Tag Archive for: Karl Morris

Strategy begins long before you reach the 1st tee. And it doesn’t end until after the final putt is holed

Do you have a strategy for how you are going to play the golf course? By strategy, we mean have you ever actually sat down and thought about the best way for you to shoot your best, stress-free score? 

Or, do you do what most golfers do and hit driver as hard as you can on every par 4 and 5 and see what happens after that?

If you do have a strategy, where and when does it start? Does your strategy include how you are going to prepare both mentally and physically or do you generally just wait until you get to the 1st tee? 

What you do before you head to the 1st tee can and will influence your attitude and performance on the golf course. 

A bad attitude is like a flat tyre: You can’t go anywhere until you change it.

How many times have you gone out on the course without hitting any shots on the range to warm up beforehand only to play terribly for the first few holes before you find your game? 

Essentially, you are using the first few holes as warm-up holes, by which time you have run up a couple of double bogeys, duffed a couple of chips and three-putted twice. Score ruined. We’ve all been there but this scenario can be avoided if you prepare properly.

Club golfers the world over spend a disproportionate amount of time focussing on how they are going to hit their ball compared to where they are going to hit it.  Perhaps more importantly, they spend even less time thinking about why they are going to try to hit it to a certain spot on the fairway or green.

Successful tournament professionals, on the other hand, pay a lot of attention to where and why they are going to hit their shots, not just how. 

If you look at the yardage books that these guys use, you will see there is an incredible amount of detail. Distances to and over certain fairway bunkers and water hazards.

How far it is before they run out of fairway. How long the green is from front to back. Where the slopes are on the greens. 

No laser or GPS device, as good as they are, can yet tell you how much green you have behind the flag or where the slopes on the greens are. 

Tour yardage books are incredibly detailed and enable players to make informed decisions. No guesswork here. 

We understand that not everywhere you play will have an amazing course guide or planner. 

If they don’t, why not make one of your own? It is an incredibly insightful experience and something you may want to consider. You will discover some subtle nuances about your home course that you were previously unaware of.

You may think because you have played a certain course dozens of times that you know every blade of grass and grain of sand like the back of your hand. The chances are that there are many aspects you have never even noticed. 

If you are walking around with your head down, cursing your luck about that bad break you had on the previous hole when your ball bounced into the greenside bunker, you will see very little other than the fact your shoes could probably do with a clean.

The Lost Art of Playing Golf

This excerpt was taken from Gary and Karl’s book, The Lost Art of Playing Golf which is available in hardback and Kindle formats.

Click here to get your copy.

Only when you have clear intention can you begin to create the shot you want to hit

We create what we see. Is it possible that you could hit a good shot? Is it possible that the next shot you hit will be the best one you have ever hit in your life? What does the ball need to do to reach your intended target? What does a good shot look like?

Before you hit any shot, whether that be on the range or the golf course, whether it is with a driver, a 6-iron or even a three-foot putt, it is essential that you have a very clear picture of what the very best version of that shot looks like. Once you have a very clear intention, you then have somewhere specific to place your attention. 

We are not going to suggest that everyone visualises every shot exactly the same way. 

Some golfers see the ball flying towards their intended target with a high fade, others with a low draw. Some even see the ball flying arrow-straight towards its intended destination. 

A lot depends on what shot is required, what shot you are capable of playing and what shot you are most comfortable with at that unique moment in time. A lot depends on your intention.

In Jack Nicklaus’s best-selling book, Golf My Way,  he says: 

“I never hit a shot, even in practice, without having a sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a colour movie. First I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white sitting up on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I see the ball going there: its path, trajectory and shape, even its behaviour on landing. 

“Then there’s a sort of fade-out and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality and only at the end of this short, private Hollywood spectacular, do I select a club and set up to the ball.”

Talk about clarity! What is really fascinating here is that Jack has watched the whole movie before he has even selected a club. What we see at all levels, from weekend golfers to Tour Pros, is the player taking a club out of their bag because the shot they face is x yards, make a couple of practice swings and only then look at their target and try to create a mental image of the shot they are about to create. The sequence of events is somewhat different. Perhaps Mr Nicklaus was onto something all those years ago.

Isn’t it strange that when we have to shape a shot around a tree or create one with a lot of curve or height, we somehow manage to see that shot with amazing clarity? 

In the book, Natural Golf, Seve Ballesteros said: “When in trouble, I always stand directly behind the ball, stare intently at my target and wait patiently for the movies to begin. Sometimes I see so many shots come to life that I think I’m looking into a kaleidoscope. When that happens, I stay in the same spots and I rerun all the options until I see one working better than the others. Then, and only then, do I visualise the specific swing needed to execute the shot and finally select the proper club for the task.”

Seve had an incredible imagination and was very aware of his target. He waited until he saw ‘the’ shot.  He then visualised and probably felt the specific swing required and then, finally, he selected the appropriate tool or club for that shot. 

Most amateur golfers spend way too much time trying not to hit bad shots rather than focussing their attention on creating good shots. You always have a choice. Choose wisely.

