Practice with purpose to manage low scores

The talent to break 80, or shoot par, or even turn professional dwells within you. I know, we’ve all heard that! However, in my humble opinion, raw talent also helps a lot. Of course, those golfing millionaires on TV have much, much more golfing ability than you’ll ever have, so just hope you have it all — in your next life!!!

Let’s face it — to be good, really good at golf, it will take more than practice. It will take hard work and a new understanding of what’s effective on the range, what isn’t, why and how come. It will take something called DCP (deliberate constructive practice).

The term was coined by the renowned psychologist K Anders Ericsson, who did landmark research on how we attain mastery in a given pursuit. For my purposes — getting good at golf — deliberate practice is about improving by pushing your practice beyond your comfort zone. I don’t mean mindlessly pounding balls in order to build muscle memory. (Your muscles don’t have memory. Only your brain does.) I’m talking about expanding your abilities by putting your brain through something akin to an ongoing golf boot camp. Only by practicing with purpose, and great pain, (mentally and physically) will you learn to shoot low and bend the ball to your will.

Out of Bounds: I remember interviewing a famous old South African professional — and now a wonderful golf commentator. He was giggling with glee when he recounted Gary Player missing a little putt on the last — so as to allow him to win the South African Open! He is still renowned as one of the games best ever putters. When I asked if he practiced hard during his younger years, he said ‘only in the pub’. “I just got the ball around as best I could — just using what I had...”