Tag Archive for: Thoughtful Thursday

With The Masters only a few short weeks away, thoughts are turning towards the season ahead for golfers around the world.

What does 2022 hold for you, both on and off the golf course? Do you have dreams and ambitions for what you would like to achieve? This may sound a little presumptuous but if you are like most golfers I have met in a lifetime in the game, I would imagine you do. 

Some golfers, whether they be weekend club golfers, occasional casual golfers or a seasoned Tour Pro, like to write down what they would like to win before the season ends. 

I am generally a big fan of journaling, transferring my thoughts into my notebook as those thoughts exit my mind, run down my arm, hand and my pen before appearing on the page in front of me. However, writing down goals alone, from my experience is not enough. There has to be a plan of action.

Thoughts, hopes and dreams but without a plan, in all likelihood, they will remain just that.

If winning the monthly medal, The Open Championship or even a fiver from your Sunday morning fourball opponents is what you desire, do you have a plan for how you are going to achieve your goal? I could bore you with a list of unoriginal cliches and inspirational quotes about failing to plan etc… but I’m sure you’ve heard them all before.

Are you going to continue to work on the same things in your backswing that you’ve been working on in the hope that “good” technique will protect you from bad golf, largely without success?

OR, are you prepared to take a leap of faith, not worry too much about your wrist angles and/or creating lag in your downswing and pay a bit more attention to the shots you are actually going to have to play on the golf course? 

Are you perhaps going to make a commitment to improving your short game and putting? That is where I believe the vast majority of golfers, at every level, can make the biggest difference not only to your performance but also your enjoyment of the game.

We all want to shoot lower scores and get sucked into believing that the fastest, shortest route to low scores and happiness can be achieved by hitting 330-yard drives. That’s all well and good if you are an elite athlete who works out and trains every day but if you’re not, be careful you don’t injure yourself in the process.

I’m not saying that distance isn’t important, golf is a game of distance and direction but let’s not ignore the importance of a razor-sharp short game. While hitting record-breaking drives might be desirable, is it really achievable? I don’t know.

What I do know is that everyone who plays golf can definitely become a better golfer on and around the greens.

Regardless of your dreams and desires for the coming season, please do yourself a favour and incorporate an element of short game and putting skills training into your plan of action. Become acquainted with your scoring clubs and your putter. Learn how to use the tools of your trade and you never know, 2022 might just be your best year ever.

Good luck for the year ahead and please be grateful for every opportunity you have to play the greatest game of all.

When the UK went into lockdown once again shortly after Christmas 2020, I knew I was going to be in for a tough few months.

No coaching meant no income. Not something I was particularly looking forward to. It would have been all too easy to find reasons not to do anything at all but my mind is far less capable of that than I thought. Rather than sit at home feeling sorry for myself, I decided to do something constructive.

Having previously co-written ‘The Lost Art Of Putting’ and ‘The Lost Art Of Playing Golf’ with my good friend Karl Morris, who I firmly believe has one of the best minds in the golf world, we decided to put pen to paper once again.

It was always our intention to write a third book in the Lost Art series and lockdown provided us with the perfect opportunity to dust off our respective laptops and get our thinking caps on one more time. 

When we launched The Lost Art Of Putting at The Scottish Open with the help of 1999 Open Champion Pail Lawrie, who very kindly wrote the foreword, we had no idea if we would actually sell a single copy. In fact, we joked that if we didn’t sell any, at least we would have a very nice, but expensive, business card!

Thankfully we needn’t have worried. Both books have achieved sales way beyond our expectations. More importantly, judging by all the positive feedback we have received, our thoughts and ideas appear to have resonated with golfers around the world.

5-star reviews on Amazon along with hundreds of emails, messages on social media as well as in person, from golfers of all standards from weekend warriors to Tour Pros competing at the highest level, suggested we might just be on to something. That alone was sufficient motivation for Karl and I to get started on “The Lost Art Of The Short Game”. 

Much of January was spent racking our brains and scribbling in notepads. Countless hours of research and speaking to various industry experts helped fill the days which passed way quicker than I had anticipated, which was a real bonus.

We got in touch with a number of people we have the utmost respect for to ask if they would be interested in writing a piece as guest contributors. Thankfully they all said yes and their contributions are all exceptional. I don’t want to give too much away at this point, you will have to buy the book to find out who they are, but we are eternally grateful to everyone who took the time to help us put together what we believe to be our best work yet.

Our initial time frame for the first draft to be completed was by the end of March, which at the time seemed ambitious but achievable. We just about managed that and only missed our self-imposed ‘deadline’ by a few days. I remember thinking that the hard work was over at this point. It’s amazing how quickly I ‘forgot’ that writing the first draft was actually the easy part. The hard work was just about to begin!

