In golf, just like in any other sport, being prepared physically and mentally for the upcoming tournament is crucial for ultimate results.
The fact that you have worked hard, and have prepared your course strategy with attention to every detail, gives you the confidence you need to play with a relaxed mind and body.
Knowing how much lack of confidence can ruin your game, despite all physical preparation and skills, you will want to reach the optimal balance between your training, your mindset, and your strategy.
The Blueprint of Preparation for Golf Practice
You need to cover three areas when preparing for the tournament: the course strategy, practice preparation, and decision-making on the tournament during the game.
The Course Strategy
You will build your course strategy with the goal of achieving your determined score. Based on the previous scores made, your level of skills, and your personal achievement, you may plan the final score and the average score for every round. Then going even more specific, you need to know which holes are more challenging and which are the easy ones. That way, you can plan your combination of shots.
Pre-tournament Golf Practice
The practice rounds are meant for getting to know targets, the landing zones off the tee, and into the green. You can try out your clubs to be more sure how they will perform on each hole.
Further on, you will want to try the pitches, chips, and bunker shots on the spots where they will be most likely to be performed.
Try to find out where the flags may be set, and practice your putt, as you will try out a few putts from different distances in order to get the feel of the ground configuration in the hole area.
If you have a possibility, go to the course where you will be playing at least once before the tournament. Going more times in the last seven days prior is even better because getting to know more about conditions and your possibilities is giving you the upper hand on the very day of the game.
To sum up, the practice round serves for warming up, loosening up, getting you into the feeling of conditions on the course, and as a result to give you the comfort of confidence and psycho-physical balance.
Off-Course Golf Practice
There are three segments you need to work out to the maximum: the skill drills for putting. Chipping and long game, practice the key shots, and reassure your basics.
How to develop crucial skills for scoring depends on your preferences. You can choose one of the many skills games such as: chipping drills, chipping zone challenge, flag-stick challenge, mid-iron challenge.
When you decide the essential shots for your strategy, the length, the clubs, you need to practice these particular shots.
And of course, the elementary, your technique must be on the top. The grip, the alignment, and the posture must be worked out as much as possible.
Useful Tips for Preparations
Other than going on the course, you may do your golf practice on a simulator to perfect your swing and your technique in general. You may use your own golf simulator or go to an indoor golf club. The simulator may provide you with some precise technical information on your performance that may be useful for improvement.
While doing golf practice on the course, take detailed notes. Note which club you used at a particular distance. Mark the hazard areas and the distance they are on. Write down any detail you find to be important for your game.
The technique and the technical details are surely significant, but it turns out that the approach based on the target takes you to a better score.
Prior to the tournament, you want to bring your confidence to the maximum. One of the ways to build it up is to put yourself in a pressure situation by having a friendly match or a quick game drill.
Relax the evening before the game. If you have done your preparations right and packed your gear, you need to put your mind at ease and do something that will relax you.
Follow your morning routine as usual. You need to arrive at the course on time to check in and prepare yourself with no haste, but you don’t want to arrive too early either.
The Mindset
The winner is an attitude. Focusing on your target with enough confidence that you can handle any situation you find yourself in is the best strategy you may choose.
Giving your best, you will achieve more and score better.
Anyway, it may go; you need to keep in mind that winning or not, one tournament is not the measure of your personal worth and value. However, the effort and dedication you invest in your game certainly tell who you are and what you’re made of.