Change the Scene

Over the years, I have read a number of times that changing your environment during study increases retention of learning.  It’s the same in golf as in academics.  If you go to the same range, do the same swings with the same clubs on the same day of the week you are missing out on stimulating environmental changes.  The course is never the same from shot to shot so the range shouldn’t be either.  This is a cross-polinating type situation that works in any field in which one is trying to excel.  No matter what you are trying to learn, change your environment to increase intake efficiency.

Yesterday there was a 160 man tournament going on at Cartersville so all the range slots, putting greens, chipping area, etc were overrun with golfers.  And, to top it off, it was an 82 degree Saturday, so the place was jammed.  I found a slot and put in about 3 hours of practice between the madness, but then just decided to drive up to a cabin in North Georgia and get some fresh air for the night.  It’s only 60 miles from the course to Blue Ridge and I had a place to stay for free, so why not.  It’s right on the water too and last time I caught a 22 inch rainbow trout in the afternoon (but that’s another story altogether) in these waters:

I arrived in the mountains around four and out of all the possibilities I ended up chipping and pitching the ball from 20-40 yards to a large rock in the middle of the front yard.  Maybe I hadn’t gotten my full fix for the day or maybe I just honestly love doing this, hard to say but the truth is the truth and so I chipped away until the sun set in the mountains.

The point of this is that while hitting out of the 6-inch deep random grass mix I started to feel something different in my hand action.  It was as if I all-of-a-sudden realized what I was supposed to feel like at impact for short chips and pitches.  Building a feel on these distances is something that I’ve struggled with in the past, or “knowing” how to chip, but yesterday it just seemed to finally make sense.  All I had to do was bring my practice away from a golf setting and it figured itself out.  I’m not saying that this always works, but it goes to show you how thinking differently (or thinking in a different place about the same thing) can open your eyes to new solutions.  It’s just as important to have a routine as it is to break from the norm.  Seve learned with a 5-iron on the beach, and I don’t think anyone can argue his wizardry of the short game. (for the non-golfers, Seve Ballesteros was a golfer with an amazing short game)

Just when I thought I was slacking off because of how crowded the course was I actually ended up having a more productive day than I though possible, and far from the course.

Earlier in the week, I played a short course in Marietta with a man I met via The Dan Plan, Paul, and had a hilariously long drive on one of the downhill holes:

It was a 570 yard par 5, by far the longest hole on the course and I managed to hit it in two.  The second shot was only 190 yards to the center of the green, too.  So, using some basic math skills, this means I hit a 380 yard drive.  This would be epic if it was on flat land, and is pretty epic even down a hill; but alas, I’m no Bubba Watson, just a guy who currently hits 260, but happened to hit a long draw that rolled down the hill to the middle of the fairway.  This comes the day after I posted my “longest drive” to date on FB and Twitter along with this picture of me just after hitting it:

That one was a 290 yard bomb that was a combination of a bit of helping wind, warm weather and connecting just right with all of the mechanics.  I’ll take it all day long.  Heck, I’ll take 240 straight all day long.

An article came out in the April issue of Men’s Journal.  The author came out to Portland last June and did a great job writing the story.  The rest of the section (not written by Gavin) is about how to improve your golf game and it seems to me to have been put together by non-golfers.  I just get that feeling.  Give the story a read and let me know what anyone thinks about it.

Back at it tomorrow (but of course), heading to the Golf Club of Georgia to give the Lakeside course another shot.  That’s a tough, yet beautiful, back nine.