He runs his thumb along the edge. He shifts it from hand to hand. He turns it over, feeling the weight distribution. Then he sets it down and says, “It doesn’t feel right.”

The engineers are confused. The technology is revolutionary. The interface is groundbreaking. But Jobs isn’t thinking about that right now. He’s thinking about something much more fundamental—how this device feels in a human hand.

Over the next six months, Apple went through dozens of prototypes. Different materials, different curves, different weights. Jobs would hold each one for maybe thirty seconds, then either nod approval or shake his head. “It needs to feel inevitable,” he kept saying. “Like it was meant to be held.”

Finally, one day, Jobs picked up a prototype, held it for his usual few seconds, and smiled. “This is it,” he said. “This feels right.”

That feel-based decision—that intuitive sense of rightness—led to the most successful product launch in history. Jobs trusted his hands, his instincts, his feel. And it changed the world.

Now, you might be wondering what Steve Jobs and the iPhone have to do with your golf game. Everything, actually. Because what Jobs understood—what every great golfer understands—is that feel isn’t some mystical gift. It’s a skill. And like any skill, you can train it, develop it, and get better at it.

Links: 

Drills: https://bettergolfacademy.com/feel
Website: https://bettergolfacademy.com
Instagram: @bettergolfacademy
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterGolfAcademy
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bettergolf.academy
Contact Me: https://bettergolfacademy.com/hello
Subscribe to Daily Golf News from me: https://bettergolfacademy.substack.com/

The post Feel is a Skill appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

But here’s where it gets interesting. There’s a prophecy. An oracle had proclaimed that whoever could untie this knot would become the ruler of all Asia. ALL of Asia. Think about that for a second – we’re talking about dominion over the largest, richest empire the world had ever known.

For generations, the most brilliant scholars, the wisest philosophers, the most skilled craftsmen had come to study this knot. They would spend days, weeks, even months analyzing every twist and turn. They’d trace each loop with their fingers, trying to understand the pattern. They’d bring tools, measuring devices, diagrams. Some would camp out beside the knot for entire seasons, convinced they were on the verge of discovering the secret sequence that would unravel the whole thing.

But every single one of them failed. The knot remained tied, mocking their efforts, growing more legendary with each failed attempt. So now here comes Alexander. Word has spread through his army about this famous knot and its prophecy. His generals are probably thinking, “Great, now our fearless leader is going to waste weeks trying to solve some ancient puzzle when we could be conquering actual cities.”

Alexander approaches the cart. The crowd gathers – locals, soldiers, scholars who had been studying the knot for years. Everyone falls silent as this young Macedonian king examines the knot that had defeated the greatest minds of the age.
He walks around it slowly, studying it from every angle. You can almost hear the crowd holding its breath. The scholars are probably thinking, “Okay, let’s see what this hotshot military genius thinks he can figure out that we couldn’t.”

Alexander stops. He stares at the knot for a long moment. And then… he does something that shocks everyone.

He draws his sword.

The crowd gasps. The scholars start shouting, “Wait! You can’t just—”

SLICE.

With one decisive stroke, Alexander cuts right through the center of the knot. The rope falls away in pieces. The knot that had stumped the greatest minds for centuries is destroyed in a single moment of bold action.

The crowd erupts. Some are cheering. Others are outraged. “That’s cheating!” they cry. “That’s not how you untie a knot!”

But Alexander puts away his sword and calmly says, “The oracle said whoever could loose the knot would rule Asia. It never said how.”

And you know what? History proved him right. Alexander went on to create the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen, stretching from Greece to India.

Now, what the heck does this have to do with golf?

Everything.

Because standing over a putt, most of us are exactly like those ancient scholars. We’re analyzing every possible break, second-guessing every read, looking for the perfect solution to an impossibly complex puzzle. Meanwhile, the great putters? They’re like Alexander. They see their line, they commit to it completely, and they execute with unwavering confidence.

Links: 

Drills: https://bettergolfacademy.com/putting
Website: https://bettergolfacademy.com
Instagram: @bettergolfacademy
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterGolfAcademy
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bettergolf.academy
Contact Me: https://bettergolfacademy.com/hello
Subscribe to Daily Golf News from me: https://bettergolfacademy.substack.com/

The post Three Pillars of Putting appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

“Golf – for some, it’s just a game. A way to kill time between beers and bad decisions. But for you? It’s different. It’s a thing that quiets the noise. Not because it’s easy. God no. Golf is a bastard. Unforgiving. Addictive. Beautiful… in the way storms are beautiful – majestic, powerful, and fully capable of ruining your day.

But still, you show up.

Because somewhere between the backswing and the follow-through, something clicks. Something settles. The chaos outside the ropes gets put on mute. You breathe different. Slower. On purpose. Every round is a self-portrait—drawn in cuts and fades, in tempo and trust. You shape shots like brushstrokes. Some are ugly, Some are art. All of them are yours. You don’t chase the scorecard anymore. You chase the feeling. The one swing that feels like truth.

And if you’re lucky – really lucky – you get it once or twice a round. Just enough to bring you back. Just enough to believe that next time, it might all line up.

It’s not just sport. It’s meditation with consequences. It’s therapy without the couch. It’s church with worse music and better clothes.

You walk off the 18th not always proud, but always honest. And in a world built on bullshit and filters, that’s worth something.

It breaks you just enough to keep you humble. And heals you just enough to make you hope.”

~Dan Evans

Links: 

Dan Evan’s Quote: Instagram @dansgolfworld
Drills: https://bettergolfacademy.com/peace
Website: https://bettergolfacademy.com
Instagram: @bettergolfacademy
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterGolfAcademy
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bettergolf.academy
Contact Me: https://bettergolfacademy.com/hello
Subscribe to Daily Golf News from me: https://bettergolfacademy.substack.com/

The post Playing Your Way To Peace appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Well, during this one-day, 36-hole qualifying, you’ll get to experience a lot of drama. We all start out with jittery nerves. I mean, we’ve been practicing and anticipating this day, and when it finally gets here, we are all full of nervous energy. You can sense it while quietly warming up on the driving range and hitting some chips and putts on the practice green for feel. No one is talking, no one is smiling, everyone is just serious, tired because it is early, and anticipating having their best round and passing this thing. And trust me, with this type of energy, anything can happen, and it does. Ask me how many tap-in putts I missed; there are three that I can remember. And I don’t mean like a 2-footer, I mean like a tap-in 2-inch putt that I lean over to tap in and miss. I remember one of the players I was playing with looked over at me and said, “Please don’t do that again.” I think that me doing that made him even more freaked out. Dude, you are freaked out? How do you think I feel?

I can’t forget this one hole, watching one of the guys that I was playing with. Let’s call him Jim. You can tell Jim has game. I mean, we all do in some way; if we’ve never broke 80, we wouldn’t be out here. Anyways, he was a long hitter and had great touch around the greens. I would guess he was probably a 4 or 5 handicap.

On a par 4, 390 yards with a hazard on the left and a hazard on the right…he made an errant shot off the tee. I mean, it wasn’t that bad. It was a pull draw, started off the left of the fairway, and it rolled into the hazard area. We all went over there to look for his ball, but unfortunately, we couldn’t find it. He went back to the tee box to re-tee the shot, now, he’s hitting 3. With this heavy pressure to somehow walk away with a maximum double bogey and a possible bogey, he now pushed-faded his drive to the right. But this time, we found the ball. It was in the weird hazard area surrounded by rocks, loose wood chips, and mostly dirt, but his lie wasn’t horrible. And he had a clear swing with no obstructions on his backswing…but, honestly, it wasn’t an ideal lie or a shot to go for the green, which was about 160 out at this point. I knew what he was thinking though, I need a miracle. I need to get this shot on the green. He took a deep breath and, with all his focus and might, he made a perfect swing. But with a “not so ideal” lie off the dirt, it stayed low and off to the right of the fairway, in the dirt again. And this is where he came unglued. He hit the shot again, and it went like 3 feet in front of him. He hit it again, and another 10 feet, he hit it again, and it flew over the green. To top it off, when he finally made it on the green, he three-putted. He got an 11 on the hole. Seven over par. The hope in his eye dissipated quickly…he leaned forward, bent down, put his hands on his knees, his head down. He stayed in the position for a long time. He knew it was over. He can’t recover an 11 on a hole. We didn’t have that many holes left. And if we did have enough holes, it probably didn’t matter, his spirit was broken. He was broken. We were all broken.

Links:

LMG Golf Clubs: https://liquidmetalsgroup.com
Drills: https://bettergolfacademy.com/blowup
Website: https://bettergolfacademy.com
Instagram: @bettergolfacademy
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterGolfAcademy
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bettergolf.academy
Contact Me: https://bettergolfacademy.com/hello
Subscribe to Daily Golf News from me: https://bettergolfacademy.substack.com/

The post How To Avoid Blow Up Holes appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

There was this kid, she was maybe 12 or so. Her swing was absolutely flawless. And was hitting the ball, shot after shot to perfection. I was hitting the rest of my bucket so, I wasn’t paying that much of attention other than being in awe of her talent and the beauty of her swing.

I also couldn’t ignore her dad who was standing behind her watching her every move with his arms crossed. I don’t love that, but whatever…I see that a lot of that on this course. And in some way, I see it as a positive…parents supporting their kids love for the game, how can you go wrong?

Few minutes into it, I noticed a bit of a commotion. The dad was standing in front of her and was very angry at something. His voice kept on getting louder and louder, and I thought maybe she got in trouble for something non-golf related. But, as i was paying attention to the hand motions and his physical gestures, he was mad at something she wasn’t doing right with her swing. In fact, he was so angry about it that she started to cry. She had her head down, and kept wiping her tears that was streaming down her face. The dad was relentless. I couldn’t understand what he was saying but, all I knew from this scene was that something wasn’t right.

It got to a point where it seemed almost abusive. So, I argued in the back of my mind if I should walk over and say “is everything okay?”. But I didn’t. Eventually, he walked away and she started hitting the ball again. But this time, she’s just going through the motions, the life and joy had left her and I felt her sadness. I said to myself, bro, what are you doing? What is the matter with you? Why…why would you do such a thing, in front of all these people, to your own child?

The post Golf Parenting Done Right appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

He climbed a 3,000-foot rock wall in Yosemite called El Capitan at 31 years of age. Not only that, he did it without any ropes, harnesses, or a net. What does that mean? It means that if he made a simple error or slipped on his footing during the climb, he would most likely fall to his death. It’s one of the most extremely insane, audacious achievements in human history. In fact, some people call it “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever.” And on a side note, it took him 3 hours, 56 minutes, and to this day, he is the ONLY climber to free solo El Capitan.

So, I was thinking…3 hours, 56 minutes…that’s like 4 hours. You know what 4 hours sounds like and reminds me of? An ideal round of golf. So, how about 18 holes of pure, extremely insane, audacious achievements…I mean, Alex Honnold only had to worry about falling to his death once; we get to experience that special kind of terror 18 times per round.  And we willingly subject ourselves to 4 hours of emotional torture every weekend, then come back for more…who’s really the crazy one? And “greatest athletic feats of any kind, ever?” Whatever.

Alex said this…”3000 feet of climbing represents thousands of distinct hand and foot movements, many of the moves I knew through sheer repetition. I climbed El Cap 50 times over the previous decade with a rope. But also, I would spend the day from the summit with 1000 feet of rope, finding the sequence secure and repeatable, and I had to memorize them. I had to make sure that they were so deeply ingrained within me that there was no possibility of error.”

He did it so many times that he said it became easy. For him, it was like taking a walk in the park.

The post Strokes Gained 101 appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Nothing…I mean, nothing prepares you for the moment…the very moment you’ve been dreaming about your entire life comes down to a three-foot putt, and you drain it for the win. Not just a win, but a win for The Masters. And just The Masters, but for a career grand slam win which only 5 others have accomplished in the history of this earth…which, you’ve been longing for last 11 years of your life.

It all started when Rory McIlroy’s parents captured the moment on home video as a three-year-old just practicing his swing in the living room of the family home. Have you guys seen that? It’s pretty adorable. At the age of nine, Rory appeared on TV, chipping golf balls into a washing machine. His passion for the game was nurtured by his day Gerry, who I heard would bring him to the course in his stroller. Recognizing his talent, his parents, Gerry and Rosie, took second jobs to fund their son’s career.

Well, guess what? It paid off. Rory, at age 22, became the world’s number one golfer and, at age 25, has won four major championships. So, what’s the problem? Well, then came the drought. Not just a drought for a few years. But, 11 years of it. And what else compounded the problem? There’s this thing called a Grand Slam, which is winning all four major championships (The Masters, PGA Championship, US Open, and the Open Championship). At this point, he’s won almost all of them, he even won the PGA Championship twice. He just hasn’t won the most significant, the greatest, the most desirable of all majors, The Masters. Only five golfers in the history of the world have accomplished this. He would be the sixth. If…only if he can fricken win one. Come one Rory, it’s been 11 years.

Not only that, but let me give you a quick timeline, starting in 2011, when he was 21. Which came the most famous of Rory’s heartbreaks at Augusta National, he was leading by three shots making the turn in the final round, then disaster struck. McIlroy pulled his shot left into the cabins that are hidden left of the 10th tee. He found the ball but couldn’t recover, making a triple-bogey. Then, 2014, it was his top-10 finish but he couldn’t get it done. 2015, finished fourth. 2016, started strong in the lead group on Saturday, but blew the lead in windy conditions finishing 10th. 2018, leading the tournament going into the final round, then blowing his lead, ending up six back from the leader. 2022, he made a run and even shot his career-best-round, but still came short by three strokes of Scottie Scheffler..however…this final round gave hope to his pursuit for The Master’s win, this began his rebuilding of his confidence. Then 2023 came, the momentum did not continue. He miss the cut and in complete defeat, he even withdrew from the following tournament. Then, continuing in his defeat, he finishes 22nd, barely making the cut.

Then came 2025. Is this the year? Well, if you watched it, you got to witness another heartbreak; as he was leading the final round by two strokes, his competitor Justin Rose, a 44-year-old, finished his round at -11. Rory is at -12 going into the last hole. Hits an ideal drive, and has a short wedge to the hole, all he needs to do is get it on the green and two-putt for victory. But in his Rory fashion, we all gasped as he put it in the greenside bunker. But, not to worry, he’s a master craftsman from the bunker, he’ll put it close for an up-and-down par for the victory. He hit it clean out of the bunker, leaving it 5 feet short. Will he make the short 5 footer for victory? No, he pulls it left and forces a playoff with Justin Rose. This could be yet just another soul-piercing loss. But we still have hope, he HAS to win the sudden-death playoff.

Playing the 18th hole again, their first playoff hole, Justin Rose knocks his second shot close, 15 feet, a simple birdie distance. With similar shot he faced previously which he errored into the bunker, is a vivid memory that he cannot wash away, it’s staring him down in his face as he’s ready to hit the almost exact same shot, into the exact same pin position. With The Masters, and the History of the Grand Slam, the critics, the fans, his peers, his own inner core of his identity weighing on the line, he takes a swing. And, you won’t believe what happens next.

The post What Dreams Are Made Of appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

My dad and I started golf around the same time. He encouraged it. He bought me a set of clubs and a set for himself, and we learned by hitting plastic balls in our backyard and eventually made it out to the course. I was always better than him. But it was never a competition; we were just happy to be out there and playing together.

I think that, as I started playing on the high school team, I started to develop some additional skills and shots that I didn’t have before. I was becoming a legit player, and my scores began showing it. I was creating some memorable shots around the green, and my short game started to blossom. I was playing more confidently to the point where I felt I passed my dad’s level by leaps and bounds.

Then, something very tragic happened. I will never forget this one Saturday when we were playing together. We were on the eighth hole. It was a pretty interesting hole. It was about 360 yards, and a big lake on the right side of the fairway crept into the fairway around 100 yards from the green. So, if you hit it in the middle of the fairway pretty decent, you have about a 125-yard shot over the water for your second shot. For some reason, I was struggling with my wedge shots that day. From hole number one all the way to hole number eight, even simple wedge shots were hit fat or pulled or bladed. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t hit it pure. I had a few previous shots that upset me, and after yelling out some profanities and smashing the wedge into the ground…I thought I was over it. So fricking frustrating. On my second shot of the eight-hole is when the tragedy struck. I chunked the ball into the lake right in front of me. That wasn’t the tragedy. How I reacted and what I did forever will define my worst moment in golf.

Maybe it was a built-up anger brewing in my soul from the previous mistakes; whatever it was, I blew up. I turned bright red, and veins popped out of my neck. I grabbed the bag; my right hand gripped the top of the bag, and my left gripped the bottom. I held the bag horizontally and started running forward. With all my strength and might, I threw it as far as I could towards the lake. I wish I could have seen myself at the time.

I remember the bag flowing in the air; some clubs stayed in, some were halfway out, and the rest flew out of the bag, creating their own flight path. I didn’t care where it landed and what happened to the clubs or the bag. I just walked past the bags and the scattered clubs on the ground. I walked past hole nine and directly to the clubhouse restaurant. I sat down on the table, fuming.

My dad arrived about 10 minutes later. You can see the disappointment in his eyes. He held his bag in one hand and mine in the other. He had picked them all up and carried them in. He didn’t say a word to me. We just walked silently to the car. I followed him from behind. Halfway home, he finally broke the silence. “Don’t do that again.” I nodded.

And I never did it again.

The post How to Control Your Rage appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Basically, Robin Williams plays Dr. Sean Maguire, a therapist who helps Matt Damon’s character named Will Hunting, a brilliant but very troubled young man that deals with his trauma. Okay, picture this scene, they are both talking to each other about their past and the abuse they’ve suffered through, and it’s a very intense and conversation, and Dr. Sean Maguire says while looking through his files of history of abuse, he walks closer to him and says “you see all this? it’s not your fault”. Will, looks at him and looks down and says quietly, “yeah, I know that.” “Look at me son,” Dr. says, and he looks at him…”it’s not your fault”, he repeats. Again, “I know” he says, looking a bit annoyed. He says it again, “it’s not your fault”, “I know”, “No, you don’t, it’s not your fault” and he walks closer to him. In fact, during this scene, he repeats “it’s not your fault” 9 times. Until…finally, Will breaks down in tears as Sean comforts him and they stand embracing each other. This scene again is considered one of the most impactful and deeply emotional part in the film or film of all time…showcasing the power of empathy and the power of vulnerability and breakthrough. But why does it hit so hard? And why does it take repetition? Because, repetition breaks down resistance. The phrase “it’s not your fault”, which it’s each repetition, wore away his emotional armor (you like that? Emotional armor…I came up with that), which forced him to confront his buried pain.

There’s something very powerful about repetition. The concept of repetition in golf is about layering intentional repeated motion to wire skills into your subconscious. And that repetition can break down resistance…it can wear away your problem areas, it can re-program your bad    habits and flaws, repetition can do some amazing things to your skills. Remember the concept of 10,000 hours? It says that if you do something over and over for 10,000 hours, you will become an expert in whatever that you are repeating.

But, here’s the problem. Repetition is a double-edged sword. The 10,000 hour rule is a lie, because according to the study, the mere repetition doesn’t create mastery – but varied, challenged-based repetition does. Meaning, you hitting perfect 7 iron shots off the perfect lie 10 times in a row is not practicing mastery, it’s performing. The real and true mastery of your 7 iron will come with different type of practice. And I am so excited to tell you all about it. So, stay tuned.

The post Stop Practicing Like a Robot appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Funny story from a book I am reading told from the author who is a licensed clinical psychologist working with athletes. He had an elite college athlete client that was in the mist of a brutal period of frustration and anger that he felt could not possibly get any worse. He was in a slump of epic proportions and was so miserable that he worried he would never return to an acceptable level of play. Quitting the game was a serious option.

Get this…the player described his state of mind as cluttered, overwhelmed, and lost. So, as a clinical psychologist, they are great at asking questions about the situation, so he did. The question? “Do you think you suck? The answer, “Suck? Doc, I am the Mayor of Suckville!” And you know what he did? He did what a clinical psychologist would do when he hears something so epic, he wrote a book. And he titled it “Break Free From Suckville” and he basically breaks down why it happens and how it can get fixed.

So, I got a question for you? Do you think you suck? Are you living in Suckville? Or better yet, Are you the mayor? And also, are you curious in how you got there? Are you more curious in how in the heck do I pack my bags and get the hell out of there? Stay tuned.

The post How To Get Out Of A Slump appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Winning all four Grand Slam tournaments in a single year is called a Calendar Grand Slam, which is one of the rarest achievements in tennis. (There are only 2 men and 3 women that’s accomplished that so far in history. Winning all four over the course of a career is called a Career Grand Slam. Which is also a crazy accomplishment, 

Roger Federer won 20 Grand Slam titles in his career…meaning, he has won all four, twenty times. placing him among the most successful players in tennis history. His consistency across different surfaces and his ability to perform under pressure made him one of the most dominant figures in the sport.

Beyond his on-court achievements, Federer has made significant contributions to the sport and society. He established the Roger Federer Foundation, which focuses on improving education for children in Africa and Switzerland. His philanthropic efforts and global influence have solidified his status as a role model and ambassador for tennis.

So what? Why are we talking about tennis so much?

Well, in his 2024 speech at Dartmouth College, Federer talked about something that piqued my interest…me, who has never played tennis competitively before, and me, who had to look up what a grand slam was. I thought it had to do with pancakes from the Denny’s menu. 

You know what Federer talked about? He talked about how he won 80 percentage of his matches in his career. That makes sense, that’s how he became so well revered and known. But, he said something interesting, he asked, out of all those matches I’ve won, do you know what percentage of the points I won of those matches? Only 54%.

This means that even though Federer won the majority of his matches, he barely won more than half of the total points he played. In other words, he lost 46% of the points in those matches yet still managed to come out victorious overall. 

