Andy Morse battled the high winds and difficult conditions at TPC of Eagle Trace, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last week in the Final Stage of The Champions Tour Qualifying School. Because of is hard work and perseverance, Andy finished inside the Top 30 in the tournament, which was good enough to earn his card.
Andy will be one of the few players around the world that will be eligible to qualify for each of the Champions Tour events in the 2009 season. Andy had status on the Nationwide Tour this past season for being a past winner... and is very excited about his transition to the Champions Tour. Congratulations Andy!!!
Congratulations to McGolf Learning Center student & instructor, Andrew Morse, for his incredible play this week at the Champions Tour (the Senior PGA Tour) qualifying school. Andy got through the first stage of qualifying by shooting scores of 68-68-70-72.
Two major, major recommendations I have for those parents out there that have young children playing golf competitively:
Only Demonstrate Positive Emotion & Encouragement... especially when in a competitive environment! A major problem I see when parents are caddying for their kids, or watching their child from the sidelines at a golf event, are the emotions parents display. Kids are masters at reading emotions, and their parents are the first ones they look for after a good shot or bad shot. If a parent throws their arms up in the air, and gives facial expressions that read "I can't believe he missed that short putt" or "How could she have hit that ball in the hazard" then the child will grow up with a fear of hitting bad shots. As much as you care, want your child to play well, and want to let out an "Ewww!" or an "Oh no!"..... or even a "@#$%", DON'T! As difficult as it is, swallow your pride and show as much encouragement as you can muster up! If you continuously show a positive spirit, and only demonstrate positive emotion, your child will know nothing else... and follow in your footsteps! Remember... fearless golfers are dangerous golfers... so don't ever let your young boy or girl think it's a horrible thing to hit a bad shot!
Learn To Read Greens... take a short-game clinic, or short-game lessons for yourself. If you plan on reading your child's putts, you better actually know how to read greens yourself. Green reading is an art in itself, and takes lots of practice... but it's critical for you to learn if you're going to be telling your child where to hit their putts. Your child could potentially have a wonderful putting stroke, but if you keep giving him or her the wrong read (telling him or her to aim the putt in the wrong spot), then they will unintentionally start pulling or pushing putts and think the problem lies in their putting stroke or ability to make putts. But in reality, the problem lies in his or her parents ability to read greens. Remember, if you give someone a bad read, they will actually have to do something wrong to make the putt... not good!!!
I recommend attending a Dave Pelz short-game golf school or clinic. They do a wonderful job at teaching you to understand green reading and give you some great tips on how to read greens. You will also learn some really simple and fun shots around the green that would really improve your child's game and yours!
Click here to find a Dave Pelz clinic in your area. _
What are your on course goals? While playing a round of golf, the huge majority of golfers put their energy towards what they don't have control over. Learn to focus all your energy towards what you do have control over and your round will be much more enjoyable. This skill will without question help you reach your true potential!
Controllable Goals
Making crystal clear decisions about the shots you want to hit before you hit them
Making a consistent pre-shot routine before each and every shot you hit
Committing 100% to the shot you are about to hit
Always have control of your emotions (don't ever let your emotions control you)
Never give up
Uncontrollable Goals
Your score
Winning the tournament or beating your playing partners
One of my all-time favorite quotes was by Jack Nicklaus... "I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture of the shot in my mind." This pretty much says it all people!
How bad do you want to be good at the game of golf? Well if you really, really have a desire to improve at this game, then make it a point to never, ever take a shot for granted. Have a purpose, have a plan... have a vision of what you're trying to accomplish for each and every shot! This will, without question, help you minimize those on course mistakes and bring you closer to your golfing goals.
The number one most destructive element in a golf swing is poor fundamentals... grip, posture, alignments!
The number two most destructive element in a golf swing is tension. Take notice of how relaxed Tiger's face is throughout his swing... especially on his transition from the backswing to the downswing... effortless power!
I just got back from a long practice session with one of my professional players. We were working on distance control with his long pitch shots, and fine tuning his pre-shot routine.
