Do you have a structure or framework for getting to a low score average so you can qualify to play on a professional golf tour?

Do you have some sort of plan or defined purpose for achieving your golf swing goals?

Or do you just take it as it comes and do what feels right at the time?


Possibly you might be a golfer that does a bit of both, a little bit plan and a little bit of take it as it comes. 

How about timelines? Do you have an idea of when you want to go to a qualifying school and what needs to be improved before you get there?

Whichever way you look at it, I’m sure that you would agree that advanced golfers will perform better when they have a definitive idea of how, where and when they plan to achieve their goal of being ready for qualifying school?

But can we be confident enough to believe that we can achieve our plan when we want to? 

Yes we can plan to achieve a certain goal by date x, but we always need to take into account the many variables that might get in the way of being able to achieve our swing change goal by a particular time.

Here’s a question for you to answer. Imagine it's January and let’s say that you were going to go to Asian tour qualifying school in 12 months’ time. 

Right now your score average in competition is 74 and you have just started taking a series of golf lessons with a reputable swing coach to improve an aspect of your full swing technique. 

The reason you're doing this is because you believe that it will help you to get your score average down to 71 so you can go to Q School with confidence.


At face value this seems like a reasonable approach to getting to your goal and is a relatively common approach for getting ready for a tour school. The trouble is that it’s reasonable – just not ideal. 

Simply put, there are a number of questions to consider when lowering your score average by three strokes in 12 months, like why you would be leaving it so late to make such a drastic attempt to lower your score average? 

This raises another question, like why you have decided that a swing change/improvement will be your primary strategy for lowering your score average by three. 

Depending on the complexity of your swing change, you need to assess the level of change and determine a timeline for achieving it. Is it possible to improve your golf swing and lower your golf score by three within 12 months?

I'm sure it has been done before, but in our experience it is not likely to happen within this timeline.

Golf Scores Are Erratic
Golf scores fluctuate from day to day in erratic patterns. There is nothing consistent about them and trying to lower your score average by focusing on making a swing change within a compressed time period can be a disaster waiting to happen.

Have a look at one of the best golfers in the world Adam Scott and take note of the erratic nature of his golf scores over a season on the PGA Tour. Adam's score average (actual) was 70.25 in which ranked him 15th on tour and as good as he is notice the high scores throughout the season and how he balances this with low scores which is how we arrive at his score average.

Adam's first score of the season on the tour was a 71 at the Northern Trust Open and his last score of 69 was in the Tour Championship. From the 58 competitive rounds within these rounds on the PGA Tour he was able to reduce his actual score average by .75. 

Now Adam is not making any major swing changes to be able to accomplish this result, he's simply working on the weakest skills that he can manage whilst travelling around the US on tour.

If you are considering going to tour qualifying school in 12 months you would have to make sure that the change you were making to your technique was very minor so that it doesn't affect your ability to score. 

This rarely happens, especially with compressed timelines.

Time Compression Increases Pressure
When you compress time you increase pressure, and a swing change whether minor or major requires more respect than that. How long does it take to learn and change a swing habit? 

It depends on how you learn it, but it requires the amount of time it takes for you to learn it so you are able to perform it under the pressure of tournament pressure.

Tour school is the kind of pressure that brings even the best learned methods undone.

The Golf Swing Change Model
How do you manage swing change within a time period? Good question. 

You will find it helpful to use our swing change model that we developed and use at Pro Tour Golf College to manage swing change. 

When changing a swing the first question to consider is the level of complexity of the change.

What this means is how many individual components make up the change. Do you have one thing to think about and coordinate in your technique or do you have more? 

In our model the simplest change is just one component which ranks low in complexity on our swing change scale. One squared equals one. Two squared equals four, which is four times more difficult to change as one component is. Three squared equals nine which is nine times more difficult to change as one component. 

And on it goes...

Golf Swing Levels of Change

1. Level one change (one squared) is one basic component to change which in our experience can be achieved within one year
   
2. Level two change (two squared) is two components to change and will take from one to two years
3. Level three change (three squared) is three components to change and is likely to take two to three years
4. Level four change (four squared) is four components to change and could take two to three years
5. Level five change (five squared) is five components to change and will take three to four years

The level of complexity (amount of components to change), the amount of repetitions (correctly executed), and the quality of the golf instruction will ultimately determine how long your swing change will take. 

