No, not how I react to good shots and bad ones, but how I make good shots and why I make bad ones.

All the technique you read about and try out gets reduced to a feeling. Actually, any physical skill you learn is the same way. You have to learn, step-by-step, the right thing to do, and work from there to (a) repeat it, and (b) attach a reliable feeling to it, so when you feel X, you know that means you’re doing it right.

One of the problems with trying to find the feeling too soon is that as you adapt and get used to the right movement, the feeling changes. As you learn to perform the movement more reliably, the feeling is quite different from the one you had when you first started.

I have many examples from my own investigations in golf, but my current one is getting a flat left wrist at the top of my backswing. I’ve been working on it for about six weeks now. At first, it felt like the left wrist was curled over, but that was a reaction to my habit of the wrist being severely cupped. Now, if I put that same feeling in the left wrist at the top, it is curled over. The feeling of doing the movement correctly is now more subtle.

The final step in getting the feeling right is to have done the movement correctly so many times that it feels like the natural thing to do and you don’t have to check on it anymore. You can rely on it always being right.

That, of course, takes many thousands of repetitions. And that doesn’t take skill, it takes perseverance. but that’s another post.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

I read an article last year that said Lorena Ochoa would work on a new shot for three weeks to learn the mechanics, then use it for three weeks in practice rounds, before she took it into competition.

Let’s keep this in mind when we’re learning something new. One good day at the range doesn’t mean you got it down. It needs to be done over and over and over before it’s ready.

Why? Because it has to be installed in your subconscious mind and well as in your hands.

When we play we revert to what we believe in, what we know we can do, even if that isn’t very good. It takes a lot of repetitions to come to believe in a new habit.

So when you’re working on something new, work on it every time you go to the range, find a way to work on it at home, to get those repetitions.

You’ll know the new shot, or the swing fix, is ready when you go to the range and start hitting the shot and feel like you own it instead of you’re learning it.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

Lots of people, famous golfers as well, say they never learn anything from the rounds in which they play well, but only from the rounds in which they play poorly. Bobby Jones said this. I don’t get it. Maybe if I shot ten strokes above my handicap every time out I’d be the smartest golfer in the world.

The only thing I learn from doing something wrong is, don’t do that again. But in that lesson is no advice on how to do it right. There are generally thousands of ways to do something wrong, but only a few ways to do it right. I can only learn to do it right by doing it right.

So if you’re playing poorly, it’s because you’re doing something wrong. And probably the slowest and least effective way to get back on track is to try to locate your mistakes and fix them. Nuts to that.

Go back to the beginning, start over, and learn the right way all over again, from the ground up. Just do one thing right then add on something else that’s right and so on until all you know how to do is the right thing.

That’s how to learn this game.

See more at www.the recreationalgolfer.com

When I’m working on something new, I go to my local executive course to test it out. On four of the holes you would tee off with a wedge, but on the remaining holes you can hit a 2-, 5-, 6-, 8-iron, and a driver. That’s a good enough sample of different swings.

I went out this morning to see how my latest swing change is going.The change (cocking my right wrist back on the backswing) seems to be going well, since I’m not hitting those wicked hooks that just drove me nuts. and my chips and pitches were really good. The greens are slow and bumpy, so I never take too much stock in how I putt there.

My guidance for this particular change is in Nick Faldo’s book, Golf-The Winning Formula, on pages 82-86.

See my tips at www.therecreationalgolfer.com

When I stood bridge watches in the Navy, at certain times it got pretty hectic. I had to make the right decisions at the right time and there were no second chances. When I got used to it, I looked forward to it, because I knew nothing would come up that I couldn’t handle. I knew what I was doing.

This came to mind when I was browsing through Afternoons with Mr. Hogan, by Jody Vasquez. There’s a quote from Hogan that goes, “Don’t just hit practice balls. Hit the 9-iron into the back left corner past the bunker. Then remember what it felt like, so when you get to a shot and you need to make it, you already know what it feels like.”

It’s one thing to be able to hit the ball. It’s another for your mind to be at ease with the shot you’re about to hit. A 9-iron to the center of the green or to the back left corner is the same shot if your mind feels that it is. And that sameness is that you know what you’re doing, because you’ve done it before.

Now that the weather in the Pacific NW has finally turned pleasant, I spent the last two mornings at the range. I am in the middle of a major swing change, in which my wrists hinge backward as well as upward. This is how you get the flat left wrist, which I didn’t have, which led to uncontrollable hooking in my case. Nick Faldo’s book, Golf-The Winning Formula on pages 82-86.

