Seve’s genius can also help improve your game

Posted on 05/03/09. Source: Fairway to Green Magazine (By Dr Karl Morris)

Dr Karl Morris (pictured) - one of Europe's leading mind coaches - is a PGA consultant and has worked with Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell, avid Howell, Lee Westwood and many other tour pros.  He writes an exclusive column for Fairway to Green Magazine each month, see his latest below (or catch-up with our archive here)

We have all been saddened to hear of the poor health of Severiano Ballesteros and the terrible shock to find that his condition has been so grave.

Thankfully it appears that things seem to be progressing in the right direction for him.

I feel for the modern generation of young golfers in that they have never had the opportunity to see Seve in full flow.

If I close my eyes and think of the moment that Seve willed the ball into the hole on the final green at St Andrews in 1984 when he halted Tom Watson's domination of the British Open, the memory still sends a shiver down my spine.

I have had more than one person say that the putt was never even close to going in but some special ‘force' seemed to take over and make the ball fall magnetically into the hole.

That was Seve, right, an almost magnetic, irresistible force that transfixed a generation of golfers. We all admired Faldo but we all wanted to be Seve. One concept I work on with a lot of good players is the principle of making a part of your practice more difficult than the game itself.

Almost every other sport understands and employs this tactic apart from golf. When I gave a series of lectures in Australia a number of years ago I was absolutely fascinated to watch a video of the greatest test batsman of all time, Sir Donald Bradman, practicing.

In a 25-year career Bradman had a batting average of 99.94, possibly the most incredible statistic in the whole of sport as the next best in the history of the game is around 60.

What Bradman did from an early age and all the way through his incredible career was to practice his batting with a golf ball and a cricket stump. He would fling the golf ball against a wall and then he would have to defend the golf ball with the cricket stump. He often said that no bowler could ever
produce that kind of speed. You can imaging how the game appeared to Bradman when he took to the pitch with a bigger bat and a bigger ball.

Marathon runners train at altitude so that when they drop down to normal sea level the running seems easier.

Yet at golf what do we do? We will stand there for hour after hour hitting a ball from a perfect lie to a wide-open area - a range. Then we wonder why we cannot take our range game to the course.

Ballesteros, remember, learned to play golf on a sandy beach with a three iron. One club, terribly exacting lies (sand) and a gifted imagination produced possibly the best short game of anyone
who has ever played the game of golf.

In a book I read recently, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, which is a study of outstanding people in all different fields, he argues that one of the ‘secrets' to genius is that at an early age you must practice for at least 10,000 hours.

This may have some validity in other areas but as an all encompassing cliché in golf it could well be one of the most damaging concepts you could buy into.

I have seen far too many talented careers go to the wall as a result of the ‘beat balls till your hands bleed brigade'. Not for one minute am I saying that you don't have to put a lot of time into your practice and work hard, but I am absolutely certain that just beating golf balls to arrive at a certain time spent on the range, number of balls hit or the ‘magic' 10,000 hours can be totally destructive.

Golf practice has to be structured, challenging, recorded and above all simulate the game itself to be of long-term benefit. Seve benefitted from making a part of his practice more difficult than the game itself.

How easy do you think Seve found playing short shots with a wedge when he grew up having to ‘find' a way to play soft lob shots with a three iron?

Next time you're out, have a good look at the way you practice - it could be one of the most  important reviews you ever do.