Isn’t that interesting? Especially when you put it into the context of golf. Winning doesn’t require perfection. Even the best players in the world hit it in the water, or out of bounds, or get bogeys, and sometimes, double bogeys…but what sets them apart is their ability to not dwell, but to stay focused, adapt, and perform when it matters most. 

Resilience—how to bounce back from tough moments and keep moving forward. That’s exactly what this episode is going to be about: not letting a bad shot ruin your game or your mindset. Federer’s career is full of examples of how to stay focused, let go of mistakes, and keep striving for greatness. He’s the perfect example of why it’s so important to move on and focus on the next shot.

The post Learning Not To Dwell appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Is this you? You’ve made a couple of great putts on the front 9. One was about a 12 footer for birdie on hole number 1, right off the bat, what an explosive start. And the other was on number 4 – an eight footer – a right to left hard break. You stroked it perfectly, the ball left the putter surfact on the line you’ve intended and the speed was precise, it turned exactly how you’ve visualized it and it landed in the center of the cup. From beginning to the end of the putt, you’ve executed with focus and meticulousness and it paid off. You are pumping your fist, you are getting the glimpse of understanding what it means to be in the state of the flow – in the zone – completely locked it. In fact, on hole number 8, you actually chipped a shot in. It’s the best 9 you’ve ever played. You know this.

Now the back 9 starts, and you are evaluating the front 9 round in your head, just going over the enormous amount of luck and good fortune you’ve experienced. And now you are thinking to yourself, what are the odds of me doing that again? Surely, my luck has now ran out. I mean, I could do it again, but the odds are against me.

Doubt sets in, it’s not that you are anticipating something bad to happen, but you are somewhat accepting the fact that there is a possibility that a double bogey is lurking around the corner. In fact, you are thinking there is a huge percentage of possibility. 

Have you ever played with someone that’s having a streak of pars and birdies. He or she is playing out of his/her mind, and you are jotting down the score on the scorecard, and what do you whisper to yourself? Wow, he or she’s having an amazing round, There’s no way I am going to say anything out loud. 

Why?

Some of us will say, because we’ll jinx it.  Meaning, we will cause the player to experience bad luck. But, you know what we are really saying? We don’t want to proclaim the positivity that’s going on right now, because we will now flood their mind with doubt. 

Because, we are all mathematicians at the core of our being. We are calculating the odds. And according to our calculations, the odds of us screwing up this incredible round is very very high since we just already beat the odds of playing the front 9 flawlessly. In order for me to flawlessly play both 9’s, that’s going to take a miracle. 

And now, our mind has shifted. It went from “I am in the zone” to “I wonder when this zone will end?” Because, it will end. And the sad part is that you start playing differently, you start playing defensively, you want to protect your front 9 as much as possible and you eventually crumble. Self fulfilling prophecy. Hello?

Why does this happen? This is cause from your own limited belief, and they all stem from the same place: your brains’ desire to protect you from your future pain. Listen to me., THIS impacts your ability to play your game to the fullest level. Listen again,This, this limited belief can impact your ability to live your life to the fullest.

Episode Links:

• Three Preshot Routine Drills: https://bettergolfacademy.com/belief
• Website: https://bettergolfacademy.com
• Instagram: @bettergolfacademy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterGolfAcademy
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bettergolf.academy
• Contact Me: https://bettergolfacademy.com/hello

The post Overcoming Limiting Beliefs appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

A Lim Kim became a professional in 2013 as a teenager and won a bunch of tournaments. Then in 2020, she came on to the LPGA scene, made a debut at the US Women’s Open – and she won it – it was a major by the way. Since then, she’s won 2 more tournaments…all that to say, she’s awesome. She’s one of the top players on the LPGA and is now ranked 34th in the Women’s World Golf Rankings. And so what? Well, she uses an AimPoint method for her putting. 

If you are not familiar with AimPoint, it’s a green-reading system that helps golfers accurately read slopes and breaks by using their feet. They use their feet to sense the incline. You have probably seen it before, they stand their with their feet wide open, straddling the line of putt between your ball and the hole… and kinda rock back and forth to feel the incline. For the record, I tried this, and I can’t quite feel it yet. 

So, what’s the controversy? Well, there has been a lot of talk on the PGA and LPGA tour about slow play, and few players suggested that this AimPoint method is one of the causes of slow play and they need to take a closer look and possibly outlaw this method. In fact, Lucas Glover (a former US Open champion) said that “AimPoint” needs to be banned because it slows down play. He also said that AimPoint is rude and that it hasn’t helped any player make more putts. Him saying “rude” is referring to players stomping around with their feet.

Okay, let me put this all together. During the 3rd round of the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament, A Lim Kim had a birdie putt that was a little bit over a foot away from the hole. Instead of walking up and tapping the ball in, she went through her full routine, and they caught the picture of her standing between the hole and the ball doing the AimPoint. And the caption read “Golf has lost its way”, or from Dottie Pepper herself (a influential TV Golf Broadcaster) she posted the same image with the comment “we’ve lost the plot” And the social media, as you can imagine went nuts. People were commenting, “This is got to be a joke”, “how can this possibly help her 1 foot putt”, “this is a pace of play nightmare” “this needs to go” “this is absolutely ridiculous and not necessary,” etc.

But I am here to give you a whole different perspective. And for all those hating on AimPoint, maybe this, this is not about AimPoint at all. But it’s more about a golfer committed to her putting pre-shot routine to calm her nerves. Maybe it’s more about a golfer who has doubled down on creating a process and doing it before every shot no matter what, maybe it’s more about a golfer who understands what it takes to reduce tension by sticking to her routine, maybe it’s more about a golfer who honors discipline over looking ridiculous. Maybe, WE have it all wrong.

Episode Links:

• Three Preshot Routine Drills: https://bettergolfacademy.com/routine
• Website: https://bettergolfacademy.com
• Instagram: @bettergolfacademy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterGolfAcademy
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bettergolf.academy
• Contact Me: https://bettergolfacademy.com/hello
• Warwick Knowledge Centre Study
• The Secret Benefits of Routines
• Jordan Spieth’s Preshot Routine
• Tiger Wood’s Preshot Routine

The post Elite Golfers Do This Before Every Shot appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Are you losing strokes because of poor chipping? Most golfers focus on their long game but ignore their short game. In this episode, we’ll show you why that’s a huge mistake—and how to fix it!

Wanna make a bet? I’ll be willing to bet that right now, this very moment that you are listening, if I told you to go to the nearest driving range, put the ball down on the grass, and take your favorite wedge that you chip with and take your normal, comfortable, default chip swing…just your natural chip shot, ½ swing, ¾ swing, whatever. This is the shot that you would make if you didn’t have a target and you want to just warm up your chipping to get a feel. You would hit 2 or 3 the same way. And it would probably land around the same area without you even thinking about it. I bet you don’t know how far you just hit. Not to the exact yard, but approximately, maybe like plus/minus 3-5 yards, let’s say. Have you ever measured it?

But I am also willing to bet that you have a pretty good idea how far your 7 iron goes…plus/minus five yards, your 8 iron, your 5 iron even…and I bet you even measured how far you can hit your driver as welll. You actually might know that to the yard. In fact, you might know the longest distance you drove it the last round as well as your average. 

Am I right about the chip shot yardage? If not, you are a small percentage of golfers that have figured it out. You are a small percentage of the elite or on your way to being an elite golfer…I am so proud of you.

What’s my point? My point is that most of us don’t give a crap about our chipping game as we should. Well, let me take that back. Maybe you give a crap but…you don’t show it. 

How do I know? Because I am the same way. When I see someone chipping on a driving range, I think to myself, yo, you are wasting your money right now; save those precious range balls for real swing practice…learning to hit your mid irons pure, practice something that really matters…figuring out how to not slice your driver, figure out how to hit your 3 wood off the perfect lie straight and long so you get your eagle opportunity on a par 5,  figure out how to hit that 6 iron consistent and long. You gotta figure that out first to start scoring low. WRONG!

It’s quite the opposite. In this episode, I am going to help you to completely flip your thinking to realizing that playing better golf is anchored on your chipping game, not anything else. And I know you’ve heard this many times before. But I am also going to tell you why you don’t actually believe it. Because if you did, you would be working on your chipping game more than anything else, and you don’t. You really don’t. And you know what? They don’t want you to get better either? Who’s they? You know…them. Those people that design golf courses and run pro shops. The money is in selling range balls and tee times…and yes, practice greens don’t make money are a necessity, but most of them have “no chipping” signs on them. How many courses really dedicate their facilities to the most important practice of all…the chipping greens? There are very few courses that offer that; why? Because maybe they don’t believe it’s that crucial for bettering our game. 

But I am telling you this, a great golfer must not only accept the significance, power, and value of the chipping game, but a great golfer must learn to relish and be obsessed with getting the ball into the hole more than a mere pure ball-striking skill. You have go be more obsessed with getting that ball into the hole than hitting your mid-irons pure.

The post Stop Wasting Strokes appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

How do I know? Because I’ve been doing it for over 20 years and everyone makes fun of me that I am doing it. And I only know very few players that do this. But the ones that do it…oh man…there’s something so special about them…not only that, they actually improve. Did you hear what I said? They ACTUALLY improve.

Raise your hand if you’ve been playing golf for over 10+ years and see very little improvement in your game. You figure out something, and something else goes to crap, and it’s always a teetter tottering act. Like a fricken see-saw. Up and down, up and down and it goes nowhere. I want to convince you that doing this thing that I am going to mention will take you in a whole new direction in your game. A clear, concise, and proven method that will help you set goals and achieve them. Are you ready to hear what I want you to start doing? Okay, here it is…

I want to convince you to start logging your golf data from now on.

Hello? Are you still here?

Log your golf data from now on. I am not only going to teach you how to do it, but more importantly, why you should do it. And, of course, I will teach you what to analyze and how to set goals to chip away at it to make small gains…to eventually transform your game. I have data to prove that keeping data works to improve your game. Did you get that? I have data to prove your data. Oh man, I am hilarious.

The post What Gets Measured Gets Mastered appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

As I take my trip back and forth from our table to the buffet area… I’ve noticed something very fascinating to me. 

Since the bowl was on a smaller scale, I scooped up the soup all the way to the rim of the bowl. This required a very delicate balancing to make it all the way to my table without spilling a drop. In fact, lunch time is busy, and not only do I have to make sure that the soup won’t spill, but i have to walk fast, and maneuver around the people. Not only that…most of the time, my wife would say as I was getting up to go get more, can you get me another bowl as well? So, not only I am doing the delicate balancing act back to the table, I am doing the delicate balancing of the 2 bowls of soup – one in each hand, walking fast, manoeuvering around the people, and NOT spilling a drop. Do you even understand the complexity of this monumental task? 

Ask I look at my hand, it’s in constant motion doing the balancing. And as I am moving my feet and my body is inconsistently bobbing up and down, my hand is somehow anticipating the bumpy ride for the soup and it’s in full overdrive signaling the nerves and balancing and rebalancing the bowl. It’s absolutely fascinating. 

And you know what? I am not controlling any of it? How can I? How can I possibly be that intricately aware and even anticipate the chaos of the body movement and the environment? 

I am going to tell you this right now that what is happening and has happened to prepare for this significant task of delivering soup to my table will blow our minds. We will only understand a fraction of what’s actually going on. And it involves not only our balancing skills, but it involves our conscious mind, our subconscious mind, our muscles, our nerves, our brain, our memory and our neural pathways…so many more things we do not even know…and it all works together while you are not even thinking about it.

Not to brag, but I did it with ease. In fact, it was so easy, it was like I was just taking a nice stroll in the park..and this CAN be your golf swing from now on if you understand how it all works and not interfere with the natural instinct of how your body responds and executes. This can be your golf sw  ing from now on…not focusing or even thinking about the mechanics but trusting and letting go. 

Here’s a quote from Dr. Bob Rotella, who is a pioneering sports psychologist and best-selling author who has revolutionized the mental game of golf. He says this “Once you’ve decided on your shot, let it go. Your subconscious mind will take care of the rest.”. We are going to break thisv down, and once we break it down…this is going to give you a fresh perspective on your golf game and you are going to say…why didn’t I know this already? And not that i know this, it’s going to change everything!!

The post Mastering Your Subconscious Mind appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

So, on the day I want to play, I would check in at the pro shop as a single, walk up to the first tee, and make it a game to join a group of strangers (mostly adults) whose first impression of me was that I’d never played before. 

“Do you mind if I join you guys?” I see the judgment in their eyes as they turn and look up and down to check out my fit, my tennis shoes, non-branded golf bag, and clubs, and hesitate but eventually agree. I whispered to myself, “Haha, watch this,” as I launched my drive down the middle of the fairway, and as it rolled past their wimpy grandpa shots…(no offense to grandpas) I would then say to myself, you are in for a treat. I will school all of you in this game and make you regret you judged me. 

Hahaha. I guess I had a little chip on my shoulder…dang; who hurt me? But, looking back, I really think I identified myself as an unrefined yet average, talented young Asian kid with big dreams and unlimited potential. 

So, I have an interesting question for you. Who are you? What do you think about yourself? I mean, honestly, think about yourself. I mean as a golfer, of course. Where do you fit in this infrastructure of the golf world of identities? Do you know who you are? And why does it even matter?

Because your self-image, your self-perception, and your idea of what type of golfer you are will determine your performance. You need to know and be convinced that your self-image and your performance are equal. So, in order to change your performance, you need to change your habits and your attitude…and this will help you increase your performance on and off the course. And if you are right now asking yourself, “Can we fundamentally change the perception of who we are as a golfer?” the answer is resounding “YES”…so the real question is…how??

The post Your Identity Will Be Your Breakthrough in Golf appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

It’s Sunday, the final day, and Dustin Johnson is the man to beat. Coming off an 11-shot victory the week before, he’s leading the FedEx Cup rankings and seems untouchable. But golf is unpredictable, and Jon Rahm has been quietly climbing the leaderboard all weekend, despite a penalty the day before for picking up his ball without marking it.

The final hole of regulation begins, and Dustin Johnson faces a daunting 45-foot birdie putt on the 18th green. The odds of sinking it are slim, but this is DJ we’re talking about—one of the most clutch players in golf. He lines up the putt, strikes it perfectly, and watches as the ball glides down the ridge and drops into the hole. The crowd—well, what crowd there was during the pandemic—erupts.

But this story isn’t over. While DJ celebrates forcing a playoff, Rahm is on the practice range, preparing for a scenario that seemed almost impossible just moments ago. And then comes his moment.

On the playoff hole—back to the infamous 18th—Rahm faces a putt that’s somehow even more difficult than Johnson’s. A mind-boggling 66 feet, 5 inches, up a slope so steep that he has to aim almost at a 90-degree angle. If it sounds impossible, that’s because it practically is. But Rahm takes a deep breath, trusts his read, and sends the ball rolling.

What happens next feels like it’s straight out of a movie. The ball climbs the ridge, turns, and starts picking up speed down the slope. It kisses the pin and drops into the cup. Rahm’s reaction says it all—arms in the air, mouth wide open in disbelief. Even Johnson, watching from the side, can’t help but laugh in amazement at what he just witnessed.

That putt secured Jon Rahm the win, marking his second PGA Tour victory of the year and the 11th of his career. It also elevated him to the No. 2 spot in the FedEx Cup standings. But more importantly, it reminded the world why golf is so exhilarating—because moments like these, where skill, preparation, and nerves collide, are unforgettable.

Rahm later reflected on the pressure and excitement of that moment, saying, “I think we all want the flashy finish, maybe not the stress that comes with it. But I set out to enjoy even the uncomfortable moments out there today. And man, it was fun.”

Think about it: Rahm and Johnson both made putts most golfers wouldn’t even attempt in a casual round, let alone on one of the toughest courses under the most intense pressure. These shots weren’t just luck—they were the result of years of preparation, practice, and a mental game so strong that neither player flinched in the face of impossible odds.

The post The Secret to Clutch Success appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

This is a real thing. At the elite level of golfers, as they practice on the putting pad, they are understanding the validity of finding the balance point of the ball. You can check this yourself, when you take a ball in a solution of salt water (add just enough salt to get the ball to float), spin the ball in the water and mark the point which ends up on top when it comes to rest. So, what you are doing is that you are identifying a point on the ball surface in line with and connecting the geometric center and the mass center…if you place this spot on top when putting the ball…it should roll on a true path. Don’t want to mess with the salt water? No worries, this is where I went crazy, I bought this spinner which does the similar thing by spinning the ball at 10,000 RPM and LED light indicates when the ball is balanced and ready to mark, and it comes with a built-in alignment cup to create your own line on the ball. Brilliant? Crazy? Stupid? Whatever…I did this.

So, why am I telling you this story?

Because we are talking about focus. And, in order to take focus to a whole new level, here’s a good example of how you can take it too far. Well, I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back I know I did. And I am not going to discount the science behind it and the alignment helping someone to make more putts. But for me, after awhile, it stopped working. And I knew why. I stopped playing “golf”, and started playing “golf swing”. Does that make sense? I was so caught up on the mechanics, the science and the robotic focus and application of putting that I forgot to play golf.

So, as I said before, while I was doing the research on FOCUS, they were all pretty much saying the same thing…and it’s pretty insightful. But, I ran across this amazing article that really hit home for me. The headline read “LACK OF FOCUS IS THE SECRET TO PLAYING GOLF” And here are some points on why I think this is brilliant. Let me preface this though. Focus is good. It’s always been good…for any sport, any activity, for anything that you do. But, focus can hurt you if you are not focusing on the right thing. So, here are some ideas we can or should focus on.

The post Focus Secrets appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Anyways, I still have hope…maybe we can start playing together after we both retire? Right babe? Are you listening? By the way, I can say whatever I want on here because she doesn’t listen to my podcasts. Hahahah!

Introduction:

So…when you ask any golfer – beginner to intermediate to pro…what do you think is required for you to have to play great golf, you know what their answer is? Well, let’s try it out. Let me ask you, what do you think is the number one thing that you think you’ll need to have to play great golf. And I don’t mean things like…a great swing, or a able to read the putts well, or be able to hit it long or having the latest and the greatest equipment…what I mean is what you’ll need to possess as a player. Like a characteristic, emotion or a feeling that will elevate your game and help you play your best.  One word. CONFIDENCE. I don’t think anyone will disagree with any sports or even anything in life…that confidence is a good thing and sometimes, it’s really a game changer. So, I want to spend some time talking about what I think it is, and how we can implement and grow it within us so that we can be at our best.

But first, what is confidence? Well, I think it’s a belief. It’s a belief in yourself that you have the ability to do what is set before you and the ability to do it well. And that you have a pretty realistic sense of that and you feel very secure in that knowledge.

So, is this a born trait? Some people just have it and some people don’t? Or, is this related to some type of childhood upbringing or trauma? You have a parent or coach that told you that you are beyond talented and that you can do anything, vs you grew up everyone telling you that you suck and you’ll never measure up? 

Is confidence innate or is it learned? Well, thanks for asking…such a great question you guys. I think we fundamentally misunderstand it. I think most of us think that it’s a personality trait. 

The Story:

When I was in highschool playing on the team, a new superstar joined our team in the mid year. We lived on the same street and we became awesome friends!! I was still struggling with the game at the time but he wasn’t. He grew up playing the game since he could walk, his dad was a pro at the golf course that they owned in a small little town in Nevada and he lived, loved and breathed golf…and on top of that, he was just so talented. But what intrigued me most about his game wasn’t his ability to hit it long or his perfect follow through or even his incredible good looks…hahaha…all the girls were like…whoa. But, what I remember to this very day is his confidence on the course. He knew something I didn’t. For instance, 10 foot putt on hole number 18 to win the match? No problem. Right in the center of the cup. During a highschool tournament on hole number 1, driving hole with a lake on the right while our entire team, their entire team and the coaches were watching, he would blast one out there…right down the middle…long and straight…with so much confidence. Me? On that hole, during that tournament? I got an 8. 

So, what did he have that I didn’t? Well, for one, he had CONFIDENCE.

So, back to my original question. Is confidence innate or is it learned? Well, I didn’t know this, but after much research, there’s a huge debate in the world of psychology about this very subject. But I love this conclusion by Dr. Jay Lombard, who is one of the founders of a company that is pioneering genetic testing says this. “A lot of confidence in the personality is biologically driven, but it is clearly both nature and nurture.” 

So…IT’S BOTH!!!. 

It’s something that we were given…some are naturally confident but also some are confident due to being immersed in certain environments and they’ve learned the skill to be confident. Isn’t that just awesome? Why? Because, if you are not a confident person, there’s hope for you. It can be learned.

But from doing this research on confidence, I found something else that is more fascinating. This is going to blow your mind!!

There’s this dude named Robert Plomin…a renowned behavioral geneticist that did a study 20 years ago. He took 15,000 sets of twins and followed them from birth into adulthood. They all have identical DNA. He wanted to take a closer look at confidence. So the twins had been given a standard IQ test at age seven and again at age nine. They were also tested academically in math, writing and science. Then, they were asked to rate how confident they were about each of the subjects. After much cross-referencing by the research team, they were struck by their finding. Okay, pause, they used the word “struck” and it made me laugh. In my head, I visualize these mad genetic scientists tirelessly analyzing this data of 15,000 twins over 20 years and all of a sudden “struck” hahaha! Like, I picture this lab type of room with people with white coats and one of the scientists stands up with all this paper in hand and yells…I GOT IT!!

So, what did they find?

