Maintaining Purpose

I hear so many times "I can do it on the practice tee but I cannot do it on the golf course" or "I can only do it when my instructor is with me." This is so common and it really is so sad. What causes this problem?

So many players hit a lot of practice balls and take lesson and their work is all wasted when on the golf course. They do not carry their improvement to the golf course. The problem is a change in purpose. When a golfer is working on the practice tee, that player is mentally concerned with his or her swing. Where the goes doesn't really matter very much because there is no score by which to be embarrassed.

However, when that same player goes to the golf course the concerns now are: " Distance " Score " Where the ball goes or does not go

The mental attitude we develop on the practice and lesson tees must be taken to the golf course. Perfect swings produce perfect shots. If our swing is producing desirable shots on the practice and lesson tees, no matter where that swing is produced, it will produce the same desirable shots. The golf course should not control the player.

Everything we learn is with one purpose in mind - to perform it on the golf course so our scores will be what we wish them to be. There should be no change in mental attitude just because we are now on the golf course.

Reprinted without permission from Understanding the Golf Swing by Manuel de la Torre, Warde Publishers, Inc. 2001.

The Golfer's Ten Commandments
Royal and Ancient
Into the Bear Pit
Helicopter Words
The Walter Hagen Story
ClubAlert . . . The Electronic Club Leash
I Remember Augusta
Hoch as in Choke!
Bud, Sweat, & Tees
Only Golf Spoken Here
Passion for Golf
Fourteen Clubs and the Auld Claret Jug
Gleanings from the Wayside
Discovering Donald Ross
The Art of Golf Design
A Round of Golf with Tommy Armour
Lazy Days at Lahinch
Letters to a Young Golfer
Understanding the Golf Swing