Golfwise: Temperament Strategy and Game Management

by Stephen Lance Mellinger

Overview

Golfwise helps the beginning golfer and Tour professional alike. All players must strive to handle temperament variables that interfere or contribute to performance strategy and game management. Lessons 1-9 offer pertinent concepts to understand and to manage golf. Lessons 10-18 share ideas pertaining to creativity, intuition and listening. Golfwise presents a foundation for the player to be wise concerning what the current stroke requires.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452587073
Publisher:	Balboa Press
Publication date:	12/16/2013
Pages:	108
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.26(d)

Read an Excerpt

GOLFWISE

TEMPERAMENT STRATEGY and GAME MANAGEMENT

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By STEPHEN LANCE MELLINGER

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2013 Stephen Lance Mellinger
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-8707-3

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CHAPTER 1

THE COURSE

The Land of Good and Plenty

The golf course is relatively straightforward and reasonably understood by players. The game is simple enough—even with the variety of rules. However, good golfers know how things can get mixed-up on the golf course. A big part of the game is handling the quirks, coincidences, and amazements that come with every hole. A golfer's reactions to the course conditions seriously impact scoring, and there is no way to help a player handle all the feelings presented on the golf course. It is interesting that a player brings his or her best game and deals with controversy, frustration, group dynamics, personal discovery, failure, and success while the golf course just sits there, being what it is, as if it is simply watching to see what you will do.

The golf course appears to just sit there in all its glory, doing nothing but remaining beautifully available for you to enjoy. But it can appear to rise up and have a tremendous influence on your game, seeming to take control of your golf ball. A course can evoke intense feelings and impressions—just as people do with each other. While appearing totally neutral and apparently indifferent, the golf course communicates directly and completely with the player. The course presents a variety of inspiration and creative impulses. The natural setting for golf is more than mountains, lakes, trees, and horizons with birds and animals. Nature includes tremendous feelings of balance, rhythm, and power.

The natural setting brings resources to a player's game. Identifying and harmonizing with nature means learning to demonstrate many of nature's qualities, such as patience, strength, wisdom, and peace. The golf course exudes rich feelings of control, fellowship, confidence, timing, and even a sense of humor; these qualities are good for the game. Golf strategy needs to be built to relate to the golf course in the best way possible. A golfer relates to the golf course as his or her primary partner and tends to focus on—and express—the qualities of nature during the game. The more a player can focus on the course and learn to play in harmony with it, the more he or she will receive from it—and the golfer will see more good strokes.

To say that the hole or the ball doesn't speak Is to miss the humility golf tries to reap. Remember the course must call all the shots, Since the hole will get smaller and smaller if not.

CHAPTER 2

THE PLAYER

The Golfer's Biggest Hope Is to Be a Nice Person

A mature golfer moves in harmony with the elements of the golf course and the game in order to create great strokes and good scores. This player expresses the appropriate character traits and mannerisms in the game, which results in better scores. The advanced player shows a natural balance with the elements of the golf course and is relaxed, joyful, and humble. This golfer exhibits a wise state of mind. This style of play or awareness strategy for good golf works specifically by knowing what needs to be known, doing what needs to be done, and operating strategically without getting in its own way.

A large part of the game for the professional golfer is practicing how to express an appropriate temperament that supports good strategy. They practice being mentally quiet, intuitive, imaginative, and confident on the golf course. The good player works to enjoy golf with power, wisdom, and peace, which results in pointed and consistent focus. Good golf character is forgiving, grateful, and forthright. An advanced golfer tends to leave people and things alone and simply goes about the business of good golf. This player takes the course and game variables very seriously while expressing a wonderful balance of simplicity and innocence.

To become advanced, a golfer must practice becoming athletically minded and learn to work innovatively in order to respond appropriately to experiences on the golf course and the driving range. The mental gymnastics for good golf requires flexibility, a sense of creativity and freedom of thought. These ideas around the course helps the player move with and adjust to different strokes and changing situations. Golf requires the right kind of concentration on stroke focus, and it shows how to support this concentration from one stroke to another. Such understanding and expression means that the player has learned to practice what it takes to focus on the golf ball and on what the ball needs the player to do to hit the target.

Can you accept that you must show respect? You must give the honor that truth can detect. Wanting the box is a desire that's good. But until you earn it, behave as you should.

CHAPTER 3

ONE STROKE

Golf

Golfers realize that every stroke is different. This fact determines that the game will forever be a collection of single strokes. When the player steps on the first tee, it is time to focus on the play at hand and only on the play at hand. The idea is to work golf awareness completely into the stroke and to focus absolutely on the ball and where and how it needs to go. In order to do this, it is important to understand that the creation of the next stroke begins when the ball stops rolling. This requires learning to avoid reactions to a stroke that would distract or disturb the next one.