The students’ self-perceived ability was a significant predictor of achievement. It was even more important than their IQ. So, this is huge!! Especially when we apply this in golf. Our perceived ability…let’s go back to our original definition of confidence, confidence is your belief in yourself that you have the ability to do what is set before you and the ability to do it well. And that you have a pretty realistic sense of that you feel very secure in that knowledge…that trumps our IQ. It doesn’t matter how smart you really are…it doesn’t matter how great and talented you are…it’s the fact that you believe in yourself that you have the ability to do it.  That’s what matters most when it comes to performance. 

So, what does that mean? It means that when you are faced with a shot that you know how to do, the “how to”  is not as important as you believing that you can do it. Mind blown.

So, as I said before, you might be blessed with awesome genetics of confidence…you are just a confident person and it comes easy to you. Which is awesome, you can step up and sink a clutch putt and pull crazy shots out of the bag at opportune moments…it’s just within your DNA…and trust me, I know athletes like this. But, if you are that person, it’s still good for you to recognize and continue to work on building your confidence in other aspects of your game. And for the rest of us, me included, I need some help on how to level up my confidence now knowing that it’s a key to my golf….my golf success.

So, I did some more study and research and I’ve listed 3 best ways to improve your confidence.

Point #1: Gain experience

Duh, this sounds so logical and simple yet a lot of people miss this. Someone will say, man, I am having a lot of challenges with my chipping. I am duffing it a lot and I feel so much uncertainty when I am addressing the ball for a chip. Instead of trying to think just happy thoughts before the chip thinking that will solve your problem, how about you spend an hour hitting chips over and over again? Gain experience, hit 10, 20, 30. 100 in a row without duffing it. You will naturally gain confidence. You will start to program your mind that the next shot will go the same as your last 30 shots. Keep building that by creating experience. Create experience by repeating. 

Also, I want you to listen to episode 5 on secret sauce to awesome practice. I talk about this deep research on what repetitive practice can do. It’s awesome!! It has something to do with Myelin and your neural pathway. It will really help you gain perspective what “experience” can do for your game.

Point #2: Build Authentic and Healthy Mindset

I really like this because a lot of sports psychology talks about confidence like it’s just a state of mind. Think and act confident and you will become confident. Look at yourself in the mirror everyday and say…”I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me” and people will start liking you. Lol. I think there’s a bit of a truth in that but also I think we are smarter than we think. Meaning, we can’t fool ourselves. Our confidence has to be authentic. If we suck at something, we can’t all of a sudden switch our minds to think that we are good at it. 

So, how do we build an authentic and healthy mindset? We have to put in the work. Some say, confidence is something we have to earn…and guess what, struggling builds confidence. Failure breeds wisdom and maturity. We need to fail and experience discomfort, and over time, build a track record of demonstrated success. Not having confidence is not a personal flaw, it just means that you simply need to put in the work.

So, ok, Hanju…that sounds good and I am totally on board. But, I am doing all that and I still need help being confident out there. I know I can do it, but I also have doubts .  How do I overcome my doubts and play my best?

Point #3: Release Fear

Here’s your final answer. You can overcome your doubts by simply letting go. You can gain control by simply…letting go. And by letting go, you can turn your fear into freedom. Let me play you an audio from a youtube video from Jeff Ritter sharing about how he increased his confidence and his idea of what releasing fear looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCpJIr-nI4

The main thing to remember through all this is this: 

• Confidence is gained by experience.
• Confidence has to be authentic and you can build an authentic and healthy mindset through trial and error and putting in the work. Confidence has to be earned.
• Confidence is gained by releasing fear. We need to be reckless to gain freedom.

Summary

And here’s my final advice. Seperate ourselves from our shots from who we are. Just because we hit a bad shot doesn’t mean we are a bad golfer. Great golfers hit bad shots. Shot was bad because it was missed and it was missed because we are not perfect. Hold your head up high, walk with your back straight, stay balanced and beautify your finish and follow through no matter where the ball goes. If it was misshit? Forget what happened, don’t blame yourself, don’t think that you are a bad player. And re-focus on your next shot. Do this over and over again. Because you’ve done it before and you can do it again. 

Believe in yourself, believe that you have the ability to do what is set before you and the ability to do it well. And that you have a realistic and authentic sense of that and that you feel secure in it.

You’ll play better, you’ll feel better and you’ll even look better. I guarantee it.

That’s it for our podcast on confidence today, hope it was insightful for you and I hope that you can implement that in your game and in your life.

Was that good? Did you learn something? I really did. This was really fun doing the research. You know what will be amazing? If you left me a review or just shared this podcast with others. You can leave me a review on iTunes podcast or you can simply goto bettergolfacademy.com/hello and say hello. I would love to hear from you. It’s lonely over here.

But in the meantime, thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy Podcast, I really appreciate you being here. Love you guys. Bye for now.

The post How to Gain Confidence appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

So, I do this thing every year called 5 Days to your best year ever by Michael Hyatt. It’s an online course you take for 5 days to lay out your goals for next year. Not only that, you deep dive into each goal, categorize it, clarify the purpose of it and learn how to create habits around it and even gives you the tools to keep track of it throughout the year.  It really has been a life-changer for me.

For instance, last year, one of my physical goals was to run 1000 miles. (there are like 10 categories)…spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, marital, parental, social, vocational, avocational, financial…and for physical, I chose this goal. One of the questions this course asks for each goal that you set is: “how will your life change as a result of accomplishing this goal?” Which is a great question, don’t you think? I think those of you that are into new year resolutions should all ask this same question for each goal. And this is what I wrote. “Ultimately, I believe my life will be more productive…running 1000 miles. I will feel better, stronger and even be empowered to push beyond the boundaries of the norm.” I also wrote at the bottom, I have not reached this goal in 2 straight years, looking forward to seeing if I will accomplish it or not…cause, it’s a big goal. 20 miles per week.

Well…did I? No!! I ran 204 out of 365 days a total of 939 miles. That’s 61 miles short. My wife is like, that’s so close…why didn’t you run some extra in the last months to make up for it so you can reach your goal? Well, what she doesn’t know is that I ran extra miles in the last months to just reach 939. Lol. And, speaking of not reaching your goals, if you listen to the last episode, I talk about doing a PGA’s Players Ability Test…well, I didn’t pass that either. I’ll spare you the details but it didn’t happen. So, am I disappointed? Yeah…a little bit…but, I am actually more encouraged knowing that it’s never about the destination but about who you become as you strive to get there. And, I am 100% convinced that I am better than last year.  I am stronger, gained more courage, I put myself out there…including launching this podcast, I believe in myself more and overall…most importantly, my golf score actually has improved a couple of strokes. Hahaha!

Do you know what I would love? I would love to hear from you and to hear what your goals are for this year. I am here to help so let me know how I can do that. Just go to bettergolfacademy.com/goals and let me know your thoughts and goals and I promise to get back to you. Sounds good? Cool.

Also, as promised, I want to give a shoutout to one of my listeners, and his name is Toran. He says “Awesome!” Hanju has an extremely easy to follow attitude about golf. Be it the science or the type. I like being able to listen during my work-day, and Hanju makes his tips easy enough to follow that I can take his tips home without re-listening to the podcast to find them. I can’t wait to hear more. I think this channel is going to go very far. Keep up the great work Hanju, and I will continue to listen and work on my game.

Well, wow…thank you, Toran. Thank you for allowing me to be part of your day and thank you for your encouragement of thinking that this channel will go very far. I hope so too!!

Skip to: 06:38 A New Year

So, it’s a new year. And I thought it would be a good time to talk to some people that are deciding if they want to take on this crazy game. I want to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly part of the game but mostly, I want to tangibly help those that are starting out to give them the right tools to work on and even what steps to take to actually get on the golf course and play for the very first time. I know this game can be super intimidating and scary because of all the unknowns, so I want to expose some of the myths and give you some simple guidelines to get you ready and out on the course playing. Yeah? Sounds fun? 

Also, those faithful listeners that are saying, well…I don’t think I need to hear this since I already know how to play…but I think it still might be helpful and it will also be awesome for you to hear because I know you know someone that is thinking about or even starting to play but haven’t taken the steps to get out on the course. So, here we go.

Skip to: 07:50 Preparing to Play for the First Time

I started playing around age 10. I say “playing” but it wasn’t really. I picked up a club and started swinging at the ball. My dad had these Wiffle golf balls. You know what those are? They are plastic golf balls that have holes in them so you can hit them super hard and they don’t go anywhere. I was intrigued because every little movement made on the swing will launch the ball in all different directions and I even kept on missing the ball altogether. I was like…dang, this game is hard. But for some reason, that just got me obsessed with the game at that time. I started watching golf on TV and started mimicking the players. Their setup, swing and even their follow-through. I would practice in front of a mirror to see if my swing looked like theirs. Then, I would go back out in the backyard and try to hit the ball with the modified swing and on and on and on. I started reading books and magazines and soon…I became even more obsessed with the game. I had no other friends that played. It was just me and my dad. He was kind of going through the same thing minus the obsession. He and I would hit the balls in the backyard and eventually, we got pretty good at it. Meaning…we stopped whiffing the ball. You know whiffing ’s such a funny word. When a golfer attempts to strike a ball and misses it completely. It makes a noise….and you know what kind of noise it makes? ….”whiff”.  It’s the funniest thing to witness. Then it happened!! My dad said we are ready to buy real clubs. So, we went to the local K-Mart and bought a ½ set. It was a junior set that had 5,7 and a 9 iron along with 3 wood and a driver. And when I say wood…it was really wood. The brand I remember was called the Golden Bears. It was a Jack Nicklaus brand…he was the best golfer in the world, how could you go wrong?

Not knowing anything, we drove to the local golf course. We knew they had a practice range, we’ve seen people hit balls there, so we wanted to do the same. So, that’s where my story begins. And from the driving range to the 1st tee on a real golf course is another entire journey. So, let’s tackle that.

So, from spending a lot of time on the driving range preparing to someday get on the golf course, how do I know when I am ready to play? For me, there were 3 key components that happened on the practice range that gave us enough confidence to say, okay I am ready and eventually step out on the golf course.

1. I made contact with the golf ball 100% of the time with every club. If this is not you, don’t venture out yet…it might frustrate others and you certainly don’t want to do that. I know people will say things like, “Hey, who cares what others think, just go and have a good time”. Well…I was taught to always think about others, and you do not want to be a burden or to ruin someone else’s fun. When you are whiffing the ball and hitting it all over the place, they will never invite you back…trust me.
2. When I make contact with the ball, it goes where I expected it to go….most of the time. Do you know what army golf is? When your ball goes…LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT…lol. You’ll waste a lot of your time and everyone else’s if you cannot somewhat control where the ball is going. You’ll hit it in the hazard and end up with your group being the search party. No fun for anyone…not even you. And those golf balls are expensive!!
3. I understand the distance control. Meaning, if I am close to the green, I know enough to hit the ball softer and use a more lofted club. I have a pretty good concept of chipping that can get my ball closer, not overshooting it way past and there’s a component of me being a danger to others.
4. I have a decent feel around the green when it comes to putting. That it doesn’t take me more than 3 putts to get the ball in the hole. 4 putts are okay for long long distance putting but let’s stick to 3 as a goal for now.

Skip to: 14:18 Pushing Through the Unknown

I say when you can consistently do the 4 points that I just talked about, you are almost ready to get on the course. But not completely ready. You know why? Because I think this is where a lot of people get stuck. There’s a deep fear or intimidation or something that keeps them from just taking the first step to tee it up. I really think it stems from lack of knowledge and not really knowing what to expect or even what to do…there are so many rules and etiquettes. So I will attempt to try to keep your mind at ease and prepare you to go out there and have a great, fun and enjoyable first round.

1. Find a local golf course that attracts a lot of beginners.  Some are called executive courses because the holes are a lot shorter, fairways are wider and there aren’t too many hazards. It’s not the prettiest but usually, it’s the cheapest. Some offer a 9 hole only option which can be great if you are a first-timer and also, you will be surrounded by other beginners so you won’t feel so out of place.
2. Avoid the rush. Make a tee time in the late afternoons or during a weekday (Monday through Thursday). The last thing you want to do is to get out there on a busy day with a ton of people. It can get stressful and overwhelming. Avoid the rush…your first round should be enjoyable with no one pushing you from behind and getting upset that you are playing too slow.
3. Don’t keep score. Keeping score means you are hitting every shot until your ball goes in the hole. This can cause some anxiety and you really don’t need to know what your score is yet. You are just trying to get the feel of the play. If you are struggling with a specific shot (i.e. a bunker shot), don’t spend 5 minutes hitting the ball 10 times trying to get out, after a couple of tries, just pick it up and throw it on the green so you can now putt. Everyone will appreciate it. If you are chipping and if it goes way over the green and you chip it back and it goes way over the green again..etc…just pick it up and throw it on the green.  If your shots on a long hole are not advancing very far and you keep hitting it and hitting it…eventually, just pick up and drop near to green and play out the hole. The key here is to not to be left behind in your group. Keep pace with the rest of the group. Don’t be the person that’s holding up play for others.
4. Keep up. This is so very important. Every player, expert or intermediate won’t mind playing with you if you just keep up. They all understand if you are struggling with the game, they’ve all been there and they might also be struggling too…but they will turn on you if your bad play is affecting them…which means, they keep stopping and waiting and waiting for you. Be mindful of the group and the pace that they are playing and just keep up…even if it means for you to just pick up the ball and drop it near the hole. Again, you are not here to keep score, you are here to get the feel of what it’s like to play a Round.
5. Know your basic golf etiquette.  
   1. DO’s
      1. This includes taking care of the course..repair ball marks on the green (ball makes a mark on the green when it lands on it, it’s important to flatten it back out so that other golfers will always putt on the smooth surface). 
      2. Replace divots if you take a big chunk of grass out on your downswing, replace it with the sand or place the grass back in the divot you created (some courses tell you to just replace it with the sand). 
      3. Rake the bunkers. So that the next person that ends up in it has a smooth, easy lie verse being stuck in a footprint hole that you created.
      4. Have the player who is farthest away from the pin hit the next shot. Do not swing at the same time. Let them hit first. This causes distraction.
   2. DON’TS
      1. Don’t move, talk or make noise in the middle of their swing. Even during their setup.
      2. Don’t walk across the line of another player’s putt on the green. This can cause the ball to not roll true to the hole because you stepped on it.
      3. Don’t hit your shot until the group in front of you is well out of range. Lots of fights occur because of this.
      4. Be out of their vision. Don’t stand near or right in front of a player who’s hitting the ball…be out of their site so you don’t draw attention in the middle of their swing.

Okay, I know that’s a lot of stuff to remember. So, let me wrap it up in this one sentence that will make your first-round success. Ready? Here it is. “Consider others more important than yourself”. Huh? What’s that got to do with anything? Actually, it’s everything when it comes to golf. All the dos and don’ts that I just talked about? The etiquette of golf? Did you notice that for every etiquette is created so that others can benefit? It’s all about helping and noticing and acknowledging and helping others. Think about it. Taking care of the course during your round, repairing your ball marks, replacing your divots, raking the bunkers so that…the others that are playing are not affected by you. 

Golf has always been a game that uniquely creates an atmosphere where even the competitors are always complimenting each other. “Great shot!” I hear that all the time during a PGA event that I am at and following these players outside of the ropes. I see the fierce competitors in the last group on the last day…walking and talking to each other…complimenting each other’s good shots. 

Isn’t that fascinating? And I believe if you are mindful of others and not so consumed in your own game in your own little world, I think you’ll naturally have a good time. Look around, see the beauty around you and focus and hit good shots, celebrate them together. Keep up and don’t worry too much about your score yet. Enjoy the company. Have great conversations. Be friendly. Be happy.

Skip to: 23:34 Summary

I am constantly reminded why I love this game so much. What other games in the world do you get to spend 4-5 hours together in gorgeous, green, manicured acres of land with lakes, rivers, trees…walking, talking, laughing….crying, screaming…oh wait…forget the last two. Anyways, you get me right? Well, I am really excited for you this year. Get ready and get out there. Have a blast. Be mindful of others and be awesome!!

Please don’t forget to leave me a review or share this podcast. I will give you a shout out on my next episode. But in the meantime, thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy Podcast, I really appreciate you being here. Love you guys. Bye for now.

The post Preparing Beginners to Play Their First Round appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Speaking of rain. I played a practice round last week in Temecula on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, which is one of the busiest golf days out of the year. But, because of the rain…the place was totally empty. This was great for me because I got to take my time and really focus and write notes for each hole…etc…to prepare for the PAT. What is PAT? It’s called a Player Ability Test. So, if you want to pursue your career in Golf, you can go through the PGA PGM program (Professional Golf Management), but prior to registering you have to pass the Players Ability Test. Which, my friend Ashley encouraged me to do. I am not trying to pursue a new career in golf, but I thought it would be fun to experience it. And also, I thought it would give me some credibility as I talk about golf on this podcast that I really do know what I am talking about.

So, how do you pass? Well, you play 36 holes in one day and have to shoot within 15 shots of the course rating. So, the cutoff score for 36 holes was 158 and my plan was to shoot 79+79 = 158. 

Did I pass? Well, this entire episode is dedicated to what went right and what went wrong during this 36 hole endeavor. So, stay tuned, I think we will learn something great!

On a side note, I love playing in the rain. I know a lot of people hate it. But, as long as it’s not windy and cold, light-medium rain during a round adds another element to the game that makes it really fun. The key is to keep everything dry. And there are some great techniques and hacks to do just that. But, that’s for another entire episode. On the side, side note…why do they call it a hack? Like, life hack? The word hack has such a negative meaning in golf but you add the word life before it…LIFE HACK…all of a sudden, it’s like it reveals all the secrets to efficiency, strategy to like…productivity and happiness. Hmmmm….

I know this is a long intro, but I gotta do what I promise every episode, give a shoutout to one of my listeners. And, this time, it happens to be one of my favorite listeners, because…he’s a non-golfer. What? What is a non-golfer listening to a golf podcast you ask? Well, let me read to you what he said. David writes, “Not a golfer but I benefit from…almost everything that Hanju shares. These podcasts can be applied to some aspects in life-goal setting, focus, practice, health, fitness, failure and success. I don’t play golf but I have found some wisdom in every episode that I can apply to my fitness goals. My guitar practice, my reading and writing goals my bad days and my good days.

Hanju shares lots of information based on his extensive research and his experience pursuing the game he loves and also his pursuit of being the best he can be. Every episode is loaded with interesting information he has gathered that has helped and inspired him You would have to read a lot to get just some of the useful wisdom that Hanju shares.

Hanju has a very unassuming and personal style that will make you feel like you are sitting with a friend as you listen to him (although I usually listen while I am on my daily walk). It is almost like a conversation with a good friend who is interesting, interested in you personally, and very open. 

Well done Hanju.

Do you know why I love this review so much? Because it’s like he has a special insight into my life…could it possibly be that he actually does? Hahaha! Yup, it’s my father-in-law who’s one of my huge supporters!! Thanks, Dad!! I also love your thoughts about friendship…that you feel that I am interested in you personally and that I care about you!!! Because it’s so right on.  So, thank you Dad so much for taking the time to write such an amazing review. I hope you are having a great walk today!!

Skip to: 06:52 Mindfulness

Ok, let’s talk shop. I think this episode is going to be really impactful. So, I hear this word a lot these days, and I am really trying (I say trying because it’s not easy and it’s not natural for me) to practice this before, during and after my round. And not only that, throughout my day and even at night when I am not playing golf. I am trying to implement this in my life as much as I can. The word is “MINDFULNESS”. For some people, when they hear this word, they know exactly what I am talking about. But for some, they kinda sort of understanding it of being some type of yoga or meditation type of term but maybe think it’s weird or it’s not for them. Well, let’s first define it.

Mind·ful·ness a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment. 

I mention this in episode 2 of the Here and Now. I said, “The importance of finding a way to be in the moment, finding a way to focus all your mind, body and soul in what’s in front of you…here and now. It’s the only place they can be. The only place our body can be in space is now. The only place our body can be in time is now. Let our mind and body sync together to produce your best effort, every shot, every time.” 

I talk about looking and thinking about the past that can bring regret, pain and/or even fear. Like the hole number one on Creek. I hit a perfect 9 iron pin high but left from the middle of the fairway but it ended up on a downhill slope on wet dirt. I couldn’t get my club underneath it to hit it high to get it over the bunker to land it softly. So, I overshot it, chipped again and missed an easy putt and got a double. I kept wondering and thinking about what a freakin bad luck that was and how that double bogey was not deserved.

I talk about looking and thinking about the future which brings anxiety of “what ifs”. So now I am a bit perturbed and uneasy about what other bad lies lay ahead in these wet conditions and how to NOT get myself into that situation again. 

But why is this so important in golf? Because, I truly believe in order to conquer this game to play our very best, we have to control our thoughts. It’s really true what they say, this game is 90% mental and 10% mental. And I so much believe that if we get this part right, it can really change our game. Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment. Is this easy to do? Nope.

Skip to: 10:26 Player Ability Test

So, I am fully aware of this concept of being in the moment. The idea of mindfulness. In fact, I have this app that I use called mindfulness that teaches me how to mentally focus on the present moment and also tracks my time and stats…cause, you gotta measure everything right? Also, the night before my PAT round, I was a bit nervous and I was expressing my doubts and getting a bit anxious about the next day and my amazing wife in her very wisdom said to me…” dude, just enjoy, have fun, be in the moment.” Yes, she gets it too. And I was fully aware of what I needed to do. And honestly, I know that course inside out, I’ve been playing it for the last 25+ years and it’s one of my favorite courses…AND, I often score well there.

I woke up at 4 am because it takes me 1:15 minutes to get there. My Tee time was at 7 am so I want to get there by 6 am and didn’t want to rush. Did you know that it’s pitch dark at 4 am? And at 5am? I ended up getting there just before 6 and got in line with the rest of the players to check-in and pick up the official scorecards. There were about 35 people…mostly younger but I was surprised to see a group of older, more seasoned people there like me.  I went straight to the driving range and hit a half a bucket off the matt just to get the feel and stretch. Everything felt great. It’s going to be a great day I said to myself and took a deep breath. “Enjoy, have fun and be in the moment.”

