Over 30? 7 Days to Better Golf!
How to improve your game as an adult player
Most methods emphasize repetition and lengthy practice. The author's experience beginning golf past 30 argues for minimal practice of specific actions and maximal playing
Many of you have been there, in an identical situation as I was nineteen years ago. At the age of 31, I was standing on the first tee of a golf course for maybe the fourth time in my entire life, determined to play a complete round without walking off the course in frustration as I had three times before. I barely knew enough about the game to hold the club right-side up, and of course there had to be at least 20 people watching me as I whiffed twice before hitting a worm-burner that advanced only 30 yards into the fairway. I went on to card a 148 that day, counting every shot taken to the exasperation of my playing partners and the groups that were being slowed behind us. I was determined to make a serious effort to learn this most frustrating sport.
It was nine years later that I achieved full satisfaction for suffering the humiliation of that first full round when I shot my career low, a 72 on a par 70 course. In that interim time, there were countless sidetracks, gadgets, articles, tapes, lessons and tens of thousands of range balls hit in an effort to discover the "secret" of shooting a round such as this. I can't honestly say that this 76 shot improvement was due to any of these actions designed to "build" my golf game - in fact, I believed (and still do to this day) that my path to this personal goal was not aided by practice or preparation; my 2-over par score might have been achieved years earlier if only I had practiced by playing.
Along the way, I discovered some specific techniques that do work – not all instruction is counter-productive- and I also uncovered the rationale for why taking up golf after the age of 30 can be so difficult for most. Most importantly, I found the solution to overcome this obstacle, at least for me. It is my intent to share these findings in a series of articles that will focus on one week – seven days – that can be used to develop a different approach that will make playing golf much more enjoyable and rewarding in terms of improvement. Each “day” covered by one article will call upon you to take specific actions, and then carry over those actions to the next day. I would ask that in order to evaluate whether my tactics work for you, you play a round prior to the 7 days, do not play during the week that you are doing these actions, and then play a round after the 7 days, employing these actions as appropriate during your play.
If you are, like many, having taken up the game past the age of 30, and struggling to break 100 (assuming you play within ten shots of the century mark), I will make a bold prediction – you have a 70-80% likelihood of seeing double digits on your card when you hole out on 18 and total them up. Numerically, this equates to a 5-10 shot improvement no matter what level you play at past mid 80’s. If you shoot under that mark consistently, you obviously have a firm grip on technique that works well for you. I wish all of my fellow golfers the best in your attempts to develop a more positive relationship with this wonderful pasttime.
Next: Posture is King