It is always longer than you think and our model is based on advanced and elite golfers making changes to golf swing techniques that are at the autonomous stage or the unconscious competence stage of learning.

It is probably easier to work on other areas within your game within the 12 months to help you reduce your score average by three strokes without having to modify your golf stroke.

In next weeks article I'll show you how to design a periodized plan for the year to help you to manage swing change and also lower your golf scores so you can give yourself the best shot possible of not only getting to tour school in 12 months, but also qualifying to play for pay.


Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business

1. 
   

As you would know if you read our blog on a regular basis we like to look at the statistics of tour golfers and share them with you in a way that makes sense. 

We want you to understand that golf statistics are very important as you develop as a player and that they will help you to benchmark yourself against accomplished golfers who are playing successfully on a professional golf tour.

Recently I was looking at proximity to hole results from the sand for the 2013 PGA Tour season and one golfers results stood out from the rest of the golfers in the top portion of the list. 

Now this golfer wasn’t ranked number one for the year from sand as that honour went to Justin Rose who for the 62 rounds of golf he played he managed to hit 59 of his sand shots within 6 feet and 10 inches (2.08 metres) from the hole on average. 

This golfer was ranked in the top 10 for 2013 season and hit his sand shots on average only 4 inches further away from the hole (7 feet 2 inches) than Justin did, but here’s the kicker; he achieved this incredible standard from 123 sand shots, which was more than double Justin Rose’s attempts.

Charlie Wi is more widely known as an exponent of the “stack and tilt” golf swing method, but few if anyone (apart from his caddy and instructors) probably know how effective he is from the sand.

I think you’ll agree that Charlie Wi is extremely successful at getting close to the hole from the bunker?

But as you know it’s all well and good being able to hit it relatively close to the hole from the sand, because once you hit it to close range you still have to putt it, and this is where it really matters.

Charlie ranked 56th for scrambling from the sand in 2013 with 66 of his 117 bunker shots being converted to par or better which is 56.4 percent.

Matt Kuchar was actually the best in scrambling from the sand in 2013 with 62 saves from 88 attempts, or 72.09 percent. 

Between Charlie Wi and Matt Kuchar there were about 55 golfers who were able to get the ball up and down out of every possible lie in the bunker better than 56 percent of the time.

This is an exceptional standard, but it’s also critical to be this effective if you are going to maintain your score momentum during a round. 

Putting Effectiveness From Short Range
What about putting effectiveness from 7 feet with Justin Rose and Charlie Wi? How good are these guys?

I mentioned that Justin Rose’s proximity to the hole from sand was 6 feet 10 inches and that he ranked number one in this category. 

Well he is also a great putter from short range and his putts made from inside 7 feet in 2013 was 73.47 percent ranking him number three in this important category where he made 36 putts from 49 attempts.

Remember that Charlie Wi who was only 4 inches further away from the hole than Justin Rose out of the sand, how did he fare in this category? 

Not nearly as good, Charlie ranked much higher than Justin at 96th with 58.46 percent of putts made from this distance; he made 38 putts from 65 attempts from inside 7 feet of the hole.

You can see from this simple analysis that it is one thing to hit it relatively close to the hole when you miss a green, but you have to develop your putting skills particularly inside an imaginary 10 feet zone to be competitive on a professional golf tour.

The key to understanding where your game is deficient is to look at the relationship of one category to another, like sand proximity to the hole and how many putts you make. 


Start monitoring your greenside strokes within 30 yards (28 metres) of the edge of the green and when you practice make sure that you practice your greenside wedge skills (chip, pitch, sand, flop and trouble) and that you measure your proximity to the hole results when you putt out. 

This is so you can understand the critical relationship between how far you are hitting it from the hole and how many putts you take to get it in the hole.

At Pro Tour Golf College our students practice their short-game skills using the Par 20 Score Card pictured below. We map out 10 holes around the pitching green with chip, pitch, flop, sand and trouble shots of various distances and when they play their shots to the pin we measure their proximity to the hole using a very simple strategy of counting paces or steps from the pin to their ball.