The Lost Art of Playing Golf

This excerpt was taken from Gary and Karl’s book, The Lost Art of Playing Golf which is available in hardback and Kindle formats.

Click here to get your copy.

‘Why do I play golf?’ Such a simple question, such a short question, but unless you are brutally honest with yourself about the answer we believe your progress will always be somewhat limited.

If you have a big enough why then you will always find the how. So why do you play golf?

Be careful as your brain creates an answer for you because it is likely the answer is a conditioned response to what you think you should say – even to yourself. Our premise is that since you began to play the game in the first place, the reasons you kept striving to get better may well have been hijacked, for reasons we will explain.

The culture of the game and the messages from certain sections of media may well have skewed your thinking.

What we want to stress more than anything is that we believe for you to get the most from your remaining time with the game of golf you need to be playing for your own reasons.

Not anyone else’s construction of the purpose of the game.

The authentic reasons for you as an individual. When you are in touch with your truth then you can begin to play a game really worth all of the time and effort.

Many players we have worked with over the years have been liberated when they actually give themselves permission to play ‘their’ game as opposed to ‘the’ game.

One way you can begin to unlock the answer to the question is to go back to the beginning. Just take some time to think back to the very earliest memories you have of the game.

How did it all start for you? What was it about this strange ball and stick game that drew you in the first place? How did the relationship begin? Who got you started?

Cast your mind back to what may for some be a very distant past and allow the vault of your mind to open up to the memories of where it all began. The reason for this is your first attempts to play the game were more than likely taken for the purest of reasons.

Something in the game itself captured your imagination and got you interested, the game drew you in. At the very earliest stages, it probably wasn’t about what golf could bring you in the future it was about what golf provided you in the present.

For many, the sheer joy of swinging a club through space and finally making good contact with the ball and seeing it fly up into the sky started a love affair that lasted a lifetime.

To strive to be the very best you can possibly be, we think, is a great reason to play the game. But the line shouldn’t blur so golf becomes something you are as opposed to something you do.

To embark on a journey of personal mastery would be a wonderful answer to the fundamental question of why you play.

As the legendary golf coach Fred Shoemaker said: “To fall in love with the idea of mastering a game you will never master.”

This is a perspective about what you can do to improve yourself as opposed to falling into the ego trap of comparison with others.

When you are clear with your why you then stand a very good chance of finding the how.

The Lost Art of Playing Golf

This excerpt was taken from Gary and Karl’s book, The Lost Art of Playing Golf which is available in hardback and Kindle formats.

Click here to get your copy.

Karl Morris on how you can fundamentally change your perception of the game of golf forever

It was a wonderful spring afternoon. The ground was beginning to dry out after a harsh and wet winter and the trees looked like they were ready to start flourishing for another year. It was easy to feel the sense of optimism spring brings with it each year.

As I walked the back nine I noticed a wooden bench next to a tee. There was a brass plaque with an inscription on the bench. 

It was a commemorative plaque that said: ‘To The Tuesday Boys’.

Underneath the title were the names of four golfers and their years of birth and death. It seemed each of these four players had all passed away within a relatively close period of time. It was poignant to think of these four former golfers, no longer with us.

They had clearly played for many years together on a Tuesday – The Tuesday Boys.

I began to think of how many times they would have set out on a round of golf. How many times it would have been just another Tuesday. This ritual obviously went on week after week, year after year.

They would probably have got together on the 1st tee and said something about the state of their game, how they had been struggling with their tee shots, the week they had just had from the previous Tuesday and their hopes for the round ahead.

They must have gone through this routine time and time again. Played golf together on a Tuesday. They would have shared the highs and lows of the game. The emotions, both good and bad. The opportunity to sit in the clubhouse afterwards reflecting on the round and sharing in great conversation and friendship.

Then suddenly they had run out of Tuesdays. One by one, the Tuesday Boys must have got smaller in numbers as a group until they didn’t have any Tuesdays left. The last putt had been holed and the opportunity to enjoy another round had gone forever.

This experience really reinforced to me the utter preciousness of each and every chance we have to play this wonderful game. The incredible way we all take for granted the fact that for us all there are unfortunately only a certain number of Tuesdays left.

None of us know how many Tuesdays it will be but don’t we all labour under a certain illusion these opportunities will go on and on? There will always be another game to play. Another chance. Another Tuesday.

Well, at some point there won’t be another opportunity. Every single one of us will at some point play our final round. We will sink a putt on the 18th green and it will be the last putt we ever hit.

Without being alarmist or a doom merchant, it is so important to embrace a vital key in the quest to unlock and reshape your golfing story and get the most out of this human experience. That is the skill of gratitude.

There is strong evidence to suggest that in the quest to feel good about ourselves and release our true capabilities the skill of gratitude is a huge asset. 

Be grateful for this opportunity to play. The opportunity to walk around a golf course, in nature with the company of others. The opportunity to move your body, to test yourself and see what you can achieve.

The outcome will be what it will be but you are providing the conditions to allow a good performance to emerge.

Taken from The Lost Art of Playing Golf, which is now available now at thelostartofgolf.com in hardback (£19.95) and Kindle (£9.99) formats