How much do you need to improve - to score your best on the golf course?
I think we need to say that your answer might be more complicated than just saying - “A lot!” or “if I can keep my drives in play, I’ll play my best.”
I think those answers are too vague. I think that by just saying “If I hit more fairways with my Driver, I can break 90 consistently” - I think that’s just “Monkey Talk”. If you’re averaging 99 or 97 or 95 or 93 or whatever your score is, just by hitting more fairways isn’t going to help you to improve enough to be a consistent 80’s golfer.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa Marc, you haven’t seen me play. I lose about 10-strokes every round because I can’t keep the ball in play!”
Ok, I hear you and I believe you, and I also know that you’re probably not going about improving your Drives using the correct approach!
Everything we do when you’re here is based upon Results, not Theories and Assumptions (or in other word‘s Monkey Talk). So keeping with the Results based approach - How about if I tell you that in 2004 - 147 out of 263-golfers listed on their Registration Evaluation that their #1 priority was to improve their Driver. And on the first day of their Golf Made Simple program - 124 of those 147-golfers didn’t lose a golf ball or have to take a penalty stroke with their Driver even though they hit it on every Par 4 and Par 5 when we went out for our 9-holes of On-Course Instruction. And here’s the kicker - on the first day we didn’t even practice Driver - on your second and third days we do!
How is that possible? How is it that the golfers that listed that their #1 priority was to lose less golf balls with their Driver and that on the first day without even practicing with their Driver they didn’t lose one golf ball or take one penalty stroke?
If I was smart - I would say - “Well, if you want to know, you’ll need to call Alex and sign-up for a Golf Made Simple program." But, I haven’t been accused of being smart since 7th grade when I said something to my Dad and he said “Don’t be such a smart*ss”. Hey, he could’ve left out “smart”.
Yes, we work on your swing on your first day of Golf Made Simple, of course we do, that’s why you come to see us and yes, we work with your Driver on your 2nd and 3rd day. But, the question is - How can 124 out of 147-golfers that had problems with their Drivers improve so much in one day? Add to the fact that many of these golfer had individual lessons with their local Pro back home to work on their Driver and still had problems after those lessons. And also add that 49 of these golfers had their swings videotaped and analyzed by their local Pro. Yet after all those lessons and video analysis sessions - they still listed on their Registration Evaluation that Driver was their #1 priority.
Why? Because as important as it is to work on your golf swing - if you focus exclusively on your swing path or swing plane or any of that “Monkey Talk”, you won’t improve the frequency of keeping your ball in play. There’s more that goes into it. Only Monkeys practice their swing exclusively. A Player (the golfers that play their best golf most often are called Players) do practice their swing, along with other aspects of their game to play their best golf - consistently.
What else do you practice besides your swing?
(And I don’t mean your putting stroke!)
I’ll give you some comments that were recently told to us by golfers attending Golf Made Simple. This first one was said to me in the middle of fairway on the 9th hole by a Gentleman - that I now consider a close friend - on his first day with Golf Made Simple just last week:
“Marc, I’ve been playing golf for over 20-years and I thought my course management was pretty good. Now I know that it was nowhere close to being what I needed it to be. But I learned from the Monkeys back home and that’s they way I’ve always played.”
H.K - we all learned by watching the Monkeys. And we all think that our Course Management is good, until you come to see us and in 3-days of golf, using a Driver on every Par 4 and Par 5, you’re still able to play with the same golf ball you started with. By the way, you did great last week, I’m proud of how you played.
This statement below was said to Jacob on the 3rd day of a Golf Made Simple program during our 1-hour Chalk Talk review that we do after your 9-holes on the golf course:
“Jacob, it’s funny, if you ask any golfer where they’re aiming when they’re on the tee with their Driver, they’d look at you funny like you’re an idiot and say - I’m aiming down the middle. Yet, I didn’t aim down the middle once during these past 3-days and I haven’t lost a ball and I’ve hit 16 out of 21-fairways. In the past the only place I looked was the center of the fairway and I rarely ended up there. This past week, as hard as it was not to aim down the middle, I didn’t and kept the ball in play more than I ever have in the past. It really is incredible and I would never have considered playing this way myself, although it makes incredible sense.”
R.D. - And as you play golf back home with the Monkeys, you’ll continue to hear them all say that they’re aiming down the middle and then complain about missing fairways. Then you’ll continually see them show-up almost every week with a “new tip I’m working on today” that will help them hit their Driver straighter. The keyword in the above sentence is continually - meaning they’ll always be searching for that magical tip that will never appear. Consistent golf isn’t about tips!
Where do you aim when you’re standing on the tee with your Driver?
Golf Course Architects design their golf courses to defend par. Have you ever heard it put that way before? To defend par? Isn’t that an interesting approach? And all this time you thought that Pete Dye was hoping you had fun on his golf courses.
As the late Robert Trent Jones Sr. said “I design golf holes with the intent of making it hard for the golfer to make a par and easy for them to make a bogie.” Or as the motto goes - “Hard Par, Easy Bogie“. No wonder why we have so many bogey golfers out there! As funny as that might sound - it’s true. Maybe the Golf Course Architect knows something you don’t know about yourself.
Maybe these Golf Course Architects know that the Monkeys are “aiming down the middle.” So they design the golf courses you’re playing, knowing that you think that your always going to hit a straight shot down the middle. They also know that nobody in the world, except for the late Moe Norman, is able to hit the ball consistently straight. They know that every golfer that ever played golf hit’s a draw, a fade, a hook or a slice. So to answer the question - “why then if they’re defending par, don’t they put bunkers down the middle of the fairway - it’s a rather simple answer - because they know that you’re aiming there and that you’re not going to hit the ball straight. Nobody does, not even the PGA and LPGA Tour Players. These Golf Course Architects know that your ball will end up on the right-side of the golf course or the left-side of the golf course and once in a while - down the middle! That’s why 90% of the time the trouble is on the sides of the golf course, not the middle.
If you understand this, you can learn to keep your ball in play, hit longer drives and have better angles into the greens. All 3 of which combined will allow the 90’s golfer to improve by a minimum of 6-strokes per round without even practicing your Driver. And then improve 11-strokes after practicing with your Driver. Wow! And then as an added bonus being able to say - “I can not believe how much more control I have with my Driver!” Double Wow!!
So how do you do this? How do you determine where to aim? The answer is not the same for everybody. It depends on your game and your tendencies. Your game needs to develop a PLAN based on Results that you can carry from the practice range to the golf course.
So now, I must ask you again -
How much do you need to improve - to score your best on the golf course?
I guess this is where we come in to your life!