• One step (1 metre or 3 feet)            = Zone 1
  
• Two steps (2 metres or 6 feet)       = Zone 2
  
• Three steps (3 metres or 10 feet)  = Zone 3
  

If you hit it 10 steps from the pin it would be zone 10. I think you get the idea. Using a simple score card like the one we use you can monitor your proximity to the hole easily and effectively.

After you practice this way you will start to notice the importance of hitting your shots closer to the hole because you will see the correlation between proximity to the hole and putts made, and this is what it's all about if you want to become a competitive amateur or professional golfer.

Take the time to monitor your distance from the hole and work with your golf instructor on improving this critical performance statistic and I guarantee you that with a lot of hard work and focus you will start to see a big difference in your scrambling ability around the green.


Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business

Adam Scott is riding the crest of a wave with his current form, and results in 2013. 

From winning his first major (US Masters) in April, and the Barclay's during the FedEx Cup series, and now dominating the major events in Australia, he is now the number two ranked player in the world behind Tiger Woods.



All this success is a far cry from the struggles he experienced in 2009 where his form for the first time in his career deserted him. In 2009 he played in 16 tournaments on the PGA Tour and missed the cut in ten of those events. 

He ranked 116th on the PGA Tour, just barely staying inside the 125 number and keeping his playing privileges for 2010. 

This was his worst year as a professional since he turned pro in 2000.

How many times when a players performance goes on the slide that the "experts" come out with all the advice in the world? 

Some pointed to the break up of his relationship with tennis star Anna Ivanavic as the cause of his loss of form.

During this period Adam stopped working with coach Butch Harmon, who he had teamed up with when he went to college in the USA and attended the University of Las Vegas (UNLV).

To his credit he evaluated his position and made some good decisions and got his career back on track. He started working with his brother-in-law, a golf professional from the UK who was teaching at a golf course on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

The biggest and most radical change he made was at the end of 2010 when he put the long putter in his bag and used it at the start of 2011. It has literally transformed him from just another player on the PGA Tour to being in the small elite group of professionals we refer to as "superstars" in 2013.

As the time frame and the stats below will show, it has been two years for Adam to regain his place in the top 10 World Golf rankings once again.
 
Even for someone of his ability, not trying to compress the timeline for improvement was important to understand, otherwise he would have failed and probably given up.





As we now know even the heart break of leading the 2012 British Open by four shots with 4 holes to go and losing it did not discourage Adam. 

A similar loss like that has destroyed many other golfers careers, but his comeback from that failure makes his success at the Masters in 2013 even sweeter.

The game of golf especially in Australia needs players like Adam Scott to grow the game and attract the next generation of young golfers to take up the game.

It is never easy to get to the top of the world ranking, but it is even harder to stay there for a long period of time. Tiger woods has been able to do it most of his career. Phil Mickelson has never been Number 1 in the world rankings, but he has been a top ten ranked player for a long time.

As we do at Pro Tour Golf College we look at the critical statistics of players to examine what makes them different and successful.

We tracked Adam's stats from his worst year in 2009 to his best year in 2013 to find out where was he able to turn his game around and be in a position to hunt down Tiger Woods and that coveted number one world ranking.

You can see that in the categories of Driving Accuracy and Greens-in-Regulation that there is not a lot of difference between his worst year (2009) and his best year (2013) where he achieved his best result.

But there is a huge difference in his scoring average of 71.72 in 2009 compared to 69.34 in 2013. And you can notice a correlation when he went to the long putter at the start of 2011 where his scoring average has dipped below 70 over the last three years.

As we have identified and regularly remind the students at Pro Tour Golf College when you achieve a scoring code of  12 - 4 - 2 = 70 or better in professional tournaments you will be a world class golfer.
 
For those who have never read about this scoring code, it's about averaging 12 pars, 4 birdies, 2 bogies in each round. The closer you get to this magic code the better your chance of becoming a successful tour professional.


An interesting observation is that Adam's scoring for par 3's, 4's and 5's from 2010 are very similar. Between 32 to 45 over par for the par 3's and par 4's combined, and 74 to 78 under par for the par 5's. You can see the par 5's are his strength and where he puts himself into contention during tournaments.

But his scoring still pales in significance compared to Tiger's 2000 season where he compiled an unbelievable - 25 for the par 3's, - 71 for the par 4's and a mind boggling -167 for the par 5's and a scoring average for the year of 67.79!

