What a week in golf. Already by the 16th of January there are two US Tour events finished and in the book and it was a comment from the first one that really took my attention. The first week of the year is the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Plantation Course, a course i was lucky to play many moons ago. The eventual winner of the event was Steve Stricker who held on under the pump. But the comment that really got my attention was by one of the commentators who noted that even though Stricker was renowned on tour as one of the best putters he was surprised that he spends every off season working on his putting. Putting and chipping are both very much feel aspects of our game and the only way to maintain good feel or to improve on feel is to practice and work on non technique related aspects of these skills. Every type of skill acquisition has two parts, firstly technique which allows us to learn the skill in question, putting the movements in place, putting them in the correct sequence, ironing out any incorrect pieces, the second part is putting it to memory, learning what it feels like or making it so we don't have to think about it.
Here is David Reckless, one of Absolute Golf's head coaches
running through a putting feel drill at our patented short game schools.
Have you ever noticed that you may be hitting the ball well and you hit one shot that's not quite right and when you start working on something or thinking about that swing you just loose it all together. In learning there are 4 stages unconscious incompetence - conscious incompetence - conscious competence and unconscious competence. When playing well we are in a state of unconscious competence and if you start thinking about what you are doing you move backwards into conscious competence, which will work some time but will be prone to break down under pressure. Conscious competence is where most people spend most of their time when they are having lessons and our goal is to get you to a state of unconscious competence so you can play well for longer. I always say that during a course of lessons you must take in the information we are working on, work on the movement until it works, then forget about the technique and work on the evaluations you have been given. The evaluations allow us to know what is going wrong without thinking about the technique.
Great players like Steve Stricker have the same issues as we do, just on a different level and part of his off season routine would be to breakdown his putting so that he starts each year with the confidence that he started the year before with and every other year before. That is why they call it a routine and he obviously found a routine a while ago that works and he sticks to it to make sure he is at his best when it counts and after winning at Kapalua at the end of that first week i think he should keep doing what he does.
Jeff and David of Absolute Golf are holding their first 1/2 day schools for the year which are Myths and Influences schools with Bryan Ferguson at Riverside Oaks on the Friday the 10th of Feb and Sunday the 12th of February. Anyone who has been to a school with Fergy will know the treat they are in for and anyone who hasn't been is in for a special occasion as Bryan is a talented man. The schools start at 11.00am and run through to 5.00pm and include a 2 hour range session, lunch and 3 hours on-course. Contact us at
jeff@absolutegolf.com.au for more information. We would love to see you there, so we can teach you a little more of what Steve Stricker knows so you can play more confident golf.
Old mate Bryan Ferguson is coming up from Melbourne for
Absolute Golf's February 10th and 12th schools at Riverside Oaks.
The Barnbougle Dunes trip to Tassie is only 8 weeks away and with the numbers almost full we are looking for just a few players to fill the trip. Go to
http://www.absolutegolf.com.au/ and go to the activities and news page and click on the flier and schedule at the bottom of the information.
see you on the course.
Jeff Mansfield
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