Q Golf - Official online magazine for Golf Queensland Summer 2012 | Page 20

Getting your game into

Shape for Summer

with Golf Queensland
Head Coach, Tony Meyer

With summer upon us for another year, it is the perfect opportunity to
improve our games with a little extra practice that summer time brings.
One of the questions I often get asked from club level golfers
is how can they improve their games and what components of
their golf should they be practicing.

and weaknesses is with your local PGA professional.
He/she will be able to quickly identify the components of your
game that will give the largest benefit to your scores.

Let’s start with exactly what practice is for. We practice to train,
acquire, or polish a new skill. In golf this might mean to be able
to play a new shot (higher, lower etc.), or to reduce the amount
of movement our golf ball makes in the air (slice, hook), we
might even need to alter our swing due to an injury or to help us
play with less pain.

Once you know the areas of your game you are going to work
on, it is time to begin practicing. Start by setting a goal for your
session, it might be to ensure your set-up posture is sound, or
improving your putting set-up. Your practice session should
only be as long as you can focus on the task without getting to
distracted, so probably no more than an hour and no more than
about 60 balls. To see improvement your practice needs to be
consistent. Once you have identified the areas of improvement
for you, stick with those and you will see better consistency.

Firstly, how do we know what it is we are going to practice?
The game of golf is made up of so many components, each of
which is important to our overall performance. Do we need to
learn to play that high soft lob shot, or is it to hole more putts
from inside 10 feet? Whatever the goal we have for improving
our score, what we first need to do is assess what are our
strengths and weaknesses. If we can identify the areas of the
game that are our weakest, those are the areas we will get the
most amount of improvement and therefore the greatest benefit
to our scores. The best way to identify what are your strengths

20 Q Golf Online Summer 2012

Finally, one of the best ways to practice is to actually get out on
the golf course. Practice all those shots that concern you in the
Saturday comp and spend a little extra time hitting a couple of
shots off that tee that always gives you trouble.
If you can hit some good shots in practice, this will give you
greater confidence when you play your competitive rounds.
Good Golfing.

www.golfqueensland.org.au