The Golfer’s New Year’s Resolutions

January 10, 2008
By: Butch Bundy

As the New Year has rolled around once again, I decided to come up with a short list of things that all golfers need to do to make their golfing lives a little better. A lot of folks tend to put the clubs in the closet during hunting season, during the cooler months or during the busy holiday season. Some of these you have seen me address in my articles before.
The first thing is to reevaluate your equipment. This doesn’t mean to throw away your golf clubs and go buy new ones. The biggest thing is to check your grips. I always like to make sure my grips are changed at least once a year. For the golfers who play 3-4 times a week, you might even need to do it more often than that. This may seem a bit unimportant, but at the end of the day the grip is your only connection to the golf club, it needs to be tacky and not slick or worn down. I also encourage those that have never done it to go through a club fitting. Length, lie angle, driver loft and grip size are more vital than buying the latest and greatest clubs. Secondly, set aside some time each week to practice.
Even if it is only one hour per week or if it is getting to the golf course 30 minutes early to hit balls and practice putting, there will be a noticeable difference over just showing up and expecting to just be good without any effort. Dedicate at least half of your practice time to the short game. Taking a bucket of 50 balls to the driving range and hitting your driver as hard as you can isn’t practice. Taking those balls and chipping them to different holes, putting for 10 minutes and then going to the range and working your way from your short irons through to your driver is practice. Lastly, take a golf lesson. It doesn’t matter how good you think you are or how much you think you know. Watching the golf channel or reading a book doesn’t give you a specific lesson. Having someone to tell you how to practice and what you need to work on to get rid of certain problems in your game is important no matter the skill level. It would shock a lot of novice golfers that even some really good players don’t know why they hit good shots or bad shots. The more you can learn about your tendencies and how to correct them, the better and more consistent golfer you can become.