Our session consisted of setting up five golf balls at 30 yards, five balls at 40 yards, five at 50 yards and five at 60 yards. Every single ball, our purpose was to execute a perfect pre-shot routine. To give you some idea of what his pre-shot routine consisted of:
See the shot you want to hit! (Stand behind the golf ball on line with the hole for a minimum of five seconds. Here is where the player needs to see the entire shot he or she wants to hit)
Feel the shot you want to hit! (Take a practice stroke to feel the shot you've chosen)
Hit the shot you want to hit! (Once the player gets to the ball, all there is to do is hit the shot with confidence)
This pre-shot routine is incredibly simple, and it helps a player feel completely committed to the shot at hand, which allows for a confident golf swing! On average it took this player roughly 25-30 seconds to see it, feel it, hit it on each shot... and about 10 minutes to hit all twenty golf balls that we set up. Simple enough right? Every single shot hit had a purpose, and every shot was hit with confidence.
Hitting golf balls next to us was a husband and wife couple that were also practicing long pitch shots... each had a bag of golf balls (maybe sixty balls in each bag). Before we got done with our twenty golf balls, both the husband and the wife had already finished each of their bags... between the two of them hitting about 120 golf balls in 10 minutes.
When everyone went to pick up their golf balls, the professionals balls were very tightly packed next to the hole and took about thirty seconds to pick up. The couple had their golf balls spread throughout the entire putting green, and took them about five minutes to pick up. The couple was admiring how well the professional was hitting her pitch shots and decided to practice quicker to see if they could improve their shots at a more rapid pace... didn't quite happen!
Remember that professionals get to that level through disciplined and organized practice sessions. Make your next practice session full of quality golf shots and challenge yourself to make it as easy as possible to pick your balls up!
I've been asked many times in my professional coaching career what I think is the most important piece of advice I could give a golfer. Strangely enough, my answer would be the same as if I were giving a non-golfing friend advice on making more money, furthering their professional career, finding a job... or actually, just about anything. Have a crystal clear vision of what you want, and don't really waist any energy on what might get in your way, or what you don't want.
Too many golfers out there put to much energy and focus into trying not to do anything wrong at the driving range. Too many golfers out there put to much energy and focus into thinking about where they don't want to hit the golf ball on the golf course. If you spend your life trying not to make mistakes, most likely you will not get very far life... and the same goes for your golf.
Try setting the following goal for yourself the next time you go to the driving range, or go out to play on the golf course:
On the golf course - Focus solely on what you want in each golf shot, and nothing more. No need to worry about trying not to hit the golf ball to the left or to the right... consider that wasted energy. If a thought like that creeps into your head, fill it with a thought like "I will hit this ball right in between those two trees in the distance!" And remember, the mind is only capable of thinking of one conscious thing at a time... so make it something you want rather than something you don't want!
At the driving range - Focus only on the fixes, not the faults. As long as you know what it is that's making your golf ball react the way it is, there's really no need to waist your time worrying about what you don't want to do wrong... instead, put all your energy into working on what you need to do right to get the results you want. Find a good drill that will help you come up with a feeling of what it is that you're looking for to groove a proper golf swing!
In closing, I can almost promise you that if you set this as a goal for yourself, it'd be nearly impossible for you to get any worse... and you'd have a really good chance of getting better!
Yes, I think just about every single one of us golfers love watching the Masters Tournament each and every year... especially Sunday's final round! How can we not? It's a masterpiece of a golf course with outstanding competition, tons of amazing golf shots that produce thunderous roars, and many not so great golf shots that make the higher handicap player feel pretty darn good about themselves!
