Wilson World Pro-Am at Pebble Beach and FOCUS!

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday to you all.

Let me start by apologizing for the delay in getting our new post up.  As you may already know, I was playing in the Wilson World Pro-Am at Pebble Beach a few weeks ago and ever since my return I have been hard at teaching my students.  In the weeks leading up to my tournament I had to be a bit selfish and work on my game to insure I was ready to compete.  Once I got back it was time to give my full attention back to my students.

As I always say: "Practice makes permanent" and I am living proof.  All of my preparation and practice paid off and I won the event.  

I wanting to take some time in our last post of the year to discuss tracking your practice and your performance.  I strongly believe that anything you track will improve.  As any of my students can attest to, you must track your progress, positive and negative, to assist us in getting better.  So I submit to you, my stats, from my winning run, at Wilson's World Pro-Am at Pebble Beach.

A few points of interest to begin.  While my home course of Celebration Golf has an average green size of 6600 sq. feet, the courses we played had greens that averaged 3800 to 4400 sq. feet.   These greens are 1/3rd the size of normal greens.  While the fairways didn't get the 40 yards of extra roll and the greens were not as firm, everything else was setup like the U.S. Open: firm, tight and heavy rough.

	Spanish Bay	Bayonet	Spyglass Hill	Pebble Beach
FWY	8	6	9	10
GIR	15	14	12	13
Putts	36	28	34	34
Score	74	70	73	72

I have only put the summary stats here, but I kept a number of stats whilst I was playing.

So let's review. We can tell from the stats that my short game and irons were phenomenal.  I missed 18 greens out of 4 rounds and the greens I missed my short game picked up the slack.

Now comes the question: What can I take from this week? I need to work harder and learn more.  I need to work on equating speed of slope on Poana grass.  Poana is dormant during the winter.  It is not cut, but rolled.  The nap is down and much faster this way.

We were the last group of the day at Pebble.  It took 6:05 to play the final round which is ridiculous.  The last 3 greens looked like a heard of elephants had march across them.  This may sound like I may be whining or complaining, but I share these observations with you to say if there is nothing you can do about it, get it out of your head.

McDivot Tip

Which brings us to the last tip of the year.  FOCUS!

• Forget
Forget all of the things that you can not control. Course setup is the same for everyone, the wind may be stronger when you play a hole than when others did, all of the things you can not change, get them out of your mind!
 
• Only You
There is only you out there. Let go of what others are doing and concentrate on what you have practiced to make you the golfer you are. Play to your strengths. 
 
• Create
Create positive thoughts. A positive mind will perform better. 
 
• U - You
Only you can control the outcome of your game, no one else.
 
• Succeed
Success comes from proper preparation, practice and a positive mind. Follow these steps and success will follow you.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the New year.  Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Keep it on the short grass,