I have lost count of the number of times I have re-read and proofread every single word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter looking for mistakes and inconsistencies. Proofreading has to be one of the most difficult things I have ever done. 

What makes it so difficult? It works kind of like this. You set out to highlight and amend grammatical errors and typos. You aim to pick up on a lack of or excessive punctuation and correct those mistakes accordingly. Sounds simple enough but the reality is that you start reading a sentence and your brain says ‘I know what is coming next, I wrote it after all’ and before you know it, you have read three paragraphs, then three pages and you think this is actually pretty good, then suddenly you realise you haven’t been paying the slightest bit of attention to what you should be looking for. Frustrating? Extremely! You have to retrace your steps and start all over again. 

At this point, we realised the best thing to do was to let go, for the time being at least, and hand it over to others to cast a critical eye over our work. 
The first draft became a second and third draft before sending it on to our editor for his thoughts.

In the meantime, we also had to approve illustrations, which we are delighted with, along with cover designs for both the book and a box set of ‘The Lost Art Of Golf Collection’.

After much deliberation and seeking the opinions of people we trust, covers were finally agreed upon and approved before being sent off to the printers to bring our musings to life in the form of books and dust jackets.

What started out as a project to prevent us from climbing the walls during lockdown, is now about to become a reality. We have been informed that we should have books in our hands by or on Monday, October 11. At last, the long wait is almost over and we cannot wait to see, hold and read what has been yet another labour of love.

It is always very satisfying to see all your hard work actually morph into something tangible and we cannot wait to share what we have put together with golfers around the world.

Please check out – thelostartofgolf.com – for updates and how to order. We are also updating the Amazon pages of all three books where they are available in hardback and Kindle versions.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on ‘The Lost Art Of The Short Game. Discover what is truly possible for YOU around the greens.’

Until next time, appreciate the opportunity to further your golf education and put it into practice on the golf course.

All the best,
Gary Nicol

Just over four years ago, my very good friend Karl Morris and I decided we would write a book together. We had talked about it for some time and while we knew it was going to be a book on golf, we weren’t entirely sure exactly which direction it would take initially.

We had been hosting some putting schools and Master Classes at Archerfield Links where I am based and were seeing some quite astonishing results with players of all abilities, from relative newcomers to the game to seasoned professionals.

Our initial aim was to help players hole more putts, shoot lower scores and perhaps, more importantly, have more fun on the golf course. We wanted to avoid traditional “technical instruction”, as we had seen too many players over the years lose their natural ability by drowning in a sea of information in their pursuit of a “perfect stroke”, whatever that looks like?!

Decision made, we would write a book about how to become more efficient on the putting surfaces and the concept of “The Lost Art Of Putting” was born.
Fast forward a few months and with the help of 1999 Open Champion Paul Lawrie, who was kind enough to write the foreword, we launched our first book at the 2018 Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open just along the road at Gullane.

We joked at the time that if we didn’t actually sell any copies of the book, at the very least we would have some very nice 150-page business cards! We needn’t have worried as it soon became an Amazon best-seller and continues to sell around the world. 

As satisfying as that was and still is, what gives us a far greater sense of satisfaction are the thank you notes, letters, and emails we continue to receive from golfers from all four corners of the globe. The words which keep popping up in these notes of thanks are “liberating, freedom, gratitude, and enjoyment”. If we have helped even a small number of golfers to experience any of these, then we feel we have done our job.

On the back of the success of our first collaboration, we were encouraged to embark on another journey to follow on from our thoughts and ideas on putting in the form of another book.

After much deliberation, we decided this one should be about “The Lost Art of Playing Golf”. During the process of putting this together, a chance meeting and subsequent conversations Karl had with Rudy Duran, who was Tiger Woods’ first coach, in China of all places, confirmed we had chosen the right topic.

Rudy very generously agreed to write the foreword where he talked a lot about the young Tiger and his desire to learn how to create all sorts of different shots with different clubs. Something we feel has been lost to a certain degree in recent years.

With the help of some great guest contributors, as we had with our first book, combined with countless hours of research, writing, and re-writing, in October 2019, we launched “The Lost Art Of Playing Golf”.

Naturally, we experienced a certain amount of trepidation as to whether this one might sell and whether we had got the content, flow, and tone of this one right.

Once again, we were delighted not only when this too became an Amazon best-seller but the content seemed to resonate with a far greater number of golfers than we could ever have expected or wished for. We really weren’t sure that the opening chapter about “Gratitude” would be welcomed by people wanting to play better golf but from the feedback we have since received, we are glad we choose to include it.