I played with Joe and Adam, two amazing, young, strong players with flawless swings who are already well in their golf careers and now required to pass the PAT. We became friends right away. I’ve been in these types of environments before in a golf tournament but this felt quite different. Everyone there is not competing against each other, they are rooting for each other. It’s not a competition. Also, the PGA wants you to pass it. During normal tournaments, you’ll see tricky pin placements and tee boxes moved back to add to the challenge, but for the PAT, they did the opposite. The pin locations are fair and tees are moved up on some of the holes. So…let’s do this!! Enjoy, have fun and be in the moment. Let’s take the certificate home!!

First 18 holes were a bit of a blur. I was just focusing on not making big mistakes to eliminate my chances. I ended up with an 80…which wasn’t great but I was satisfied. Only one shot off my goal of 79. The greens were super slick, fairways were wet and destroyed by the rain and I was still adjusting to the speed of play, nervousness and the pressure of the event.

Then, everything just kicked in. I was fully focused on the here and now. I didn’t even care about my previous shot or my next, I was in the zone focusing on the shot at hand. Visualizing, confident and actually, having fun. I shot even par on the front 9. 

So, here I am. In the place where I felt alive. Playing great. All I needed to do now was to keep the momentum going and finish strong. I even said it out loud. Let’s finish strong.

Hole number 10, with my juices flowing, I hit a perfect drive down the middle. And as described earlier about my 9 iron hitting it slightly left of the green which left me with a bad lie and overshooting the green, I end up with my first double bogey of the day. Then, something happened. Something happened that I couldn’t quite control. My mind went wild. It just had a mind of its own. Did you get that?? My mind…my mind had a mind of its own. I panicked…thinking the worst. What if I blow it now. What if after all this, I don’t make it? What if I get another double bogey. Then, I started doing the math. How many holes left? How many strokes left? How many more bogeys and double bogeys can I have and still make the cut? I was fighting it. I knew I shouldn’t be doing it, but it kept going there. Then, it happened again, I double-bogeyed the next hole. I took a deep breath. Thinking to myself, you have got to refocus. Here and now…come on, you can do it. 

I never recovered. I ended the last 9 holes of the tournament with a total of 3 doubles, 5 bogeys, and 1 par. I shot 11 over on the back nine, a total of 19 over missing the cut by 5 strokes. I was devastated, disappointed…what’s another “d” word…dejected, denied, depressed, and ”DUMB”…I really really disliked!!  I FAILED!! Oooh…let’s now start listing the words that start with the letter “f” that I can think of how I felt…”frustrated, ffffff…  

Anyways, I had a couple of days to process. I am doing fine now. But…yes…there is always some type of learning lesson here. And that’s why I thought this was really important to share. I had two questions that I had to honestly ask myself. Number one, did I really believe that I could do it, that I could pass the PAT? And without much thought, my answer to that was a confident YES. Then the second question, do I think if I had a strong mental toughness and really played by my own teaching of Mindfulness, Here and Now, Being in the moment, would I have made it? This took me a couple of days to think through it. But my answer was and still is yes. My problem wasn’t that I was hitting bad shots, I kept making mental errors. 

So, my quote about golf being 90% mental and 10% mental…it’s a bit of a humorous statement mixed with lot of truth. I thought, I would list my biggest 3 main takeaways from my 36 hole PAT round from Monday.

Skip to: 18:17 #1: It’s Not Easy

No one said it was easy. Staying focus and not allowing your mind to wander is not easy. It takes discipline. It takes practice like everything else. And most of all it takes confidence. What do you mean by confidence? It takes confidence to know and believe and have the conviction that this really works. And, thinking back…I was teeter-tottering. I didn’t think seriously enough about it. Maybe, even though I preach it, I didn’t entirely believe it. I was thinking that if I had the physical talent and ability to shoot well, that I would automatically shoot well and the score will show it at the end of the day. NOT. It takes mental discipline every hole, every shot. Full focus. Being in the moment.

Skip to: 19:14 #2: It’s a Journey

How do we get there? I am not there yet. Obviously. But, I believe our pursuit of getting there is the goal, not just getting there. Okay, this reminds me of a quote, I know…sometimes introducing quotes in a podcast is a bit cliche-ish and corny but I think this really applies to what we are talking about today. 

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome”. 

This quote is by Arthur Ashe. Who is Arthur Ashe? He was an American Professional tennis player who won 3 grand slam titles. He was the first black player selected to the US Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, The US Open and the Australian Open. He was also an author and mostly known for being a crusader for equality. He really lived with intention and impact.

So, for me, I can look at this event as a total failure. Which, I actually called it that on my dreadful drive back home in my head. But, nah…I don’t believe that anymore. It’s all part of the journey and it’s never about the outcome, or the end result, or the certificate, or whatever’s in your life…I truly believe it’s about our attitude, discipline, will and our struggle and fight in getting there.

Skip to: 21:02 #3: Look Up

When I started my podcast, my friend Charlton messaged me and said dude, this podcast is for me. I am your poster child. Do you know how many books I’ve read about golf? Every single one. Do you know how many videos I’ve watched? Workshops I’ve attended? He’s a learner. A seeker who’s hungry for knowledge, a true student of the game. When we are playing golf together several months back, I asked him, hey…just curious, from all the books you’ve read, videos you’ve watched and the workshops and lessons you’ve received, what’s the one thing, one main thing that has impacted you the most in your game?

He said. “Look up” huh? So, I went home and looked it up. Yeah, the book Zen Golf talks about the expansive awareness. It’s a practice of Mindfulness. “When you have a difficult tee shot or short putt and you are waiting your turn, it’s not very helpful to stare at it, think about it, and let your mind get very small…instead, look up and breathe out, opening to the awareness around you. He says “in life..as in golf, you give it your best shot when you’re free of tension and self-consciousness.” In life as in golf…lol. That’s my line.

Skip to: 22:48 Summary

So, here’s the deal. It’s not easy. It’s a journey and you gotta remember to look up. Take a breath. Don’t get stuck on the small stuff. Be grateful. You are out here, on a beautiful day, on this beautiful course, with awesome people, playing golf. Look up. Enjoy. Have Fun. And be in the moment. 

Okay? Okay. Awesome. I hope all this was a good lesson for you as it was for me.

Please don’t forget to leave me a review or share this podcast. I will give you a shout out on my next episode. But in the meantime, thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy Podcast, I really appreciate you being here. Love you guys. Bye for now.

The post What is Mindfulness? appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Oh wow!! “my favorite podcast I have ever listened to” that is such an awesome compliment, and I am going to assume you listen to a lot of podcasts…like…hundreds. It’s that an accurate assessment? I knew it!!  Thank you, Quarto Lover, for taking the time for the kind words, I sincerely appreciate it.

Skip to: 02:45 Science Anyone?

So, what are we going to talk about today you ask? I want to discuss and pinpoint some things about golf that are pretty much 100% black and white. It is what it is. You can’t change it. It’s scientifically proven and the outcome has been collected as data and that data is 100% accurate. There’s nothing you can do but to just accept it. 

So, why even bother talking about it? Because, if you understand it, it will give you the insight to help you work on and improve the areas you CAN change to help you get better results in the areas you can’t change. What? Dude, what are you talking about! Hahaha, okay, now that I got your attention, just keep listening.

Skip to: 03:44 Opposing Views of Everything

I might be dating myself, but back in the days of subscription magazines…remember those days? You subscribe to a magazine and it delivers to your house. Oh, they still do that? Oh…ok. Anyways, I subscribe to the Golf Digest Magazine and the Golf Magazine and they will come in every month and I would flip through, read the articles and I can’t remember which magazine it was but it had this interesting section that offered an idea or a tip on one side, and then, it offered a completely opposing view, idea or a tip on the other side…about the same subject! Side by side. So, as a golfer searching for truth and the perfect solution for my game, I became confused but also fascinated with this concept. Let me give you some examples.

When I first started learning the game, one of the most important key factors in my backswing was to keep my head still. Don’t dip, don’t sway, don’t fricken move. I remember my coach would stand in front of me, held a club in his hand and reversed it so that grip would rest on my head. He wanted me to take a swing with the grip on my head staying at rest without any movement in my head until the follow-through. Some instructors back then or even now used this concept to help golfers maintain their shoulder tilt from setup through impact. This will give you great consistency and accuracy on your shots. Makes sense. Right? But at the same time, a lot of instructors were saying that keeping your head still leads to a restricted motion back and through which will now result in poor and inconsistent shots. In fact, a bit of a slide or a swivel in your head produces more power. Who doesn’t want more power? What was I to do?

Here’s another one. For par 3s, the biggest debate was should I hit the ball off the grass just like it’s any other shot with my irons, or should I tee it up? Well, there were and still are great arguments for both…like, dude, tee it up. It’s easier to hit the ball cleaner, whey wouldn’t you want to take advantage of the game if it allows it. Or, no…give yourself a good lie but don’t tee it up, you are trying to reinvent an iron shot…why?

I heard the other day that debunked our favorite and most used tip that we tell our fellow golfers out there when they chunk a shot. “Hey, keep your head down.” Well, now, some suggest that that very act of keeping your head down is the reason why you are chunking it.  What? 

I can go on and on, and well, this magazine article certainly did. Every month. Whoever was writing it I think his or her job was to just confuse people. Or, maybe, brilliantly, they were trying to let people know that golf isn’t a game of simple black and white. That this game of golf is much more than that. It’s an individualized game, more complex, with a variety of colors and shades, which is mixed with technique, science, and art. Yes, art. And that involves mental, physical and even spiritual component that when it’s all aligned, understood and executed, you can fully experience the fullness of it and appreciate the infinite details and beauty of it…or…maybe it’s just a stupid game that is created to frustrate us, make us scream, cuss and throw our clubs and to teach us about hopelessness and despair. Okay, or, maybe just somewhere in between.

But, as I said before, there are some truths and solid key fundamentals of the game that cannot be shaken and that you cannot change which can ultimately help us understand and improve the way we approach our practices, techniques and the art of the game.

Okay, ready for some science of golf? By the way, I read this old book back in college because I was bored and walking around in the library and found this old book on the shelf called “Science of Golf”. It was really life-changing for me, so, I am super happy to share it.

So, I said at the beginning of the podcast, let’s talk about the black and white facts about the game that you cannot change because science is science. 

So, here are 3 fundamental equations that science provides in golf. And it is an answer to our 3 most fundamental questions we have in improving our game. 

What are our questions?

Skip to: 09:57 #1: How Do I Hit It Straighter?

Clubface + Swing Path = Ball Flight

Well, your golf swing all comes down to this most important part of your swing…no, not the setup, not the takeaway…it’s the impact. Here’s the thing, science doesn’t care about your grip, it doesn’t care about your stance whether your feet are shoulder-width apart or closer, it doesn’t care about your shoulder turn, it doesn’t care whether your head is still or swaying, it doesn’t care whether you Teed up the ball high or low…it just DOESN’T care. All it cares about is what the club is doing in reference to the ball at the moment of impact. And at the moment of impact, it’s going to determine one thing. The Ball Flight. Which way is the ball going to go? And there are 9 different ways that your ball will react at impact depending on these 2 key things.  Your clubface angle and your swing path.

First, let’s talk about the clubface. The clubface at impact is responsible for about 85% of the initial shot direction. So, if your clubface is square at impact, it’s going to go pretty straight…about 85% of the time. If you are right-handed and if your clubface is closed at impact, guess what? It’s going to go left of the target. If your clubface is open at impact, it’s going to go right of the target.  That’s just how it’s going to be.

Now, your swing path will be responsible for the shot curvature, based on the relationship to the clubface. What is that mean? It means that if you are again, right-handed and your swing path is a closed swing path, your ball is going to go left and curve to the left and it’s called a pull draw.

So in conclusion, there are 9 different ball flights that can happen from your swing. Pull Draw, Left of Target with Closed to Swing Path. Pull Straight, Left of Target with Square to Swing Path, Pull Slice, Left of Target with Open to Swing Path…etc. 

So, why is this important science to know? Because this helps you fix the problems you are having with the ball flight. You have to figure out what to change to help you make a more square clubface at impact and to help you make an intentional swing path to guide the direction and the curvature of the ball. This could mean that you change your stance, this could mean that you change your grip, this could mean that you change your takeaway…there’s no one answer to achieve that, but the important fact is that when at impact, it needs to follow the law of the flight.

Ok, isn’t that totally cool? Doesn’t that give you more hope of figuring out what to work on and how to fix your slice or your hook?

Okay, so what’s the second fundamental question?

Skip to: 15:09 #2: How Do I Hit It Longer?

Speed of Swing = Distance

Now, here’s something you probably already know. With technology now, your club speed is easily measured and guess what? The faster the club speed, the further you’ll ball will go. This is another one of the fundamentals of swing science. So, how do you increase your driving distance? Increase club speed. There’s an average club speed chart that shows you that with the clubhead speed of about 90 miles per hour, your driving distance average can be around 232 yards. And with the average clubhead speed of 115 miles per hour, your driving distance average can be around 297 yards.  Rory Mcllroy’s clubhead speed is around 120 mph at 317 yards. That’s incredible. 

But there’s more. There’s what you called the ball speed. That’s how fast your ball is traveling after impact. Why is this important? because ultimately, that’s what will determine how far your shot will go. This is where technology can come into play. The efficiency of the club when the ball is striking can determine how far it will go. So, you can start trying out different drivers to see which will you the best efficiency, you can also try different balls to see which will react best after impact.

So, the club speed, which creates the ball speed only thing that can help you hit further? No, you can also keep the same club speed and increase the distance, how? It’s called an attack angle. The attack angle is an angle measured from the horizontal ground to the angle at which the clubhead is moving at impact. So, you can tee it up and the head of the club and attack the ball from the bottom on an upward blow or you can also hit down on the ball at a negative angle. This will now determine the launch angle, which will determine the spin, which will determine the carry and which will determine the roll and the final distance. So, believe it or not, with the same club speed, just by changing the launch angle, you can add 20 yards to your drive. Isn’t that crazy?

 Now, whats the third and final fundamental question?

Skip to: 18:18 #3: How Do I Keep Hitting it the Same Over and Over Again?

Larger Muscles = Consistency

Many golf swing faults are rooted in the overuse of small muscles. It’s harder to control and it’s harder to repeat. The overuse of arms and hands will get you in a lot of trouble but using big muscles will be the key to your success. Legs, glutes, abdomen, back, hips, and shoulders. Consistency comes from focusing and delivering your swing from the big muscles. 80% of it. Develop the proper big-muscle movement in your swing and it will boost your power and accuracy…you swing will become more efficient and consistent and easier to diagnose and fix.

Skip to: 19:34 Summary

So, to summarize, there are so many aspects of the game that are negotiable. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t talk about swing techniques on this podcast, there are so many different ways to achieve your goal. I can offer one suggestion but someone else can offer something completely different and the result could end up being the same. But, why do we have to know the science behind it? Because it doesn’t change. It’s what we all need to work on to improve. And as we discussed above, there are 3 fundamental questions we can answer through science. How to hit it straighter? Understand the relationship between your clubface and your swing plane at impact. How to hit it longer? Understand the relationship between swing speed, ball speed, attack angle, launch angle and spin.  And finally, how to hit it over and over again? Eliminate using small muscles and focus on using your large muscles in your swing.

This is all a piece of cake, right? Never. Golf is an endless journey of improving and perfecting.  As I said before, this game of golf can be so complex yet so simple at the same time. It’s an individualized game that you can’t try to mimic or compare with anyone else.  Along with black and white fundamental science, it also offers more complex, variety of colors and shades, which is mixed with technique, science, and art. And it involves mental, physical and even spiritual components that when it’s all aligned, understood and executed, you can fully experience the fullness of it and appreciate the infinite details and beauty of it all. You all with me? 

Okay, awesome. I hope all this can help give you a new perspective on your growth and help you reach your full potential. Please don’t forget to leave me a review or share this podcast. I will give you a shout out on my next episode. But in the meantime, thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy Podcast, I really appreciate you being here. Love you guys. Bye for now.

The post Three Fundamental Questions Answered appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Right? so, even though I have big goals, I have to know that in order to have success, I have to create small daily habits that over time, which will transform me…slowly but surely.  I read this quote that I really love that flows down the same idea and path of what we are just talking about. It’s quoted by Jacob Riis (Rees) who is like a social reformer, photographer, author back in the late 1800s…interesting guy. He quotes “…I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.” Side note, this quote hangs in the locker room of the San Antonio Spurs, the 5-time NBA champions who holds the best winning percentage of any franchise over the previous 3 decades. It’s a great value and truth to live by…yeah?

But before we began, as promised, I want to give a shoutout to one of my listeners who left me a review. Her name is Joy, and she writes Perfect nuggets!! ☆☆☆☆☆ The quick lessons in each episode are so relatable to beginners and average golfers who wish to improve. I really love the approach and simplistic nature of tips on this complex game. Keep up the awesome work, Joy

Thank you so much Joy for taking the time to write me a review, and yes, quick simple, relatable lessons for this complex game…you nailed it. I will keep creating more awesome content for you Joy.

Skip to: 05:24 What Keeps us Motivated?

So, we are going to talk about motivation today. We all want to win in golf. We all want to get better at golf. We all have great intentions and a burst of inspiration from time-to-time to get us dreaming and going after it…especially after this weekend, right? Tiger Woods winning his 82nd PGA Tour win tying Sam Snead’s ultimate record. And this is after most people, including himself, almost gave up hope of winning ever again. Love him or hate him…it’s still a crazy story of incredible talent and will.  But, is this you? After a certain point, or when it gets too hard, or when we start losing steam, drive, and motivation…we slowly fade out and even quit. I think especially because of this game of golf…it just takes too long and too much effort and too many hours to see improvement. I think it’s so easy to give up.

So…what creates motivation, and what keeps us motivated to keep doing what we need to do to get where we need to go?

Skip to: 06:53 Three Fundamental principles of Motivation

They analyzed this interesting data about human behavior by charting 2 years of S&P 500 and on top of the same chart on the same timeline, they charted how many people logged into their account just to check their balance.  Here’s an interesting find. When the market is high, people logged in all the time. Because positive information is good…it makes you feel good. At the same time, when the market was low, people avoided logging in. People are motivated by the positive. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah, I wish my dad knew this when I was growing up. He thought to offer negative feedback on my grades, my lack of motivation, and the questionable choices I made in teen years would motivate me to shape up and focus.  Yeah. No.

Dr. Tali Sharot (Share-ot), a neuroscientist with her research focusing on how motivation influences our decisions. And She talks about these 3 foundational principles that help motivate us. 

1. Progress Monitoring. The brain does a good job processing positive effects. And as you progress, it helps you to stay focused and going after your goal. As you know, I always talk about my Engineering days…and the famous quote “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. There’s definitely some truth in that.
2. Social Incentive. We are social people. We really care what other people are doing. We want to do the same and we want to do it better. Example: 9 out of 10 people pay their taxes in time enhanced compliance in that group by 15% bringing in 5.6 billion pounds. Highlighting what other people are doing is a very strong incentive. I truly believe this, one of the most effective results-driven workout concepts out there is still CrossFit. Because of their philosophy of this Social Incentive. It’s brilliant creating a small community of people to encourage each other, compete with one another and keep each other accountable. Social Incentive. 
3. Immediate Rewards. True that! We are impatient, some of us have ADD (me) and we need immediate feedback, immediate incentive and lots of immediate rewards…in whatever form that we can get it in.

Okay, I think I know what you are thinking. Hey, enough about this neuroscience stuff, I thought this was a golf podcast, tell me how I need to improve my game. Well, check this out, we are going to take these 3 principles and implement them into our golf game to keep us motivated, moving forward, working hard and eventually, reaching our destination. Are you ready?

So, here’s your roadmap on staying motivated to improve your game.

Skip to: 11:01 #1: Set Goals

Why? Well, there’s this Goal Setting Theory developed by Edwin Locke in 1968 that basically says setting specific goals leads to higher performance. So, what is your goal? When I ask that, I usually get a response like…yeah, good question, my goal is to someday shoot in the high 70’s. Well, according to the Goal Setting Theory, what’s wrong with this goal? It’s not specific enough. There are too many ways and too many areas to focus on for that to happen so it’s easy to lose interest or too easy to lose track if you are just focused on a score goal. So, can I suggest something? Have a specific goal. What does that look like? For golf, it’s super easy since the game is so data-driven and everything you ever want to know is already out there. So, let’s start with the basic stats.

• The number of putts per round. The golfers in the US with a handicap between scratch and 25+ has an average of 35 putts per round. I also have a breakdown by handicap. So for instance, if your handicap is between 11-15, the average putts per round are 34.8, and if you are a scratch golfer, you should be at around 31.5 putts per round. These are very specific goals to have and will help you focus your practices on the putting green to help motivate you to reach it.
• Greens hit in regulation per round. For 11-15 handicappers, you average around 28% per round, if you want to set a goal to the next handicap bracket of 6-10, the average is 37% per round. See where I am getting at?
• Fairways hit per round for 11-15 handicappers is 48%, if you want to set a goal to the next handicap bracket of 6-10, the average is 51% per round.

As you are improving in these specific categories, guess what your overall score is doing? It’s improving as well.

I’ve created a report of overall golfers’ performance by handicap for you to see where you are at compared to the US average and what your goals should be set at. Go to bettergolfacademy.com/9 to download. It will be super helpful to help you set these specific goals.

