By David Clay Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

Golf equipment has changed dramatically. Technology has sharpened the accuracy of the tools. The rules have been honed over centuries. A golfer’s expectations for his or her skills are at its peak. Is your game ready?

According to the United States Golf Association, there are approximately 24 million golfers in America today. Only five million have registered handicaps. Additionally, the USGA reports 20 years ago the average male handicap was 27 while a female’s was 40. Today, even though there have been tremendous improvements in equipment, the average handicaps have remained the same.

With this in mind, let’s sort out some fundamental ideas. Are you aware of the type of skill you are going to perform? Golf is a motor skill – something consciously learned, but subconsciously performed, which means learning how the swing works (consciously), then performing on the golf course (subconsciously).

A good example of a motor skill is learning to drive a stick-shift car. The instructor tells you the left pedal is the clutch, the right pedal is the accelerator, and the pedal in the middle is the brake. And then he says, “Now, what I want you to do is put your foot on the left pedal. As you do this, put your right hand on the lever and push it to 1. Then gradually take your foot from the clutch and slowly tread on the gas pedal. Do this through all the gears, plus keep your hands on the steering wheel. And most important of all, be sure to look forward, sideways occasionally, and check your rearview mirror.”

Six weeks later, you are driving down the road, changing gear with no trouble, watching where you are going, listening to the radio, talking to your passenger, etc. A motor skill consciously learned but subconsciously performed.

It is my experience that many people play golf similar to their first attempt at driving a stick-shift car. They work on the conscious part when they are performing (or playing) on the golf course.

We need to get organized before we start working on the fundamentals and swing plane. Let’s say that we are at the beginning of the year and you’ve made notes of what you were working on each time. You’ve played once a week and so you have played approximately 30 times. You also notice that each time you played, you were working on something different. Maybe you had just read a new instructional magazine, and then a friend made a recommendation to help with your swing. Now you realize you have about thirty different themes going this year. Did you know that it takes 39 days of effort to change a single habit, and 21 more days to learn a new one? How long do you normally give yourself to develop a habit? Most people can only do one or two things at a time. It’s hardly surprising that you are not scoring better.

Ben Hogan once said that he only hit six shots a round at 100% when he was at his best! Taking into account this year’s PGA Tour results on driving accuracy and greens in regulation (GIR: par 3s in one shot, par 4s in two shots, and par 5s in three shots or less), we can see that the No. 1 player in driving accuracy only hit 75% of the fairways this season. That’s the No. 1 player on the PGA Tour. Most of my first-time students expect to hit 85 to 90 percent of their shots. The No. 1 player in terms of GIR only hit 70% in regulation, which means he only hit ¾ of his target greens. The Senior Tour statistics were 74%. Therefore, golf for the amateur must be a game of miss-hit shots, not pure strikes.

We ask our students to practice 100 yards in, 60% of the time. Let’s say, for instance, that you are an accountant, engineer, math teacher or computer expert. The accountant, for example, spent four years in college, then even more time studying for his or her CPA exam. For the next 15 years, he or she probably spent eight hours a day or more crunching numbers, making them balance, etc. He or she now decides to take up golf. They start with a friend who knows little more than they do, filtering their learning through the same analytical lens they have been using the previous years; all parts of the game carefully calculated.

Remember, to play golf you are using a consciously learned motor skill that is subconsciously performed. Our accountant naturally looks at golf with an accountant’s way of thinking; methodically and exact…working things out piece by piece. However, this is not the skill he or she is trying to perform. Sometimes my students have tried to perform eleven actions at one time. We can only think of one or two thoughts at the same time. Would you take a free throw when you are playing basketball thinking about where your head was, how you played your arms and legs, how your shoulders and hips should turn, etc.? In short, keep it simple.

Practice? We have to. You will need to practice two to three times a week for at least an hour. Not play, but practice. Also, find a full-size mirror to check your positions are correct.

Whenever I meet a tour player, I always ask this question: What is the difference between the top players on the Nationwide Tour and the top players on PGA Tour? Confidence is always the answer.

Our attitude as to how we play golf is one of the most important facets of our success or failure. Even when top-class players are not hitting the ball as well as usual, they believe they will be hitting the next shot very well. What are you thinking after a bad shot? Are you thinking positively? It’s not easy, but necessary. Did you know that most high-handicap amateurs tend to follow a birdie with a double-bogey? They are out of their comfort zone. Learn to think like a tour player to improve your game.