After further contemplating my first-ever round in the sixties last weekend, I determined that the biggest factor that contributed to my low score was speed. I didn't over-think or over-analyze, I just reacted to the shot and the situation and hit the ball. I got out of my own way and let my awareness, instinct and subconscious take over. As Cameron Strachan encourages, I played automatically. And playing automatically is fast.

I have to admit that I haven't always played quickly. When I first started playing, I stood over the ball way too long trying to quiet my mind, visualize the shot, and make a tangible connection with the target before swinging the club. I still try to do that, but much more quickly and automatically. It seems we just leave ourselves open to those interfering and doubtful thoughts the longer we stand over the ball. I'm learning to react to the target and just hit the ball, much like I do when I throw a ball to first or shoot a puck on net. Evaluating distance, wind, temperature, slope and hazards in golf may not require the speed of other sports, but playing golf as a reactive sport rather than a deliberative one will help your game.


Christopher Smith, Speed Golfer

John Paul at the WSJ recently published an article about Christopher Smith, the world's fastest speed golfer and PGA Lead Instructor at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, OR. Excerpts from this article are shared below.

Christopher Smith set the world speed-golf record three years ago at a tournament in Chicago. On a regulation course, he shot a six-under-par 65 in 44 minutes and 6 seconds, carrying only six clubs and sprinting between shots. Not only is this extremely cool, it's also instructive. Speed golf proves what most of us know intuitively: Thinking is the ruin of good golf.

Smith discovered, since taking up the sport about 10 years ago, that he often scores better in speed golf than he does playing normal golf.

"In speed golf the subconscious takes over," Mr. Smith said. "It knows how to do everything -- at least in an experienced golfer it does, because it's done it thousands of times." Problems arise when the conscious mind asserts itself, especially after a disastrous shot. "We hit bad shots because we're human. Even Tiger Woods hits terrible shots sometimes. But most players, instead of chalking that up to being human and trusting the mind-body system to do it better the next time, allow the conscious to step in and try to fix things, by telling us to take the club back this way or move the body that way. But the moment you start thinking consciously about how to do things, that destroys your ability to perform," he said.

Mr. Smith doesn't tout speed golf as the answer to all our problems (and he certainly doesn't expect that it will ever become widely popular). But he has learned a lot from his experiences that enhance his teaching and perspective on golf. For instance, he promotes games (he hates the word "drills") that involve the imagination much more than technique and repetition.

Many players, especially those bogged down by second thoughts and deliberation, will score better with faster pre-shot routines, he said. "Play a few rounds with no practice swings, or discipline yourself to take no more than 10 or 15 seconds from pulling the club to hitting. It will probably feel uncomfortable at first, because change is always uncomfortable. But it's worth trying to see what happens."

Above all, don't model your routine on those of the Tour pros. "Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson, those guys played fast. You can see it in the old tapes. But then TV golf came along just as Jack Nicklaus was at his best, and he played unbelievably slow. So now we have everyone standing forever behind their ball visualizing and picking out intermediate targets and so forth, just like Jack did," he said. "The result is not just five-hour rounds, but people don't score as well as they should." Nor do they have as much fun.

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Labels: Christopher Smith, Disciplines, Speed Golf