Do you know somebody who’s not practicing with the same attention to their Drills – somebody who has slowly crept back into the Monkey Syndrome of hitting golf ball after golf ball on the range trying to find something consistent? As we get towards the end of August an interesting thing starts to happen to Golfers – they start to move away from the practice routines they coveted back in May and move back into just hitting golf balls like the Monkey.

Not that you’re not going to the practice range – I’m sure you are. Though are you still as focused on working on the same Drills as you were back in May? Or have you gotten into the Monkey Syndrome of trying out a new tip every time you get to the range, then hitting some more golf balls and then trying another tip and etc., etc., etc.

Let’s think about May – or it could be April, March or February, it depends when your Golf Season starts – what was your focus then versus what it is now?

For example – I’m sure if you had came to see Golf Made Simple earlier this year, that in May you were practicing the “Weight On Your Front Foot Drill” whenever you went to practice. Are you still working on this Drill? Have you forgotten about this Drill? Do you feel as though this Drill isn’t important enough to your ball striking that you need to work on other things in your swing?

See this is the beauty of Golf Made Simple – As the Monkeys are working on “dropping their arms into the slot” and “keeping their head behind the ball” and “swinging inside to outside” and whatever else they’re working on and struggling to do – there’s a guy like Barry from Kentucky who not too long ago was scoring in the upper 90’s to low 100’s and continually worked on the “Weight On Your Front Foot Drill” and is now sending emails about scoring 75!

Now how can this be? Or maybe you don’t believe me and you think that I’m making this up?

How can a Golfer improve this much? I’m telling you it’s possible! You just have to stick with what works for you and not jump around to different drill after different drill. If you found a Drill that helps you strike the ball better, why would you do something different?

Maybe I could gve you a clearer picture using money as an example. I mean we all understand money!

You buy 1,000 shares of a stock valued at $50 a share back in January 1990 – a $50,000 investment. In 1990 the stock appreciates 10% – what do you do? Do you sell or hold? In 1991 the stock again appreciates 10% – what do you do? Do you sell or hold? In 1992 the stock appreciates another 10% – what do you do? Do you sell or hold? Now this goes on for 4 more years, so that after a total of 7 years of appreciation at 10% a year, your money by the magic of compounding has improved by 100% and you now have $100,000.

What would’ve happened if after the first year you said – “10% isn’t enough, I need to sell and buy something else”? What would be your odds of your next stock having continual, consistent improvement like you would’ve had with the stock above?

Now relate this to your golf practice. You learn a Drill that has helped you to hit the golf ball the way it should be done, meaning you’re starting to hit the golf ball first before hitting the ground. A Drill that allows you to hear the “click” of the clubface hitting the ball. A Drill that allows you to hit the ball and then take a divot like you’re supposed to do. A Drill that allows you to create back spin.

And at the same time – a Drill that allows you to improve 10% a year!

So you’re a 100 shooter – after 1 year of 10% improvement – you’re a 90 shooter. How many 100 shooter’s out there would accept being a 90 shooter after one year? Well what might intially seem like a ridiculous question – isn’t so ridiculous! Of course the 100 shooter would love to be a 90 shooter. Yet, the 100 shooter unfortunately believes they need to improve more than 10% to get to 90. So they don’t believe that small improvements will help them get to where they want to go – so they stop working on the Drills that will help them get there and start reading the tips from Monkey Digest and the Monkey Channel thinking – “These are the tips I need to improve. I need to work on the same Drill that Vijay Singh is working on.”

Have you ever been down that road before? Did you also sell your Exxon stock in 1999 to buy Cisco Systems?

If you accept that 10% improvement in your golf game per year is a good thing and stick with it, then after your second year of 10% improvement – you’re an 81 shooter. A 90 shooter who improves only by 10%, is now a low 80’s shooter. How many 90 shooter’s out there would accept being an 81 shooter after one year?

I’m not making this up. Take out your calculater and check it yourself. Though again, the problem is that the 90 Golfer believes they need to hit just about every shot perfect to get to 81. And that’s not true. But, what happens is that the 90 shooter has one bad hole – say you’re only 2 over Par after 7 holes, and then make a triple bogey on the 8th hole – what does the 90 shooter usually say to themselves?

“Ohhh, that’s it! I ruined my whole round on that hole. I can’t believe I did that! I could’ve had a good round today.”

And the truth is that you’re still having a very good round! A 41 for a 90 shooter! But, what do you do next? You try to figure out what went wrong with your swing on that hole by trying out different tips you’ve heard on the Monkey Channel over the next few holes. And what kind of scores do you produce when you’re trying out too many things on the golf course?

Well, let’s just put it this way – “Thinkers are Stinkers!”

The Player after making that triple bogey wouldn’t have been happy about playing a bad hole, but they’d be realistic about it. First off, they wouldn’t even know that they were only two over Par going into the 8th hole because they don’t keep track of their score while on the golf course. But, they’d also understand that you don’t need to hit every shot perfect to improve. They understand that they only have to hit 10% better to improve 9 shots! And understanding this, they stick with their PLAN and improve at a nice, steady pace.

And I’ve got the testimonials to prove it!

But this isn’t a marketing, sell job piece. This is to say that many Golfers get away from what’s working in their golf games – far to soon . They say – “To hell with improving 10% a year. I want to improve 100% in the next 3 months!’

And as the stock market burst in 2000 – as some very successful and intelligent people I’ve met over the years have told me – “Marc, the reason so many people lost a ton of money back then was that they became unsatisfied with consistent 10% returns on their investments and started chasing 100% returns.”

And I see this same scenario in golf everyday. I see 100 shooters that think they need to have a 100% improvement to get to be a 90 shooter. And I see 90 shooters that think they need to make Par every hole to become an 80 shooter. And because of the disappointment that perfection doesn’t come in a few days or few weeks or few months – they sell their consistent 10% Drill for the next hot tip they see in Monkey Digest as they’re looking for the next Microsoft and usually ending up with an Enron.

Monkeys practice like Day Traders.

Player practice like Warren Buffet.

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life