Skip to: 14:23 #2: Don’t be a Loner

Did you know that you can’t post your score if you played by all by yourself? It’s not considered an official round. With no other people around, you violate the “peer review” clause and it’s considered unacceptable. Isn’t that interesting? Also, remember what I said before, we are social people with social needs. And social incentives are huge in motivating and helping us improve our game. Right? Competition plays a big part, or just not wanting to make a fool of yourself in front of others, or how about just wanting to show off and take all their money? Is that a good incentive and a motivator? Yup!! It is for me. LOL.

Make an effort to play regularly with a group. Don’t have friends? No worries, go join a club, there are so many out there…Saturday club tournament is a blast and it will definitely help you and motivate you to level up.

Skip to: 15:38 #3: Make Tiny Habits

Okay…I think this here is a game-changer. BJ Fogg, look him up. He has great resources out there on this specific subject. He says “When you know how to create tiny habits, you can change your behavior and your life forever”.  This is the stone cutter’s story at the beginning of the podcast. But beyond that, the concept here is not only about the stone cutter chiseling at the rock but a stone cutter celebrating after each blow. For me, this is about a small 3 minutes a day for 30 days planking challenge that has gotten me from barely a 1:30 plank with my entire body shaking like mad to 60 straight days later doing a 7:30 minute plank and feeling stronger in my core and slightly seeing definition in the area. It’s about starting small and doing it everyday, improving little by little, celebrating the progress each day and 

Oh, and you know what I forgot to tell you? I created a planking group on facebook and there are now over 150 friends in this group doing it with me. Isn’t that awesome!! #socialincentive

Skip to: 17:19 Summary

At a local hospital, they made a heavy emphasis on all staff to sanitize their hands before entering a patient room and sanitize their hands when they are leaving. In fact, they created a system to check and track each staff’s compliance. Well, guess what? Only 10% complied. One out of ten. Then they introduced an intervention. Electronic board to tell the staff how they were doing. It showed the rate of the current shift, rate of the weekly shift and where you fit in. And guess what happened? The compliance went from 10% to 90%. Awesome, right? But, I was still like, wait, there are still 10% not sanitizing their hands? LOL. 

But look at what happened in that research. All 3 principles were met. 

• Progress Monitoring: The electronic board that kept track of each shift.
• Social Incentive: Accountability and providing a way for people to know and care.
• Immediate Rewards: A way for people to celebrate and compete against other shifts daily.

I think this is so fascinating. 

So, in summary. I think we can all agree that improving our golf game is a long, and ambitious goal. We need more inspiration than hey, you suck, you need to go practice and get better. We need to intentionally put steps in place to guide us day to day and keep us motivated to get there.  And, I think this is a great science that is backed up by research. 

Here are the 3 action steps for you again.

• #1, set specific goals, remember to go to bettergolfacademy.com/9 to download the performance report to help you set your specific goals. 
• #2, Don’t be a loner. Play together, bet, create competitive situations to push you, care about each other’s performances and improvements. This will create an incentive to work harder and improve. And…
• #3, Make turn your goals into tiny habits. Reward yourself often and see your simple progress and celebrate.

I am still so still inspired by the quote by Jacob Riis “…I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.” 

Let’s keep hammering away. Hundred, thousand, 10 thousand, 100 thousand balls hit, putts hit, chips hit, every club in your bag hit, pursuing excellence, setting goals, achieving them and celebrating the small victories!! I am here celebrating it with you. And hoping for a huge breakthrough in your game, the rock splitting in two moments in your golf journey.

In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to Better Golf Academy, let’s get better together. Yeah? Cool. Love you guys, bye for now. 

The post How to Get Motivated appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Something very significant happened last week. Do you know what happened? They are comparing this event to its being an equal significance to putting a man on the moon. They called it “the last great barrier of modern athletics” And that barrier was broken!! It was a historical event and it was said that it wouldn’t happen in our lifetime…but it did…last week. 

Here, have a listen…<audio of the race>

Wow! So inspiring. Do you know how inspired I was? I was so inspired that I was determined to do my own sub-2-hour race as well. Last Sunday at Long Beach, I ran the ½ marathon and I’ve been training and my goal was to come in before the 2-hour mark…just like Eliud Kipchoge. So, here was my run strategy. I’ve noticed over the years that in the beginning of the race, there’s this huge adrenaline that’s built up and I can just explode out of the starting line at a very fast pace. This means I can really take advantage of getting ahead and bank the minutes that I gain from the adrenaline. Then, when I run out…I can slow down to my regular pace and finish the race under the average of my standard pace. Make sense, no? So yeah…that didn’t work out too well. I was 10 minutes ahead of my pace at mile 6 but I was hurting, I just couldn’t keep that pace going…so, eventually, I watched the 1:50 pacers pass me, then the 2:00 pacers pass me…and eventually finished at 2:07 something. 7 minutes slower than I wanted to. And, you know, that wasn’t fun, because, I was literally pushing myself so hard, that I was in pain most of the run. So….what did I learn? I learned that strategy matters. And that, for my next race (which is the ½ marathon in Las Vegas next month), I will come up with a different strategy.  I will let you know how that goes. 

Speaking of strategy, you know what we are going to talk about today? Par 3s. I want to give you some insights on how to best play the par 3s to help you reduce your blow-ups.

But before we go there, I want to thank one of my listeners. His name is Rob and he listens from Pyeongtaek Korea. He writes “Golf made simple..I listen to quite a few golf podcasts and enjoy many of them. Though I must say I enjoy Hanju’s podcast most of all. (what??? me????) The reason being is that his approach is for regular, everyday people. When he talks, I don’t feel I need a “Golf Thesaurus.” I am definitely a fan.

Okay, seriously, this is one of my favorite reviews because that’s exactly my purpose, to connect and speak to the regular everyday…you…cause I feel like that’s who I am too…a regular, everyday, dude. So, Rob, thank you for listening and thank you for your kind words.

Skip to: 06:53 Why are Par 3s Harder than Others?

So, let’s talk about Par 3s. How do you feel about them? Do you know how most golfers feel about Par 3s? They don’t talk about them with a lot of joy and admiration. Well, why? The most amazing signature holes on golf courses are Par 3s. And, also, think about it…Par 3 is really a Par 4 that you’ve already hit a perfect drive off of. You hit it right down the middle…and you have a perfect lie and the best angle going into the approach shot. How hard can it be?

Well, let’s look at the Professional Tour Stats. 

• Par 5’s, pros score 4.67 average score…which below par. Nice
• Par 4’s, pros score 4.04 average score…which is slightly over par.
• Par 3’s, pros score 3.07 average score…which shows that it’s what pros mostly struggle with.

Why? In theory, shouldn’t you be able to score better than the par 4s? You essentially hit a perfect drive.

Well, here’s what you might not know. Par 3s, if you look at the overall design of all the golf courses, yes, they might be the most amazing signature holes, but they are also most guarded, they sometimes have the smallest greens compared to other holes, they have more bunkers around them typically compared to other holes and they definitely love to add hazards around them AND …the architects tend to make the Par 3s harder because they think we have an advantage because we get to tee it up and have a perfect lie and angle to the green. 

So what’s our goal? We need to out-smart the architects and we need to do our homework and walk up to the shot confident and prepared.

Skip to: 08:57 Interesting Finish

I play a lot at a local course here called San Juan Hills which is a great course. I really love the layout, the condition it’s always in and is also a great value for what you get out of it. Right now, the greens are just perfect and we’ve been really enjoying the course. The uniqueness of this particular course is that the 18th hole is a par 3. So, lots of times, when I am in a match with my friends and we are going neck to neck and end up tied going into 18th, it creates a very interesting finish.  For one, there’s so much pressure built upon one shot…which is the tee shot which can determine a win or a loss pretty quickly. And second, the strategy on how to play the shot becomes very different depending on where you are at on the match. It’s a very different club selection and approach if you need to go for it for the birdie to win or play it safe to remain in the lead. 

So, I found myself many times on the 18th tee contemplating what kind of shot to make. So, I’ve organized some thoughts on how best to approach and think about the shot and also what to look for that will best serve you well.  Cause…you want to win, right?

Here are 3 thoughts on how best to play the par 3s.

Skip to: 10:18 #1: Get All the Facts

I don’t know about you but I love technology and the advancement in our technology has given us so much information, we sometimes don’t even know what to do with it all. During my round, I have an app that I use called Golf Shot Plus (which shows the layout of the hole and every yardage you’ll ever need). You can even drag your finger to a certain spot on the GPS of the hole layout and it will tell you exactly how far it is. It will also tell you the yardages to all the problem areas as well as all the dimensions of the green. It will also make you an amazing cup of coffee with a press of a button…just kidding.

On a side note, I’ve so far recorded 247 rounds on this app logging in every score, every fairway hit, every bunker hit, every shot I’ve been penalized, every green hit in regulation, every putt…every cup of coffee that I drank…hahaha!

Also, along with my app, I use a rangefinder (with slope) to determine all my exact yardages to the flag. The mistake we can make on our par 3s is that we shoot the pin with our range finder, figure out the exact yardage and select our club, line up, and pull the trigger. I say wait. Before we do that, let’s study the hole a bit more.

So, before we pull the trigger, let’s get all the facts. So, what facts will I need to be prepared for my shot?  This is what I look for:

• Yardage to the front of the green.
• Yardage to the back of the green. 
• Yardage to the pin.

Also, look around for hazards. I heard it said that when you start thinking about hazards, your ball will magically go towards it and in it so it’s better to imagine that it doesn’t even exist. Well, I don’t like that concept. It’s like when I was a kid and thought that there was a boogie man living under my bed…instead of guessing and being freaking out about it night after night, I will lean down and shine the flashlight to make sure he’s not there…that night.

• Yardages to the hazards that will come into play. 

Why are these yardages so important? I mean, really, don’t I just need to know the yardage to the pin?  No, and here’s why. Because you are not a machine. You don’t hit a perfect shot every time to the exact distance. You are a human being, you make errors…especially on a golf course, especially when the pressure is on and especially on a par 3 with so many distractions and barriers.

So, what will I do with these yardages that I just collected? Think through some scenarios in your head. Best-case scenarios, and the average case scenarios. Don’t think the worst-case scenario…you can’t really prepare for that. LOL.

So, what do I mean by the best and average case scenario? Best-case scenarios are when I swing hard and hit it right on the sweet spot and the shot goes the maximum distance I intended for. The average case scenarios are putting an average controlled swing that goes a little less than the nutted shot. So, let’s look at some examples and figure out the best-educated approach to the shot. Here’s a simple one.

I approach a par 3. To the front is 140 yards, to the back is 160. Pin placement is in the front of the green tucked behind the left bunker with the huge lip that I want to avoid at 145 yards. To clear the bunker, I need to hit it 142 yards. What should be my thought process?

• 1. Would I rather miss it short or miss it long?
• 2. Would I rather miss it left or miss it right?
• 3. How am I feeling right now?

So, let’s look at this case one step further.

• 1. Would I rather miss it short or miss it long? In this case, because the bunker with the big lip is on the left, if I miss-hit it short, there’s a possibility of my next shot being a bunker shot, so I would rather miss it long.
• 2. Would I rather miss it left or miss it right? If I miss it left, I’ll have a difficult, short chip shot with not much green to work with out of the deep rough. If I miss it right, I’ll have a long putt…but I am still putting.
• 3. How am I feeling right now? I am feeling pretty good. I’ve been hitting good shots all day.

So now that I got all the facts, I am now ready to pick a club and a place to aim.  But before we do that, keep in mind point #2.

Skip to: 16:11 #2: Know your Club Distances

Now I am going to assume you guys know your club distances pretty well. This is super-duper important. I know some of us to have a pretty good idea from working on the driving range, but on the course is a lot different. Study shows that there’s a huge discrepancy between an old range ball hit from grass vs a new fresh Titleist PROV (10+ yards on some clubs) and there’s even a significant difference between a ball hit off the mat vs the ball that was hit off the grass. Mat goes further. So, I would highly encourage you to get a true measurement of your club distances… the best way for me is to measure when I am on the course playing. I am always keeping track of how far each of my clubs travels. And the best way to do this is after getting an accurate distance to the flag, pay attention to where your ball ends up on the green vs. how well you hit it. It also helps to record this on your app or a log that you keep. This is very important.

So now, based on what you know about how far you hit each club, choose it based on what you’ve observed from all the facts about the hole. 

Let’s go back to the same hole example. 

To the front is 140 yards, to the back is 160. Pin placement is in the front of the green tucked behind the left bunker with the huge lip that I want to avoid at 145 yards. To clear the bunker, I need to hit it 142 yards. What should be my thought process?

I hit my 7 iron 150 yards on average, if I swing hard and hit it well, I can hit it 155 yards. I can hit my 8 iron 140 yards and if I swing hard and hit it well, I can get to 145. So, the choice is simple. Hit a 7 iron. If I miss it short, I will still carry 142 bunkers, if I hit it well and long, I am still within the birdie range. However, if I hit an 8 iron thinking that I will hit my best shot at 145 to clear the bunker and end up below the hole (which is ideal for a birdie putt), it’s riskier and ideally, it’s a harder shot to pull off. Also, it’s important to aim a bit right to first avoid the bunker all together and also to avoid missing left to leave yourself with a tough chip.

So, choose your best approach, using the facts you’ve collected and also knowing your yardage and the confidence you have in your shot.

Skip to: 19:07 #3: Make Your Par and Move On

Okay, this goes back to episode 7 talking about your expectations. Par 3s aren’t made for you to aggressively attack and gain strokes for your round. Don’t have expectations going into Par 3s other than to make par and move on. Make decisions on shots that will give you the best chance at par not your best chance at birdie. If you are aiming directly at the pin at the direct distance not paying attention to anything around you, you’ll end up in more trouble than it’s worth…it’s just not worth the risk. You are falling into the trap that the architects created for you. Out-smart them. Know this…You are smarter than them, you are one step ahead of them and by golly, you are so much better looking than them. 

Hey, if there are any course architects listening…I am just kidding…I am sure you are good looking too. But am I right about making Par 3s more difficult than the rest?

Skip to: 20:18 Summary

So, remember, when you are approaching the par 3, #1, get all the facts, do your homework, get all the yardages and ask these 3 simple questions. Would I rather miss it long or short, would I rather miss it right or left and how am I hitting the ball right now?. This will help you determine your best club choice.

#2. Know your club distance. This is crucial to improving your game. If you don’t know how far your shot goes, you are just shooting in the dark and hoping for the best. That’s just not a good strategy….agreed?

And #3, set your expectations to make par and move on. It’s the icing on the cake if you hit the ball close and make birdie, but for the most cases, you want to play it smart to avoid a disastrous double or a triple bogey. Don’t get me wrong, there is sometimes a perfect opportunity on a Par 3 to go after it. Right at the hole without any fear…and, you’ll know when that will be…but for the most part, play it safe.

Let’s put all that together to play your best round by really playing these Par 3s smart. Be one step ahead and know when and how to play each par 3s.

I hope this inspires you to go back out there and conquer your fears on the Par 3s…I know you have a hole in mind that’s been a barrier for you. Well, just like what happened last week… an equal significance to putting a man on the moon? Let’s break that barrier!! Let’s make a historical event just like what Eliud Kipchoge did running a sub 2 marathon but in your golf game by conquering your par 3s!! (which obviously is much more difficult than a silly marathon). Your friends will say it won’t happen in our lifetime…but I believe in you!! Let’s do this!!

Hey, hope you enjoyed this episode. Please don’t forget to leave me a review, I will give you a shout out on my next episode. But in the meantime, thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy Podcast, I really appreciate you being here. I really really do. Chow for now. Talk to you next time.

The post How to Play the Par 3s Better appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

AND, did you guys watch Kevin Na’s Shriners Open win in Vegas? OMG, when his little daughter Sophia ran up to him and as he looks at the camera and says, I would like to say something…then he sincerely and emotionally thank his supporters for always believing in him. Dude…it doesn’t get any better. So good.  Ok, I am not gonna lie…I teared up a bit…both Sundays.

But hey, let’s talk about my podcast listeners. As promised, I want to give a shout out to a listener who wrote me a review on iTunes. Thank you so much Trent for leaving me a 5 star review. He writes…I love this podcast! So, I was just searching for a golf podcast to better my golf game and came upon this one. From the moment Hanju starts speaking you are hooked! He is so knowledgeable about the sport and is able to explain it in a way that is easy to understand for every skill level of golfer. I am always excited to see what the next episode is going to be about!! Kee it up Hanju!!

Well Trent!! Thank you so much for your encouragement and taking the time to let me know that you are excited to see what’s next!! I will always try my best to deliver good content that will help you better your game. Keep listening and Thanks again!!

Skip to: 04:08 Drive to the Course

Okay…so, you know what’s funny? I get ready to drive to the golf course for a round and the local course around here usually takes about 20-30 minutes to get there and I am always thinking to myself, ok, what can I listen to on the way there that could really put me at a right frame of mind, or even help me prepare to play really good golf today.  Do you guys ever think that? Or, do you guys have some type of routine you have for your pre-golf drive? I would love to hear about it. 

Anyways, I thought, hmmmmm…why don’t I come up with something that could really help. Maybe, I can listen to it myself and it will help me too. LOL.

So, I thought long and hard and asked myself this question. “What would I consider a successful day?” Let me rephrase that…if I ask myself…” okay, today, after the round, when I am driving home, what needs to happen on the golf course that would make me think…that was a great day.”  Because so many times in my life, I had a miserable drive home. You with me? So many regrets, so many missed opportunities…so much humiliation and so much money lost. And when I say so much money lost, I mean like $10 dollars. But still, I just hate losing. But there are also times when I drive home super pumped!! It was a great day, I had so much fun!! I played great!! I won!! Whatever it might be…I was excited and couldn’t wait for my next round.

I thought long and hard and asked myself…” what makes a difference from a good day from a bad day? “What makes a difference from I am disappointed to I am happy?”

So, I want to dedicate this episode to set you up before the round so you can have a great day on the course and be happy after. Cool?

Skip to: 06:20 Happiness

I was watching a TedTalk the other day given by an entrepreneur and economist named Nat Ware. He’s a Rhodes Scholar based at Oxford University whose research focuses on social impact, poverty alleviation and the economics of happiness. And so…he seems really smart and has done a lot of research on this subject so I decided to listen. And, as soon as I started listening, what intrigued me was his very first opening line. He said this…He said…”I remember being shocked the first time I went to Africa. I was shocked when I met a one-legged taxi driver in Kenya. I was shocked when I met Sonia an orphan schoolgirl in Rwanda. And I was shocked when I met a disabled subsistence farmer in Mozambique. What shocked me wasn’t their poverty, but their happiness. Then, he did a quick survey with the crowd.  Want to do this survey with me? He basically asked these questions to the general public and after, he shares the answers according to the research. Ready? 

• First question: Imagine that you’re competing in the Olympic Games representing your country, what would you prefer out of the following, answer honestly: 
  • Who would prefer to come in second? 90%
  • Who would prefer to come in third? 8% (research) 
  • Who would prefer to come in second to last? 2%
• Second question: You won the lottery. What would you prefer?
  • Get $10 million tomorrow. 92%
  • Receive increasing payments and get $8 million in total. 8% (research)
• Third question: You get to choose your salary and you only care about your own happiness. What would you prefer:
  • You get $50k, everyone else gets $50k. 60%
  • You get $50k, everyone else gets $60k. 34%
  • You get $40k, everyone else gets $30k. 6% (research)

Let’s now let’s see what the actual answers are. What does the research say about what actually makes us content, what actually makes us satisfied, what actually makes us happy?

It’s not just us that is a bad predictor of happiness, the macro data actually support this as well. We are wealthier than ever but unhappier than ever. We are more prosperous but more depressed. We are less satisfied. We have faster transport, but we complain about it, there is more suicide than homicides in most countries, we have more goods and services than ever before, we have technology improving exponentially, but we don’t see the corresponding increase in our life satisfaction, in our happiness. 

So, why? Why are we so bad at predicting and why are we so unhappy? And through his research over the years, he said there’s one explanation that he finds far more compelling, far more plausible, far more persuasive than any other. The reason why we’re unhappy, the most compelling reason –  as shown by the data, as shown by research – relates to…expectations. What? Yup. Expectations. At a very simple level – we’re unhappy when our expectations or reality exceed our experiences of reality.  This is called the EXPECTATION GAP.

The conclusion was that there’s an expectation gap that’s causing us to be unhappy. This very expectation explains why a bronze medalist can be happier than a silver medalist, because the silver medalist imagines coming first, the bronze medalist images coming forth. It’s the expectation that explains why, often, lottery winners aren’t that happy; their happiness doesn’t last…because they don’t have that increasing level of satisfaction throughout their life. It’s the expectation that explains why you can be happier with an income of $40k vs to an income of $50k 

I had this incredible epiphany about 5 years ago that really changed my perspective on golf. First, I was getting so frustrated with the game that I really wasn’t having fun at all. I felt like I’ve always been a devout and committed learner of the game. I’ve been playing golf for so many years. I have so much respect and  knowledge of the game. I feel like I put so much effort in to improving every area of my game. I work on my strong fundamentals, and eliminate a lot of my swing mistakes by hours of drills and range time, I even try to play smart and strategic golf week after week…but I just wasn’t improving. But you know what I was doing? I was going into every round with such high expectations of how I needed to play, what score I need to shoot. And I thought to myself, why am I making myself just miserable?

So, I started to thinking…how do I really manage my expectations before I start playing today? What should I be thinking about and how should I posture my attitude so that I can be the best that I can be out there and at the same time, at the end of the round, I’ve really enjoyed and had a great time, and I am also excited to keep learning, and I am excited to keep growing and I am excited to keep getting better at this game?

Great question. I think there are three crucial things we must think and understand.

