. The aim is to try and play and score each 6 holes the best you can. I have been trying this now for a few weeks and it has worked really well. Every time I have walked off the 18th hole I have had no idea what my score was, and weirdly enough if you would have asked me to predict it - my actual score is generally better than I thought leaving me a happy golfer! Doing this also makes sure that you do not slow down over the last few holes and play defensively.
If you are struggling to score well - give the 3*6 game a go. Also suggest you sign up to Adams newsletter as he has written some other great articles.
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