Golf Tips & Tricks
Brain Care Centre’s 6th Annual Brain Matters Charity Golf Tournament is fast approaching and the excitement is growing every day! We complied some tips and tricks to help our golfers succeed. Hopefully this success means they can win some of our prizes!
Prepare the night before
The early bird gets the worm! Or at least that’s what they say. Our breakfast begins at 6:30 and tee off is at 8:00, which means it will be a nice, early morning. Making sure you get a full 8 hours of sleep the night before a tournament is crucial to feeling your best while you golf. Visualization is also a good way to get in the right mindset. The best thing to do the night before is visualize success on the course. Start right on Hole 1, visualize yourself going through the course shot by shot. This will help you feel confident in your ability to make all your shots.
Eat right and stay hydrated
As well as getting a full night sleep, eating right will help give you energy to play all eighteen holes. Your body needs fuel to play. Ensuring you eat throughout the day will keep your energy up and fatigue down. Thankfully for our golfers, our tournament has breakfast, lunch, and little treats on various holes throughout the course.
Treat it like any other game
Even though there are multiple prizes up for grabs at this tournament, one of the biggest mistakes golfers can make is overthinking or putting pressure on themselves to make every single shot. Treat all your games the exact same. Many professional golfers treat every games the same – whether it be a game with some buddies or the PGA Championship. This mindset helps to alleviate some pressure in the high stake rounds. It’s easy to build up a game or tournament in your mind and this will definitely affect how you golf. The objective of golf is simple: put the ball into the hole in as little shots as possible. Remind yourself that this is the objective of every game – no matter how high or low the stakes are.
Create a pre shot routine
This may be one of the most important tips of all. Creating a pre-shot routine will drastically improve your game. It helps golfers get in the zone and regain focus before a shot. Think of all the steps you take every time you shoot. Find your target. Check the line of the ball with the hole. Adjust yourself to the ball. Grip the club. Swing back, then forward. Make contact with the ball. Follow through. Repeat on every shot. It can be as simple as that. Besides, professional golfers have a pre-shot routine, why can’t you?
Don’t get ahead of yourself
Take the entire tournament one step at a time. Even every hole. Focus on one shot at a time. Don’t look at the score. Don’t think about how others are doing. Just take it one shot at a time so you don’t get ahead of yourself and get in your head. Along the same lines, don’t allow one bad shot to affect the entire game. Things happen and mistakes are easy to make but they are also easy to correct. Take a deep breath and focus on the shot you have to make. And even better – our tournament is Texas Scramble so everyone gets to shoot from the best drive anyways.
Have fun
If you remember only one tip for the game of golf then it should be this one. Especially during our tournament, having fun is the ultimate goal. You are golfing with some of your friends, meeting new people, getting treats throughout the course, as well as bidding on silent auction items. The tournament is filled with fun and golf is just one part of that. So enjoy the day!
References
https://howtheyplay.com/individual-sports/Mental-Tricks-to-Improve-Golf-Score
https://www.pga.com/golf-instruction/golf-buzz/golf-tips-how-stay-calm-in-pressure-situation
Written By: Lisa Page
Lisa is currently Brain Care Centre’s Communication and Events Assistant for the summer while she finishes completing her Bachelor of Commerce degree at MacEwan.