Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1047605
TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT B Y L A I R D S M A L L Playing Your Best Game laying your best game all the time requires one to play golf. Can you play or post a good score without your best stuff? I have been fortunate to coach Kirk Triplett for the past 30 years. He has had an amaz- ing career on the PGA Tour and now on the PGA Tour Champions. When someone has played professional golf for as long as he has, and at the high- est level, they know they aren't going to hit the ball well all the time. So how do players at the top of their games play well so consistently? An interesting observation is that when Triplett is playing poorly, his greens in regulation (the number of greens he hits) go up. Conversely, when he is playing well and has control of his ball, the greens in regulation numbers go down (he hits less greens). Most players would think this should be the opposite. When he isn't playing well, he knows it, and won't shoot for flagsticks that are cut over a bunker or close to a lake. He strikes the ball to the center of the green, takes his two-putt and moves on – he is a good putter and may get lucky and make a long one. When he has control over his ball, he feels confident in his ability to place the ball in a small area. If he misses the green, he is usually close to the hole and it is an easy up and down. Many players who aren't hitting the ball well will go for the tight pin tucked behind the bunker or close to the lake and end up taking a big number. It takes discipline and a different way of thinking to play the way he does, realizing you don't have your best stuff and still have the ability to shoot a good score! It is one of the main reasons Triplett has had such a long and successful career on the Tour. Jack Nicklaus didn't win 18 Major titles by playing carelessly. He managed his game meticulously and, for the most part, stayed away from the costly double and triple bogeys that can sabotage a major-championship bid. "I don't want to give away any more." he said. "I didn't respond by get- ting more aggressive; I probably was more conservative until I could get my feet back on the ground." Here are some other ideas that can help you avoid the big numbers: Play to your "personal par." One way to keep the wheels from flying off is to have realistic expectations going in the round. If you're an 18 handicap playing a difficult course like Pebble Beach for the first time, you can expect to card some bogeys and double bogeys. Most recreational golfers set par as the gold standard on every hole, even though their hand- icap suggests a bogey, and sometimes even a double, would be a good score for them. Learn to recognize tension: Whenever you hit shots that are aberrations – that are the opposite of what you've hit all day – you know the environment that's causing it. The environment stresses you, and what do golfers do when they're under duress? They tend to tense up in their upper body and grip the club a little tighter during the swing, which pre- vents the clubface from squaring up and leads to the dreaded left-to-right ball. Tension can lead to other types of mistakes, but more often than not, it's a major cause of slicing the ball. Sam Snead used to say, "Dance with who brung ya." If he showed up in the morning with a fade swing, that's what he'd play with on the course, and then he fixed his swing later on the practice range. Well, if you know you're going to slice it, aim more to the left of your target. Knowing you hit the ball one way, anticipate what it's going to do and play the shot that way. Don't attach yourself to the outcome: One of the other causes of tension in the swing is fear of the outcome. To avoid the big numbers and have fun on the course, one needs to play tension-free golf, and you must be able to close the cycle of negativity and stay focused on the shot at hand. I like to use the acronym NATO, or Not Attached To Outcome, to describe this mindset. Remember you're playing a game, and the definition of play is to have fun. Change your attitude, and you'll change your results. Take a "second-shot" mentality: How many times have you hit a bad shot, only to drop a second ball and then, without even pausing to give it a thought, knocked your next shot stiff? Or maybe you hit your tee shot out of bounds, and after re-teeing it, you smacked the next drive down the center of the fairway? It happens all the time, right? One of the reasons this happens so frequently is because, with the second shot, P 82 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 8