How would you feel about shooting a net 69 on your first round golfing in Thailand? Well to score well, you either have to be very lucky or you have to practice prior to and during your Thailand golf holiday. Everything being equal, practice is the only thing that can give you an opportunity for a great score.
With warm sunny weather in Thailand, some golfers might think anything beyond a 5 minute putting warm-up might be injurious, how incorrect. Can you imagine a professional golfer showing up at the course 5 minutes before his tee time? It just does not happen!
Do you know why the Korean women are so successful at golf? During the 1980’s the Korean government wanted to obtain world recognition in golf. They selected young women that had golfing talent and sent them to the USA for training with top instructors. Practice was instituted as a full-time daily procedure. Now, Korea has produced world renowned lady golfers, many of whom now do their winter golf training in Thailand!
Practice is important in all levels of golf. Even at the amateur level, even if your ambitions are relatively modest. Many golfers I meet in Thailand practice on the golf course. However think about it.Since much of the time golfing in Thailand you are walking, talking, or waiting (not too long I hope) little can be learned by playing 18 holes. During a round of golf, there are 14 drives, maybe 10 other wood shots, 18 iron shots, some 40 chips and putts. This consumes about 4 hours. For practice, you can hit a bucket of 80 balls in 25 minutes or less.
On the other hand you can learn more by playing 90 real shots in a round than by practicing 90 shots. This is true because, in playing, you are practicing precisely the shots the game requires, whereas when in practice there is the great danger that true playing conditions are not being duplicated. Still if you practice with the clubs that give you trouble, much more can be learned in four hours of practice that in a round of golf.
So this winter spend some time at the range each week and you will be amazed at the progress and improvement that you will bring with you on your Thailand golf holiday and onto the Thailand golf courses.
One of our golf visitors just last week that came on a 2 week Thailand golf vacation told me he had been hitting 3 buckets of balls at the range each week for the last 1 month before coming to Thailand. On his first round at Thai Country Club, he asked to be dropped off at the course 45 minutes before his appointed tee time. After hitting 1 tray of balls, he then proceeded to shot a net 65, including 3 birdies and an almost hole-in-one on the difficult par 3 10th hole. Call it luck or attribute it to pre-holiday practice.
All of us don’t have much time to spend, but we sure could practice golf 30 minutes a week!
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