But let's get back to Adam and look at what his stats can tell us about how he has resurrected his career after his disastrous 2009 season.

The last two categories above is where it is. Without fail at every tournament he was in contention to win the commentators would remind us that his Achilles heel was his inability to hole those crucial short putts down the stretch, and because of that he would never win a major or fulfill his potential.

From 2011 (Long putter introduced) from 5 feet to 15 feet Adam has averaged over 41% conversion. 

It's within this band of distance the golf statistician Professor Mark Brodie (who developed the stroke gained-putting statistic for the PGA Tour) has identified as crucial for players to improve and get themselves into contention during tournaments.



The last category though is the one that has made the difference which has allowed Adam Scott to win tournaments on a regular basis and to rise to number two in the world golf ranking at this moment.

In 2013 he has averaged 87.42% from the 3 feet to 5 feet range and the best in that category on the PGA Tour averages was just over 90% so he is right up there with the very best, and combined with his superior ball striking and great attitude he will be a major force for many years to come.
 
This is especially true as Adam is still in his early thirties and in golfing terms "in his prime" and with the monkey now off his back by winning at Augusta this year, and the long putter legal for a few more years it will be interesting to keep an eye on his progress and whether he can maintain the improvement in his game and catch Tiger.

In an interview recently Adam spoke about perfection in golf. He shared that perfection for him was in "preparing" (course mapping, strategy and maintaining his routines on and off the course) as well as he possible could which then translated to improved performance.

The game of golf needs superstars to attract the next generation of golfers to this great game. 

Lawrie and I will keep an eye on Adam Scott's progress and we look forward to keeping you up to date with how he keeps finding ways to get better.

And after all, isn't that what its all about?


David Milne and Lawrie Montague - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business

Greens hit in regulation (G.I.R) and fairways hit are often-quoted statistics that describe how good someone is at hitting their tee-shots into the fairway and approach shots onto the green. 

It describes how effective their full swing technique is but what’s interesting about these statistics is that most of the elite golfers we've asked believe that you have to hit nearly every green in regulation and nearly every fairway from the tee to become a top level tour golfer.

This is far from the truth and in today’s article I’m going to share the facts about how good you have to be with your approach shots into the green to compete on a pro tour, and this knowledge should guide the work you and your golf swing instructor do on your full-swing technique.


If I asked you how many greens in regulation the average tour player hits on the PGA Tour, would you know? I’d bet that your answer is likely to be somewhere between 10 and 16 greens and probably closer towards 16 than 10 right? 

The average greens hit in regulation for a golfer ranked 75 on the PGA Tour is around 11.8 greens per round in case you didn’t know. This means they’re missing about 6 greens per round and the amazing thing is that the difference between the highest ranked golfer in greens hit in regulation and the golfer ranked 75 is just 6 percent!

That’s right, the best on tour in 2013 was Henrik Stenson with very close to 13 greens hit in regulation per round. So you can see that the difference between the 75th ranked golfer (11.8) and the best on tour was just over 1 green per round.

That’s not a lot of difference is it?

Have a look at the tables below to get an idea of the small difference between the top tour golfers and I’m sure that you will be quite surprised at the amount of greens they actually hit on average. Then have a look at the statistics from the 1985 season (28 years ago) and you’ll notice that the numbers are very similar.

Henrik Stenson hit it 290.9 yards from the tee to achieve his G.I.R average in 2013 and in 1985 John Mahaffey hit it 264.0 yards to achieve virtually the same amount of greens hit in regulation. Stenson’s scoring average (actual) was 69.94 (ranked 3rd) and Mahaffey’s was 70.44 (about .5 of a shot difference per round) which would rank him around 28th on the 2013 tour.

Yes it can be argued that golf courses are longer today, but so is the ball and the driver. The simple fact remains that greens hit in regulation is a statistic that hasn't changed much in a long time, and in-fact 12 greens per round average has been the pro standard for at least 50 years and probably much longer.

How many greens are you hitting on average? Do you know? If you want to improve the way you play then you need to get your green's hit average to this number to become competitive in golf tournaments.