Skip to: 15:06 #1: Understand the Reality of Golf

It’s considered the hardest game ever invented. Not only the physical, but also in the micro level since the margin for error is very miniscule. Also, did you know that in golf, good swing and even good shots can produce bad results. It’s irregular, every course is different, 1 degree off on your impact can move your ball 20 yards off target including the spin that will produce a slice or a hook. Have you ever seen a professional lose it out there? And these guys are working on their game for hours and hours each day, trying to perfect every shot. Ben Hogan, one of the greatest legendary golfers of all time said he hits about 10 shots a round the way he wanted to. So, keep that in mind before you step out there. That’s just golf. Be okay with it…in fact, celebrated it, that’s why we love the game. It’s a lifetime pursuit. 

Skip to: 16:17 #2: Understand the Reality of YOUR Game

Now, ask yourself, when is the last time you played, or how often you play. Ask yourself how many hours you practiced this week. Ask yourself how confident you feel about your current ability to crush it out there. Be realistic. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying walk out there with your head down thinking to yourself why am I even out here, I suck and I am going to suck today. I mean, be realistic, know your strength and know the shots you’ve hit before and you can consistently do it again and again. And also know that you can hit your best shot, but that doesn’t mean you will do it the same next time…or it will result in your favor.

Skip to: 17:06 #3: Expect the Unexpected

Okay…now, without having unrealistic expectations on how you are going to play today, play your best. Focus on every shot, don’t half-ass it. Concentrate and put in your best effort…knowing what you know. Think positive and build your confidence in the shots that you are hitting well. Expect the unexpected, whether it’s good or bad, be okay with it. Expect bad shots to end up close to the hole, expect good shots to go in the water with a bad bounce…expect the unexpected. Be okay with the result, it’s golf.

Skip to: 17:53 Summary

Here’s the thing. We are terrible predictors of what we think is going to give us the best round today. Just like we are terrible predictors of what’s going to make us happy and excited at the end of the round. But if you manage your expectations correctly, you’ll be sure to win no matter what and even have the best time doing it…isn’t that why we are really out there in the first place?

I don’t want you to misunderstand that you need to go blindly out there and let whatever happens, happen. There’s a difference between having goals and having expectations. We HAVE to want to get better and set goals, grind away on the driving range, spend hours perfecting your touch around and on the greens…we need to pursue this game with everything we can to get better, but once we step out on the course, don’t fool yourself, your hard work doesn’t guarantee you a thing. Expectations hold you in an infinite loop of false possibilities. So…here’s my advice. Rest in your own truth. Free yourself.

Five years ago, when I had my epiphany, this is the new logic and reasoning that went through my head. First, my question was, why am I not playing scratch golf? And I am frustrated every time I play…and why am I losing to players that haven’t put in the effort that I’ve put in? Then I thought, wait, I don’t work on my game as hard and long as I should, wait, this is a really really difficult game that can result in strings of bad misfortunes, wait, one bad hole can kill my entire round, wait, I am not a pro, wait, even pros struggle out there. Then, I decided to just free myself from unrealistic expectations and just go out and play my best and have a blast doing it. Guess what, the pressure, the anxiety, and frustration left me…and I’ve been playing my best golf.

So, #1. Understand the reality of this golf game  #2. Understand the reality of your own game and #3. Expect the unexpected when you go out there. Put in your best effort for every shot and celebrate the good, be okay with the bad. 

Cool?  Cool. Okay, did you guys enjoy this episode? Are you guys ready to have some fun? I want to know. I would love it if you leave a comment on our episode 7 blog on bettergolfacademy.com, or just email me at hanju@bettergolfacademy.com or I would love it if you leave me a review on iTunes podcast. Make sure you leave me your first name on iTunes review so I can give you a shout out. 

In the meantime, let’s all get better together…and let’s do it by managing our expectations and let’s have a blast out there.  Remember the surprise and shock when he met a one-legged taxi driver in Kenya, when he met Sonia an orphan schoolgirl in Rwanda. And when he met a disabled farmer in Mozambique. What shocked him wasn’t their poverty, but their happiness. 

Hey…Thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy Podcast, I really appreciate you being here. Chow for now. Talk to you next time.

The post Managing Your Expecations appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

This time, it’s from Matthew who writes first the title of the review as, “Life…I mean Golf Lessons” – He says, “Hanju reels you into what feels like an intimate conversation, which is a strange feat for a podcast where only one person does the talking. Through these chats, he imparts lessons and wisdom that you have to keep reminding yourself are about golf…not life…or are they?  Brilliant work. Highly recommend.

Well Matthew, what can I say, you decoded my secret!! LOL. Thank you so much for taking the time to write me this awesome review, I really appreciate your insight and encouragement. Have an awesome day!!

Skip to: 02:49 Do you Walk or Ride?

Hey so today, I want to talk about something I’ve been debating in my head for a long time. It’s a simple question of should I walk or should I ride while playing golf? And of course, sometimes the choices are already made for you right?…some courses don’t offer an option to walk due to speed of play, or even due to some severe hills or long distances between holes…I totally get that. But, I am talking about the courses that we often play that offers both walking and riding and it’s a good fit for both. What do you do? Do you walk? Or do you ride?  And this is a BETTER Golf Academy podcast, so we are going to talk about which option helps us to play BETTER…right? And what is the WHY behind it?

But first, let’s tackle our first concern, the first thing I mentioned is about the speed of play. Does walking really slow down the speed of play? And the fair answer I think is yes. I thought about it logically and also from experience. If I am playing while riding on a cart without having to wait for a group in front of me, I can jam through 18 holes like crazy. It’s obvious that I can get to the ball faster so I am going to play faster. They actually timed a foursome to play both ways on an empty course and I was right. They were average golfers and they played a normal round at a comfortable speed. Well, by riding, they finished about 15 minutes faster. But, realistically, with the normal pace of play, especially with a group in front of you, are you really losing time? Or is it that you just get there faster with a cart, so that you can wait longer? Hmmm. 

Also, I wish they did a further study on this and see if their scores were any better…but…maybe we can unpack that together and I’ll try to give you a good educated guess on why I think their scores were better when they walked.

Skip to: 05:20 Pebble Beach Anyone?

So, I don’t know about you but I’ve always walked the course growing up. Through Junior golf and highschool, riding a cart wasn’t even an option. Then came adulthood. As a leisurely sport for weekend play, we just all went out, grabbed a cart, filled up the ice chest on the side of the cart and we were ready to hit the course. We didn’t think anything of it. It just is what it is. It’s easier to ride and everyone else does it. 

Then, about 6 years ago, my brother-in-law was celebrating his big 50th birthday, and we decided to all go and take a weekend trip to Pebble Beach. This for me was a once in a lifetime trip and was just thrilled and excited to be out there. It was the most perfect day for golf, the temperature couldn’t be any better…it was a bit of an overcast so no direct sunlight and the birds were chirping. It was absolutely a dream day for golf…and you know what they require? A caddie…the caddie carried our clubs and our foursome walked the entire course. 

So, when the four of us walked the course that day, something lid up within me. It brought it all back for me from my Junior golf and high school golf days. The competitive spirit rose up as I approached every shot from the direct line behind, it gave me time to think about the next shot and look at it from all different angles as I slowly approach it. The tempo was more consistent and I got to control it.  It helped me focus more on my own game as I didn’t have to tag along in the golf cart as my partner drove us around in circles looking for the ball. It was so freeing. I was thinking to myself, were all these benefits I am mentioning just due to walking vs riding? Or, was I just on a golf high of playing at Pebble Beach with my buddies with a caddie? Is there something to this walking thing?

Either way, this started a seed of an idea in my head about walking vs riding and I was on a mission to find out what was more beneficial for me.  And after much research and reading different sides of the coin as well as experimenting on my own…I even purchased a really nice pull/pushcart and I’ve been learning a lot about how I play the course walking vs riding and I’ve been documenting my experiences. And for those of you that are interested, here are some of my conclusions.

Skip to: 08:22 Conclusion #1: I Play Better When I Walk

Why? That is a good question. I can’t quite pinpoint one big benefit, but there are so many little ones that just added up…and in the long run, it just made me play better.  For instance:

• I really like walking up to my ball directly from behind from far away. As I mentioned before. As I am approaching my ball, I get to feel all the senses around me and gives me so much more time to analyze and think about my shot. I have time to look at all the different obstacles to avoid, plenty of time to mentally prepare for the shot. I heard some opposition to this thought where someone complained that it gave them too much time to think about the shot…maybe…but for me, more time, more focus, more concentration…the better.
• As I mentioned before, my tempo is more consistent. I control the speed in how I walk and it seems that I have less wait time on the ball. Once I get there, I am ready to hit.

Skip to: 09:47 Conclusion #2: I Enjoy My Round More When I Walk

Why? Well…first, I like to walk. It’s freeing, it’s comforting and it’s relaxing. I always like to physically move and this keeps me from just sitting in the cart to the next shot. I also really enjoy the conversation with other walkers. Seems that we are not as isolated and confounded to our own seats in our carts. Also, when you are riding, you only have one other person to talk to, when your entire foursome is walking, I seem to have more opportunities for a deeper connection. Especially when we are waiting on the tee, we are not sitting in the cart, we are usually standing around and talking to each other.  And…that’s all from an extrovert point of view..which is me. 

Now, I also heard that walking is great for introverts who just want to be left alone and focus on their own game. This made sense to me too. It’s easier to stray off on your own and walk a different pace without offending anyone. 

Skip to: 11:00 Conclusion #3: It’s Healthier

Okay…

Scientific researchers in Sweden found that walking a round of golf equated to a 40 to 70 percent intensity of a maximum aerobic workout (assuming 18 holes played). In another study, cardiologist Dr. Edward A. Palank’s study showed that golfers that walk reduced their levels of bad cholesterol while keeping their good cholesterol steady; the control group of riding golfers failed to show those same results.

Also, according to Golf Science International, calculated that four hours of playing golf while walking is comparable to a 45-minute fitness class.

Another study conducted at the Rose Center for Health and Sports Sciences in Denver, Colorado concluded that walking nine holes on a hilly course is equivalent to a walk of 2.5 miles, compared to 0.5 miles when using a cart and that a golfer who walks 36 holes a week is burning nearly 3,000 calories.  That’s equivalent to eating 5 in and out a double-double with cheese, onion, mustard, and catchup.

Skip to: 12:38 Summary

You might be thinking…seriously, so what? How can that make that much of a difference in my game? Walking vs Riding…it seems insignificant.  Do you know what I say to that? I say, let me tell you a story that I just read in this book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. I just finished it…it’s an awesome book. I highly highly recommend it. This is the story in Chapter 1 that he starts the entire book by…

Here’s the story…so, did you know that in Great Britain, the professional cyclists were not known for their winning record for close to 100 years? They were a team of mediocre cyclists. Then…you know what they did? They hired a new performance director by the name of Dave Brailsford. Since 1908, British riders had won only just one gold medal at the Olympic games and in 119 years, no British cyclist had ever won the biggest race in cycling…tour de France. In fact, this is really funny…the performance of British riders had been so underwhelming that one of the top bike manufacturers in Europe refused to sell bikes to the team because they were afraid that it would hurt sales if other professionals saw them using their gear.  Hahaha!! So sad.

So this guy, Brailsford that had been hired made him different from previous coaches…and it was his relentless commitment to a strategy that he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains,” which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do. 

This is what he said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.” Brailsford and his coaches began by making small adjustments you might expect from a professional cycling team. This is what they did.

• They redesigned the bike seats to make them more comfortable. Ok…hmmm…
• They rubbed alcohol on the tires for a better grip. ok…yeah….
• They asked riders to wear electrically heated shorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding…not that significant yet…what else?
• They used biofeedback sensors to monitor how each athlete responded to a particular workout. 
• The team tested various fabrics in a wind tunnel and had their outdoor riders switch to indoor racing suits, which proved to be lighter and more aerodynamic. 
• They tested different types of massage gels to see which one led to the fastest muscle recovery. 
• They hired a surgeon to teach each rider the best way to wash their hands to reduce the chances of catching a cold. 
• They determined the type of pillow and mattress that led to the best night’s sleep for each rider. 
• They even painted the inside of the team truck white, which helped them spot little bits of dust that would normally slip by unnoticed but could degrade the performance of the finely tuned bikes. 

As these and hundreds of other small improvements accumulated, the results came faster than anyone could have imagined. Just five years after Brailsford took over, the British Cycling team dominated the road and track cycling events at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where they won 60 percent of the gold medals available. Four years later, when the Olympic Games came to London, the Brits raised the bar as they set nine Olympic records and seven world records. 

That same year, Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. The next year, his teammate Chris Froome won the race, and he would go on to win again in 2015, 2016, and 2017, giving the British team five Tour de France victories in six years. 

During the ten-­year span from 2007 to 2017, British cyclists won 178 world championships and sixty-six Olympic or Paralympic gold medals and captured five Tour de France victories in what is widely regarded as the most successful run in cycling history.

How does this happen folks? How does a team of previously ordinary athletes transform into world champions with tiny changes that, wouldn’t even seem to make a small difference? 

Why do small improvements accumulate into such AWESOME results, and how can you replicate this approach in your own life? Did I say life? I meant, how can you replicate this approach in your golf game? 

Well, start by walking, and while walking, start by thinking, start by taking the time to focus, start by taking a deep breath…start by enjoying the surroundings and the beauty around you, start by enjoying the friendships and conversations on the tee box waiting for your next shot, start by enjoying the competition and start by improving the little things, one after another…that will accumulate eventually in the big things. This is how the improvement is made. This is how we play better golf. 

Cool?  Cool. Okay, did you guys enjoy this episode? Did you learn something? Do you have a new perspective? Do you want to start walking? I want to know. I would love it if you leave a comment on our episode 6 blog on bettergolfacademy.com, or just email me at hanju@bettergolfacademy.com or I would love it if you leave me a review on iTunes podcast. Make sure you leave me your first name on iTunes review so I can give you a shout out. 

In the meantime, let’s all get better together…and let’s do it by aggregation of marginal gains…1% improvement each day!! What do you think? I think it’s an awesome idea, and it’s an idea that has proven over and over again in all different industries, all different sports, and even all different aspects of life. Yeah? I hope this motivates you to walk the next round, try it out…I think you’ll love it!! 

Hey…Thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy Podcast, I really appreciate you being here. Chow for now. Talk to you next time. 

The post Should I Walk or Should I Ride? appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Jonathan writes: 

I’ve been lucky enough to share more than a few rounds of golf with Hanju. It’s undeniable that he loves the game! You’ll quickly realize that his passion for golf transcends the course and overflows to his daily life, as evident by the myriad examples/analogies he provides on the podcast. Best of all, the information is delivered in a FUN and ORGANIZED way – a testament to Hanju’s personality!

Now – I’ve never thrown a golf club or yelled on the course, (he might be referring to my episode #1 about me throwing my club) but the lessons are still applicable more than ever and are a great reminder for everyday life. Really, this is a life podcast guise as a golf podcast. Hanju talks about being intentional with your practice, offers insight into how to be present (HERE and NOW!), (my episode 2) and gives practical strategies to succeed in any pressure situation (putting, arguments with significant others, boardroom presentations).

I’m so glad Hanju created this podcast and I can’t wait for more. In the meantime, I’m going to work on my ego and acceptance, because the only way is to attack the par 5s is in 2 shots. Long and straight baby! 

-Jonathan

Hahaha! Thanks, Jonathan…I really appreciate the well thought out and heartfelt review…and well, for the par 5’s, not everyone can hit a 300+ yard drive like you bro. And it’s awesome to know that someone of your caliber can listen to this podcast and still get stuff out of it. AND also, I love what you said about this being a life podcast guise as a golf podcast. As you may have figured out, I do reference life a lot…and I truly believe there are great parallels with Golf and Life!! Don’t believe me? Just keep listening…

Skip to: 03:44 Let’s Just Talk about Myelin

I want to do something a bit different for this episode. I usually like to include very tangible exercises or actionable items for you to work on…but for this one, I just want to introduce an idea and some science that backs it up hoping that it will make sense of how our mind and body work together and how it can inspire us to think differently about improving our game.

So, today, I want to talk about Practicing. I know I started this podcast on episode 1 talking about the reason why we just don’t improve in our game right?…it’s from lack of practice. And I talked about how to analyze our game to figure out what specific skills to work on. But today, I want to go a step deeper and talk about what practice really is, and how to do it well so that…you can get the most out of it, and so that you can know that you are positioning your practice for best improvement and so that you are dreaming big and so that, you are being motivated to keep doing it.

So what is practice? It’s a repetition of an action with a goal of improvement. And with the repetition, it will help us perform with more ease, speed, accuracy, and confidence. Do you guys all agree with this? The practice is something we do over and over and over again until we feel like we have a pretty good feel for it and the outcome of this very practice is producing similar or even exact results each time. And the more you do it, the better you’ll get…even to the point of mastery…well…for most sports. I don’t know if anyone will ever admit that they will reach the “mastery” level in golf. 

Speaking of mastery, here’s Bruce Lee’s quote about practice: “I fear not the man who has practice 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”  Come on, we can’t have a golf podcast without a Bruce Lee quote, right?

The practice is a repetition of an action with a goal of improvement…

When I was in Highschool. I was on a golf team. And, just an FYI, golf wasn’t all that popular back then…this was before Tiger Woods dominated the game and amongst the young people made it somewhat…cool. Anyways, I would work on my game everyday. Fortunately and unfortunately, I had a pretty decent sized back yard that was all grass. Unfortunately, because I had to mow it once a week and fortunately because it was a great private area for me to practice my chipping. So, I would come home from school and made a round circle with the garden hose that was laying on the grass on one side of the yard. I would then go to the other side of the yard, pace off 30 yards and hit exactly 50 balls towards the imaginary green boundary that I just made with the garden hose. The goal? I wanted to make 90% of my chips inside the circle.

This was a repetitive drill that I didn’t even know the true effects of how this will help me get better. All I knew was that someone told me that if I kept doing it over and over again, I will get better. And now it all makes sense to me and this is why.

So, here’s a question. What does practice do to our brains that make us get better? If you haven’t read the book called The Talent Code by Dan Coyle, I highly recommend it to help you understand how your brain works in mastering a skill. 

• Our brains have 2 kinds of neural tissue
  • Grey Matter and White Matter
  • Grey Matter processes the information in the brain while White Matter is made up of fatty tissue and nerve fibers.
  • In order for our bodies to move, the information needs to travel from the brain’s Grey matter – where all the information is being processed, down the spinal cords through the nerve fibers to finally to our muscles.  (Let’s call this Neural pathway)
  • Well, scientists found these fatty substances wrapped around these neural pathways insulating it. This substance is called MYELIN
  • And they didn’t think that this was significant until discovered that this Myelin covering actually changed throughout the activity of repeated motion. What?
  • So, check this out. When they were testing rats, a rat that exercised the same motion over and over again developed thick layers upon layers of myelin around their neural pathways. Ok so, what’s that got to do with anything?
  • Well, this Myelin (this insulation covering the neural pathways) prevents energy loss while traveling through the nerve fibers to your muscles. In fact, with repeated activity, the layer of the MYELIN increases making the information travel so much faster!!
  • The more layers, the greater the insulation, creating a superhighway from your brain to your muscles.

So, what does all this mean? It means that right now, repetitive and effective practice is the best way we have of pushing our individual limits to achieve new heights and maximize our fullest potential.  So, what does that mean for us as golfers? It means that if we want to get better at golf, we need to increase the layer of Myelin, by repeating the process over and over again creating a superhighway of information traveling to our muscles. 

That’s pretty cool. Isn’t it? But, it’s not just about repetitive actions, it requires a little more than that. Because, we all know that practice is a key to success, but what we don’t know is what specific kinds of practice that can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice. There are three main elements that work together that add crazy amounts of speed and accuracy to your movements and thoughts, honesty, the scientists have discovered that this Myelin is the secret holy grail of talent. This is just crazy talk. Let’s unpack these 3 elements together.

Skip to: 11:22 Deep Practice is Required

We keep talking about repetition, but…it’s not only repeating a task over and over again, but it’s also exercising what you call the “Deep Practice”. What is deep practice? It’s deliberate or purposeful practice. It’s an idea that you are always practicing something that’s a bit difficult to achieve. So, imagine there are 3 different zones in the difficulty of what you are trying to achieve. The comfort zone, the stretch zone, and the snap zone. Comfort zone is somewhere that you are doing what you are already pretty good at, it comes easy and you can achieve it most of the time. The snap zone is not reachable and is too difficult to even think about doing…you don’t want to go there. Like me tight roping while juggling…lol. But the correct zone to practice is the stretch zone. That’s where you are achieving around 40% of your goal.  The idea here is that the struggle isn’t an option when you practice, it’s a biological requirement for improvement. You have to struggle to improve.

Skip to: 12:49 The Brazilian Soccer Players

Do you know about Brazilian soccer players? Well, me neither until I read this. Brazil produces an unusually high percentage of the world’s best soccer players. In fact, if you google which country has won the most World Cups, the answer is Brazil with 5. Interesting, so the next question is why? Why Brazil? Well, after much study, they found that in Brazil, an unusual game is played that resembled soccer for the first 12 years of these players lives. It’s called fútbol de salao. It’s played with a smaller ball – which creates lots of room for error, the room is small which creates a narrow pathway for control, also, the defence is tight which continues to force you to make a mistake over and over again.  Each player touches the ball 600% more often than regular soccer. You can look all this stuff up. It’s truly fascinating.

So, why does this game produce such a high level of skilled soccer players? Because it keeps you in the stretch zone…struggling with only 40% of success. And with those errors, they are making small, intense corrections over and over again. The golden second happens right after the error…and it’s when you are leaning into the error, experiencing the mistake and fixing it. And the finding and fixing of the error is the core of the process.

