I’ve Learned So Much About My Game This Summer. I’ll Take These 7 Lessons Forward (As Should You)

Just like that, summer has been and gone. It won’t be long before fairways are adorned with fallen leaves and slightly fat contacts will result in the divot going almost as far as the ball. Summer may be over (in England at least), but that doesn’t mean we can’t take lessons and learnings forward and apply them to autumn and beyond.

I’ve never experienced a drier summer with firmer fairways in all the years I’ve been playing golf, and while this presented some good scoring opportunities, I also found I put needless pressure on myself.

As an example, I’d struggle to fight off thoughts on par-5 tees of the hole being very reachable and often slice one into the trees or come over the top and pull the ball straight left as a result. It definitely put my mental game under pressure.

I also found par 3s and second shots into par 4s challenging. Was it best to bounce the ball in, risking an unpredictable bounce, or fly it all the way knowing a slight push or pull could bounce off a firm side slope and into the trees?

However, there were undoubtedly opportunities to take advantage of. Average hitters could become extremely long hitters; drivers simply weren’t needed on a lot of holes, allowing golfers to play safer if that way inclined; and many enjoyed hitting off firm turf, especially those prone to catching the ground behind the ball.

Below, I’ve detailed the main lessons I learned from my scorched summer of golf, which will hopefully stand me in good stead for the rest of the year and beyond…

The basics

When the fairways are firm, being only slightly out with your alignment and start line can result in a ball bounding off into the trees. You have to be so precise, and the way to achieve that is to be meticulous with your fundamentals.

This summer, I also started setting up to a point about two feet in front of me. Previously, I’ve been guilty of not really knowing where I’m aiming and pointing in vaguely the right direction. Not anymore. There’s no excuse for anyone to have poor alignment.

No GIR? No disaster

I’ve slowly come to realise that not finding a green in regulation isn’t the worst thing. If you don’t find the putting surface in the right number of shots, it really doesn’t matter. Why? Because you can get up and down (or maybe even hole out) and sometimes a bogey is more than acceptable. Plus, it’s not as if you’re guaranteed to two-putt anyway.

There’s no point taking needless risks because of a baseless infatuation with finding the green in regulation. If you play the sensible shot and take the big number out of play, you could still walk off with a par. And if not, a bogey won’t completely wipe out your momentum.

Hit the right club for the situation

A lot of golfers have an aversion to a particular club, especially off the tee. They’d prefer to hit a club that’s wrong for the hole because they’re not comfortable with the ‘right’ one.

But guess what? You’ll never be comfortable if you don’t change how you operate, so pick the right club for the shot and continue down that path until you’ve learned not to fear any club in your bag.

Try to hole every putt

So many of my summer three-putts came about because I was trying to get my approach effort in the vicinity of the cup, instead of attempting to get the ball in the hole. This often led to non-committed, tentative efforts that came up well short – especially on fast putts – and left me with fiddly five-footers.

Of course, you can miss a five-footer from beyond the cup, but at least you’ve put a positive stroke on the ball if it’s gone that far past. Also, there’s a chance it’ll go below ground. Never up, never in and all that.

Good runs can come at any time

I’ve often been guilty of looking at the scorecard and identifying areas of the course where I feel I should be stringing some pars together and building good Stableford points totals. If these holes fall at the start of the round, I’ve immediately put myself under pressure.

But golf simply doesn’t care about your plan. I know as well as anyone that a bad run can happen at any time, which also means a good run can come at any time. Keep making good decisions and you’ll hit a good streak. Don’t force the issue.

Miss on the wrong side

Given how firm the turf was, you could be disproportionately punished for an okay-ish shot that just happened to miss in the wrong place. I learned pretty quickly that short-siding myself was something to be avoided at all costs, as often it was impossible to get enough loft to pitch a ball over a bunker and stop it near a tight flag.

Instead of aiming at the flag all the time on approach shots, I started shifting my focus to the middle of the green, thereby building in more margin for error. It’s something I’ll continue to do going forward.

Less is more

I’ve generally chipped with plenty of loft, but that wasn’t always an option this summer – there were times when I physically couldn’t get the leading edge under the ball on delicate shots.

This forced a change of approach, and I’m glad it did. It’s much easier to chip consistently well with a 9-iron or wedge instead of a 54° or 60°, even if you have a good short game. I’ll only be using loft when needed in the future.