Is there a trick to riding momentum when you are in the early stages of gaining it? Or what about a way to break out of a downwards trajectory and nerves start to creep into our game? In either case, what is happening is something that is generally outside of our norm and can happen during a single round or even a stretch of days or weeks…both for the good and the bad. I have had many students over the years go through both great runs and bad ones.

When discussing the mental game, and strategy in golf, and having a mindset conducive to scoring our best, experts often say you should have a “One Shot at a Time” mentality. When grinding during a match play event, that train of thought is absolutely one that is often found in a winner.

For many golfers that have long had dreams of playing at the highest level, age 50 can mean a new beginning. I even hate to call it “Senior Golf” anymore as 50 no longer seems to be a marker of one’s game getting over the hill…quite the contrary in many cases.

Where players like Marina Alex excel is in their commitment to a process and working a plan to reach certain goals that they set for themselves. If there ever was a “secret sauce” in golf, it is in this fact. To improve your game, you must have a plan to create a pathway to reach the goals you set for yourself. You must work on those things deliberately and diligently, but you must also remember to have fun with it while doing it.

Have you ever noticed this? While on the course, you drop a second ball, perhaps out of frustration, or maybe simply because you want to try to “figure something out” and you stripe it? A shot that comes off the club like a thing of beauty. Sometimes we call this phenomenon “our second guy/girl.”

Augusta National affords us the opportunity each year to see the worlds best trying to maneuver their way around some of the trickiest green complexes in golf. Probably nowhere else do we get to see just how good the short game and putting is among the top players in golf. At the same time, it also exposes how the best can struggle just as much as we can on tricky greens. What can you take from watching the players in the field this week as they tackle the tricky and fast greens at Augusta National? The short answer is plenty.

Nowhere else in golf do we see the pre-tournament prep players perform being highlighted more than we do at The Masters. From the best-in-class practice facility that Augusta National Golf Club boasts, to the magnificent par three course, to the coverage of an on-course practice round, The Masters is unlike any other event in giving us a glimpse inside what the best of the best routinely do on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of a tournament week.

Anirban Lahiri is the 322nd ranked player in the world and the leader heading into the fourth round of The PLAYERS Championship. In his 15 years as a playing professional, despite close calls, he has no wins on the PGA Tour. “I was hitting my irons horribly before this week,” said Lahiri in a post round chat with Todd Lewis. In asking Anirban, what he might equate his success so far this week to, Lewis got an answer that some may find interesting… “I changed my swing weight in my irons by 1 and ½.”

I’ve been lucky enough to play Bay Hill on 10 occasions. One of the things that has always struck me with the layout are the number of holes that you really need to be cognizant of the lines you choose to hit your drives and approach shots on. Add wind into the mix, like we saw on Saturday, and you’ll need to be even more careful. With those two situations in mind, a strategically demanding course, and windy conditions, I would suggest these two classic tips, that came from the King himself, Arnold Palmer…

Shane Lowry, like others that tend to play hard courses well, usually equate that success to mindset. “You gotta take both the good breaks and those bad breaks on the chin and just move on…just shot the best score you can” Lowry said in a post 3rd round interview. With Shane’s thoughts in mind, I wanted to give you a few tips on how to play tough courses well, or at least better than your playing partners.

“I just wanted to hit one shot at a time…I know that sounds cliché, but we spoke about that early in the day.” This was a post final round comment from 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions winner, Cameron Smith. We hear this thought a lot in golf…One shot at a Time…Staying in the Moment…Staying Patient. Lets talk about this...