Nick Faldo recently said: See the target, visualize the shot and react.

I like to think that good golf is played pretty stupid!! And often times the smarter you get and the
more technical you are, the more difficult it is to execute good shot making on the course and
especially in tournament situations. Visualization without mechanics can be a powerful tool.

Hi Dan, the ups and the downs…I’m figuring out that this is what golf is. Early 2014 I hit a new low index of 10.7! Then BLEW UP To a 14.7! Ouch.

I learned I needed a lesson. When I fell out my swing was off and I couldn’t figure it out alone.

Have u had a lesson recently? If not, schedule one stat!!!

I have found that lessons are required to dig out of a rut. They have also helped me get back on track pretty quick.

I shot a 76 a month ago, then a bunch in the mid 80′s and on Sarurday I shot a new low of 75 in a tourney w 108 guys. A net 62! (My new name is “sand bagger piece of shit) which I accep w pride!

What I have been doing is not stressing off the tee. Teeing off relaxed, not trying to squeeze every inch out of it. Same w the approach shots. Playing the conservative shot and then taking the shot w confidence.

Then I get really serious (reading the chip and putt) w my chip shots and putting. Getting up and down has been the secret sauce.

I haven’t gotten excited w a good shot nor w a bad one. Just letting it happen. My best rounds are always quiet, peaceful with a bit of belief that the ball is going towards my target. Which to me is very fulfilling.

I think we all need to work back to our happy place. This is where the magic can happen!

Peace Dan!

As to your participation in “money games”, that is not really going to get you prepared for tournament golf. Teeing it up with 3 complete strangers out of a field of 120 players and counting every stroke for 3-4 days is proper preparation. Get your driver fixed and play a lot of tournaments in 2015. Success on the course will get you the attention you need, not interviews in Swedish newspapers or Australian TV shows. Make the match play at the USGA Mid-Am or a run at the Oregon Amateur Championship.

I think where we differ (and hopefully it’s a friendly disagreement ) is demonstrated in the last thing you wrote – “then the amount of feel of rolling can be calculated.” You see, I don’t calculate it, I just hit the ball. In fact I was asked by a pro I was playing with the other day what I did with my hands on the downswing. My answer was, as far as I’m concerned, absolutely nothing – I set the club and simply rotate through the ball, my hands and arms take care of themselves. If I want to draw it I just sort of think draw, visualise a draw and hit it, if I want to fade it I visualise a fade, think fade and fade it. I’ve hit so many of each that one feels utterly different to the other. The one thing I never do is try to calculate it, it’s all simply feel. I guess it’s sort of more like if you were to walk round the course throwing the ball to different spot, you wouldn’t think about *how* to throw it to a given spot you’d just throw it there. Hours of hitting balls one way then the other gives you that feel.

Like I said before, I agree that there’s a place for science in golf, of course there is. And to be honest I get bogged down in it a bit too much for my own good sometimes – I have tested a swing analyser for one company over in the States who got the numbers wrong on initial release – I pointed their error out to them, and have recently been interviewed by a launch monitor company about the use of simulators in training given my pretty rapid progress and a background in using simulators for training in a different field. But I think tech and science need to be used in conjunction with skill based training and not in any way as a substitute for it.

At the end of the day the important thing is that the person holding the club has the skill to execute the shot. The science is all well and good, I just think it should be kept in perspective