Golf

How to keep improving your golf game in the winter

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How to keep improving your golf game in the winter

Putting the clubs on when the days get shorter and the temperatures drop is a sure fire way to make a slow start to the new season.

There are all kinds of ways to keep your game on target and they don’t involve standing in freezing temperatures and hitting hundreds of balls.

Mental Performance Coach Duncan McCarthy has worked with golfers on every major tour.

He helped Erik van Rooyen win his two wins on the PGA Tour, likewise Marcus Armutage on the DP World Tour and, in 2022, he helped Ashleigh Buhai open at Muirfield.

Let’s look at the situation

You have to be realistic but a good way to start, if there are desires to do less in the winter, is to look back at your last season.

Obviously, it’s good to point out the positives, but point out the area or areas you’d like to have for a little improvement next season.

I had a client recently who wanted something very small and sturdy and a little more sheltered. So it might be snowing but you can still improve your golf by not hitting balls.

So, in the next few months, find a PT, join a gym or go to a local exercise class. Or you can start walking, depending on how you feel, or buy some exercise bends and do some work at home for 10 minutes a day. It doesn’t have to be absurd.

Goals

I think it helps to define some goals that you would like to achieve during the winter. If you really want to hit the balls and keep playing, then it can be a small investment in putting money to keep your eye on it.

You can have a small golf club cut down to about two feet. With that you can do some mirror work and use that internally. You can always work on your movement, it’s good to hit balls but movement and you can train that.

A set

If you keep playing, actually make it fun. I always used the winterized part; I can go to the driver, there are no fair woods and then even an iron and a wedge and a putter. After that I would take turns at odds for the next round.

That’s fun and that keeps your imagination going in the winter months because you don’t have to beat the comps. You just need to keep your eye on it and have a little fun, but also understand that making someone happy with golf doesn’t have to be the ball guide or the score they shoot, this will be part of the fun. This will be part of the fun.

Another part of enjoying golf can be the people you play with and the conversations and general fun.

And exercise

Another golf course that you can get enjoyment from exercising. You are outside and that is good for your mental health. The clocks change and everyone is down.

But having that golf game, even if it’s raining, or windy, or cold, that’s going to do a hell of a lot more good for your mental health than canceling and canceling inside the warmth. That’s bad because you’ll start chewing on your thoughts.

The power of the mind

In the winter you will have more time to pick up a book or you can spend less time working with someone on mental thought, talking about seeing, steps to a certain area of the game.

You can work on improving your self-talk, or your personal growth because that has a big impact on how you play and how you respond and how you talk to yourself. There are many different areas that people can develop.

Posters

There will always be setbacks and many of us will show up with our worst shot of the day but you have to find a way to move past it. You have to be positive. It doesn’t matter how bad the day is you have to ask yourself what you did well.

And how do we do things better?

I could tell you to keep a journal and join all these things down but it might be too much of a stretch.

Just ask yourself on the drive home What two things did you do well today? Kick back and start this winter to clear your mind so you can focus on the things you did well rather than the things you didn’t do well.