Number One - Perfection. Most Golfers would deny it, but we're all trying to be perfect out on the golf course. You may say - 'I know I can't hit every shot perfect'. But how many times have you hit an OK shot onto the green from 125 yards away and grumbled because you were on the opposite side of the green as the flag? You should use your Green in Regulation to build confidence. You should be making your PLAN to make your putt - yet your thinking is stuck on not hitting the ball to 5 feet of the flag. Remember, you just hit a Green in Regulation and that should be a good thing because the average 90 Golfer only hits 3 or 4 of these a round. Positive reinforcement can be beneficial to scoring better!
Number Two - You most likely have 13 different swings for the 13 different irons and woods in your golf bag. Meaning: You swing your Driver different than your pitching wedge. You swing your 3 iron different than your 7 iron. You swing your hybrid different than your 5 wood. Annika has said it. Tiger has said it. Vijay has said it. What have they said - "All clubs should be swung the same way." You have enough swing thoughts without thinking about how you need to swing your 5 iron differently than your 8 iron. You need less swing thoughts to 'Play As Well As You Want To' - not more swing thoughts!
Number Three - I don't care who you are, your putting needs to improve. On the Registration Evaluations we receive from every Golfer that comes to see us at Golf Made Simple - 8 out of 10 Golfers say that the strongest aspect of their game is their putting. Yet, it in reality, it's the complete opposite - only 2 out of 10 should be making this claim. The problem with saying that your putting is the strongest aspect of your game is that if you say it enough, you'll actually start believing it. And when you start believing it, you'll practice it even less than the average Golfer does - which in fact is less than 7 minutes per week per Golfer. And how can putting be your strongest aspect of your game when only 2 out of 10 Golfers average less than 36 putts per round!
Number Four - The overwhelming flow of 'Golf Tips' that are presented to Golfers not just every month in Monkey Digest, but every night on the Monkey Channel. And don't worry if you miss one because I'm sure you'll hear it from one of your golf buddies as they're warming up on the driving range before the round - 'You know, I'm not sure how well I'm going to play today since I'm working on something new in my swing today. I heard an Instructor on the Golf Channel talking about having a two plane swing and I'm going to try it today. So, I'm not sure how I'll play today.' 'Jimmy, it seems as if you're working on a new tip every Saturday morning we play. And you're right, you never play well each Saturday when you're trying something new. Why don't you just settle on one thing and make it consistent as opposed to swinging vine to vine each week like a Monkey?"
Number Five - You're playing for score. 'Play for your PLAN - don't plan for your score.' Now many Golfers don't have a PLAN. How many Golfers is that? Well we have over 1,000 Golfers that travel from every continent (except from Antartica) to see us every year for 3 days of Golf Made Simple. And out of the over 1,000 Golfers that came to see us in 2005 - we had counted that only 83 had a PLAN for each hole that wasn't based on making birdie or par or bogie. So that comes to less than 8.3% of Golfers that are not letting score get in the way of making a good score. Now many Golfers won't understand what I mean by not playing for score - and that's understandable because that's what over 92% of Golfers do each shot they take. But, let me put it this way - What percentage of the 83 Golfers mentioned above were low single digit handicaps? And what percentage of the 92% mentioned above struggled to break 90 and 100?
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