At first it felt like my hands were three miles behind me and I would never get them back to the ball, but I’m getting accustomed to the feeling now. Real good results so far. Everything’s going straight, with a few pushes. I’ll figure that one out soon enough.

I had a good session. With 60 balls, I hit each club three times, then about a dozen pitches to random distances, went over to the practice green to practice chipping and putting (hit a dozen chips to the same hole and putt them all out, repeat with three other holes at different distances), then back to the range to finish the bucket. That’s a good morning’s work.

Yesterday I played for the first time this year. It’s been rainy all winter, but we start turning in our scores March 1, so I had better get ready since I haven’t played since last October.

I played nine holes on my home course, starting each hole from where I normally hit my approach shot. I also dropped balls around the green in places where I usually miss. I want my first impressions of golf to be about getting the ball in the hole.

The fairways were soggy, which meant that I had to take easy swings in order not to lose my footing or hit the ball fat (or both!). That’s how we should hit irons all the time—easy.

Sometimes there’s a short shot that is unique to a particular green complex. You can’t practice it because there’s only one place you’ll come across it. Go there and be creative. Drop five or six balls and keep hitting them until you figure out what to do.

The greens were covered with dew, so there was no point in working on the speed, but I learned a lot about green-reading. The ball left a line through the dew showing me where the ball really went. A few putts that I played to break didn’t move. Taking another look showed me why.

I’ll play a few more practice rounds, easing myself into the game. Now’s the time to get a few practice rounds under your belt. They will really pay off.

See more at www.bettergolfbook.com

Yes, I mean it. Here are four ways to lower your score that you don’t take weeks of pounding balls at the range.

1. Grip down. I’ll bet you hit your short irons—PW, 9-iron, 8-iron— pretty well. The longer clubs give you problems. The solution is to grip down on the longer clubs so they feel like a short iron. Hold the club with about 1¼” to 1½” of the shaft extending beyond your left hand.

Get a club and try that right now. The balance of the club will change dramatically. You’ll feel connected to the clubhead and in full control of the club. You will hit a very good shot.

2. Slow down. You swing too fast. I don’t have to see you swing, I know you swing too fast. By that I mean on the downswing. Your downswing doesn’t flow naturally out of your backswing. You swing back OK, but you rush down into the ball.

Swing like you’re chopping wood, in that taking the axe back and bringing it down on the wood are part of the same motion. The striking movement, while faster than the upstroke, is a natural continuation of the upstroke. Slow down. Let clubhead speed build up by itself.

3. Take a religious vow to develop a perfect setup, then do it. That’s grip, stance, posture, and alignment. OK, you’ll have to practice this, but the first three you can do in your living room any time. The pros work on this constantly because they know that a good shot will not come out of a bad setup. Don’t guess. Get a lesson if you have to. It takes no athletic talent to set up correctly—only knowledge and perseverance.

As for alignment, when you hit balls at the range, hit every ball at a different target and align yourself each time. The pros work on that constantly, too.

4. Learn to play the game. Knowing how to hit good shots is only half of golf. Knowing which shot to hit, with which club, and to where, is the other half. I know you know how to play the game when I see you don’t always pull a driver on every par 4 and par 5. Sometimes a shorter club off the tee is the better play. Or when you play short of the green on a long par 3 to chip on for a sure bogey or a possible par.

In other words, play a recreational game within your skills instead of mimicking a pro game that you don’t have.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com.

I retired five years ago. In my last few months on the job, I didn’t have all that much to do. I would spend a few moments here and there combing the Internet for good golf tip web sites. One in particular that I liked is Swingimprovement.com.

There’s a tip on it that I want to call your attention to. The site’s author, Neil Wilkins, a teaching pro in Texas, made up a daily practice plan for a mini-tour player.

The plan goes through putting, chipping, bunkers, pitching, and the full swing. Different drills are laid out with the number of shots for each drill specified.

I counted the number of putts and short game shots in the plan, and compared it to the number of shots allotted to the full swing. Every day, there are three times as many putts and short shots as there are full swings. Three times!

If you saw me hit the ball, you would think I shoot in the 70s. Yet, I shoot in the mid- to low-80s. Guess why? Guess what I need to practice more? Guess what you need to practice more?

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.