You should know that this is the only reason that you work on your full-swing technique. You improve your golf swing alignments to achieve the pro standard in fairways hit and greens hit. 

And the truth is that you really don't have to hit more greens than this because ultimately you will have to use your short-game to translate your performance into low scores. 

Some of the tour golfers with less than average G.I.R stat's are very competitive scorers because of a super short-game.

Hitting between 12 and 14 greens is the starting point, and then as you move closer to the green your proximity to the hole should be improving which will have a positive effect on your putting ability.



The Kings of Greens Hit in Regulation on the PGA Tour
In the chart below I have compiled the greens in regulation results for the best ranked golfer on tour from 2013 to 1983. It is clear from this illustration that the best on tour in the G.I.R stats are super ball strikers who hit from 13 to 13.5 greens per round.

When you look through the list you'll see golfers who have won the G.I.R trophy more than once which is a supreme effort given the quality of the golfers competing on tour each week. It is clear from the evidence that you don't have to try to hit every green to become a top golfer on a professional golf tour.

What you have to do is achieve an average of 10 to 14 greens in regulation every time you tee it up. This is the reason you work on your long game, and it is the only reason. Be careful not to change your golf swing just because you want to look like one of these golfers.

What you should do is learn how to control the three most important elements that will help you to become a sound and consistent ball-striker.

1. Hit > 70 percent of your shots out of the sweet spot
2. Hit > 70 percent of your shots on the line you're aiming on
3. Control the amount of curvature on your shots

Work with your golf instructor to achieve these G.I.R goals with your golf swing and we might be adding you to the list of great ball strikers sometime soon.


Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business

First of all the EGIS program really does test each and every part of your game to the maximum! I've not come across anything with such depth and attention to detail. 

You won’t just find out how good you are at pitching for example, you’ll see exactly what areas of your pitching are good, and which areas need working on. 




The assessment stage will take some time unless you devote hours at a time to accurately measure each and every shot, it’s not for the feint hearted but really is worth the time and effort.

Since taking the game up competitively, my competitive scoring average has steadily dropped from 80.3 in my first season in 2011, to 77.52 in season 2013. Although happy with my gradual improvement, I’ve struggled to make that big leap towards consistently shooting scores in the low 70’s and high 60’s.

I recently took the results from the assessments to a coach that I’ve started to work with over the past 6 months, and along with tournament data and notes taken during the season we were able to accurately formulate a plan for the off season to make that leap towards shooting sub-par rounds consistently (and vastly improving competitive scoring average). 

The tournament data created a general idea of my scoring ability, but the EGIS assessment results painted a much clearer picture of my game. For example, if we take two of the weakest areas of my game, pitching from 10 to 25 yards and Mid to Long iron approaches from outside 150 yards then I can gain a bigger understanding of why I've been averaging 5 bogey’s per round. 

With my mid to long iron approach accuracy being so poor, missing greens and leaving longer pitch shots it’s clear where I’m dropping shots. By simply showing the results to my coach, we were instantly able to get work on both these areas.

Due to these two areas being glaring weaknesses, naturally both have been dedicated more practice time than other areas of my game. It is important however, that I structure my practice so that I can develop both areas correctly while maintaining each other area of my game. 


This can be done using the weekly and daily log sheets, down to every last detail. How many balls are you hitting? How long does it take? Is your practice technical or target orientated? I think this last question plays a huge part towards the development of your golf skills, as mixing the two will almost certainly lead to a plateau or even regression in performance. 

I’ve spent countless hours on the range working on a specific part of my technique and getting annoyed because the ball isn’t doing what I want it to do, and not until I became aware of the need to separate technical and target practice did I realise how counterproductive mixing them could become!

I frequently re-test my weakest golf skills to monitor progress and plan to take a full re-test after the 12th week of logged practice. The EGIS program is so unique in a way that it can be adapted to each player’s personal circumstance, although to develop fully I suggest you follow this program FULLY, you could take parts of the program and still improve your game quite significantly.

I’d like to thank Lawrie Montague and David Milne for creating a program that is so rich in detail, and which provides me with a clear structure for how to improve my golf game and lower my scores!


Thomas Hunter

In the golf world we praise the victor but don’t think twice about the guy or gal who came second. We could care less about their rise from insignificance to significance. 

