Playing Golf – Pain or Pleasure?

I have been playing golf for 8 years now. What a great game – I love it, and I hate it (at times)! Do you recognise that feeling?
Previously I played football – was a goalkeeper during my active career, but turned to golf when my knees had had enough of soccer and all its unpredictable injuries. So here I am, an amateur golfer with a handicap of 22, and stuck at that level for quite some time now. That explains the title of this article!
On a winter’s day in 2000 a good friend of mine was kind enough to introduce me to golf, and I was ‘hooked’ at once. In no other game do you have the opportunity to enjoy yourself and to get to know yourself better than through golf. You are on your own, competing against yourself in the company of good friends.
There is nothing like a round of golf on a beautiful summer’s day, standing there on the 1st tee ready to drive – and with all your dreams of ‘the perfect round’ intact. What a great feeling every time! Today’s the day when you are going to lower your handicap considerably!
Always those dreams and that feeling on tee no.1, but 5-7 holes later, most of your dreams have usually been shattered to pieces! What went wrong?
I guess this is the question all amateur golfers ask themselves all too often, and so do I. At the end of the day my scorecard usually shows 25-29 stableford points – sometimes less – typically with 12-14 well played holes, but what about the remaining 4-6 holes? Zero points!
So I guess the question "What went wrong?" is extremely relevant to most of us amateur golfers, and personally I have decided to examine the problem thoroughly and find help where I can get it to lower that handicap!
After all, as a sportsman throughout my life, results are what I’m after. Enjoying a round of golf in nice weather, on a beautiful course, and in the company of good friends is quite fine, but just isn’t enough. Let’s face it: we DO want to lower that handicap, don’t we?
How, then? (if you cannot manage to spend tons of cash on your local pro). As for my own game, it typically looks like this: 1) I have a fairly nice swing, but: 2) It only works for about 12-14 holes.
Why? Well, there are at least 3 things necessary to succeed in golf:
1. The swing itself.
2. Your ability to focus on each and every shot.
3. Your fitness level in general.
I have come to the conclusion that my own problem is mainly a lack of ability to focus and concentrate for 4-5 hours on end, and that this, in turn, is partly due to a deficient level of general fitness + poor habits concerning eating and drinking properly during the round – I simply forget that very often, and when I do eat and drink, it is often too late to make up for lost shots.
The last point should be fairly easy to deal with yourself, whereas you need help on the other points. To be able to play good golf, it is a fact that you have got to have a good, consistent, repeatable swing, that you must be able to focus and concentrate on each and every shot during the round, and that this might very well be achieved by raising your general fitness level.
In my own case I went searching the internet for help on these points and actually managed to find some good programmes which have helped me considerably. To be able to share this information with others like myself, I decided to create my own golf website with tips, tricks, articles etc. in the hope that you might also benefit from some of it.
Good luck with your own game!

P.S. After all, golf is more pleasure than pain!

For further information about me, please visit my website, www.cjgolfinfo.com