After getting fitted for new clubs, taking lessons from GOLF Magazine Top 100 teachers on both coasts, hitting range balls with a stronger left-hand grip, about 10 sessions with a personal trainer, a nutritional analysis, and a session with a renowned sports psychologist, GOLF Magazine writer Cameron Morfit admits defeat in his quest to lower his handicap from 6 to scratch in 6 months. Final results - his handicap went up to 6.1.


Cameron Morfit getting instruction video

Cameron wrote a series of articles beginning in August that chronicle his attempt to erase his handicap. The idea was to give an occasionally brilliant, mostly erratic 38-year-old, 6-handicap every advantage of a pampered Tour pro; wait six months; see if he improves or not. If so, by how many strokes? What exactly were the breakthroughs? If there's little or no improvement, why not? What are the limits of great technology and brilliant teaching?

In his last article, he informs his readers he's not going to make it from 6 to Scratch by New Year's Eve.

The story is quite interesting, and because Morfit takes an honest look back to share what he learned from the experience, I'd consider his failure quite a success. Instead of blaming his failure simply on having to take on this challenge while also juggling family and career, Morfit instead shares the insightful lessons he learned - which are shared below.

1) Golf has no bathing-suit competition, unless you're Natalie Gulbis

I'd never had a trainer before and I wasn't about to let the opportunity pass. I should have. I'm not saying I shouldn't have done anything, but sweating and stretching isn't as important as putting and chipping. My Idaho friend Scott Masingill, who just got through the Champions tour Q school, says he doesn't do much working out in golf season. If it's good enough for him...

2) Take your strengths for granted and they'll break your heart

I got so focused on the full swing I didn't work on my short game. That's what happened to Phil Mickelson when, still in the honeymoon phase with Butch Harmon, his putting stroke temporarily went AWOL. Working out also can hinder touch around the greens. Whatever the case, I used to be deadly around the greens with a sand wedge. Not anymore.

3) Lose the joy of playing and watch your score go up, up, up

Golf became a numbers game and only a numbers game, and that's no way to play. I learned that my angry guy can't play golf, and still I got angry. I lost track of the number of times I blew it after keeping it together for most of the round. I'd scratch and claw and hang around at 3- or 4-over by the middle of the back nine. From there you can make a birdie or two coming in and card a nice score, or lose focus and shoot 80 or worse. I specialized in the latter.

4) Never underestimate the primacy effect

Localized swing changes can be so profound as to affect everything else. A grip change impacts alignment, swing path, position at impact, the way your hips fire, the way your hands feel through the ball. The whole deal. It was nuts for me to expect to radically strengthen my left hand grip and immediately go low. I've had to break too many bad habits. Psychologists call it the primacy effect: The tendency under pressure to revert to what you first learned, even if it's dead wrong.

5) Even the experts have limitations

At a certain point you've got to stop asking how your swing looks and just go figure it out for yourself. I never did that, partly because I didn't make the time for it, partly because I didn't have the time for it.

Although I never had any confidence that Morfit's approach would succeed in erasing his handicap, especially given limited practice time and such a short time period, the fact that he learned how important it is to improve by at least figuring some of it out yourself instead of relying only on others, and to continue to play for the joy of the game instead of focusing only on results, made this a rewarding and successful endeavor.

Getting to scratch is much more about how you think than how you swing. In my opinion, changing who you are on the course during a 6 month period will provide better results than changing how and what you swing.

During the six months after I got down to a 6 handicap, I experienced my first rounds in the low 70's and got down to a 3.5. Now, six months after that, I haven't made much progress and never broke through an index of 3.0.

What I just realized, is that even though I've started stretching daily and purchased new clubs in the past 6 months, I haven't continued to change myself - and my game hasn't changed either. It appears I've learned something from Cameron's story too!

Series: [Aug 28] [Sep 3] [Sep 13] [Sep 26] [Oct 3] [Nov 11] [Nov 19]

Labels: Articles, Failure

I know from past mishaps that there is a valuable lesson for me in my not so artful finish yesterday. I believe my willingness to meet and overcome failure has been the biggest contributor to my relatively quick improvement in golf, as well as other successes in my life. Finding the hidden lesson in my collapse on 18 yesterday will help insure I meet the challenge next time I get the opportunity.


Sunset Golfer by hugo on flickr.com

Last night I began reading The Cosmic Laws of Golf by Printer Bowler. In his chapter on the Law of Polarity (cause and effect), he challenges us to "trust that you are creating your experiences, as a way your soul has chosen to teach you about your choices and beliefs." He later explains that, "if you aren't getting the results you expect, take a gut-check to see if you truly want it because you always get what you accept and believe you are.

That pretty much says it all. Bowler is suggesting that I created my collapse, or sabotaged my chance to win, to teach myself who I truly believe I am. At some level, I wasn't ready to win.