Because when we see a tour star put on the green jacket, or kiss the Open Championship trophy, or get showered by champagne following their victory we rarely if ever consider the thousands of hours of physical and mental investment it took to get them there. 



You see, we don’t respect the work load just the result. 

When we see the end result or package we see the attractive side of golf, the cheering galleries, the big cheques, the smiling faces, but what we don’t notice is what it took to get there.

Top tour pros think clearly under pressure and this is one characteristic that separates them from those who melt like marsh mellows when the heat is turned up. 

I think it is fair to say that this one attribute of successful tour pros that is the difference that makes the difference.

Pressure is a Privilege
We teach our students at Pro Tour Golf College that pressure is a privilege. We want them to see that pressure is earned and that they should strive to put themselves in a situation that rewards them with it often as possible. We want them to embrace the challenge of the game and manage their fears, and learn to hit golf shots that set them up to win golf tournaments.

We call golfers who can do this “tour tough” golfers and their behavior is often described by the media as possessing the gift of mental toughness, intestinal fortitude, grit or a never die attitude. They are praised for having this important attribute.

How You Can Become Tour Tough
I think it’s important for you to understand that if you desire to become a top ranked amateur or indeed tournament golfer then you need to continually remind yourself of what I’m about to share with you.

The tour tough golfer knows that you cannot let your emotions run riot on the golf course; you cannot lose your head when things don’t go your way. 

If you allow yourself to react this way you will invite disaster to your game.

Can you imagine what it must be like for the amateur and professional golfers who sabotaged any success they might have enjoyed from golf by continually punishing themselves for every golf shot that they hit that didn’t come off the way they wanted? 

Believe me when I tell you that there are lots of golfers like that. For you to become successful in this game you must develop a very high level of tolerance for accepting the adversity that is the game of golf.

So should you act more like a robot with no emotion chip you might be thinking? 

No, you act like someone who is focused and determined to achieve the goal of executing each golf shot to the best of your ability. 

And if this doesn’t occur and you can genuinely say that you attempted to do your best, then you have nothing to worry about. 

Just keep working on your golf skills and attitude until you achieve more of what you want. In case you didn’t know it, this has been the way success has been achieved forever.

The Tour Tough Golfer Framework
You simply keep working on this process. And here’s where it’s interesting. The process is simply a loop that begins with a cue or trigger, then leads you through a routine or ritual, and ends with a result or reward.

This three stage loop was discovered by researchers at MIT and describes the way we perform a habit to achieve an outcome.

Do you get angry when you hit a golf shot that doesn’t meet your level of expectation? Why do you get angry? 



This is an important question. However the answer is often that you don’t know, that it just happens that way. 

Welcome to the world of habits. 

Want to know more about habits? http://charlesduhigg.com/how-habits-work/ 

Different golfers deal with adversity in many different ways, but you can be sure of one thing; if you can’t handle it then you need to change in a hurry because we know of golfers who develop miserable attitudes around this game because they continually practice the habit of getting upset when their shots fail to live up to the picture they created in their mind.

The Cue or Trigger
The cue or trigger sets your habit in motion, it’s like flicking on a light switch. And for most golfers it is so well learned that you won’t even know you do it. In other words, it will fire up and put you on the habit path unconsciously, and here for many lies the problem; if you get angry after hitting a bad shot then this was more than likely triggered by a cue.

• Think cause and effect 
  
• Action and reaction
  
• Cause and consequence

We have noticed that anger loops are often associated with certain types of golf shots that the golfer often has difficulty playing when they perceive a change in pressure. They try to play a shot that in practice they manage quite well but when they need to play it when it matters to them and they don’t pull it off, they get can get as mad as hell.

How does a cue like this develop? 

If you hit lots of pitch shots over a bunker for example, with a low level of commitment (going through the motions) and then you are faced with having to hit a shot that's similar only it’s on the golf course (possible at a crucial time) your perceived anxiety threshold changes, and this can trigger a routine that leads you to a poor shot that doesn’t come off the way you practiced it.

And here’s where it gets a little strange. 

The reward in this case is the scolding or berating of yourself, expressing it either physically – say by slamming your golf club into the ground, a bag or something else, or a physical and verbal blast that could include swearing and throwing a club, or just simply verbal abuse inside your head.

