Grip It and Rip It

Assistant golf professionals across the country can attest to the benefits of playing the game quickly.  After spending the day in the golf shop, an assistant pro usually has an hour or two of daylight left in the day to get in some golf.  This entails playing as many holes as possible before the sun dips below the horizon.  Personally, I have found that playing golf this way improves my game significantly.  I get up to the shot and hit it, with very little in the way of thinking.  In fact, some of the best scores I have had in my life have been when I was playing “speed golf”.

It is not necessary for you to run around the golf course, rushing to get from one shot to the next to enjoy the benefits to your game of “speed golf”.  The key moment where this can be applied to how we play the game in general is in the pre-shot routine.  I consider this to be the moment in time between when you make your decision about the club and shot you are about to hit and the actual hitting of the shot.  A lot of golfers spend too much time in this process.  This leads to tension in the body during the swing, doubt in the mind about what you have decided and slower than necessary 

play for your group and the rest of the golf course.

The Benefits of “Speed Golf”

·         More athletic and relaxed body to make a swing

·         Clear and response-able mind

·         Quicker pace of play

·         More energy in reserves for golf and life in general

Challenges of Implementing the Change

When you first work on limiting the time between your decision and swing, it can feel like you are rushing.  You may notice that your mind “blanks out” and that you have a sense of panic about swinging.  This is actually a good sign.  Just commit to implementing the change in your game and your comfort level with this will increase over time.

Golf as Sport – Utilizing Your Instincts

Most sports involve reacting to things in our environment.  Whether it be a linebacker trying to tackle you, a baseball humming in at 100 mph, etc., most sports are about relying on our instincts to “play”.  Golf is unique in that much of these instincts are seemingly not required to play the game.  There is no active defense, only the passive defense of the hazards of the hole in front of you.  The ball is just sitting there waiting for us to do something with it and it is generally considered bad etiquette to wave your hands in the air, making loud noises as a person is trying to play the game of golf.

However, the reality is that we will play the game better if we play it in a more instinctual and reactionary way.  When we “grip it and rip it”, we are creating the kind of pacing where our athletic instincts kick in.  You might be surprised how well you play when you “grip it and rip it”.