Well, the time has come. With the passing of the winter solstice means a couple of things. First, winter has officially landed. Secondly, it also means that the days are slowly going to start to get a little longer. Spring and the 2021 golf season is on its way.
For those of us that reside in northern climes where we aren’t able to golf during the winter months, it’s imperative that we get practice time in. The reasons are obvious, but the thing about the game of golf is that it’s so much like life. You only get out of it, what you put into it. Make the effort and the time and it’ll pay off for you in the end.
Since the end of November, I’ve taken advantage of living down the street from a course that’s closed for the season. So, I’ll take my pup for a walk over to the course where I let him run, stretch his legs, and play fetch. While we’re out there I typically have one golf club, usually a wedge of some sort, and I use it as an excuse to strike a few golf balls. Never from the teeing ground or fairway. I never hit into nor walk on the greens either, avoiding them totally. Instead, I aim for a tree, a bunker, or any other object and hit my spot. Oh, I always hit from the rough.
In the time that I’m out there I use the time to “work”. Sometimes, I’m out there just reinforcing something as simple as my ball position. The golf swing is built on the fundamentals and ball position is one fundamental that you can become complacent about. The other day, I worked on wrist hinge to tweak (or improve) my launch conditions. Just sitting in the back of my mind thus far during the “off-season” has been the fault that plagued me for whatever reason. Flipping at impact. I’m purposely focusing on maintaining my wrist angles through impact.
Yesterday, my son joined me on one of my walks which was awesome. Yes, I was still working on my wrist angles and I did put in some bunker practice. But, it gave me a chance to work with my son on a couple of things. A new golfer. I had him work on ball position and seeing that he was flipping at impact and thinning shots, I had him maintain his wrist angles. The results were like “night and day”. He was hitting pitch shots very crisp.
It’s easy to go to an indoor facility, a driving range, or your backyard and start droning through a bucket of golf balls. But, if you’re not practicing with something in mind, than what’s the point. Practice with a purpose… Always!
Until The Next Tee!!
#fightandgrind #seeuonthenexttee
The Next Tee (TNT) 