When you get mad in any of these ways you simply reinforce the habit loop so that it will happen again and again because you are emotionalizing the message of dissatisfaction to your brain, and its interpretation is that it must be important therefore you will want to remember it again...and again...

Change the Reward to Change the Loop
How do you stop it? 

The key is to change the reward part of the loop so that you change the loop itself to a better—more effective one. Your loops are usually made up of a thought (image) a feeling (emotion) and an action or behavior.

So get your image of the shot you want to hit to be consistent with what you are capable of most of the time. Don’t try to pull-off shots that you can play just three times out of ten when it matters. 

Play shots that you can play seven times out of ten when it matters.

Next match the feel of the stroke you are going to play to the image you are imagining. This is often described as your rehearsal and is an important part of the process of getting from the thought to the action.

Lastly and the most important part; swing away and regardless of the outcome you produce, control your emotional response. The key is to acknowledge (after the shot has gone) that in that moment you did the best you could and that next time you will do it better.

Don’t live in the past by getting bitter and twisted over shots that didn't come off the way you planned, move on to the next shot and practice accepting the shot you played, knowing that there always better shots ahead of you if you do one simple thing; practice rewarding habits that pay-off.


Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business

Golf is a frustrating and infuriating game as much as it is an inspiring and empowering game. Or is it?

When I flick through the old golf books in my library from around 100 years ago the authors talk about the game much the way we do.

They discuss with amusement the frustrated, frenzied and frantic golfers struggling with the adversity that is the game of golf. 

They make light of the way golfers work themselves into an emotional wreck.


We don’t laugh at it as much anymore; it is far too serious a game for that. And that may be the problem.

Why is golf so frustrating? Why does it make golfers feel so emotionally weak and vulnerable?

Do we get frustrated because golf lulls us into a false sense of security? Probably. Do we get frustrated because we try to play this game as if it can be perfected? Yes for many this is true.

We are golf addicts in a lot of ways because we get hooked on the feelings that make us believe that we can be a lot better than we are. This is especially the case when we hit golf shots that travel from the club-face like ballistic missiles that soar effortlessly into the sky like a Boeing 777.

But golf by its very nature is a game of ups and downs. One golf shot that you are very happy with might be followed up with a disastrous one that leaves you scratching your head wondering what just happened.

This is the nature of golf. Let me say it again, “this is the nature of golf.”

There is a duality of sorts with the good golf shots at one end of the performance scale and bad golf shots at the other end; and for many advanced and elite golfers, not much fun in between. 



But it doesn’t have to be this way, after all, first and foremost golf is a game of skill, and you can go about learning to develop your golf skills patiently accepting the normal up’s and down’s along the way, or not.

I think it is important to learn a key distinction that learning golf skills is not the same as learning something from a textbook that you need to remember in a test the next day.

Golf skill learning requires deliberate repetitions correctly applied many times over until you reach a stage of automaticity.

Automaticity is a fancy word that simply describes learning a golf skill to a stage where you don’t have to consciously think about it anymore.

A golf skill is automatic when there is just one step left from stimuli to retrieval. What this means is you can decide on the appropriate shot that fits the situation and then play it. No thinking about “how” anymore.

This seems to be the toughest part of the journey for many elite golfers, from learning the golf skill to forgetting about it, and we find that many serious golfers simply do not appreciate just how much work has to be done to bridge this performance gap.

In our experience working with thousands of golfers this appears to be the part of learning that many elite golfers struggle with the most and we also think that it is one of the main reasons that they change from one golf instructor to another.

They get to a stage of arrested development where it seems that whatever they do, they are not making progress. They don’t see the scores in golf tournaments getting better so they go searching for another way.

They are under the mistaken belief that there is a better—faster way to golf success.



What we know is that you have to put the hours into it, and that the toughest part of the journey is getting from the conscious stage of learning to the unconscious stage.

When they are going through the conscious stage and developing their confidence and experiencing the normal failure, frustration and annoyance they want to escape from it, instead of understanding the stage they’re at and becoming more determined to get their golf skills to automaticity in tournaments.

So let me be very clear about this because I want to help you to manage this frustration and aggravation and help you to keep making progress with your golf.

You cannot serve two masters in golf. You need to develop your technical skills and then develop your shot-making skills. 