Good golf revolves around keeping the current stroke alive in the best way possible. It is wise to use the available time between strokes to assimilate how you feel and what you see into what you do with your next stroke. Some golfers play along with very little focus on playing the stroke or the game. Business associates, friends, or personal matters may occupy a player's time on the course. What a golfer chooses to think or feel on the course is his or her business, but how well the strokes are played or how the holes are scored depends on the right sense of motivation and strict concentration on the task at hand.

Involvement in each golf stroke helps a player enjoy and succeed at hitting each particular target, and it ensures the fewest possible strokes for the round. Concentrating on any relevant variables keeps a golfer focused and allows him or her to spontaneously feel and control the ball. Awareness and concentration make a stroke more intuitive, creative, and successful. Understanding the appropriate thoughts and feelings for good concentration comes from experience or learning what does or does not contribute to good play. Ideally, the player will come to see that each golf stroke is a treasure that brings meaning to everything else.

Oh, get the whole set and begin just like new. That the course is unaffected; you haven't a clue. New clubs are new clubs, and that's just about all. Maybe choose time to acquaint with the ball.

CHAPTER 4

BALANCE

I Can Spin on the Head of a Pin

Balance, or the center of gravity, is the first thing to become sensitive to in the golf swing. Good balance supports good rhythm and solid power. As with a dancer or gymnast, it is very important that a golfer's legs are strong enough to support and control the body to resist back-and-forth movement. The center of gravity in the largest golf swing has only an inch or two of back-and-forth movement for moderate accuracy. Increased accuracy is the result of a narrower tolerance for swaying. A player's head floating still and secure while the entire body rotates and slams the golf ball is a sign of pure talent. This usually requires a great deal of knowledge and specific practice.

Work with balance requires the player to maintain structural posture in order to reduce muscle tension to a minimum through the backswing and the forward swing. In addition to the legs, the lower back is a major brace for good balance in the golf swing. Slightly arching the lower back emphasizes the muscles that hold the spine and head in place so the shoulders can rotate freely. It is important that balance is set, secure, and completed at the address. The stroke address sets the players balance securely on both feet for a quiet and steady backswing. Of course, the steady uncoiling of power cannot accelerate fully in the downswing without the secure structural bracing that maintains good balance well into the follow-through.

Success in golf comes with the awareness of knowledge, peace, and joy about the task at hand. Great balance ultimately involves an awareness that is sensitive to the mental and emotional atmosphere in order to avoid emotional debris and mixed-up mechanics; with it, a golfer can explore new feelings and freedoms that stand up to what does or does not belong. The temperament that spills confidence and command within the zone is what the advanced player learns to work into his or her entire game.

At some point, the developing player realizes that zone play is not merely the result of mechanical or muscle control; it involves a balanced awareness that comes from a very specific temperament. Zone golf is when the golfer feels complete confidence, when play is easy and fun.

When it comes to golf, no one else can say, because it is up to you what to enjoy today. Championship golf demands above all, you balance yourself to make good with the call.

CHAPTER 5

RHYTHM

Motion in Harmony with Itself

Rhythm is pronounced in dance and gymnastics; the individuals move and flow sequentially and specifically. As with all professional athletics, the rhythmic golf swing means body parts are absolutely balanced and sequentially coordinated. Movements are supported by a firm posture that provides muscle freedom, tone, and use that feels relatively relaxed. Such athletic flexibility is strong and sensitive, and it works to support and control the movement of the golf club.

Golf professionals maintain balance and patience at the transition since this sensitivity causes good rhythm. They show a very controlled and quiet backswing that helps the back and shoulders completely load up and gently accelerate. Rhythm is enhanced by a balanced posture. For rhythm, it helps if the player assimilates key properties of centrifugal force and focuses on the job at hand. Even so, what's eventually discovered is that the player's temperament has the greatest impact on rhythm. Temperament contributes significantly to stroke focus and ultimately determines what the overall swing looks like. Rhythm and temperament are soulful and intuitive variables that work together. Improving these areas involves learning more and feeling more artistic expression. It means developing the understanding to listen closely and reflect creative guidance in order to perform harmoniously.

Great rhythm means that everything about the swing and the game is balanced. A golfer enjoys peak interest in successful strokes through a clear sense of peace and potential within themselves. Good rhythm in the golf swing ultimately reflects a relaxed state of mind. It shows a good sense of feel for the club and a special talent for letting things unfold in the proper sequence. Anticipation, apprehension, and fear must not allow impatience to disrupt the natural rhythm within a player's focus or performance. Thoughts should be clear and comfortable; the golfer must concentrate on the task at hand. Rhythm can be practiced and improved, but each player must discover his or her best sense of harmony.

Yes, teachers are good and helpful at times, But golfing demands you learn your own rhymes. Tempo is critical to ascertain. It is rhythm and pace that make up this game.

CHAPTER 6

POWER

When All Things Become One

Power in the golf swing requires balance. The center of gravity must remain in place. It is important to feel the finer touches of the golf swing's important transitions. To work and feel power in the golf stroke is to come to solid terms with the end of the backswing. If the player is balanced and maintains the proper (coordinated) muscle tension through the transition—and enjoys sufficient mental patience—the swing's acceleration into and through the ball can be optimal. Unless there is this balance and rhythm sensitivity, the transition will not rest in place. The subsequent downswing will not express good rhythm, balance, control, or power.

