In light of the recent ‘Slow-Play’ penalty assessed to amateur golfer Tianlang Guan, who is 14 years old from China we only see it apparent that we should look into the issue that is slow play. For years everyone has been talking about slow play and how to combat it.
From a competitive perspective penalties should be applied once the group and/or individual have been given a warning. Let’s have a look at the official ruling.
A question that is asked of me at least once a day is…“how do I hit it farther?” The answer is simple. Distance comes from a combination of club head speed and quality of contact.
I have 3 keys to power and distance that will amp up your biggest swings.
For golf courses that are open all year long we sometimes run into a drop in the temperature overnight causing frost to form on the fairways and putting greens. Some golf courses choose to continue regular play whereas some courses choose to implement a ‘Frost Delay" or play on Temporary Greens. When the golf course runs a frost delay this normally pushes back all the tee times until the ground has warmed up enough to melt the frost. If frost on the course is ignored and regular play commences it will cause damage to the playing surface and makes the grass susceptible to disease and weeds.
It’s the first to abandon ship, “Feel”. Over the winter with lack of play and a drastic change in the conditions, those “feel” type shots are difficult. What you have in the summer or even after repeated play and/or practice, is a feel for the shot you are about to hit.
“Feel”, in most regards lies heavily in its connection to memory and experience.
By all accounts it is the most important part of the game and the single factor each week on any major tour that separates the winners from the rest of the field. Putting is truly an art form, and those that have that as a strong suit will always have the ability to score. Putting can make up 40% of your score and for the amount of time the putter is in your hands on course I recommend it takes up more of your practice time than smashing drivers. Because putting is so much more feel than most other aspects of the game it requires a lot of feel training. How do you train feel? Your feel is developed by a few factors: experience, repetition, focus, touch, vision, & imagination. Luckily all of these can be developed by practice and play.