Golfing World According to Justin Stoop
Golf according to “Uni, One-Ball, whatever has a singular connotation to it”
The game of golf is a game like no other. Probably one of the few games in the world that challenges both physically and mentally. A game where the smallest change can have the biggest impact on your play. A game where one day, you are playing out of your skin, the next shanking every chip and having many fines for being the worst putter on tour!!!
This article will focus on the small aspect that not many amateurs, especially beginners, will be concerned about. But yet is an extremely important aspect to focusing your mind on the round you have to play. It’s called a Pre –round Routine!!
How many times have we all walked on the course, not had a putt on the putting green, and moan how quick the greens might be or how slow they were and use that as the reason we putted badly?? Wouldn’t this change if we gave ourselves some time on the putting green beforehand?? (I know most of you will be thinking, how can he be talking about putting when he had 6 three putts last round? And I agree but there is no excuse for putting like a Sh%#head)
Too many amateurs expect things to fall in place on the day because “that might be their day”, but wouldn’t you feel better if you know you can save 3 or 4 shots a round just by focusing on practicing an area of your game you know needs attention, before the round.
A quality routine that works for you as an individual is extremely important. If your weakest part of your game is chipping for example, why would you go and smash 100 balls on the driving range and neglect the chipping? A lot of us don’t practice during the week so its about trying to get into a rhythm before the round starts, to make sure we aren’t those golfers that start doing well on the last hole of the game. If that means spending 20 minutes on the chipping green and 10 minutes on the driving range before the round then so be it.
The routine must take into account the areas you feel need attention but must not neglect your stronger areas. Some players are better at putting, some at chipping, some are great iron players, some great drivers and it’s easy to get into a rhythm with those areas you are comfortable. But when we aren’t comfortable with certain areas we leave them because “ that’s not what we are good at”. So a routine must take into account good and weak areas of your game. If you are a great iron player and a bad putter – go and spend a few minutes on the range hitting a few balls and then spend more time concentrating on your putting stroke (not how many putts you hole), read the greens, read the speed, see how they react and get into a rhythm with the putter. This will greatly increase your confidence on the course and help you feel relaxed and ready at the start.
For me I will definitely be adjusting my routine with regards to my putting. I will be increasing the time I spend on the putting green beforehand to avoid those bloody fines and that damn fireman helmet.
Hopefully you can all take some time to find your routine, come to the course a little earlier, work on that routine, score a few more points and challenge for higher places on the leaderboard!!!! Good luck for the next round!!