Instruction

Game of the Weekend: A.C.E.

Published

9 years ago

Oct 16, 2015

Sports psychologists are constantly preaching to golfers to get into “the process” of hitting a shot. Jason Day has been discussing it in various post-round interviews, as have other tour players. But what is inside of that process? What should you be doing or thinking? This Game of the Weekend gives you a template and a game to use when you practice or play.

Game of the Weekend: A.C.E.

The goal in golf is to get the ball in the hole in the fewest number of attempts — obviously. Your personal goal, however, should be to do the best you can with every shot you’re faced with by staying in the present.

But how do you stay focused on each individual shot when the overall goal is record the lowest score possible? It comes down to the process, or your routine, for each shot. With so many tour players and great golfers talking about getting engaged in the process of each shot, there needs to be a way to measure the success rate in which you’re in the present and into the process; that’s where A.C.E. comes in. This game will help create a quieter, productive mind instead of being bogged down with a busy, congested mind.

Here’s what A.C.E. stands for:

“A”: Analyze

This is where you evaluate all of the factors that go into choosing the appropriate target, shot and club. Items you must thoroughly Analyze include:

How the ball lies
Yardage to pin, yardage to clear any trouble/front of green, yardage behind the pin
Wind speed and direction
Location of hazards and obstacles; the best place to miss
Elevation change
Temperature
Surface of landing area
Altitude

“C”: Commit

This is the few seconds just before you hit the shot and where you need to create your own trigger that confirms you’re in a beneficial frame of mind and ready to swing. A commitment trigger helps fill those vital few seconds, assists with keeping the demons out of your thoughts and keeps things focused what TO DO instead of what not to do.

Visual examples:

“I see a runway leading from my ball to the target, then I swing.”
“I see the apex of the shot in the air, then I swing.”
“I burn a thin red laser line into the green on the trail that my ball will take to the hole, then I roll the putt.”

Verbal examples:

Say to yourself “This is perfect!” then swing.
Say to yourself “Right at it!” then swing.
Say to yourself “I own this!” then swing.

Feel/Sensations:

“I let out a breath, then swing.”
“When my feet feel grounded and solid, then I swing.”
“When I feel connected to the target, then I swing.”

Rhythm examples:

“I look at the target three times, then swing.”
“I count to four … 1) is positioning my club behind the ball, 2) is my feet getting set, 3) is when I look at the target, and 4) is my backswing begins.”

[quote_box_center]

A high handicapper will be surprised at how often the mind will make the muscles hit the ball to the target, even with a far less than perfect swing.

— Harvey Penick

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“E”: Execute or Exit

Execution is simply swinging the club. There is virtually no time that takes place between the time you become committed and the time you swing. The commitment trigger not only counters any negativity but also fills the timeframe when most negative thoughts creep into your mind. However, there are times when you need to back off (Exit) a shot and regroup. This would include:

Any negativity creeps in your mind
Your eyes drift to, say the pin, when your target is something else
You get distracted
Score comes to mind
The wind speed or direction change
You’re not really 100 percent committed
You’re thinking about what others might be thinking about you

No one else is to blame for the shots you hit — it is purely your responsibility. Back away and gather yourself if needed. The best level of commitment is one that engrosses you so much in your shot that you don’t even notice the distractions that are around you. Being so into the process of your shot allows you to disregard poor shots helping you to put them behind you and dramatically aiding your ability to bring a clear and focused approach to your next shot.

Rules

When using the scorecard for A.C.E. you can enter your percentage score for 9-hole or 18-hole rounds of golf into the website www.golfscrimmages.com. You earn dots for each shot based on the following:

If you correctly ANALYZE the shot, place a dot in the “A” box. If after hitting the shot you realize that you failed to Analyze a factor then you do not get a dot in the “A” box.
If you wholeheartedly go through your COMMITMENT trigger on the shot, place a dot in the “C” box.
You automatically get a dot in the “E” EXECUTE box unless you hit the ball when you should have Exited the shot (ie: score came to mind, wind changed, doubt, negativity, eyes looked at something other than your target, the result, etc.)

A.C.E. every shot and watch your scores go down and your enjoyment go up!

Previous Games of the Weekend

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Instruction

Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?

Published

2 hours ago

Apr 24, 2024

Shawn Clement

Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!

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Instruction

The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic

Published

4 weeks ago

Mar 29, 2024

Terry Koehler

My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.

As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.

The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.

Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:

Mis-aligned hands

By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.

The position of the grip in the upper/left hand

I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.

To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.

Too much lower (right) hand on the club

It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.

Gripping too tightly

Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.

So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

Published

2 months ago

Mar 4, 2024

Shawn Clement

Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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