I started playing competitively to further challenge and test myself. My intention hasn't been to win tournaments or be the best. However, I can't ignore the fact that I've improved to a point now where on any given day, I can win.

I worked harder than I ever have yesterday to make every shot my best, to make birdies, to save pars - up to the point of the collapse. Going 3-under for a stretch of 13 holes with no bogies is perhaps my best performance in a round ever. It took intense focus over every shot and every putt. I feel like I played to my potential for the first time. But I failed to finish it off. Not because there's still a part of my game that needed improvement, but because at some level I just wasn't ready.

I don't think my problem was so much a fear of success, but that I was simply unprepared to win or shoot level par in a tournament. This was new territory for me. Like anything else, you can rarely do something you haven't done before until you first try, and fail.

The second time I got to 3-under after 7 holes, I pared the 8th instead of quadrupling it. The second time I got to 17 at 1-under, I parred the round instead of finishing with a triple and double bogie. And the next time I get a low round in a tournament, I'll birdie 18.

Labels: Books, Cosmic Laws of Golf, Disciplines, Failure, Printer Bowler

We've all heard of the 80/20 Rule, also known as the Parento Principle. Dr. Joseph Juran, the total quality management guru, developed the Pareto Principle after studying the work of Wilfredo Pareto, the Italian nineteenth century economist who observed that in most countries eighty percent of the wealth was controlled by twenty percent of the people. The Pareto Principle states that a small percentage of your efforts (typically around 20 percent) will create a large majority of your results (usually around 80 percent).

Today, the rule appears everywhere. Sales people will tell you that eighty percent of the sales are made by twenty percent of the sales force. Artists say that eighty percent of their productivity comes from short bursts of intense inspiration which happen about twenty percent of the time. Managers point out that eighty percent of the work is done by twenty percent of the employees.


Natural Swing by rgusick at flickr.com

In golf, it has been said that twenty percent of the game is physical and eighty percent is mental; twenty percent of players are avid golfers, and they play eighty percent of the rounds; twenty percent of golfers break 100 on a regular basis, while eighty percent do not; the average golfer spends about twenty percent of his time at address looking at the target, and eighty percent of that time staring at the ball (pros do the opposite); and that golfers spend twenty percent of their practice time on the putting green and eighty percent of that time on the driving range.

It's no surprise then that eighty percent of golfers don't break 100 on a regular basis if their efforts to improve are focused on twenty percent of the game.

Using the Parento Principle, it follows that the golfer should instead spent less time working on his swing and more time on those activities that improve scoring.

There is no prize for the prettiest swing. We've all seen golfers with some very unique swings, score well. Just look to the Champions Tour. I learned this for myself when I played a round last year with an 80 year old golfer with a short little swing that hit the ball about 180 yards off the tee - into every fairway. He outscored me that round with an incredible attitude and short game.

The artful golfer learns to appreciate his unique and natural swing, and uses his limited practice time working on the parts of the game that make the most difference in scoring - the mental and short game.

I've also found that the Parento Principle can be applied to the overall score I shoot for a round. I usually score well on eighty perfect of the holes (14-15 holes) and loose my round on the other twenty percent (3-4 holes), usually towards the end of the round.

Many years ago, I failed to get selected for a job managing a software team that develops a very popular financial program. I shared during the interview that my greatest strength lies is getting new projects off the ground, building teams, and doing the initial product research, specification, architecture and design - the first eighty percent of the project. And although I had prior success in seeing projects through to the end, I found the last twenty percent of the project to be less rewarding. I didn't enjoy the grind involved towards the end of projects. The company selected someone else, perhaps someone less frank.

Interestingly, I seem to carry this personality trait over to golf. I'm usually a good starter. I find myself shooting good rounds through the first eighty percent of the round, but seem to fail in the last twenty percent, when the need to grind it out is most important.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to play with three employees at my local course who are all good golfers and who play from the back tees. I'd played the back tees only two other times, never breaking 80, but still got off to my usual good start. I only had one bad hole through 15, and tallied 4 birdies. I missed a 2-footer on 16, putting me at a respectable 4-over going into 17. I can remember about a dozen rounds over the past few months where I had a great round going into 17, but only finished well on 2 of those occasions. I added to the number of failed rounds yesterday by finishing with a triple bogie on 17 and 3-putt bogie on 18. I did however break 80 by one stroke.

I think the reason for my failures lies deeper than a simple inability to focus for an entire round or from getting overly concerned about the outcome. Golf, which we all know reflects our personality, is perhaps exposing an internal issue I have with success, causing me to break down on the last holes, ruining good rounds. I can think of other examples of this in my life.

It appears I better take a closer look at what golf is trying to teach me here. My golf game - and life - may be better for it.

Labels: Disciplines, Failure, Parento Principle, Practice, Rounds, Success