Have you ever been on a course and something just doesn’t feel right? You are pushing all your drives to the right, or you keep topping your mid irons, or you are yanking all your short putts, or you are duffing all your chips. You are so frustrated and you are thinking to yourself, what the heck is going on? Well, this, this is your opportunity for the magic to happen.

Now, imagine yourself taking several large buckets of balls out to the range to fix that very error you experienced out there. Imagine yourself putting on your wireless headphones in playing your favorite music playlist… Now, for the next few hours, you are leaning into the error, you are experiencing the mistake and you are fixing it making small adjustments, through trial and error, you are finding the fix, you are repeating it…over and over again…until your errors are progressing beyond 40%. And you keep repeating it…over and over again. This is the core of the process. This is when the magic happens.

Skip to: 15:24 The Ignition

We all need a little motivation to go out and practice, right? But what separates truly low handicapper or the high achievers from the rest? Okay, answer this question…honestly, how bad do you want to get better? Some…maybe most of us weekend golfers are okay with where we are at right now..golf is just another hobby that we can enjoy once a month, 3-4 times a year and we have totally low expectations with it. Let’s just go out, drink a few beers, smoke cigars, trash talk with your friends and have a good time. If that’s you, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, maybe I have it all wrong…hahaha! 

But, if you are tired of sucking, and you really want to get better and you just love this game…I suspect you already have this second secret sauce called “passion” We all know what passion is…it’s a higher level of commitment, born out of our deep unconscious desires. But what ignites this passion within us to want to go out and get better? That ignites us to be willing to spend the next 10,000 hours becoming who we want to become? 

This is really really interesting. Dan Coyle, the author talks about this passion being triggered by certain primal cues. He says, “when you ask incredible people the source of their passion, the question struck most of them as faintly ridiculous. The universal response is to shrug and say something like “I dunno, I’ve just always felt that way!” But he says this “ignition” comes from a distinct signal…something from your family, your home, people you’ve encountered, experience you’ve went through…  That signal sparkled an intense, unconscious response that created this idea within you that said “I want to be like them” or “I want to do that”. This ignition leads to motivation and this motivation is strong enough to overcome any failure or mistake…and push through 10,000 hours!!

I’ve also heard that this ignition can come from pain. I’ve heard recently that tracing the history of these high endurance athletes like Iron Man winners and Ultra Marathoners…they come from a history of pain. There’s also did a study to uncover the question “Do orphans rule the world?” This study was done by Martin Eisenstadt, a clinical psychologist from Long Island who tracked the parental histories of every person who was famous or respected enough to earn a half-page or longer entry in the encyclopedia. Do you guys remember encyclopedia? The results were just crazy!! Julius Caesar and Napoleon (lost father when 15), Lincoln (lost mother when 9), Gandhi (lost father when 15), Michelangelo (lost mother when 6)…Mark Twain, 50 Cent, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Bono…the list goes on and on…that this deep pain was rooted within them at an early age that ignited something!!

Wait, so the only way to get ignited with this passion to become great is through pain? What if I don’t have that?  But he talks about another set of cues which is when someone realizes that they too could achieve something….and the moment they believe it. When you unconsciously make this statement in your head…“if they can do it, why couldn’t I? That’s the golden moment. That’s where your passion can ignite!

Isn’t this stuff great!! I just love this.

Skip to: 19:39 Master Coaching

Okay…let’s not get crazy and think that we can do this all on our own. This is never done. It always takes a village. For golf and for anything else. It requires mentors, teachers, friends. But I want to focus on the coaches and what makes a great coach in golf. I took a lesson a while back that really messed me up. It took me a long time to recover from it and it took me to spiral down to a deep soul search…I’ve had this sense that I’ve been doing it wrong all my life and I just don’t have what it takes to get it right. Because what this coach started teaching was an entirely new method of swing. He was trying to re-teach me the golf swing from scratch from what he thought was the “right” way. This is absolutely the worst-case scenario.

We all need a coach. But we need the right coach. The right coach is who makes your talent blossom. It’s called Master Coaching…their skills is to bring forth the talent within by teaching the players to problem solve without them. Boom!! Mind blown. I love unconventional swings that result in champions…let’s look the professional golfers: Jim Furyk, Matthew Wolff, Ho Sung Choi (Read about his story…the fisherman swing…during his work on a fisherman boat, he lost his right thumb and learned how to play by putting his whole body off balance and developing a unique swing). Have a coach who takes your current skills and bring forth the talent within by helping you solve the problems on your own. This is a huge huge key in your improvement success. Aren’t you glad Jim Furyk’s coach didn’t say, dude what are you going? Let me show you how to do it the “Right” way. But he saw his talent and taught him the skills to bring forth the talent and taught him to problem solve on his own.

Remember putting on your headphones to your favorite playlist and spending hours fixing your problem? Remember I said that’s where the magic happens? Well, that’s the secret sauce y’all.

Skip to: 22:17 Summary

I don’t know about you, but when I see an incredible talent out there on the golf course…especially when I am at a Professional Golf Tournament watching outside the ropes.  I am immediately intimidated and think to myself, wow, how lucky that some are born with such talent. I can never reach that level. But now I am realizing the opposite. It’s learning to believe that that greatness isn’t born, it’s grown. That talent isn’t something you were given, it’s something you make.

Let’s keep grinding! Let’s keep believing! Let’s keep learning!! And Let’s keep getting Better Together.  Yeah? Are you pumped like I am?

Let’s do this!!

Thank you for listening to Better Golf Academy. Have a great week!

The post Secret Sauce to Awesome Practice appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

As promised, I want to acknowledge another one of my listeners who left me a 5-star review. Apple Itunes keeps the reviewers anonymous so if you want to add your first name at the bottom of the review, I will make sure you get a shoutout from me. I do this because I am super appreciative that you took the time to write it and also, encourage others to do it as well…cause I hear more engagement and reviews you get, the more they (the apple people) will expose this podcast to others. Can someone confirm that out there? Is that really true?

This week, Stephen left me a 5-star review by saying “Newfound Interest in Golf” – He says, “As someone who’s never been into the sport of golf, this podcast has piqued my interest in golf more than ever. Hanju’s ability to grasp the listener through his knowledge of golf and his experiences really inspire you to get out there on the green and to play without fear of failure. Anyone who’s new to golf or a veteran should definitely take a listen to this podcast, I guarantee you’ll learn something new and you can apply when playing golf but also in your everyday life.  Thoroughly enjoyed each episode!!

Well, this is amazing! I am incredibly honored to be part of your journey in inspiring and helping you get better Stephen!! So, wow!! Thank you so much for this. It made my day.

Skip to: 02:54 Why Breathing Matters

So, what if I told you that there’s this one exercise you can do every day that will help you… change the PH of your blood, so it can make it more acid or more alkaline in minutes. (you are like, so?…haha! Why do I care?) Okay, so, what I said this exercise can even boost your digestion and lower your heart-rate, (you are like, okay, little more relevant, I’ll listen).  And I said, what if this exercise can lower your cortisol levels (which is your stress levels), and help you go to sleep at night. (now you are like less stress? I am down…give me more info). And now what if I told you that this very exercise can even help you hit your next best shot on the golf course and what if I told you, in a most intense pressure putt situation, it will put you in a maximum mental state to focus and sink your putts!!! Yeah!! Tell me more, what is it?? It’s an exercise that we are all doing right now. Right now…as I am speaking and as you are listening.

It’s Breathing. I am guessing you probably guess it already because of the title of this episode. Well, certain type of breathing exercise done safely and done correctly can be one of the most powerful ways to control your mind and your body.

That sounds too good to be true you say?…okay, I see how you are. So, let me give you some scientific facts I’ve found on how your body and mind works.

I was in a workshop called LIVE…which helps us gain awesome clarity about who we are and how we can more fully live out our unique destiny. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Well, one of the sessions was taught by my friend Dr. Liz Powell, who is a psychologist, that explained this breathing concept to how it really made sense to me.

When we breathe and take in oxygen into our lungs, the oxygen gets distributed throughout our body for everything to function and blood to flow. Out of that, about 20% of the oxygen gets distributed to the brain to apply the normal brain activity. Everything is all good and fine until a stressful situation arises. Let’s say for example, in a relationship setting, let’s say your spouse or your significant other, or your close friend says something that just triggers you. It makes you angry. Suddenly, your body starts to react. This reaction can start with a heart-pounding a bit faster, then breathing to quicken. This will start to make your muscles tense and a bead of sweat starts to appear.

This combination of reaction is known as the “fight or flight” response.

It’s our normal reaction for survival. It helps us to react quickly to life-threatening situations. Your body goes through an instant sequence of hormonal changes and physiological responses to help fight off the threat or flee to safety.  Right? It’s the very thing that creates adrenaline to run faster when a bear is chasing you, or lift a car when someone is stuck underneath it…your body is capable of incredible things. You just have to learn how to control it and learn to know what is happening.

So, get this. While your body is going through a transition during this stressful/pressure moment, you know what the oxygen is doing? It’s re-distributing. Remember the 20% in your brain? Well, that gets redistributed to work on everything else your body is doing…making your heart beat faster, making you breathe quicker, making your muscles tense and making you sweat. It’s been measured during this moment, you lose 3-5% of oxygen in your brain!!! Do you know how I know this to be true? In the heat of an argument, you say things you don’t clearly mean. LOL. Hello? Have you ever apologized like this before? “Ummmm, I am so sorry for what I said the other day, I didn’t really mean it…I was just so angry in the moment and these words just came out of my mouth!” Yup. It’s proof that your brain wasn’t functioning 100% due to your lack of oxygen.

Are you guys still with me? I am about to circle back and put all my thoughts together.

But one more thought…so, have you ever watched a basketball game during the playoffs? Last-minute fouls which bring someone to the free-throw line? If the player makes it, it’s a win for the team and they move on to the final championship game, if he misses, the game is over.

It’s a Fight or Flight situation. Life and Death. This is what happens every single time before the player takes a shot. A deep breath. You can see it. Slow intake through the nose, sometimes with their eyes closed, and exhale through the mouth…then the shot.

What is happening here? We’ve always been taught to do this. But why? We are simply replenishing the oxygen back into the brain.  So that, we can clearly focus, slow back down our heartbeat, slow down our breath, release the pressure and the tension in the muscle and do what we are trained to do…make the freethrow…sink the putt, hit that perfect shot.

Skip to: 08:44 In or Out?

I was on a golf team in high school. We would finish school early and rush out to the golf course and play a quick round of golf. While we were playing, we would get very competitive amongst each other yet joking around and making each other mess up too. We did whatever we did to win, we just couldn’t make noise or make quick movements during their backswing to keep it fair…but we could do and say anything else. One of the most effective ways to mess up with our opponents’ mental focus was to ask this simple question. Have you done this before? You ask your opponent, right before the swing…hey man…just wondering, do you breathe in? Or do you breathe out during your swing?  Hahaha!! This question subconsciously messes with their mind as they are trying to figure out what their breathing is doing. This result in a missed shot, as they are focusing more on trying to pay attention to their breathing rather than their swing.

Well, if I knew then what I know now, I would have a very quick answer for them. So, let me breakdown my own breathing exercise on the golf course that really helps me focus and helps me hit my best shot when it comes to fight or flight situation. You don’t have to do exactly what I do, but I hope that you take away some fundamentals here of what breathing can do and develop your own habit during your pre-shot routine and get your mind and body focused for what’s to come. Ready?

Skip to: 10:13 Put the Oxygen Back into Your Body

Stand behind the ball during your pre-shot routine and take a deep breath. Deep inhale through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth. Feel the tension and stress leaving your body. Some people keep their eyes closed and visualize their shot while doing this. For me, I just keep my eyes open and focused on my target. I take another slow inhale and walk to my ball.

Skip to: 10:47 Find Your Own Sweet Spot

But if you really want to control your swing to the end, you need to get out on the driving range and spend some time experimenting with your breathing. David Leadbetter, one of the most well known legendary golf instructor teaches people to inhale on the backswing and exhale on the downswing, creating a rhythmic and tempo to your swing. Me? I personally inhale as I walk to the ball, exhale slowly as I am setting up, inhale again and hold it as I take the club back, then exhale after the downswing. So technically, during my actual swing, I am holding my breath.

So, which is best for you? Let’s talk to the sniper. In order to accurately hit the target with full focus and steady aim, there are 3 known breathing methods that the snipers use.

1. Inhale and Pause: Inhale until your lungs about the half-full, pause and pull the trigger.
2. Exhale and Pause: Similar to Inhale and Pause, take in a deep breath, exhale a portion, then pause and pull the trigger.
3. Full Exhale: Fully let your breath out until the end. Pause and pull the trigger.

The key here is to find your own sweet spot. Try different methods to see what’s most comfortable for you. This way, if someone is messing with your mind during a round and ask you if you are breathing in or breathing out during your swing, you can confidently tell them exactly what you are doing. Hahaha! It’s will mess up their mind.

Skip to: 13:28 Make It Part of Your Routine for Every Shot

Okay…breathing is important. It’s so important that you need to make this part of your habit on every shot, every chip, every putt. Add breathing to your pre-shot routine. It will change everything.

Skip to: 13:51 Summary

You didn’t know we could take an entire episode to talk about breathing, right? I mean, who thinks about that? But we all should. There are some hardcore yoga peeps out there that say it will change your life. I am going to have to agree. Breathing is everything…if you don’t agree, just stop doing it for a while…you’ll change your mind. So, let’s implement this into our game to help us play better golf! Let’s do this!!

Just to quickly summarize.  Number 1, we need to replenish oxygen back into our body…this will prepare our body and mind to perform our best. Number 2, there are different ways to do this, figure out which way is best for you. (Inhale and pause, exhale and pause, full exhale or unconscious breathing…not paying attention at all). And Number 3, make it part of your every shot. Don’t forget to intentionally breathe.

Hey, you know I always say there’s a lot of parallels from golf to life? Well, here’s another thing, when you are in a fight or flight situation in life, breath…it will help you slow down your heartbeat, it will help you slow down your breathing, it will help your stress level down, it will help you focus and most importantly, it will help you not say stupid things that you’ll need to apologize for later.

I hope this was helpful to you. I really enjoyed doing this episode. I think it’s because I believe in it so much and I truly believe it can help reshape our game for the better. But, as always, thank you so much for listening to Better Golf Academy Podcast, love you guys and have a great week!

The post How to Change Your Breathing to Better Golf appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Um, okay…welcome to Better Golf Academy Podcast. I am more than grateful that you are here…listening…subscribing…commenting…engaging…laughing and learning with me.  Right? You guys are doing all that, right? Also, giving me 5 star reviews? Oh, ok, speaking of, I want to take a minute to acknowledge my friend Tony for leaving me a 5 star review…this is what he said. “THIS IS GOLD” Hanju (that’s me), possesses such a unique ability to deliver high-value content so simply. His fresh perspectives are a parallel with life and transcend beyond the game itself. I am sold. Keep’em coming Hanju…as long as you keep referencing me in every episode. 

Okay, dude! Thank you so much for that. And yes, I try to have a hidden meaning in some things I say about golf because I truly believe that there are so many that parallels and there are so many similarities with life and golf…except life isn’t as complicated. (Ok, that was funny). And Tony says that he’ll keep listening if I keep referencing him….so I now referenced you again…bro…that’s 2 out of 3. You happy now?

And by the way, I will take my time before each episode and acknowledge my listeners by name if you just leave me a honest heart-felt review. Looking forward to it. 

And, if you are a first time listener, welcome! I am so happy that you are here. I hope I can be a value to you in improving your game.

Skip to: 03:27 Introduction

So today, I am going to talk specifically about how average golfers play the par 5’s and I am going to share some thoughts and strategy on how you can play it totally different and how I can help you save a ton of strokes. This is going to blow your mind…well…maybe not…blow your mind. But, I am pretty sure it’s going to make you go hmmmmm. Or…wassup!! And hope that it will even get you to go out to try it. And I am sure it will work for you. I am about 98.6% sure.

Skip to: 04:10 Par 5s Are The Easiest

So, I was playing golf the other day at my local course and when my friend hit a real bad drive off the tee on a par 5, I said to him…”It’s okay, it’s a par 5, you’ll have a shot to make it up.” I don’t know about you, but I consider par 5’s as easiest out of the par 3’s and the par 4’s. I guess it’s because you get an extra shot. Long hitters can get it on or near the green on their second shot which leaves them a simple up and down or a 2 putt for birdie. It’s definitely, what most golfers utilize to gain some headway or relief in their score. Right?

Okay, let me give you some stats on the professional level, I know we are not professionals, but just for us to get an idea.

For PGA:

• Billy Horschel leads the Par 3’s by birding 18.41% of the ones he plays.
• Justin Thomas leads the Par 4’s by birding 21.54% of the ones he plays.
• Justin Thomas leads the Par 5’s by birding…57.34% of the ones he plays. That’s more than ½.

For LPGA:

• Caroline Hedwall leads the Par 3’s by averaging 2.92, which is .08 strokes below par.
• Jin Young Ko (my korean sista) leads the Par 4’s by averaging 3.89, which is .11 strokes below par.
• Jin Young Ko also leads the Par 5’s by averaging 4.57 which is .43 strokes below par.

So, what are all these numbers saying? What’s the message? Message is this…Par 5’s are the easiest to score well on. Period. And I just got the numbers to prove it.

So, you are thinking…what am I doing wrong? Why am I not capitalizing on these opportunities? Well, thanks for asking. Let me tell you what most of us are doing on the Par 5’s that are not serving us well. 

Alright, this is what most of us do?  We try everything we can to hit 2 perfect, long and straight shots so that we can be as close to the green as possible after both shots. That will leave us with a best case scenario to go after the pin and score low and that will give us the best chance at birdie. Because, the shorter the shot, the easier it is, right? Sounds right. Sounds logical. But where do we go wrong? First, we don’t usually hit 2 perfect, long and straight shots in a row. And two, one of the reasons that you don’t always hit 2 perfect shots in a row is because you are hitting the 2 longest clubs in your bag. Two longest clubs are usually the two toughest clubs to hit straight and have a lot of control over.

So, the high percentage outcome can be that on your third shot, you are not in the ideal position to fire at the hole. Hmmmm…sound familiar. Also, the course Architect knows this about you, so you know what they do to make it even more devastating? They place strategic barriers in strategic places for an average golfers like you to fall into. It’s a trap! It’s mean…but it’s true. We have to out smart the course architects.

Think about this, even if we accomplish 2 perfect, long and straight shots, and avoid the barriers…we sometimes end up at a weird and awkward distance that require finesse and perfect distance control swing. That swing requires either half or three quarter swing inside the 100yards, which we are not quite sure how far the ball is going to go. This sometimes gets us into more trouble. We’ll chunk it short or hit it way over.  We are just not as good at keeping the ½ and ¾ swing consistent and firing at the pin.

And let’s face it, we are not hitting 300 yard drives and setting up ourselves for an eagle putt…well, maybe some of you are. But, I am not. So, I propose this entire new way of looking at Par 5’s to play it smarter and play strategically so it best sets you up for success.

Okay? Alright, this what you need to do.

Skip to: 09:34 Figure Out Your Favorite Distance

Figure out your favorite club that can give you consistent distance over and over again. I say between 100-125. For me, I have a 100 yard club. It’s my 52 degrees wedge (gap wedge) and when I take my normal full swing at it, it goes 100 yards. Do you have one of these clubs in your bag? 

When I was in highschool, I played this course called Washoe County Golf Course, in Reno, NV a lot!! I walked it constantly and found that on the left side of hole number 2, there’s a practice area that not a lot of people took advantage of.  There were 2 practice greens about 75-100 yards from each other. I took 2 clubs and a shag bag filled with about 75 balls, and I spent a couple of hours just hitting the ball back and forth, trying to get it on the green. Eventually, I became very familiar with my own swing and club. I figured out what I needed to do and how I needed to swing to consistently get it near or on the practice green.

You might not have something like that for you to practice your 100 yard shots, but I highly recommend you get on the driving range, pick out a 100 yard maker (or whichever distance you prefer), and figure out which club you can hit consistently to that spot over and over again. This is key to better par 5’s. The more comfortable and confident you get with this shot, the better your score will be.  

For the more advanced players. I suggest figuring out 2 different shots from the same distance. 

• One, a normal wedge shot that will naturally have a high trajectory and will land softly and even spin back a bit. This shot will be more suited for pins that are located in the front of the green or hidden behind a lip or a bunker that requires clearing and a soft landing without much roll.
• Two, a more of a low chip shot that will stay low to the ground and get some roll after it lands on the green. Keeping the ball low will give you so much more control and this is ideal for pins in the back of the green or playing in windy conditions.

I’ve created a fun drill worksheet for you to download to work on these two shots and for you to keep working on them until you nearly perfect it. This will be the key to better par 5’s. Just go to BetterGolfAcademy.com/3 – that’s number 3, to download your free drill worksheet. I think you are going to get a lot out of it.  There’s a chart to keep your stats so you can watch your improvement during your practice sessions. Practice? What? And if you haven’t heard me talk about it, listen to my podcast #1 if you want to hear more about the life changing secrets of the P word.  But for the 100 yard drills, visit BetterGolfAcademny.com/3 for the free resources.

Skip to: 13:09 Place Your 2nd Shot for What You’ve Been Perfecting

Now that you’ve almost perfected your 100 yards or so swing, you know what you need to do? Get your ball there. It’s like volleyball. You’ve been working on spiking the ball over the net over and over again, now, all you need is someone to set it up so you can do your thing. The beauty and the curse of golf is that, that person is you. You set it up, you spike it down. 

