Adapt Your Game

We played the #11 course in the world this past week, Barnbougle Dunes Golf Links, and its sister course, Barnbougle Lost Farm...and what a game changer they are!  If you don't change your game on this course you're going to have a long day!

First and foremost, throw your flop shot away.  If you find you need one, you're definitely in the wrong place.  These courses demand that you use a putter from off the green, and sometimes a hybrid to chip with.

Why?  Because these courses have very thin-bladed grass cut -- or naturally grown -- very short.  VERY difficult to hit the ball high off these lies.  Sometimes you can't tell where the green even starts!  In 4 days I either chipped a hybrid or putted -- no conventional chip or pitch shots.  I even putted one from 50 yards out to 6 feet!

Bottom line?  If you're on a tight lie and faced with a flop or high pitch, you're in the wrong place.  Either putt it, chip it, or chip a hybrid.  Don't try the 1 in 20 shot... get out of trouble!

#11 Barnbougle Dunes and Barnbougle Lost Farm are in Bridport, Tasmania, Australia.  Put 'em on your bucket list!





Bob Duncan, PGA
Please visit golfecoach.com

What is Lost to Players?

Are you familiar with Deep Play?  It is the play of the game that is lost to players who embrace long periodsof mechanical practice as the most essential part of training.  (Click on the pic for more!)

But what does that mean -- what are they losing?

It's funny - the teaching industry has gone hog wild trying to optimize performance and consistency by advocating -- and perhaps mandating -- a 'square' position at impact with proper angles of attack and path.  Or even allowing for a 'one-way miss' of a fade or draw.

But this 'one optimal impact' will fail as soon as the player encounters a slope.  A clubface 'square' to the target will fail to deliver a solid and straight shot on a slope.

Somehow the Play of the Game is lost to the 'one optimal impact' crowd. Slopes have a bearing on performance.  Slopes are found on the golf course.  Above your feet should pull or hook, and below your feet should push or fade.

So direction 'loss' may not be due to an inability to make a consistent swing.

What is the answer?  The answer is not to correct for the direction loss -- it is to allow for and predict direction loss.  Players who search for, accomplish, and adhere to a mechanically sound swing only are setting themselves up for failure when they least expect it.  They are not playing the game.

Playing the game is adapting to things on the course, using them to the player's advantage rather than assuming a mechanically sound swing will always produce the same ball flight.

Deep Play is accessible by players if they know what to look for...Watch the launch at golfecoach.com.

Bob Duncan, PGA

OYE OYE OYE!

The G P S Player’s Academy is traveling to Sydney, Australia for a series of clinics and Academies in Sydney, and in Bridport, Tasmania.  In case you’re not familiar with Bridport, it is the home of Barnbougle Dunes and Barnbougle Lost Farm golf courses.

These 2 courses are ranked in the top 100 worldwide, and in the top 10 in Australia.  These 2 courses are what I would call ‘modern’ links courses, built on the dunes on the north-east tip of Tasmania.  By that I mean that you need to worry about your ball almost as much after it lands as while it is in flight.  There are definitely some slopes in your landing area to be negotiated!

And speaking of golf in Australia, Aussies are pretty serious about it.  They are just now in the process of updating their handicap system to a ‘slope’ system.  They are very well versed in the mechanics of the swing, and the Golfer Positioning System is primed to take many of them to new levels of understanding and performance.... 

And have some fun while we're at it!

OYE OYE OYE!  AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!  Cheers, mate!