Golf - the mind game

delboy159

I have indentified one obvious, but ironic weakness in my game. My tee shot on Par 4's and Par 5's

In a normal round - if I'm 150yrds or closer from the green its all easy enough. 7 iron or smaller and I'm aiming for or close to the green....

However getting to the 150 yrds or closer is my problem. Yesterday I fluffed 7 of my 8 tee shots on "long holes" on a 9 hole round. My 3 wood will generally beat 200 yrds and my 5 wood will generally fall short of 200 yrds from the tee - if its a 200 yrds par 3. However, if I want to just land my 3 wood 200+ yrds on the fairway on a Par4/Par5 I fluff it - in a big way. As in -lost ball in the bushes 20 yards in front of me or it lands 2 yrds in front of me and roles for 40 yrds etc. Basically I'm just not connecting at all. I feel this is because I'm reaching and trying to get as far as I can out of the drive.

This makes a round tedious and I generally have to take my third shot from the tee on 3 or 4 holes. This is adding on 6 or 8 shots a round straight away - never mind the 400 yrd par 4 where I'm facing 360 yrds to the pin with my second shot - in the rough...... I feel as if I'm sacrificing nearly 14/15 shots a rounds decause of this.

I feel this is more of a mental flaw than a swing flaw as i can hit a 3 wood or 5 wood on long par 3's (I generally "hit them easy" because I'm afraid of overshooting the green). Is there any tricks people use on the tee to focus and relax their swing???? I know the obvious answer is "to hit it the same as on a Par 3" - but I'm not able to keep the swing slow and relaxed in the Par4/Par5 situation.

Any help would be appreciated as this weakness is really holding me back from progressing..... I dream of the round where I just hit 70% of my tee shots well and the other 30% go 150yrds or so - which at least gives me a fighting chance on the hole...

prospect

Well,
You seem to know the answer to the question. It sounds like you are trying to murder the ball down the fairway on the longer holes. But we all know that the harder you try to hit it, the less likely it is you'll make good contact with the ball.
Here are a few things to try.
1. Pick an object on the fairway, (bunker, tree, stake, bend, etc) that is about 200yds away, and aim for it. i.e. You are actually aiming for an exact place and not just trying to hit the ball really far.
2. Failing that, start by using the iron you feel most comfortable with off the tee. It seems that a straight, well hit 7 or 6 iron will put you in a far better position than you are currently in. Slowly work your way down to a 5 or 4 iron, and then a driving Iron and maybe go to the driver then.
3. When you are making your swing, at the top of the backstroke, stop for one second and then begin your swing down (slow and easy).

Hope one of these help.

randomfella

Focus yourself and realise there is no pressure on u to get it anywhere close to the cup. Hit the ball at 60 to 70% just to hit it right. Accept it that you will not make par on the hole before you start it and then there will be less pressure. After getting comfortable with this. INcrease the power. BUt always concentrate on accuracy and the distance will eventually follow u. The advice might be basic but it works if you follow it.

okden

ive heard of 2 tips for this, one for play one for practice.

play (mental)
remember the best long par 3 shot you had with your 3 wood, when you had an easy swing and hit it near thin pin. take that image to every tee box, picture the flag, the green the bunkers, what ever was behind the green, get into it as much as pos, then follow your instincts and play to the imaginary hole. youll prob stand different aswell as think and swing dif.

practice (realy mental)
on the range identify your true power source, at the mo its not coming from where you think.
so you create a scale of 1 to 10 for how hard you swing FULL shot 3 woods.

say "im going to murder this ball" hit it, call it a 10
hit one as slow as you can call it a 5
try and hit a 1 on the scale (you can always swing slower than you think).

then hit balls at power 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, let your brain note the real distance the ball goes
as you go through the scale youll find your distance will go up, to a point, then start coming down again.
your brain will begin to learn
if you want to hit it 40 yards you have 2 choices hit a 1 or a 10 on the scale.
if you want to hit it as FAR as you can hit a 7 for example
if you want to hit it far and straight every time hit it 1 less

its up to you on the course how far you want to hit each tee shot, but your brain needs to learn how to get your body to make it go that far, its doing the best it can now, but its a bit mixed up on how to achieve different distances. basicly it thinks a 10 further than a 7, not shorter than a 1.

delboy159

okden - thanks for that. I like the mental images of when I hit one perfectly on a par 3. I know the exact shot I'm going to use.

I really like the practice version aswell - hopefully it will train my mind to know whats the right effort to produce the right results.

prospect - I'm in two minds about reverting to the 5/6/7 irons on the tee. It feels like a step backwards. You are right, it would definitley improve my round (a bad tee shot on a 160/170 yrd par 3 still goes close to the green - be it left/right/short/topped etc.) That sort of result for my first shot on Par4/5s would be a big step. But, I know I can do that, I want to crack the 3 wood off the tee. I know its just a matter of sticking with it and getting my head around it.