Before You Spoil The Good Walk

Author: Joe Mercer

According to three of our areas best head golf professionals, this query should be furthest thing from your mind.
This is the time of year golfers everywhere should be thinking about getting their body, mind and game back into shape.
So before you polish those clubs for the good walk spoiled, take a moment to read the advice offered by Murray St. Onge of Tangle Creek Golf Club, Settlers’ Ghost Golf Club professional Mary-Pat Quilty and David White of The Club at Bond Head.

What are the main things a golfer should be concerned with before the season starts?
Murray St. Onge (MS) – Flexibility, strength and conditioning. It’s like a car in the good old days, getting it tuned up in the spring. You need to get back and make sure your fundamentals are the best they can be before you start the season.
Mary-Pat Quilty (MQ) – Make sure you are fit and ready to go. One good idea would be off-season training (including strength training, stretching, rehab) which gets you fit enough to make a golf swing. Winter really is the best time to work on swing changes.
David White (DW) – You have got to make sure the body is in the shape you want it to be. That leads to equipment––you should be checking your grips. It’s just general maintenance more than anything. Some people just ignore it.

Should every golfer take at least one lesson before the season starts? And what benefits should they expect?
(MS) – If you wait to make changes until the season starts, it’s probably going to be a month before you work through your bad habits and change them. By doing it before the season, you get a head start on everyone else.
(MQ) – It gives you a longer period of time when you can play your best golf. In our area the season is short at six months, so you don’t want to spend a big portion of spring trying to figure out how to play golf again.
(DW) – Our philosophy, leading back to the body, is the lesson per say is not necessarily about your gold mechanics, it’s more the makeup of the body and what physical ailments need to be dealt with before heading out onto the course.

What are the main issues you see in students of the game?
(MS) – It’s all in the setup. Ninety-five per cent of all swing errors are created by setup. Setup meaning five fundamentals: your grip, your ball position, your stance, your aim and alignment. In most cases, the grip is the biggest fault people have. And if you don’t aim and align your body properly with the target, you have to compensate – and making compensations is not a good thing for your golf swing. Fundamentals are what the pros work on all the time.
(MQ) – This spring in particular, I have had quite a number of grip issues. Most people have not golfed since mid-October, so it is very easy for the grip to go wonky. Second would be posture issues. Posture is the first thing to go when you don’t have good core strength. And third would be balance. I see a lot of people falling out of their finish or not getting to their finish. Footwork and balance have not been worked on for four or five months.
(DW) – You see the lack of mobility in hips, that allows people to turn through the golf ball. You see the arm usage more than anything.

How important is the mental aspect of the game? Do too many golfers ignore this fact?
(MS) – When someone is fundamentally solid and a really good golfer, about 90 per cent of the game is mental. If you don’t have a good mental attitude, it’s going to be difficult. The golf course is going to beat you up enough – don’t beat yourself up.
(MQ) – It is very important, and most golfers never work on this. At every level, it becomes more important to the game. Most people ignore it, I think, because they worry so much about their mechanics.
(DW) – I think it is very important. You have to understand yourself first of all. The number one golfer in the world right now (Tiger Woods) understands this and that’s how he beats most of the players on the tour, with the mental side of it. You have to know how to re-adjust your thoughts when your golf game does go bad. If you are trying to improve your game, that is where you need to start.
A pro on the senior tour told me, ‘practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect’. In your mind, how true is this statement?
(MS) – Practicing smart is very, very important. If you are a person who hasn’t taken a lesson and is going out to the range to practice the same bad habits over and over again, then you aren’t going to get much better. One of the best things you can do to become a better player is to practice the proper fundamentals in front of a mirror.
(MQ) – If you’re going to go to the driving range and spend an hour of your life trying to improve your golf game, you might as well be doing the right thing. I would rather see you hit 10, 20 or even 25 shots and do it the right way, than to just hit a large bucket of balls and not think about anything. You want to get the most out of your practice.
(DW) – That is very true, because you set up a disciplined routine that will help you improve your game. Then you can dissect the game or dissect yourself to improve on different avenues.
What are three easy ways to shave strokes off your game?
(MS) – Start off with a good attitude. You’re out there to have fun – so have fun. Second would be pre-shot routine. Make sure you do they same thing every time for every shot. And finally, don’t get caught up with your score. It is a process. Take one shot at a time.
(MQ) – Be committed to each shot, as if that is going to be the only shot you are going to need to hit. Make good choices in relation to your capabilities. And thirdly, know your abilities. If you hit your pitching wedge 90 yards, don’t try to hit it a hundred.
(DW) – One would be practice. Two would be instruction. Three would be your equipment.

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