Over the last couple of years, Karl and I, just like pretty much everyone else on the planet, have had certain issues to deal with due to this global pandemic. We both had longer periods of not having any income from our day-to-day coaching than we would have liked but it did provide us with the opportunity of dust off our respective laptops and get writing again.

This time we felt we should provide an alternative viewpoint on the short game, having already covered putting and actually playing the game.
Once again, we have had tremendous support from a variety of guest contributors (you’ll need to buy the books to find out who they all are), including the legendary Bob Vokey, the godfather of wedge design, who wrote the foreword for “The Lost Art Of The Short Game”.

As with our previous two books, the waiting game we had to play while the publishers and printers turned all our collective thoughts from Word documents into books, as anyone who has written a book will tell you, is a period when the second and hour hands on our clocks and watches appear to be working in slow motion.

In addition to the three books, we are also offering a “The Lost Art Of Golf Collection” box set which contains all three books in a very stylish cover, these are available to pre-order and will be available in the coming weeks.

What started out as an idea just over four years ago, turned into a book, then a follow-up, and then there were three!

Despite the fact Karl and I have read, re-read and proofread this third book more times than we care to count, we can’t wait to share our thoughts and ideas on the short game with the golf world and we wait impatiently for “The Lost Art Of The Short Game” to be held in the hands of golfers all around the world.

Until next time, appreciate every opportunity you have to play this great game.

Enjoy!
Gary Nicol

Order your copy of The Lost Art of the Short Game

• Click here to buy on Amazon

• Click here to buy on Kindle

Only a few weeks ago, I wrote about an enforced layoff due to a niggling hip injury providing Grant Forrest the opportunity to rest, reassess, recuperate and reset. 

Grant could have viewed this untimely incident as bad luck and extremely annoying as it was slap bang in the middle of the season. Thankfully, as frustrating as it was, he took the time to reflect on where he was with his game and think about what needed to improve in order to achieve his goal of winning on the European Tour. Something that anyone who has seen him play will know he is more than capable of.

Forrest thinks deeply about his game and he made the decision to end his working relationship with his swing coach and seek the opinion of Matt Belsham, who is probably best known for his work with Alex Noren. What he had been working on wasn’t quite going to plan. The intention having been to improve his accuracy off the tee and with his iron play.

His ability to strike the ball solidly and hit it prodigious distances has never been the issue but his accuracy had been letting him down more than he was prepared to accept.

Decision made, after a couple of sessions, he felt he could finally take more ownership of his game and hit the shots he was visualising and intending to hit, which is obviously a very nice place to be on the golf course. Especially when playing tournament golf is how he makes his living.

Having spent a good deal of time with Grant over the last 18 months or so, helping him with his short game and putting, I have got to know him fairly well. He is always polite and punctual, two traits that cost nothing but are to my mind, invaluable. 

Grant is not afraid of hard work, he puts in more than his fair share of hours and effort in the gym and on his game. He is also learning, very quickly I might add, the value of working smart. While integrating the changes he was making to his long game, he recognised he had perhaps been neglecting his putting and his recent stats backed that up.

With that in mind, he knew he wasn’t going to improve his putting stats or his scores by merely noticing he had been spending too little time honing his putting skills. He knew he would have to actually do something about it.

On the Monday preceding the Hero Open at The Fairmont, St. Andrews, Grant arrived at the Archerfield Performance Centre at 9am sharp, just as we had agreed. As always, we discussed what his INTENTION was, where his ATTENTION was and it goes without saying, we were going to tackle the situation with a good ATTITUDE.

When his putting goes slightly “off”, it is rarely anything drastic or dramatic. A little tweak here or there, a shift in focus of attention or a slightly different feel. In this instance, the strike off the putter was less than optimal, therefore making his pace control a bit of a challenge. Moving the ball slightly further forward in his stance seemed to do the trick along with experimenting with a left hand below right grip on a few putts.
The data we were picking up on TrackMan was virtually identical with both a conventional grip and left hand low. The difference was something only he could feel.

Long story short, six days later, Grant Forrest was crowned as Hero Open champion 2021 with an astonishing four round total of 24 under par.
Statistically, this was his best ball striking tournament of his professional career in terms of fairways and greens hit by some considerable distance. Opening with consecutive four under par 68s on Thursday and Friday, using a conventional putting grip was pretty solid but somewhat disappointing, considering how well he had played from tee to green. On Saturday he decided to go left hand low with the putter and 62 (10 under par for the day) shots later, he was tied for the lead.

Sunday was going to be a new experience for Grant as he headed out in the last group, tied for the lead with fellow Scot Calum Hill at 18 under par.

