Lou Guzzi Golf Academy

Award Winning Instruction

Winter golf alive and well

By Lou Guzzi
A Philadelphia Section
PGA "Teacher of the Year"

Many die hard golfers play throughout the winter in the coolest of temperatures. The only way to keep these committed players off the links is a good snow storm. Even with mild winters, most golfers put their clubs away right before the holidays and don’t bring them out again until spring.

So what can we do to keep our golf game alive this time of the year? For me, I look to the winter months as a chance to get away from the course and give myself the opportunity to do things that I would not be able to do during the golfing season. This is our chance to reflect on our play this past season and evaluate the good and bad of it and make the appropriate changes over the winter.

You see, some of my best practice sessions were done over the winter months and didn’t require the use of a golf ball. We need to get ourselves mentally organized about what we are trying to achieve in our games, and then make the physical movements, building the repetitions. I have a saying, “Knowledge is power! The formula is simple, you learn the mechanics, these fundamental positions, you practice and practice and practice, and then they become natural."

With that said here are a few ideas for you this winter.

Read:

Remember my quote? Knowledge is power. There are so many books that we can read over the winter months to increase our knowledge of what we need to do. Now I am not just talking about golf books, I am talking about any book that is going to make you a better player. Think about it, books on psychology for a stronger mind, books on healthy eating, books on exercising (aerobics, stretching, weight training, etc.) any kind of book that is going to make you better as a person will make you a better golfer as well. Now when it comes to golf books I have a few of my favorites to share.

How to build a Classic Golf Swing – Ernie Els
A Swing for Life – Nick Faldo
Getting Back To Basics – Tom Watson
Getting Up and Down – Tom Watson
Golf Begins at 50 – Gary Player
Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book – Harvy Penick
Five Lessons-The Modern Fundamentals of Golf – Ben Hogan

Watch:

Nothing beats visual communication and there are so many golf videos out there to view that you could go all winter and touch only the surface. Don’t just watch golf instructional videos, rent some of the golf videos that are entertaining to keep your golf juices flowing, like Tin Cup, Caddy Shack, Bobby Jones Stroke of Genius, The Legend of Bagger Vance etc. For those who have access to the Golf Channel check out when they air instruction. If you have access to the internet you can go to many websites to get information. The Golf Channel, Golf Digest and Golf Magazine have many video clips of instruction and interviews that can be downloaded for you and of course, the most obvious, the weekly tournaments on T.V. of the best players in the world showing us how to do it.

Repetitions:

You can have all this information about technique, whether it’s the golf swing, putting, chipping, bunker play etc… but if you don’t put in the repetitions it won't matter. Remember earlier when I said, “Some of my best practice sessions were done over the winter months and didn’t require the use of a golf ball.” That’s what I am talking about here. We have this information from our books and videos, but now we need to train our muscles to repeat the action, and that is only going to happen from doing the repetitions. Unfortunately, this may get boring for some but believe me, without it you can never improve.

Think of so many other things we have done over the years that has been difficult for us to learn. For those who have taken piano lessons, I can only imagine the first time you had your fingers in the proper position on the keys. Did it feel NATURAL? I doubt it. My guess is that your mind was working overtime to get any one of ten fingers to move properly to a key. But, when applied with solid MECHANICS and the desire to practice you started to play. Years later the flow to your music was smooth and beautiful, NATURAL.

We can all remember this one, you are in first grade, what do you learn? AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa, BBBBBBBBbbbbbbbb, CCCCCCCCcccccccc.......What did your hand writing look like then? Three years later? Six years later? The hard part is doing the repetitions of these MECHANICS and keeping it simple.

Use the mirror and mimic some of the positions you learned in your book or video. Putt on your carpet towards a drinking cup or roll the ball down the hallway to work on speed control, getting it to stop in front of a doorway to go through. Use your imagination and you will be surprised with how much you can do to improve.

Enjoy:

Enjoy the journey for a better game. Enjoy the book you are reading, the video you are watching or the rep’s you are applying, knowing that your mind and body will perform that much better for 2006. If you can deal with the weather, go outdoors and hit some shots. Our Lower State Road Driving Range is open all year with covered, heated stalls for hitting.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my article and my hope is that you will find some of the information useful making your golf in 2006 the best ever.

Back to media page