Hi Everyone,
A slightly belated Happy New Year to you all and hope you and your families had a fantastic holiday season.
Hopefully you’ve managed to get through the festive season without doing yourself a mischief as I noted that world number one Scottie Scheffler had to withdraw from the opening event in Hawaii (on my bucket list) due to a hand injury preparing the Christmas dinner! Another top player Victor Hovland managed to break his little toe on his bed frame. No details of either mishap and it strikes me neither of them were likely to have been on the cooking sherry, however Christmas can loosen our resolve.
Speaking of resolve, it’s a good time of year to make some resolutions and on the golf front there’s always plenty of options for us to consider.
Equipment - if it’s over 5 years since you’ve had your clubs, it’s well worth having a look at what’s around. I remember chatting to the R&D guys at Ping and they were of the opinion that any real improvement to clubs is around 5-7 years. Ping normally look at new ranges every 18 months - 2 years. Others like Callaway & Taylor Made probably yearly. This is because the market demands something ’new’ as with consumers magpie like minds were always on the lookout for something new and shiny. Certainly with so much technology readily available our new indoor studio at Mid Herts is fantastic. We can use the technology to check out whether something new will help or just stick to what we have. The easy upgrade to make with our kit is our grips. How often depends on how much you play and practice. So 50/60 rounds is about right, which will be a year for most of us, although a couple of months for some 😀
Swing - Now is a great time to have a lesson or two for an MOT on your long and short game. Pop and see your local Pro and now many coaches have studio facilities the lesson isn’t weather dependent (it’s snowing as I write this). Things like our set up and grip can drift away from where they should be, and attending to that prior to it becoming a habit can be really important. I know when I visited a colleague of mine for my tune up, I had started to slump in my posture, making it trickier to swing freely. After a couple of tweaks on the posture change using the video and a mirror the movement felt much freer and I’m looking forward to my golf this year.
Body - If we can be a bit stronger and a little more flexible, it all helps with not only hitting the ball further but improving our stability through the shot. If you’ve not tried Pilates, Yoga or strength training it’s never too late and anything that’s good for our favourite game has got to be worth considering.
Mind - Finally, the mental game is hugely important and as you all know when we have clarity of thought, we have decisiveness of action. There is some great material out there and if you get a chance to hear an old friend of mine Karl Morris give a talk at a venue near you it is well worth attending. On our recent Golf and Coaching trip to Turkey my friend Samantha Head did a terrific mindset session, which we all benefitted from and her online book “Beyond the Swing” is excellent and full of practical tools to improve our mental game.
Enjoy your upcoming golf, whether it’s dodging the snow and showers or in a nice warm studio or on a pleasingly mild course in the Algarve.
All the best
Barney
Fellow of the PGA
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