Troon Golf's Black Diamond

I recently had the good fortune to play at our Troon Golf sister property, Black Diamond in Florida with a good friend and Lake of Isles member Paul Slosberg.  Black Diamond is a spectacular facility consisting of 45 holes of golf set inside a private gated community in central Florida.  One of the nines is built around an old quarry and provides some spectacular views as well as demanding some precise shot making.

This was the first time I had played the course and thus I wasn't always certain of the shot to hit and more importantly the yardage i had to my target.  I have always stepped out yardages for every shot using the markings on sprinkler heads, used a yardage book for green depth and pin placement and then chosen the club from there.  But on too many occasions when I compared what I had paced with the distance my playing partners had shot using a laser I was out by a full club.

This raises two very important points to consider when you are playing a course for the first time:

1. Get an accurate yardage for every shot you are going to play.  GPS systems and lasers are ideal for getting the most accurate yardages for every shot.  If you don't have access to either of those, consider using the courses yardage book if they offer one, and be sure to factor in where the flag is located on the green which can be sometimes mean adding or subtracting a full club.

2. Once you have an accurate yardage, trust it.  Make a definite decision that you are going to commit to the club that will hit the ball the distance you have measured, and then go ahead and swing positively with faith in the fact you have chosen the correct club.

I hope you will have to opportunity to travel and play some golf this winter.  If you do, remember to get accurate yardages for your shots, choose the club carefully, and the commit to the shot.

S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting

It is almost impossible to achieve anything worthwhile without first setting a goal for what is you want to accomplish.  On rare occasions, the stars may align, luck goes your way and you achieve a good result in something, but these are not circumstances that can be relied upon to give you consistent results.

Goal setting is a skill that is used by successful people the world over in areas of business, sport, and personal life to help them achieve great things.  It has been well documented how Tiger Woods has set himself the goal of beating jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles, and that he is so familiar with what Jack accomplished that he as many of his records committed to memory.  Tiger's goal setting in this example has been so complete that he is current on track to realize his goal and it seems the only thing that may stop him is injury.

Do you have goals for your golf game?  Let's look at how to go about setting S.M.A.R.T. goals that will help you play better golf.

 Specific - The goal must be an exact and detailed description of what you want to accomplish.
  
Motivational - The goal must have the emotional power to excite you enough to invest the time and energy that it will take to accomplish your desired outcome.
  
Attainable - Given your talent, dedication, physical ability and time commitment the goal must stay within the realms of possibility.
  
Relevant - The goal must be in line with your overall goal of becoming a better player.  For example, it is of no use having a goal to hit the ball longer if you already hit the ball over 300 yard but still can't break 90.
  
Trackable - It must be possible to objectively measure your progress.

The power of goal setting should not be taken lightly.  Every athlete who has ever accomplished anything in his or her chosen sport has done so because they had a dream of achieving greatness.  They then turned that dream into a series of goals that when attained resulted in them living their dream.

What is your dream for your golf game?  Is it to play average golf for the rest of your life or is it a dream of something more.  Maybe it's one of low scores, or trophies or playing professionally.  Whatever it is, start today by setting goals as stepping stones on the road to realizing your golfing dreams.