One of the great joys of golf is placing friendly wagers against your buddies in match play format. Whether it’s for pride or a Nassau with plenty of junk, it’s a great way to get the competitive juices flowing. And not to worry, you can keep your amateur status as long as y…

Golfers at all levels struggle with making optimal decisions when it comes to target selection. One of the main reasons this occurs is that players are not taught to think their way around the course when they are first taking up the game. Most of that time and attention is…

If every golfer had a magic genie who could grant them one wish, most of them would ask, “please make me more consistent!” This is one of the most common requests amongst anyone who plays the game. In my opinion, consistency is perhaps one of the most misused and misundersto…

Years ago, I read a book called The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. It warned how excessive choices in society (even as simple as buying a pair of jeans) wasn’t making us happier, but causing more stress and anxiety because of unrealistic expectations and something refe…

One of the reasons I started Practical Golf was to help put an end to the myths and misinformation that golfers spread amongst themselves. Game improvement advice is often like a game of telephone from your childhood – by the time it reaches you, the information is not very…

Anyone who reads this website frequently knows that I am committed to helping golfers find ways to increase their performance on the golf course without using swing advice. The golf world has focused almost exclusively on technique. I always felt that the rest of the game wa…

The start of every golf season is always exciting. But I want to make sure all of you have a successful start! Golfers tend to fall into similar traps, and it can hinder their performance, but more importantly, their enjoyment of the game. Here are four ways to get yourself…

A common trap that many golfers fall into is that they’ll spend countless hours practicing and assume that alone will entitle them to lower their scores. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. As a junior golfer, I used to get frustrated after hitting hundreds of balls and…

Focus on what you can control and accept what you can’t. Some variation of this phrase appears in religious texts, self-help books, and social media accounts that supply endless inspirational quotes. It’s one of the most clichéd (and essential) concepts out there. When it co…

Golfers tend to gravitate towards extremes with how they approach the game. Some players are always on the search for new answers, and their game is one big continual experiment. Others stand completely still and stick with what they’ve got. I want to explore why gravitating…

Golf is a relative game, which is why it is so enticing to such a wide variety of skill levels. For one player, breaking 100 is a milestone that is worthy of celebratory beers and a bunch of text messages to friends. For another, it could make them question life in general (…

A couple of months ago I had an interesting (I use that word loosely) experience during a tournament with one of my playing partners. He was having a nightmare round, and what followed was the most extreme case of excuse-making I had ever seen. “I’ve never played this badly…