It can be very easy to become frustrated when your game seems to desert you. Especially if you left the previous outing feeling like you had the game all figured out. It’s at times like these when the old phrase “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” pops to mind. I was thinking about this today and it occurred to me that it isn’t really accurate.
According to Dave Pelz, the game of golf is made up of 5 separate games. These are listed below and also the qualities needed for them.
- Management Game – experience, planning, strategy, fore-thought, research
- Putting Game – Solid, rhythm, feel, pure, acceleration, smooth, simple
- Short Game – effortless, positive, beautiful, crisp, rhythm, touch, soft, music
- Power Game – Athletic ability, talent, full, strength, connection, rhythm, quickness, coordination, speed, release, coil
- Mental Game – positivity, commitment, training, toughness, concentration
As you can see, the different games share very few qualities. So to be good at golf you need to be athletic with rhythm, mentally tough with speed, have a high level of concentration with great touch. When you think about the game this way, it seems like many different sports all combined into one. Kind of like a pentathlon.
When I think of a marathon runner I think of someone who is plodding along stride after stride doing the same thing over and over until the job is done. It is easy to get stuck like a marathoner when practicing golf, trying the same thing over and over, hoping it works out.
Next time you start to get frustrated on a certain aspect of your game, remember “it’s a pentathlon not a sprint!”. There are four other areas of the game you could practice with many qualities you could aim to improve.
Photo Credit: Photo by Guian Bolisay at Flickr Creative Commons (License).
Hi Tom
Your so right about the different games i golf during this winter I have gone down the range with all different clubs to keep my game I shape. Have just p,aged a couple of rounds and the long game has been good striking the ball pretty well. The short game thoughts more than just rusty where I haven’t practised it much through the winter. As you know a good short game is so essential to achieving any sort of score.
Great read thanks lee