Golf's US Open Next Week (Watch and Learn)

So we have one more tournament on the PGA Tour until everybody whips themselves into frenzy the following week at the US Open in San Diego, California. I associate the US Open with being in the heart of golf season – so that may mean that Golfers are starting to get into their weekly games and enjoying life.

I believe there a few things you should be observing when watching the US Open on television. One of which is the Players making their PLAN before each shot. I’d like for you to take notice and compare how you do it, versus how they do it.

The common Golfer walks (or drives their cart) down the fairway to their golf ball; once at the ball; they find their yardage, look at their clubs and say to themselves – ‘I’m 185 yards to the green, that’s my 3 iron’ – and away they go.

The Player you’ll see on television at the US Open will walk down the fairway to their golf ball; they’ll get the yardage to the flag; the distance to front of the green; the distance to the back of the green; along with the distance the flag is to the left-side and right-side of the green. The Player will also observe where the trouble is around the green; take into account their predominant ball flight; along with taking into account which way their ball goes when they do hit a bad shot.

Then and only then will they select a club and aim for their shot. How close does that come to how you prepare for each shot?

And although, their golf swings are much better than the common Golfer’s golf swing – the main reason the Player doesn’t make a slew of Double Bogies and Triple Bogies is that they have a PLAN for every golf shot that’s based on their Strengths and Weaknesses.

Yes, there will be people that debate me that the reason the Player has less Doubles and Triples is that they have better golf swings – I won’t deny that that’s part of the reason. But, it’s not the whole reason.

And although the Player has more talent than the common Golfer, one reason they can make better, more confident golf swings for each shot is because they thoroughly PLAN each shot before they even select a club. And additionally, because their PLAN is so well made; that when they do make a bad golf swing; the ball doesn’t end up in a position that will leave them the potential to make a Double or Triple Bogey.

The common Golfer just glances at the yardage to the center of the green and hits the club that pertains to that yardage based on making perfect contact with the golf ball. Though, unfortunately, this Golfer has decided the yardage they can hit their 3-iron based solely on a couple of pure hits that they had back in 1993. Yet, they stick with that yardage even though they usually hit the ball short of the green in the bunker or they’ll try to get that extra yardage to the green by swinging too hard and ending up in areas of the golf course you rather not be.

Now the Golfer will often times say – ‘Well, I don’t have a caddie to give me those yardages and I can’t take too long to decide what club to use because the other Golfers I play with will be waiting for me.’

Well, you can PLAN if you know when to PLAN and how to PLAN.

No, you don’t need to know the exact yardage from the left-side of the green to the flag, but you could and should have a good estimate or even turn it into a fraction. For example: ‘The flag appears to be 2/3’s across the green’. Which means that 2/3’s of the green is to the left of the flag and only 1/3 of the green is to the right of the flag.

If that’s the case, which side of the flag should you aim towards?

And the answer isn’t straight at the flag. If you do aim at the flag in this scenario, hit a good golf shot, yet the golf ball drifts a little to the right (has that ever happened to you), you’ll end up missing the green to the right and possibly short siding yourself with a tough wedge shot. And this is the classic case of you hitting a really good golf shot to the green, but possibly ending up with a Double Bogey.

The Player won’t let that happen. The Player in the scenario above would aim to the 2/3’s side of the green so that if the ball drifts a little right, it would end up on the green. If it drifts a little to the left, it would also end up on the green.

So yes, there’s a big difference in the way the Players in the US Open hit the golf ball versus how you hit the golf ball, but they do make bad golf swings during the course of a round of golf. And those bad swings could lead to disasters when you’re playing a golf course set-up for the US Open. But, the top Players won’t experience a lot of disasters with their bad shots because they’ll have a PLAN to avoid them.

The common Golfer will aim at the flag like they think Tiger Woods would do – yet, in many of those situations Tiger wouldn’t be aiming at the flag. Tiger has a PLAN that’s based on more factors than just on how far he hits his 3-iron on his very best golf swing.

The Monkey selects their club and shot based solely on the distance to the center of the green

The Player selects their club and shot on a whole lot more

Go Ahead, Be A Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com