President’s Cup As Golf Teaching Aid
Day for day you saw more educational golf watching the President’s Cup than for any regular tour event. Because every match and most every hole is important, you actually get to experience almost the full round for every golfer. From this experience, there’s a lot to be learned about the game of golf.
1. The pros go up & down and run hot & cold just like amateurs – Their range of variation may not be as great, but it’s just as frequent. They have great rounds and poor rounds and good holes and bad holes. How many players putted well in general but then had groups of holes where they were pushing and pulling putts? Lots, or more correctly most! Generally good putters like Steve Stricker and Tim Clarke each had a spectacular putting round surrounded by otherwise good rounds.
2. What separates good players from poorer players? – Their range of play is narrower. Tiger Woods is the best player on the planet right now. He had his ups and downs last week, but his overall range of play was the narrowist. On Saturday morning he was just grinding along until the 17th hole when his team had to have a putt, followed by a classic ‘had to have’ 3 iron to five feet on the 18th hole.
3. Basic golf mechanics apply to all golfers – Take Sean O’Hair’s poor putting this year. Tiger told him to keep his head down a few weeks ago. He finally ingrained it during the President’s cup and had two of his best putting rounds of the year on Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
4. All golfers have confidence problems, not just us amateurs – Adam Scott, Lucas Glover and Sean O’Hair all looked like they were in for root canals for most of the competition. Sean O’Hair’s mindset changed towards the end and he won a great early single’s match on Sunday, helping the U.S. side clinch victory.
You could see the look of doubt in both Adam’s and Lucas’s eyes all week. Lesson for all of us; we’re going to hit plenty of bad shots and good ones. Forget the bad ones immediately. Don’t let every missed shot precipitate a swing change during play. Finish the round and look for improvements on the range afterwords.
5. In most golf competitions, the winners separate themselves from the rest by putting – You’ve got to hit other shots well and keep the ball in play off the tee just to be in the match, but it’s putting that is the final decider. If you want to win your next scramble, make sure someone on your team is excellent with the flat stick.
6. Our mood often dictates how we play and vice versa – The more putts Sticker holed on Saturday afternoon, the bigger his smile and the better the rest of his game. If you start hitting bad shots, the more you can put them out of your mind and smile, the faster your game will turn around.
Related posts:
- President’s Cup Needs Better Production Values
- FedEx and Ryder Cup Notes
- Help For The FedEx Cup
- President’s Cup 2009 – Essential Information
- Tiger Deserves Spot on Ryder Cup Team
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Comments
Truer words were never spoken about golf! After putting, I’d practice on the rest of the short game. Not only will your handicap go down, you relish getting close to the green knowing you’re going to get up and down a good percentage of the time. A good putt carries through to the next hole. A good drive is too easily wiped out by a bad following shot.
There’s no question putting is vitally important. I played a round 2 weeks ago where I hit the ball very average tee to green. However, I still managed to score almost right on my handicap. This was all because I holed a lot of putts and managed to put a decent score together. I think more amateur golfers should spend their time on the practice green instead of the driving range.