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Preparing for a golf tournament is more than hitting balls on the range and rolling putts on the practice green. “Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course — the space between your ears,” the great amateur Bobby Jones said many years ago. That still holds true today, because the most high-tech clubs and the latest instructional gadgets can only take you so far. Eventually, you have to manage your nerves and execute the shot. Tournaments are only a fraction of a professional golfer’s life and career. The rest is preparing for those events and getting ready for the competitive environment. Some players train themselves not to jump ahead when a tide-turning moment occurs. Some are more traditional and focus on practice and drills. Others might prefer to focus on a strategy that will keep them on an even keel if they start to struggle. No matter how you cut it, most serious golfers prepare for tournaments by doing what works best for them. Whether it’s preparing for a PGA Tour event, a top-notch amateur tournament or the club championship, all golfers can use a little help now and then. These insights from three Southland experts should assist you in that regard.  Address your weakness to build confidenceTim Hogarth (right), the 1996 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion and three-time SCGA Mid-Amateur champion, tends to focus less on the course and conditions and more on his game and preparation during tournaments. “I perform my best when I’m not concerned about the mechanics of my swing and I just focus on actually playing the game,” said Hogarth, a Northridge resident. “This means that I have to feel confident about what I’m doing before the tournament starts.” Hogarth’s preparation starts a few weeks before the tournament begins by playing a few rounds and assessing the state of his game. “I may need to go see my teacher for a tune-up lesson, or maybe I’ll just spend some extra time on the putting green,” he said. “Either way, I get those issues addressed so that I can feel completely ready when the tournament begins.” Hogarth uses his victory at the 2007 SCGA Mid-Amateur Championship at Mission Viejo Country Club as a testament to his preparation techniques. “The SCGA made a big deal when I won the SCGA Mid-Amateur at Mission Viejo without seeing the course, but, like I said, it’s more important to me that I get myself ready to play as opposed to taking a day out to see the layout,” he said. “I prefer to use that time to get myself closer to the inner confidence level that I need to have in order to perform well.”  Release the tensionChris Starkjohann (right), the SCPGA’s senior player of the year in 2008, has an out-of-body approach to his game. The 53-year-old San Diego-based PGA professional said his tournament preparation is two-fold — the physical, which is his practice and preparation, and the mental, which is realizing that none of it is under his control. “The physical is mostly done, as I have been playing competitive golf for over 30 years at various levels, and my swing is grooved,” Starkjohann said. “My goal is not to over-practice or be too tired to execute my swing or mentally be able to manage the course and my game.” On the mental side, Starkjohann familiarizes himself with the holes and layout of the course and then visualizes the shots he wants to execute. “You have to come to the understanding that the game and circumstances are really not in your control,” he said. “Every ball goes where it was intended to go, so just do the best you can. I seek to use to the best of my ability the talent I have been given. I figure out the best preparation I can and then release the results. I am not saying I have this conquered, or have achieved this completely every time, but when I have been able to surrender the control, my results are that I have more fun doing what I love.” Starkjohann, who said in earlier times he “lived and died with the few successes and the many failures which are inevitable in golf,” is enjoying his new state of relaxation. “With these revelations and surrender, there is no more devastation, no more fear and no tension,” he said of his game. “The realization that [a higher power] is in control of me and my game frees me of those restricting factors and my performance is enhanced.”  Go beyond the swingJamie Mulligan (pictured, right) has an interesting philosophy on golf instruction at the highest level. “We look at our golfers’ games as a wheel, and it’s our job to figure out what spokes are necessary to keep that wheel turning smoothly,” said Mulligan, a PGA professional at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach whose client list includes tour pros John Cook, Paul Goydos, John Merrick (pictured, left) and John Mallinger. “We deal with different quantities and different kinds of spokes for every player. These spokes can be, say, nutrition, fitness, hobbies away from golf, spirituality, music, swing keys, breathing exercises, really a whole range of things that directly or indirectly affect players’ games.” Mulligan considers himself a lifetime instructor, and much of his philosophy is based on knowing players on and off the course. “You’re talking about players who are at the top of their field, and still wanting to get better,” said Mulligan, a two-time SCPGA teacher of the year. “It’s like taking people who are already on the ceiling and trying to get them on the roof. We as teachers have to know so much about them in order to keep helping them improve.” Mulligan talks to his players after tournaments to discuss their experiences between the ropes that week. “Ideally, we want our guys’ wheels to roll smoothly, and we want their spokes to stay straight and oiled at all times,” he said. “It’s a weird analogy, but it’s our philosophy.” |
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