How can Golf be SO different, played under different circumstances?
‘There’s Golf. And then there’s Tournament Golf, and they a not alike, inside’, words of the great Bobby Jones.
And therein lies one of the most frequent conversations that I have with players, and if I had a Pound/Dollar/Euro/Yuan, for every time a student has revealed to me that they’re great on the range, but are struggling on the course… I’d definitely need to be using Revolut.
As a golf coach, I would say that one of the most frequent mysteries to players that seek help and advice, lies within ‘I can do it on the range, or when practicing on the course, but when I get a score card in hand…I I struggle to perform to the same levels’.
And so there lies. The mystery.
I watched Sean Foley (A coach I have greatly admired throughout my career) give a great analogy to this, with words to such effect;
Place a wooden plank along the ground and ask someone to walk up and down on it. They’ll be able to do it without even thinking about it. On their phone, skipping, it’s not a problem. Now place the plank four
feet off the ground and now their attention shifts to being a bit more cautious. They could fall off, but wouldn’t hurt themselves.
Now raise the plank 10 feet off the ground. Now the attention really kicks in, because if they put a foot wrong, they could twist or even break an ankle.
And finally, place the plank 20ft above the ground. Now every step is being carefully placed, so as not to fall off, the arms go out for balance.
So the plank becomes a great metaphor for golf. We can say the driving range is like having the plank on the ground, raise it a touch and now your on the course. 10ft up and now your playing the weekly medal, until finally 20ft up there and your leading the club championship heading into the back 9.
So the task remains the same. Walking up and down the plank carries the same actions, but the significance of making a mistake is considered very different, such as falling from the plank from various heights.
So of course the key question is, how do we tackle this?
Well there’s two key learning points I would consider here.
- Are your techniques good enough to cope under stress and strain, or are they too fragile and vulnerable
- Is your practice challenging enough, can you raise the plank higher in practice, so your learning to embrace the thoughts and feelings more regularly, so that you get better and dealing with the uncomfortable nature of ‘tournament golf’.
Become comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.
Walk the plank.