Of Old Golf Clubs And Spiders!
2 Nov 2016

Of Old Golf Clubs And Spiders!

I am Norm’s driver. I am a Callaway FT-9. I know, I am a bit old. But Norm is really old. He is older than some of the dirt that flies in the air when he hits a fat shot with me (all too often, I might add). At the moment, I am in a corner in the basement. I have been here for over a year!  I was put here to “learn a lesson.”  Old Norm thinks that by having me stand in the corner of the cold and dark basement, when I get out I will be so happy I will behave and he will hit straight drives again. Give me a break!

This is not the first time I have been down here. This seems to happen more and more as he reads golf tips online or in golf magazines, then tries to put them into practice. He is hopeless and confused, is the way I look at it. I mean, crap, he stands up to the ball and I look back and see his eyeballs rolling around and smoke coming out of his ears just before he grips my handle end so tight I think I am going to choke. Then he rips the downswing off the top in a casting action that would make you think he is fishing for whales. This is quickly followed by my head hitting the ground just behind the ball, giving me a headache and pointing my face somewhere east of where the ball should go. Then I am slammed into the golf bag and a club cover is put over my head.

As I sit here in my dark corner, I think back to bouncing around on the back of the cart. I manage to look around from time to time and wonder why I am the only one sent to the dungeon. I look down on those little bitty wedgies and know they hit more bad shots than I do…and talk about hitting it fat and adventures in the sand bins! Then those other clubs, I don’t even know why he brings them along. He can’t hit his five-or six-iron and relies on a “utility club,” whatever that is.

So here I am, just me and the spiders. I hate spiders! Old Normie spends so much time at the practice range that he never cleans up the basement. Cobwebs and spiders everywhere!  They used to crawl up my shaft and bite my grip. That taught them a lesson, I tell you. Norm is such a tight wad that he changes his grips every two years or so. They are so shiny and sweaty I don’t know how he hangs onto me. Anyway, back to the spiders. I think they tried to bite the grips and either the smell or the sweaty salt did them in as there were a few dead ones on the floor one day. Now the spiders just go by and wave at me. I am not sure if these are friendly waves, even though we have been here together so long, or a one-finger wave, as I can’t quite make out if they have hands or not.

Well, here it is spring again and Old Normie is dusting off the golf bag and the rest of his paraphernalia and has actually put me in the bag. He is a year older and a year weaker, is my thinking. Perhaps he will swing a bit easier, keep his head behind the ball and let me do my stuff. Could be a good year coming up or I could be back with the spiders.

Even golf professionals have bad days. Average Human Beings (AHBs) can choose to pick their attitude at the start of every day; professionals have to pick their attitude every day. Don’t blame the driver…and watch out for spiders!
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27 Oct 2016

Belief And The Competitive Player

By Mark Harman USGTF Master Golf Teaching Professional

When I first picked up a golf club at the age of 12 in 1974, I immediately dreamed of playing on the Tour and making a living as a professional golfer. I always enjoyed competition, whether it be Little League baseball, golf, or playing in a pickup football or basketball game.

That first year I played, I was shooting around 50 for nine holes by the end of summer, so I made double bogey my “par.” I remember playing in “tournaments”as I tooled my way around the course, my imagination running wild as I tried to better my personal par of 54. When I got into high school, I went out for the golf team but wasn’t good enough to crack either the varsity or junior varsity (JV) lineup as a freshman. I kept at it, and as a sophomore I was able to make it as a regular on the JV team.

My junior and senior years I played #1 on the varsity (although it wasn’t that tough to do, as no one else besides me could average better than 88 for 18 holes). I played golf at NAIA-level Franklin College in Indiana, where I was the two-time MVP averaging about 80.(Today, shooting 80 at Franklin might not even qualify for the team.)

However, since I wasn’t good enough to turn pro after college, I found a job as a bill collector/computer programmer for a division of Chase Manhattan. After most workdays from April through October, I would hit the course and play and practice as much as I could. My life consisted mainly of work and golf and little else.

Eventually I worked my way down to a 1 handicap, and through a connection with Geoff Bryant, I moved to Tallahassee, Florida, and started teaching at The Florida Golf School. Although I was teaching, I still harbored dreams of playing with the best players in the world. Except…there were a few problems with that.

The most pressing problem was that I only hit the ball about 240 off the tee on my best shots and I hit 7-iron from 150. Even in the early 1990s, this was short for a professional player. The second obstacle was I had no money to play mini-tour events full-time.

Finally, and most importantly, when I teed it up in competition, I got so nervous and anxiety-ridden that, more often than not, I played horribly. I can remember starting a 36-hole mini-tour event bogey, double bogey, and having a six-inch putt for a quadruple bogey on the third hole. I picked up my ball at that point, knowing I had no chance to break 50 for nine holes, apologized to the guys in my group, and said I was quitting as I didn’t want to be a distraction for them. They said no, keep playing for fun…and wouldn’t you know it, with the pressure off, I shot a 33 on the back nine.

About this time in my life, I got to know Gregg Steinberg, who became and still is a very good friend of mine. Gregg, as you may know, is the longtime USGTF sports psychology consultant. He gave me some tools that helped refine my mental skills and was a great help in my improvement.

By 1995, I had some money saved up, and Gregg urged me to give the mini-tours another try. I told him I didn’t think my game was good enough. He told me something I’ll never forget: “You might get good enough if you start playing.”

And he was right. I played maybe a dozen events in 1995 and cashed in my last eight events, and in 1996 I cashed in almost every one. What was the difference?

In one word, belief. I came to believe that I was going to play well each and every time I teed it up in competition. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to be in the money for those events. I eventually wound up winning four times on the Emerald Coast Golf Tour,defeating the likes of present and former Tour players like Boo Weekley, Ben Bates, and Iain Steel along the way.

In the end, I didn’t make the big tour because of two factors:1) I never was able to gather the consistent financial support that was needed in order to play full-time without working, and 2) I just hit the ball too short. I think I played about as well as I could have playing part-time. Learning to shoot lower scores with my lack of distance required playing full-time.

Think about the Ryder Cup. Why have the Europeans dominated for the past three decades? Why do the Americans always seem to play poorly? Various commentators have said that the European players have a closer bond with each other, or that they are more used to match play, or that they have a greater desire than the U.S. players. Based on my own experiences and observations, along with comments made by the U.S. players themselves, I believe none of these reasons are valid.

What I think happens is that the European players expect to win, while the U.S. players hope to win. That’s a huge difference,and it means everything. When I competed and hoped to do well, I almost never did. When I expected to play well, I almost always did.

If you’re coaching competitive players, they need to have a genuine belief that they are going to succeed. If you hear them make statements like,“I’m just going out there to have fun,” then you know they are in trouble. Sure, having fun is important to both a recreational and competitive player, but without the belief that they are going to play well, they won’t. They just won’t.

Listen to what your competitive players tell you. Know when they have belief and when they don’t. The USGTF has a number of wonderful resources to help you develop your competitive players’ belief systems, among them Gregg’s book Mental Rules for Teaching Golf and the online course through the International Golf Psychology Association, found at <a href=”http://www.MasteringGolfPsychology.com”>www.MasteringGolfPsychology.com</a>.

Someone once said, “I’ll take the man with 50 percent talent and 100 percent heart over the man with 100 percent talent and 50 percent heart any day.”

So would I.
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