Balance with good posture allows power to completely load up from the backswing. There is a slight bend in the shaft of the club as the backswing is completed. A player's muscles must be balanced and braced—but relaxed enough to feel this sag in the hands, wrists, and forearms.

The shaft must accelerate from this point in the forward swing. This is the touch that equates to power—where rhythm can regulate and dominate the release sequence. With a balanced and completed transition—and a player who is focused and centered on the ball—the softest sense of gravity may trigger the downswing and show what acceleration is all about. Discovering how to work the entire body as a single balanced unit is an important variable of power. As with balance and rhythm, power is also important in the swing and stroke. Concentration on the ball and stroke ultimately produces and delivers the athletic muscle tone that most effectively swats the ball.

Power in golf is found in the player who best enjoys the many ways that patience is learned and practiced. Patience clearly and confidently melds the swing, stroke, and game together. Such work and understanding helps to develop concentration on the task at hand. Understanding swing properties and determined motivation to move the ball will synchronize balance, rhythm, and power for optimal ball-striking performance.

If you listen and work to practice golf's teaching, A better person you will be from this sort of reaching. And here lies the truth that lets birdies come, This power is real and right to be done.

CHAPTER 7

VISION AND STRATEGY

I Want to See All That Is Good and Right to See

Shooting par golf over eighteen holes means the player gained and upheld a certain vision around the golf course. This vision for good golf requires the ability to mentally relax into patience, to express well-rounded balance, to see and avoid what doesn't belong in order to bring the course more into play as a friend and guide.

A par player has the vision to stay with the ball during each stroke by being completely into the hole. Ultimately, golf vision is a sense of relating to or matching up to what the player thinks and learns to do with what the ball, the hole, and the game are asking (and teaching) the player to do. Vision is about more than seeing the ball flying before striking it. Managing play during the game is more important than hitting the ball. Vision is about seeing the game well enough to build a comprehensive, operational strategy for play that works on the course.

Good vision with strategy builds success in handling emotional flares, learning to realize more clearly when previous strokes and holes are interfering with the play at hand, learning to better determine stroke confidence and potential, and learning to be very good at dealing with success. Great golf reflects great inner vision and the management of many important variables.

Vision with strategy in golf concerns structuring thoughts in order to participate effectively with the upcoming stroke during the entire walk to the ball. Realizing simplicity and creative vision during this time requires knowledge of the necessities—and a sensitive temperament.

The professional strategy for great golf works with variables that prompt intuitive and creative inspiration as a part of stroke discovery. This strategy works to maintain relaxation and encourages patience until clarity is realized. It draws power from intense focus and from the kind of wisdom that handles decisions quickly and correctly. Practice and rounds on the golf course teach players the dos and don'ts of vision and strategy.

Seeing the golf hole is the first shaking of hands, By the time of the approach, we're friends with plans. The hole is to become what it offers to you. How else can it be but the reality of true?

CHAPTER 8

PRACTICE

Mere Repetition Does Not Ensure Learning. Mere Repetition Does Not Ensure Learning. Mere Repetition Does Not Ensure Learning.

Practice is what the game of golf is about. The player practices to be good at touch strokes and touch management. Touch strokes come from working to develop a solid golf swing. Touch management is about conceptualizing and executing performance strategy, which usually comes from suffering and repeating mistakes.

Practice at the driving range or play on the course benefits the player by defining, shaping, and managing how and why he or she plays. It also helps a player understand how to advance. It helps to practice understanding more about variables such as rescue and recovery (with the ball and with a player's wellbeing), the place for patience and peace, or the need for freedom to adjust management strategy. The range and short-game practice are good for learning to stay focused mentally and emotionally—and for becoming more sensitive to when something is going out of place.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from GOLFWISE by STEPHEN LANCE MELLINGER. Copyright © 2013 Stephen Lance Mellinger. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments, ix,
Introduction, xi,
Front Nine,
Lesson 1: The Course, 1,
Lesson 2: The Player, 7,
Lesson 3: One Stroke, 11,
Lesson 4: Balance, 15,
Lesson 5: Rhythm, 21,
Lesson 6: Power, 25,
Lesson 7: Vision and Strategy, 29,
Lesson 8: Practice, 33,
Lesson 9: Insight, 39,
At the Turn, 43,
Back Nine,
Lesson 10: Game Management, 45,
Lesson 11: Etiquette, 49,
Lesson 12: Creative Golf, 53,
Lesson 13: Stroke Focus, 59,
Lesson 14: The Ball, 63,
Lesson 15: The Target, 67,
Lesson 16: Stroke Routine, 73,
Lesson 17: Holing Out, 79,
Lesson 18: Golf, 83,
Conclusion, 89,