How to Find the Problem in Your Golf Game

Do you know how to clearly define the problem in your golf game? Understanding where you struggle the most is imperative to improving your scores, and the first step is to clearly identify which part — or parts — of your game need the most work. Thankfully, this is easily done.

Golf Plays with Our Emotions

When our golf game struggles, most golfers sit back and reflect on how their game makes them feel.

“I was really looking forward to playing today, and now I feel like it was a waste of time!”

If you’ve felt this way before, you are not alone. Most of us can only get out to the course once in awhile, so we have to make the best of our experience on the course. If our game isn’t cooperating, our enjoyment takes a nose dive. Unfortunately, the answer as to why we played poorly that day isn’t always evident.

This feeling of helplessness severely impacts not only our enjoyment of the game, but lowers the likelihood that we will ever improve. In fact, things will only get worse!

Map Out Your Game

In part one of this series we talked about the importance of being honest with yourself when evaluating your game. Do you miss too many fairways and greens? How many short putts do you miss? How often are you in bunkers?

Think about your last golf round. Picture every shot (that you can remember) in your mind, starting from the teebox on the first hole.

• Where did your tee ball land?

• Did you hit the green in regulation?

• Did you have any penalty shots?

• How many putts did it take to finish the hole?

Once you have a good picture of how you played the first hole in your most recent round, write each shot down on a piece of paper, index card or post-it note. You should have one note — or “process step” — for each shot on the hole. Be as specific as possible for each shot, and include the result.

In the map above, you’ll see we included the club that was used for the shot, along with any descriptors that could help with our practice plan (“7-iron;” “5-foot putt”, etc.).

Complete this same exercise for three or four more golf holes from your recent round. The goal is to create a process map that will help you identify trends in your game based on the results of your choices.

What’s the Next Step?

Once you’ve got a few holes mapped out, you’ve set yourself up for the next step: identifying trends in your game.

In the next installment of this series we will discuss how to use that data to your advantage, how to expand it into measurable metrics, and ultimately use it to improve your game. Stay tuned!

Do You Know The Problem in Your Golf Game?

Everyone who plays golf hopes to improve their game. Whether you are a 30-handicapper looking to break 100 or the scratch player hoping to break par more often, improvement is always top of mind.

But are you able to point out the problem in your game?

Identifying Your Problem

The first step in making any improvement is to understand whether or not you have a problem. That may sound a little heavy, but it’s the truth:

If you don’t think your game has a problem, then you will not be able to improve.

Think about the last round of golf you played. Could you have scored better? Most of us will say “Yes”… but do you know why?

Begin by asking yourself a few questions, and be as specific as possible:

• How many fairways did I hit?

• How many greens did I hit?

• How many putts did I miss inside five feet?

• How many shots did I hit thin or fat?

• How many bunkers was I in?

Asking these questions isn’t meant to remind you of how bad you are. Instead, it’s to ensure you have a good understanding of your biggest opportunities to improve. It’s important to not worry about “why” these common golf struggles are happening. It’s all about understanding the current state of your game.

Once you have an understanding of how many times you missed a fairway, green, or putt, you’ll have a measurable, easily-identifiable metric on which to improve.

Be Honest with Yourself

As in business and in life, taking an honest, hard look at one’s self can be uncomfortable. Nobody likes to look in the mirror and see those extra pounds we put on from the weekend. We’d very much like to blame something — or someone — else for our poor results.

But to really improve, we have to be willing to understand that there is something we can do better.

It will be difficult to remind yourself of all those bunkers you were in, or how many greens you missed. Nobody wants to think about that five-foot birdie putt we missed. We’d love to forget all those chunked wedges or topped hybrids.

As golfers, we are prone to ego. We prefer to tell stories of “the one that got away” rather than how we failed! This is natural, but it’s also a defense mechanism all people have to make themselves feel better.

In order to improve, however, you have to feel the pain. Otherwise, what’s the point of improving if not to alleviate that pain?

Next Steps

I will cover more ways to think about improvement in this series, but it all begins here: understanding that there is a problem in your golf game.

Notice that I didn’t type “understand WHY the problem exists.” That comes later; instead, focus on understanding IF a problem exists without jumping ahead to WHY… and certainly not to HOW WILL I FIX IT.

Stay tuned for more installments very soon.

Do Golf Companies Really Want You to Improve?

Whether it be a new driver release, the introduction of a new set of irons, or a flashy new golf ball that dances on the green, all new golf equipment comes packaged with the promise to lower your scores and improve your game. But does this promise actually work against what golf companies really want from their customers?

Consider this

A new golf product is released by a well-known original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that promises to "revolutionize the game as we know it." This new piece of equipment, while expensive, undoubtedly allows golfers to shoot lower scores no matter what. Anyone who buys the product and uses it regularly experiences an immediate benefit, no exceptions. In other words, this product successfully delivers what the company promises 100 percent of the time.

Why in the world would that golf OEM want you to purchase that product? I propose it would be detrimental to that company for you to do so.

If I were the golfer in the above example, I would be so impressed with the amazing product that I wouldn't even think about buying any competitor's products. Why would I need to? I've already seen the benefits of committing to this "revolutionary product," and that's good enough for me and my crappy golf game. Further, I will probably look the other way when the same company releases Awesome Product 2.0 a year later. I don't need it. My pain has already been relieved.

But that's not how the real world works, right?

As with any retail company, products are released with an understanding that the "next big thing" is right around the corner. This is especially true with golf equipment. Company A wants you to buy their new driver that promises 20 more yards off the tee, but they also want you to buy next year's model that promises 22 more yards. Hell, they'll even throw in a few interchangeable weights on the club to make you drool more.

But why would I want to drop $500 on the possibility of two more yards? I wouldn't, and golf companies know that.

Golf OEMs aren't selling me on the fact that I can hit a drive 20-yards further with their new product, because they have no way of promising that I'll be able to get those results. Instead, they are selling me on the chance that I'll get those results.

Every time I purchase a piece of golf equipment that actually improves my game, I also stop looking for other pieces of equipment for the same purpose. Even if that equipment is from the same company.

So, do golf companies really want you to improve?

I propose that they do not. If they did -- truly wanted you to get better -- then why would you ever need to buy another piece of equipment later?

Police officers don't want crime to end just as hospitals don't want all illness to be eradicated. As soon as either of those two outcomes occurs, businesses shut down soon after.

I breached this subject last week on Twitter when I asked my followers whether or not they believed golf equipment companies really want their customers to get better at the game. The replies I received were mixed, however nearly every response ultimately focused on brand loyalty in some manner.

So what is "brand loyalty?" A common definition suggests that brand loyalty is "the tendency of some consumers to continue buying the same brand of goods rather than competing brands." It is an outcome every company wants their customer base to embrace. However, at what point does this blind dedication to a brand actually devalue the brand's products?

Stay tuned for my next post along those lines.