Despite making a bogey 5 on the opening hole, just as he had done en route to his 62 the previous day, he didn’t let that phase him. He and his caddie John McLure stuck to their task of assessing and playing one shot at a time, something else Grant has been working on. Being more present in the here and now, focusing on the task and trusting his technique. This shot and this shot alone. “Our big thing all day was one shot at a time, let’s just keep hitting shots and I hit a great 9 iron into 17 nice and close and that really helps and then two great shots into 18. It was a great way to finish.” 

I hope for Grant’s sake, he wasn’t as nervous as I was watching him play the back 9. I think he added a few more grey hairs to my ever increasing collection. To his credit, he stuck to his task and played some outstanding golf shots, eventually making birdies on the last two holes to edge out James Morrison who chased him down with a spectacular final round of 63. Thankfully those closing birdies and a final round of 66 was good enough to clinch his first win in the European Tour.

“There are so many emotions”, said Forest after his victory. “To do it in front of everyone who has come up to support me – the last year and a half has been a real challenge on and off the course so I’m just delighted.”

With his mum Audrey, sister Ailsa and girlfriend Christie walking every step and feeling the full spectrum of emotions, in attendance, this was a very proud moment for Grant who dedicated his victory to his late father Graeme.

“I wish he was here to see this, he’d be so chuffed. He’s been the big inspiration and a lot of the reason why I’ve really knuckled down when times were tough.”

With sentiments like that, I doubt there has been a more popular winter on Tour in recent times and it is easy to understand why.

Good things really do happen to good people.

Until next time,
Be good.

For those of us north of the border, we have been able to play golf slightly longer than those south of it, however, everyone in the UK has finally being able to taste the great game for a couple of months now.

Just to get out and hit a golf ball is something the majority of golfers, myself included have taken for granted at times for way too long. The only thing stopping us in the past having been prior commitments, ill health or bad weather.

Why golf was off limits for so long is beyond me. Even if your favourite fourball tried to hit their shots within two metres of each other, in all probability, that simply would not happen!

Anyway, personal opinions aside, we have so much to look forward to this summer. Playing golf again being high on many priority lists.

Will the opportunity to play golf be enough to satisfy the golfers among us or do we all want more? Yes it would be great to shoot lower scores, reduce handicaps and win competitions but just getting out there could and perhaps should be enough.

If I had £5 for every time I have heard or read “I just want to play golf again”, I would be planning my retirement to a Mediterranean island. I do wonder however if being grateful for the ability to play golf again is what we really want and if it is, how long will our gratitude last.

How long will it be before golfers around the world start complaining about course conditions, pace of play and pitch marks not being repaired? 
Rather than moan about it, accept and appreciate that preparing a golf course takes good growing conditions and a lot of hard work. Accept that if everyone played a little bit quicker we would all enjoy our golf a bit more. Make a commitment to pick up the pace a bit on the course and encourage your playing companions to do likewise. Don’t complain about ignored pitch marks, my pet hate, just fix your own and one more.
I find it astonishing that the people who complain most vociferously about bumpy greens probably don’t even own a pitch fork, never mind know how to use one.

Be grateful that you are no longer in total lockdown. Be thankful that at long last you can get out the house to get some exercise in the serene surroundings of a golf course.

I’m not suggesting for a second that you shouldn’t care about how you play or what you score but please do not lose sight of the fact that playing golf is a privilege not to be undervalued.

Looking forward to something has no real meaning or value if you don’t actually appreciate the moment you have been anticipating for so long.
Adopting “an attitude of gratitude” not just on the golf course but in our daily lives can have such a positive impact on the way we see and experience pretty much everything.

Gratitude is essentially the quality of being thankful, a readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
We have all been taught to be kind to others but we are rarely kind to ourselves when it comes to playing golf. When was the last time you patted yourself on the back after a good shot? Long time ago.

When was the last time you called yourself a useless (insert your own insult here) on the golf course? Probably the last time you played!
The concept of gratitude is nothing new but I do know it is known to increase happiness. If increased happiness isn’t enough for you, it can reduce a multitude of toxic emotions, ranging from envy and resentment to frustration and regret.

After much deliberation, Karl Morris and I decided to open our second book “The Lost Art Of Playing Golf”, with an entire chapter on gratitude and the feedback we have received would suggest it was a wise move.

When you next play golf, before you even get out of your car on arrival at the golf club, take a moment to ask yourself “What am I grateful for today?”

Only you will know the answer or answers to that question but what I do know is that such a simple question can have a profound effect on your golf and general well being.

Until next time, play well, have fun and be grateful for the opportunity to play the greatest game of all.