Playing a successful round of golf requires a great deal of concentration. If you keep allowing your mind to slip away to other thoughts you will struggle to focus on your shots.
There are three elements to a round of golf which require focus. These are best split into your overall focus during the 18 holes, your focus in the build up to each shot and your focus as you make your swing.
Today we will look at the first of these, which is your overall focus during the 18 holes of a standard round of golf.
Many beginner and amateur golfers think about a round of golf as two sets of nine holes. Perhaps this is because when discussing golf courses you hear comments like, ‘the back nine is more difficult than the front nine’.
While this may be true and you have a very good front nine only to struggle on the back nine holes, splitting your round of golf in this way could be having a detrimental effect on your round and costing you shots.
To combat this, many people will tell you to focus on one hole at a time or even one shot at a time. This is a good way to maintain focus throughout 18 holes of golf without splitting the round into the back and front nine but it can very difficult to achieve.
Instead, try dividing your round up into three holes per game. In other words, you will play five, 3-hole mine games during your round. So, play the first three holes of your round and class that as one game.
As you approach the first tee, set yourself a total number of shots as a target for the three holes. Always aim for something which is a challenge but you know you can realistically achieve.
When you are walking to the fourth tee, it is time for a new game to begin and you need to set yourself a new target. This strategy works well on a course you have played before as you know what you can realistically achieve on each hole whereas on a new course you will find it more difficult to set a total.
When you step onto the fourth tee, it is the start of a new challenge and you can forget all about the previous three holes, as they become irrelevant.
Repeat this throughout the round, starting on the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th and 16th tees.
You can even divide your scorecard up into sections for each block of three holes and mark down your target total for each of them before you begin.
If you are struggling to stay focused throughout 18 holes of golf, this technique could really help.
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