For you to reach a stage of automaticity you need to practice your golf skills for hundreds of hours. That is a simple fact.

Now you may accept this or dismiss it. That is entirely your choice but it is the truth.

No golfer who ever achieved success in this game did it without an enormous amount of practice and determination.

If you want to develop golf skills that repeat when it really matters to you in a tournament then build a strong technical base for all your golf skills to rest upon.

Learn the technique with the help of your golf instructor to a high level of competence and add a target to this process when you reach the stage of being able to perform the skill without a lot of thought.

Flawed golf techniques fail as easily as correct golf skills that aren't learned enough.

So practice your golf technique with your full attention, and never ever try to speed up the learning process.

You might be able to execute golf shots successfully on the golf range just the way you want, but the litmus test is doing it in a tournament when it really matters.

You have to understand just how much practice of your golf skills has to be completed to reach automaticity.

If you want to be a top class amateur golfer or a professional golfer then you just have to realize that there are many skills to practice---not just your favorite ones. 

From short putting to long putting to level putts and side-hill putts, chips, pitches, sand shots, trouble shots, approach wedge shots to tee shots and iron shots. The list goes on.

Think about it for a moment, how many different golf strokes do you have to practice and develop to the level of automaticity?

Now think about how long it is likely to take to practice all those different skills for you to reach the level you aspire to.




What makes you think that you can rush the learning process when there are so many golf skills to learn to automaticity, so you can play confidently in the tournaments you compete in?

If you get frustrated and even angry when you are practicing and playing golf, then I strongly suggest that you do one of two things right away:

1. Give yourself a break, take it easy on yourself and learn the golf skills completely without adding the pressure of trying to perform them perfectly when they are not fully learned. If they are not fully learned then why would you expect to produce the results afforded to someone who has put the required hours in?
2. Give it up and play a game that is easier to learn because golf will never get easier, and if you can’t accept this simple fact then you will not make progress. Or don’t play it competitively, because unless you change your attitude to the way you are learning it, you will just practice being unhappy.
   

This game is tough mostly because of the way golfers go about practicing and learning their golf skills. So take each golf skill that you are learning one step at a time and be patient. You will have to practice the different golf skills for many hours to reach the stage where you don’t have to think about them anymore.

You are growing golf skills much like growing a tree in your garden. You can tell the tree to grow faster as much as you want, but it will grow on its own terms, and in its own time, and so will your golf skills.

There is a reason why patience is an advantage in learning golf skills. Those who have achieved the exalted state of learning skills and performing with them confidently in tournaments know that you must invest the practice hours into growing your golf skills completely.

There is no other way.

Put the practice hours in, be patient, be purposeful, and be persistent because this is the only way that you can reach the exalted state of golf skill nirvana.


Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business

At this time of the year it pays literally to be a top 50 ranked player in the World Golf Rankings. Why you may ask? 

Well in simple terms you get invited to play in limited field events with no half way cuts and a guaranteed cheque when you finish on Sunday.
 
Even if you finish last in the HSBC tournament in Shanghai this week you will receive US $25,500 for the effort.


Mind you the winner will pocket US$1.2 million the same as Ryan Moore did at the CIMB Classic last week in Kuala Lumpur!

There have been changes with the 2014 PGA Tour already underway.  An invitation to the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa with only thirty players invited to play, and the winners purse of US $1.25 million is hard to pass up, and the last place golfer takes home US$100,000.00! 

Also at most of these "invitation only" tournaments the players expenses are looked after and a couple of business class air tickets are thrown in for good measure.

Now take note, these tournaments are for those who are in the top 50 World Golf Rankings and when you get into the top 10 you can throw in appearance fees. The World number one Tiger Woods commands US $3 million to tee it up.

I have spoken to presidents of National Golf Associations and corporations who have paid him his fee to play in their tournaments and they all agree that it is worth every dollar, and would do it again!


The Asian PGA Tour in recent years has come up with a formula that works in their part of the world. Rather than trying to match the prize monies of the PGA and European Tour's, they have found that by paying appearance fees to around three to four marque players like Ernie Ells, Lee Westwood, Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson they can attract more corporate sponsorship and spectators to their events.


David Milne and Lawrie Montague - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business