Most golfers will say the hardest part of their game is focus. Often overlooked in golf is the mental game. Ever noticed the guy who breaks 80 every single time? Why is that? Practice, they practice. What they usually do not share is, what they are practicing at. When you are talking about a game that is referred to as 90% mental and 10% talent you have to work on your mental toughness. When overcoming that mental side of golf, do you try to change your equipment, the time at which you play, maybe even they guys you play with. Here are some tips that are going to help you be, the golfer, you always wanted to be.

The tempo of golf is often a distraction for golfers, you are stuck behind a slow foursome DISTRACTING or maybe the guys behind you are rushing you DISTRACTING and you feel that pressure to golf faster. Well Tempo of the game should never affect the tempo of your swing. Swing tempo is important if you want consistent results in your game. How do I find MY tempo you ask? A golfer can find their tempo by doing these simple things:

SLOW DOWN!! I repeat slow down, everyone thinks the speed at which you swing dictates how far and accurate your ball will move. This is true is some instances, but, for the sake of this article we will not be discussing those concepts. The tempo we are going to discuss today, is going to deal with how you approach every single shot in your game, you need to have the same back swing, contact, and follow through on every swing. How do you practice tempo? Go to the driving range and practice with one club at a time. Take your driver and hit 20 balls, then take your 9 iron and hit 20 balls work your way in 3W-8I and on until you have hit them all. In your back Swing you want to make sure you are coming to the same point every time. When you hit the ball you should be contacting at the same speed every time. People often think that the club should dictate your tempo, this could not be further from the truth. You really want to be swinging all of your clubs at the same speed, you will see great improvement on how well you make contact with the ball. Follow through is the same as your back swing you need to follow through the same on every shot. How you follow through directly affect your accuracy. When you focus on these three techniques you will find that your mental game will improve.

This is a three step process after you are done at the driving range it is time to head to the chipping green. Start by working with your wedges, then move on to you short irons. You need to use every club for at least 100 chips. Let you tempo lead every ball to the green. If you are hitting the ball with the same tempo every time, your chipping will be more accurate. Remember chipping should be another tool in your arsenal and not the final result. Many careers have been made from singles and doubles hitters it is not just the home run hitters that decide how games turnout. Stay focused and you will hit the green every time. Now take your 8I and 9I over to the short grass and work on your bump and run. Tempo is still your main focus you are just using a club for a different shot, the tempo is still the same though. Your tempo is what matters!! It would be like you are still hitting one of your wedges, you change clubs not the tempo!!

Putting Putting Putting! This is so hard to understand but why? Now we have gone from the Driving range to the chipping green to the putting green. While practicing don’t worry about how far or where the ball goes work on keeping your tempo the same every time. You putt the same every time, you will not be changing your swing ever. The only thing about putting that changes is the distance. Start by sinking 10 putts in a row from 1ft away after you have done this, move out to 2ft, repeat until you sink 10 in a row from 10ft away. Tempo is key when you are trying to stay focused.

The goal for these exercises is to teach your to go through the same steps every time. You are trying to create a tempo that you are going to follow, now matter what is going on around you. When you take the time to build on your tempo you will see results!! If you want the proven results of the pros you need to create a time line in your mind (90% mental) that you will follow no matter where you are, or whom you are playing with. Create memory for your body and your mind will follow.