I’ve been a fan of simplifying golf for years now. My thoughts on playing and coaching golf changed forever back in 2010 after visiting a marketing seminar.
I learned about the power of the 80/20 Rule and Less is More. These ideas helped explain my thoughts on golf learning and performance and highlighted why I was able to break free from the mess that is traditional instruction. For the first time in years (since I played uncluttered golf as a kid) I had real clarity.
Many golfers on the other hand have been brainwashed into over-thinking and making golf difficult. And most of us have been doing this for so long we don’t even know we’re doing it. To truly jump into a simplicity mindset takes some courage, but it can be done.
You’ve gotta leave the bullshit behind. In fact, you’ve got to leave a heap of the rubbish behind and only focus on the highly important stuff. What’s important?
For starters, if you want to putt better you can simplify everything by forgetting about green reading. I know I know, it sounds radical but hear me out.
Here’s the thing. When you’re out on the links you’ll align yourself quite naturally to the hole if you stop analysing so much. I have tested this 1000s of times and almost always the golfer aligns himself perfectly when he learns to get out of the way. So, you have one less thing to worry about. And this is the power of simplifying.
Look where you want to putt.
Walk in
Get set
Take a quick peek at the hole
Putt.
Simple. And it works. And even if you’re a little off, I still reckon you’ll be better off than before. If nothing else, you’ll kill less brain cells and have more energy. And when it comes to the long putts, you really have little chance of holing them anyway, so there’s just no need to bust your hump. Near enough is good enough.
Your challenge is to put this into practice and if you’re really brave, use it next time you’re out playing. You’ll need to quieten your Pesky mind and this is the big picture goal of the exercise.
If you’re keen to truly explore the magic of simplification with respects to your golf game, then you’ll love my new training programme. When you can simplify two or three important areas of your game there’s almost no stopping you.