This is where the magic happens. Remember, before, you were trying to pull out the 2nd longest club in your back to swing hard to get it as close as you can to the green, but now, all you are trying to do is to land the ball 100 yards from the green. Oh man!! Now this game has gotten so much easier all of a sudden. Sometimes you are even hitting a mid to short iron to place it 100 yards out. And with that, you’ll have more control and higher percentage shots to set yourself up for the next – even more higher percentage shot. (more higher…is that even a wordt?) See what we are doing. We are trying to get you the highest probability to make the best score. Ok, now that we have a perfect setup, let’s get ready for the spike. But, 1 more quick thought before you start spiking away.

Skip to: 14:53 Assess the Pin Situation

Remember, you haven’t only been working on one shot to get to the pin, you’ve been working on 2 shots. You have to now stand behind the ball and figure out which shot is going to make more sense to you. High trajectory shot landing near the hole, softly and with a bit of a spin? Or do you want to land it on the green and give it a chance to roll to the hole?  Again, a quick review on which shot will be best.

• Hi trajectory shot will be more suited for pins that are located in the front of the green or hidden behind a lip or a bunker that requires clearing and a soft landing without much roll.
• Low chip shot that will stay low to the ground and get some roll after it lands on the green. Keeping the ball low will give you so much more control and this is ideal for pins in the back of the green or playing in windy conditions.

Now execute. Spike it into the opponent’s face!!  In this case, your opponent will be the course architect. Get that ball close for a birdie putt!!

Skip to: 16:07 Summary

Hey, look at it this way. Par 5’s are a gift to us. It’s a gift that keeps giving. But we have to prepare ourselves to position it so that we can benefit from this gift as best as we are able. Again, if you are a long hitter, you should have a whole another strategy, but for the rest of us, this will work best in our favor. Let me quickly summarize.

1. Get your 100 yards figured out. Work hard, practice long hours, have fun. I used to show my friends my blisters the next day after a long drill session. I was proud of it. I was proud of the process, the progress and how I felt after. I felt like I can take on the world…or take on all the Par 5’s of the world.
2. Place your second shot for what you’ve been perfecting. Set it up. Set it up nice. Set it up to attack. This is about hitting the next shot so that you’ll have your ideal yards left to the hole…which is 100- 125 yards depending what you chose.
3. Assess the pin situation and decide how you are going to hit it. High or low. Easier shot is low. I’ve watched the pros hit these shots time and time again, low and at the pin. I bet they can even do it with their eyes closed. Execute! Get it close!! Attack the pin. This is your moment.

I know where you are coming from. I feel you. It’s something about golf that tempts you to just hit the ball as far as you can every time you get a chance. I don’t know why, but it’s always there for me too. But, there’s something to be said for sacrificing yards to create a best case scenario to put yourself in a position where you will most likely succeed. Something you’ve worked hard to get…so give yourself a chance to hit that perfect shot you’ve been wanting to hit. You get to do this 4 times a round. Shave off those strokes, you will walk away with a different mindset knowing that this game of golf didn’t control you this time, you controlled golf. And that’s a great feeling.

Hey, was that helpful? Can we not get greedy with wanting more yards every time? But be disciplined in being at the right yards? Okay? Okay. Have an awesome week everyone. Let’s get Better together. 

And thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy.  

The post How to Dominate the Par 5s appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Skip to: 01:24 The Title

The Title of this episode is “How Keeping Score can Ruin Your Life”. Ok, I admit, the title is a bit dramatic. Yeah? But, I hope it somehow invoked a little curiosity that you are looking forward to some of my thoughts on this. The scorecard at any golf course offers a space for one thing. The score.  Like the famous golf quote goes…”it’s not how, it’s how many.” So, at the end of the round, you look at your score and you determined if it was a good day or a bad day, and you move on with your life. Or how about this, during the round, as you are marking your score on your scorecard after each hole, you are either encouraged or discouraged and carry some type of expectation and weight into the next hole. Your mind is always thinking, adjusting, projecting, protecting. But whatever is going on in your head…you know what I think it’s doing?  I think it’s keeping you from playing your best golf.

Skip to: 02:34 The Goal

As I mentioned on my previous episode that I am a bit of a data geek. I love collecting data, analyzing it and…learning from it. I also love finding stories in the data I collect. There’s always a story. The story of triumph, the story of luck, story of improvement, the story of hard work paying off, the story of frustration, the story of golf. 

I am also naturally very goal oriented. I function in life with a goal in mind. I love new year resolutions and writing out my goals for the year. I love starting from a clean slate and I start setting goals for what I want to accomplish for the year. I set goals for how many books I want to read, I set goals for how many miles I am going to run, I set goals for how many pounds to lose, I even set goals one year of how many strokes to shave off my game. I am currently in a fitness goal of doing 3 minutes of planking per day for 30 days. My goal here is 6 pack abs. I’ll post pictures when I get there…in 3 years.

While we are talking about goals…I listen to The Life Coach School podcast by Brook Castillo and she talks about goals which really resonated with me, so I am going to repeat what she said for you. She said…“One of the coolest things we can do as human beings…is SETTING GOALS”   The Prefrontal Cortex in our brains offers the highest level of humanity…it differentiates us from animals…or any other species that we know of. It allows imagination and creativity as a human being. It’s one of our highest level of activities. The 2nd highest level is to manage ourselves to fulfill those goals. So, we are able to plan ahead, able to commit to those goals and follow through on them. It’s one of our privileges as a human being”. I love this because we can use this in our lives, but mostly, in our golf game continue to get better.

So, with that mentality, for golf, I always had one goal in mind when I walked onto the golf course…my score. Just like what the scorecard wanted me to do. So, so far so good right? I collected data, analyzed my game, worked on my weakness throughout the week. Now I am preparing myself mentally and physically for the next round, I set a solid goal in place and I am pumped up to play my best! All good? All sounds great?

Well, I thought so too. And this is what usually happens throughout my round.

I am focused on number 7. That’s my goal. For every round I play, my goal is to shoot a sub 80 round..79 is the highest I ever want to shoot…no matter what!). 

I can’t shoot more than 7 over. 7 bogeys will give me a round of 79, which I can walk away happy knowing I achieved my goal. (Let’s call that my comfort zone – this is according to Dr. Patric Cohn of Peak Performance Sports – he’s a sports psychologist).

So, let’s start my round and what goes on in my head. So, I par  a few holes in a row…that’s a great start. Here’s my thought…I have 16 holes left and still have 7 bogeys left. 

Now I bogey’d a tough par 4, okay, now here’s my thought…that’s okay because I have an easy par 5 coming up and maybe I can make it up so I can still have 6 bogeys in my bag. 

Oh shoot, I just ended up parring the par 5 instead of a birdie, so now I have to be more cautious because the next hole is a bit tricky and if I bogey, I’ll only have 5 bogeys left. 

Can you sense an unhealthy pattern here going on in my brain? First of all, I am constantly doing math. That’s very unhealthy for everyone…hahaha! Trust me. I studied Engineering, look what happened to me.

Also, check out this interesting scenario thought process that I go through in my head. I am playing well, I am only 5 over for the entire round and I am teeing up on the 17th hold. Great!! I have 2 easy holes left and I still have 2 bogeys to spare. Worst case scenario, I bogey the last two holes and I am still home free at 79. Well, guess what usually happens in that situation? Yup, you guessed it, I shoot 79 or worse.  

What the frick!! Why do I do this? Why is this setting a “score” goal so not helping me play my best? Why is it that I am psyching myself out? 

These are great questions Hanju. And, I have answers. But first, let me break it down and tell you why having a “score” goal is not helping you play your best and is ruining your life!

Skip to: 08:57 Comfort Zone

What is that? Again, as I mentioned before, Comfort Zone is the score that you are expected to shoot. You are constantly doing math in your head and you’ve programmed your mind to stay in it. That’s what feels comfortable to you. And that’s where you will stay. It creates frustration when you are not going to reach it, but if you are over-performing and know that you’ll probably exceed it (like the example of me being 5 over with only 2 holes left), instead of finishing strong you start playing defensive to protect what you already have…and guess what, your pars turns into bogeys.

Skip to: 09:47 Time Travel

Time travel? Yes. Your mind travels ahead and starts to predict your future and your mind also travels in the history of the last shots (especially the bad ones) and paralyzes you. I was listening to a podcast called “Golf Smarter” by Fred Greene (episode #684)…yes, you heard right, episode #684, he’s on episode like #703 now…which, me at episode #2 is just crazy to think about. But huge respect!! I think with the last name like “Greene” you are just destined to love and talk about golf for 700 plus episodes . I wish my parents name me…ACE or something…I would have known my destiny earlier on.  Anyways, episode #684, he interviews Dr. Joseph Parent (Author of Golf’s best selling mental game book…Zen Golf. And he talks about time traveling. He says “our bodies are always here and now. It’s the only place they can be. Only place our body can be in space is now. The only place our body can be in time is now. But our mind is like a time machine. We spend most of our time replaying the past (which doesn’t exist anymore) and pre playing the future, which hasn’t come into existence and usually, it’s not how we think it’s going to turn out. If you you are on the 12th hole, and thinking about a shot on the 6th hole, you are not fully present in the here and now. If you are on the 16th hole (my example) and thinking about what your score could be on the 18th hole, you are ahead of yourself. You are not here and now. And your body is not synchronized with your mind and you won’t get the job done! 

Okay, are you convinced now? Are you convinced that the traditional way of keeping your score does not serve you well? Yes!! Yes Hanju. I am so convinced. You are so right. So, what do I do now? Okay, now you have to wait for my next episode for the life changing, paradigm shifting, mind blowing idea.  Thanks for listening. LOL, just kidding.

Okay, so, here’s a new way to think and keep score that will completely shift your paradigm. This will change everything. ARE YOU READY??

Skip to: 12:41 Play in the Moment

Okay, you heard Dr. Joseph right? Here and now. Be here, be now…your body, your mind. Don’t think about the shot in the past, don’t think about what your predicted score will be in the future. You are here and now, hitting the shot. Think about putting the best effort to hit the shot that is in front of you. Result doesn’t matter, just make your best swing to hit your best shot.

Skip to: 13:18 Set New Goals

Goals are still very important, and as I said, it’s a privilege as a human to set and execute goals. But my goals are not scores anymore which the scorecard suggest, it’s what I can produce being here and now. So, this is what I do. I keep track of 2 important things that will result in a good, respectable round. Greens in Regulation and Up/Down saves. That’s it. That’s all I focus on. If my #1 goal on every tee is to get it on the green, I focus on my drive (here and now) to give myself a best case scenario to approach the green. When I am hitting my 2nd shot toward the hole, only focus I have is the here and now and trying to get the ball on the green.  Now, if I missed the green, I am now focusing (here and now) on the chip or the bunker shot to get it as close to the pin as possible to get up and down. And my putt is now the deal make or breaker to achieve my goal, I am all of a sudden, fully engaged (here and now) to make this putt the best putt I can execute. 

By having this mind shift, you have eliminated time traveling in your mind and really really creating a different focus on playing your best golf. Shot by shot. Every shot matters and each shot deserves all of you…here and now.

My personal goal for every round is the number 12. (not 7). If I achieve either a green in regulation or an up/down save for that hole, I add 1. And I try to get to 12 by the end of the round. 12 holes where I either hit a green in regulation or get up/down to save par will get me to my ultimate goal of shooting in the 70s. If you are a higher handicapper and want to get down to shooting in the 80’s, try to set your goals to 8. That’s 4 greens in regulation or up/downs on the front nine, and 4 greens in regulation or up/down saves in the back nine. This totally do-able. Try it, and just watch your game improve.

Skip to: 16:15 Download My New Scorecard Template

To help you keep track of this new way of keeping score, I’ve created a new scorecard template for you. It’s in an excel spreadsheet so you can fill in your courses own information but you can print it on an AVERY 5389 paper, which is a (2) 4×6 index card on a 8 ½ x 11 sheet. You can just print right on your printer. Also, I’ve included the amazon link to purchase your score card holder that hold your new printed score card that you can keep in your back pocket. You can download all the information at bettergolfacadmy.com/2  So, let’s geek out together, yeah? I really hope this can be helpful for you. 

Skip to: 17:10 Summary

I have a friend named Tony that I play with all the time that beats me! I know, I know, I love him, but…dang it…why you do that to me Tony!! He hits it longer and executes more pure hits than any other amateur I’ve ever played with. But mostly, he has this unique mental game that I admire. In the middle of the round, I’ll ask him, hey, you are playing really well, where you at? Even? 1 over? And he’ll first look at me with a blank stare, and will say…um…I am not sure. This blew my mind at first, but I now know his secret. He plays with the mental strategy of the here and now. The overall score doesn’t mean much at the moment, but he is focused on the shot that’s at hand and he focuses all his thoughts on how to hit his best shot that’s right in front of him.  That’s all.

You ready to play your best golf? As you know, there are no guarantees in golf. But there’s a way we can continue to search and pursue ways to strategize better, think better and play better…and honestly, this idea might not work for everyone….but the key take away here is to find a way to be in the moment, find a way to focus all your mind, body and soul in what’s in front of you…here and now. It’s the only place they can be. Only place our body can be in space is now. The only place our body can be in time is now. Let our mind and body sync together to produce your best effort, every shot, every time.

Hey, don’t let the score ruin your life. Okay? Okay. Have a great week everyone. Let’s get Better together. 

And thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy.  

The post How Keeping Score Can Ruin Your Life appeared first on Better Golf Academy.

Skip to: 02:35 The Secret

I’ve noticed an interesting pattern when I play with higher handicapped weekend golfers. After a couple of repeated bad shots, they turn to me and ask, What did I do wrong? What’s a quick fix?

Just to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with this question. I ask this question all the time just to get a different perspective and to see if someone can spot something very obvious that I can fix right away.

But the problem is this, even though sometimes you can help spot a problem and you can even possibly help fix it for the next few shots…what happens next week? Or the week after? Or the week after that? Yes, you guessed it. You go back to your old habits. Or, you’ve forgotten the fix…or you’ve developed another new problem, or you are now just more confused and don’t even know what to do anymore….and the bummer is, you thought you were well on your way to better golf by learning this quick fix.

So, here’s what I am realizing. Quick tips and quick swing fixes during the round doesn’t always equate to long term improvements and lower handicaps. Actually, sometimes, it can just become even frustrating and confusing. Then what’s the answer? How do we truly get better? How do we become a better player? How do we start lowering our score?

Do you want to know the secret? Okay, I’ll tell you the secret. Practice. Duh!

Oh, I do that, I go and hit balls all the time. Well, most people, when they practice, they just randomly hit a bucket of balls, hit some putts on the practice greens and sometimes even hit some chips for feel and call it done…

What I mean by practice is going out and executing very focused and strategic sessions to improve your game. If you do this right, you will be well on your way to better golf. Again, Duh!

AND I know what you are thinking…who’s got time for that? I can barely get out there on weekends to play. And also, you are thinking…that doesn’t sound very much fun at all.

True, but you want to know what’s NOT fun? Having a frustrating round. You know what’s not fun? Hitting crappy shots. You know what’s not fun? Missing easy putts. You know what’s not fun? Chunking your chips. You know what’s not fun? Triple bogeys. You know what’s not fun? Week after week, year after year, just hacking away and not seeing any improvements in your game. Honestly, I can ask most of my friends in their honest opinion, how much they’ve improved, or even how many strokes they’ve improved in the last 5 years. Most will tell me…ummmmm…none.

So, here’s the thing. I am believing that you are listening to this podcast because you want to get better. I want to give you some practical, tangible and fun ways to get better this week.

Ready?

Skip to: 07:13 Analyze your game

What do you mean analyze your game? Do you want me to start keeping track of all my stats? How many fairways hit, how many greens on regulation? how many putts? how many up and down par saves? how many out of the bunker? how many penalty strokes…etc.  FORGET IT!! I don’t do that.

My answer is No. Not yet. Unless you are a data geek like me and love doing this, I don’t recommend you do this right now. But to keep it real simple, after each round. I want you to ask yourself these 3 simple questions.  1. What did I do well. 2. What did I do poorly. 3. What do I need to work on this week to improve.

1. What did I do well? – The Good:  It’s always best to focus on the good first. So, look back to your round and ask yourself, what was good about my round. What did I execute well? What club did I feel really comfortable with? What shot sticks in my mind that I thought was pretty dope!!
   1. For me, my last round…I was for some reason ON with my driver. I hit almost every fairway. I hit 10 out of 14 fairways, that was amazing!! So, I soaked that in a bit and wrote down a few things about my swing, thoughts and why I thought I hit the driver so well. (So I can remember for next time).
2. What did I do poorly? The Bad: What was most frustrating about my round today? What did I do that caused extra strokes that I could have avoided. Which club frightened me the most…which club did I have no control over or even just avoided all together?
   1. For example, on my last round, I didn’t chip that well. I couldn’t get the right feel of the green and hit it too hard and left it too long for an easy gimme putt. Even those shots where I knew where to land it, I ended up landing a few feet ahead of my target.  But what really, really got me really really upset was that I missed all of those putts. I also missed some short putts…easy ones that I should have made. So, I knew I need to get better on my chips and my putts.
3. What Do I need to work on this week? Just pick One: Okay, now from the Bad list, pick one thing you want to work on to improve this week. 
   1. So, I picked my putting to work on this week. Even though I felt like my chips could have been closer, I really felt like if I was more confident on my putts, I could have easily made some good pars. So, that’s what I picked. Let’s work on my putting this week.

Skip to: 10:23 Schedule my practice day

Now that I analyzed my game, and decided what to work on, I will need to schedule my practice day. This is where everyone falls apart. We have great intentions to improve and we have great goals set for this week…but we don’t sit down and actually schedule the day to practice. This is a fundamental flaw in our system. Just like if you say to your friend, hey, let’s have lunch soon and walk away, guess what? For some reason, you just won’t get around to it. We are too busy and we are too forgetful. I don’t know if you have friends like this, but when we look at each other and say, “let’s do lunch”, my friend always pulls out his phone and says, okay, cool…when? Then, I pull out my phone and figure out a time and a day we can both meet for lunch and we schedule it in. That’s how you make it happen.

Same with your practice. You have your tee time set for next week and it’s already on your calendar so you aren’t going to miss it. So do this now…take your phone, go on your calendar, and make an appointment with yourself to practice that ONE thing. I’ll wait. Okay, I am waiting. Are you doing it?

Side tip. You know what works great? If you can find a day and time that can mostly work for every week…that’s ideal. That way, it becomes a habit, just like working out.

For me, I like to do it during the end of the week, like Thursday…since I usually play on Friday. Then, what I practice is fresh on my mind and in my muscle memory when I play the next day, and I can feel the direct coordination from my practice to the improvement.

Skip to: 12:48 Make it fun

Okay, how do you make it fun? Well, it depends on what’s fun for you. For me, competition is fun. For me, making it a game is fun…when there’s a winner and a loser and I am trying to win. That’s what makes it fun for me.

So, let’s go back to my ONE thing that I chose to practice this week, which for me was putting. I have this fun drill that I do to keep myself entertained and engaged throughout my practice. It’s called 3-6-9. I pick a hole on a practice green (usually a slight break uphill – but whichever you want to work on) and mark off 3 feet and insert a tee into the green to mark it off. Then I pace off 3 more feet from there and insert a tee into the green to mark off the 6ft length. Then, you guess it, pace off 3 more feet from there and insert a tee to mark off the 9ft length.

Take 3 balls and start from the 3 feet mark. You can advance to the 6 feet mark only if you make all 3 in a row. Then, you can advance to the 9 feet mark only if you make 3 in a row again (now you have made 6 in a row). Now you are at the 9 feet mark and you sink all 3 in a row. Guess what? You win!!

Here’s the kicker. Anytime, anywhere, you miss a putt, you start over. What??? Yup, you start over from the 3 feet mark.

So, this is what happens during this drill. First, you end up putting from 3 feet like 100 times which will eventually become like second nature. Also, once you advance to the 9 feet mark and you hit two in a row, your last shot becomes a heavy pressure moment. You want to win this game, you want to go home and you do NOT want to start over again. This added pressure will mimic your mental challenge during a real round. You have created an artificial moment of pressure that would require your full focus, mental clarity and calmness to execute and sink the putt. Valuable learning moment? Absolutely. It’s priceless…and, most of all, it was pretty FUN!! Wasn’t fun just imagining it? No? Okay, whatever. The point is, make it FUN!! Something you will look forward to doing.

Any for this drill, I created a simple worksheet for you that you can download. It shows you the step by step instructions and also breaks down the benefits of the drill. It also has a form that you can fill out as you are doing the drill to help you keep records and measurements of your improvement. This way, you can set your goals and log your improvements. I am sure you will find it very useful. You can download it at bettergolfacademy.com/1 it’s a free download so just go ahead and go to bettergolfacademy.com/1 to download your copy.

Skip to: 17:22 Summary

To summarize the way to truly improve your game next week, implement these 3 things after your round this week. 1. Analyze your game, figure out what you did well, what you did poorly and what you want to work on. 2. Then, schedule a time during the week to practice for an hour or two. Then, 3. practice the drill that will keep you engaged, learning and having fun.

So, going back to my story. When people I play with now ask me…hey, what did I do wrong? Instead of trying to give them swing tips, I now tell them…”um…you didn’t practice.” YOU NEED TO PRACTICE!!!

Here’s the thing. We all want to get better. And we all want to get better because this game can frustrate the heck out of you. It’s a difficult game, It might even be considered one of the hardest sports in the world to master, but I believe with your commitment to learn, your commitment to grow, and ultimately, your commitment to practice. You will improve and you will have so much more fun than you’ve ever had before. Winning is fun. Playing well is fun. Working hard and seeing the results is fun.

Have a great week everyone. Let’s get Better together.

And thanks for listening to Better Golf Academy.

The post How Do I Really Improve My Game? appeared first on Better Golf Academy.