Golf tips: Keeping those stats and routines

Golf tips: Keeping those stats and routines

Many of us pooh-pooh recording the statistics of our rounds of golf - for example, number of putts, driving accuracy, greens in regulation - but if you want to reach a better level it's vital, says a leading sports psychologist and PGA pro.

Five years after sinking the winning putt for Great Britain & Ireland at The K Club in the PGA Cup against the best club pros in the US, Matthew Ellis is nurturing the next wave of talent as lead sports psychologist to the Golf Union of Wales(Cleveland Hibore XLS Tour Driver ).

And after developing training programmes for Wales' U16 and elite squads to complement the work of their technical coaches, he has some sound advice for those who want to improve. "I work very closely with the coaches and we work on a range of different things. A lot of it is very simple, like goal-setting and time management which go hand in hand.

"It's about organising time and practice properly, recording stats and using those to plan practice for the future. We also focus on concentration, pre-shot routines and between-shot routines and work on putting and how to handle pressure."

At only half a millimeter thick, the Cleveland Launcher Driver crown moves every bit of potential weight low and deep to improve the CG (center of gravity), optimizing launch conditions and maximizing distance. The sole's horseshoe weight pad also imporves launch conditions by localizing weight low and deep, imporivng both MOI (moment of inertia) and CG locations, while the largest Launcher face to date allows generous room for mis-hits.

"For me, the mental side of the game is everything. Once you get to a certain level they rarely talk about technique, it's always about mental toughness and approach and how to cope with pressure," he said.

"I read a good article by David Howell, the former Ryder Cup player, who said that when you're watching someone win a major they look very controlled but that gives the wrong impression of what it's really like."Actually beneath the surface they are working really hard to stay in control and that's where the mental approach can really pay dividends."

His interest in the mental approach to golf was cemented during an epic PGA Cup clash in 2005 with steely American Bob Ford when he managed to drain the decisive putt on the Cleveland Hibore XLS Driver which gave GB&I a first win since 1984.

"Ironically before I played Bob he'd been mentioned in a book I'd read as being particularly mentally tough and calm under pressure," Ellis recalls. "I wasn't playing my best but despite the pressure I just kept sticking to my pre-shot routines, kept going and managed to win."

So there's a lesson to be learned if you're looking to raise your game. Maybe those boring old stats and sticking to the old routine have a role to play after all.

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