Today though, when you're kicking back and appreciating all the wonderful things that the Masters Tournament has to offer, I recommend that you take a bit more out of your 2008 Masters experience than just pure enjoyment. Let's try to learn from watching the greatest golfers in the world attempt to manage, or plot their way around one of the most challenging tests in the game. Course management is crucial if a player wants to have a chance to win at Augusta. Observe how players play away from the pins on certain holes, and how they position themselves off the tee, in order to get the best angles into the greens. It will be interesting to notice which players stay the most patient on the back 9 today see if the less experienced, or those at the top of the leader board without major championship titles, go for pins that they don't necessarily need to go for... and end up making major mistakes. Many Masters tournaments are lost because of poor decision making under extreme pressure, and many Masters tournaments were won through extreme patience... and maybe just waiting for the others to make the mistakes.
Think about how you can learn to manage yourself around your home golf course better than you have in the past. Could you lower your scores by being more aware of positioning of the tee... do you really need driver on every hole out there? How about those par 5 holes that you can't reach in two, but can easily reach in three... maybe a 3-wood off the tee would get you out there into a good enough position to set yourself up for a nice birdie or par chance? Ask yourself if you really need to aim at every pin out there... or might playing away from pins, or for that matter not even paying attention to the pins at all, will help you hit more greens in regulation... which in turn would keep me out of trouble and lower my scores a bit.
So here's a few good examples of certain strategic decisions you'll see on Championship Sunday at Augusta:
Hole #11 - Any shot you see that's hit right at this pin is either a mistake or pure in experience. A back left hole location with all the trouble in the world left of the pin. Ben Hogan used to say that he would aim to the right of the green on #11 at Augusta, and if he hit the green at all then it was a mistake. Par is a good score on this hole... even for the greatest players in the world!
Hole #12 - A short par 3 hole, nothing more than an 8 or 9 iron shot... but again, any player you see firing their ball right at this pin is either a fool or incredibly desperate!
Hole #16 - Another par 3 hole. Typically you'll see players hit their shots well to the right of the pin. In doing this though, if placed deep enough into the back of the green could have the ball funnel right down towards the pin.
Did you know 60% of Golfers lack the flexibility or strength to make a mechanically correct golf swing, and 70% of golfers play with performance inhibiting injury?
Golf Fitness Magazine has some awesome articles on injury prevention, flexibility, golf strength training... even sports psychology tips. Good stuff!
For those of you who haven't already, I highly recommend subscribing to Golf Fitness Magazine.
Yesterday I gave a golf lesson to a very talented 6 year old girl named Emma. It was clear to me that Emma really had a passion for the game of golf. Just the simple smile on her face after each golf shot made that quite clear!
Emma's father introduced her to the game by giving her a disposable camera to take out to the course while he was playing rounds of golf, with the direct intention of getting Emma interested in the game... very creative!
So with all that being said, this was Emma's first ever golf lesson from a professional golf instructor and her father was understandably passionate about making sure Emma was given the correct instruction. Last season, when he recognized that Emma really loved hitting golf balls, and saw that she really looked forward to spending time out on the golf course and at the driving range with him, he started reading every instructional golf book he could get his hands on. Very respectable, and obviously a wonderful and caring father. However, aside from maybe one good golf book on very simple fundamentals, I would highly recommend leaving the instruction up to a professional golf instructor that is clearly not going to overwhelm the young golfer with complicated thoughts on the golf swing. Work on very simple golf fundamentals and come up with a simple pre-shot routine that will encourage good fundamentals. Other than that, just try to find some creative ways for your child to have fun and not get board. The idea is for them to fall in love with the game of golf. The idea is to always keep your kids laughing and smiling! Just remember, kids aren't mechanical, kids are creative... which is basically the job you should hold!!
Here's a couple good golf book ideas:
Great book for adults & kids getting into the game of golf... keeps everything really simple.
Great Golf Tips On The Basic Fundamentals, Pre-Shot Routine & Golf Club Repair
There's a particular blog that I'd like to refer everyone to, and not because the founder of the blog just happens to be my brother, Eric McInerney... but because it's very informative and has some wonderful information! EricMcInerney.com
Andy Morse battled the high winds and difficult conditions at TPC of Eagle Trace, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last week in the Final Stage of The Champions Tour Qualifying School. Because of is hard work and perseverance, Andy finished inside the Top 30 in the tournament, which was good enough to earn his card.
