Golfers can always learn something about the game by watching the players on the PGA Tour. Those of us who play for fun might never have the perfect swings of the professionals, but we can still pick up useful tips that will help improve our games.
We’re going to highlight some of those tips in a new feature at HowToGetBetterAtGolf.com called “Lessons from the PGA Tour.” Here is the video version.
We learned several things during the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which was held Feb. 9-12 in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Lesson 1: Concentrate on your own game. Don’t get distracted by what anyone else is doing on the course.
Eventual winner Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods were paired together during the final round at Pebble Beach. As you might expect, the pairing got a lot of attention before and during the round.
On the par 3 12th hole, Woods hit his tee shot in a bunker. Mickelson missed the green and hit his chip about 30 feet past the hole.
Woods holed his bunker shot for a birdie, but Mickelson kept his focus and drained his par putt. He made birdie on the next two holes and went on to win the tournament by two strokes.
Lesson 2: Drive for show, but putt for dough. This old adage was evident in Mickelson’s final round, when he came from eight shots behind to win.
According to Mickelson’s stats (which are available here), his driving distance was 28 yard shorter in the fourth round than the third, but he gained more than 4.6 strokes on the field by making the 30-footer on the 12th and several other long putts.
Woods meanwhile outdrove Mickelson by an average of more than 30 yards in the round, but lost more than 4.2 strokes to the field by missing a number of short, makeable putts. (Woods’ stats can be found here.)
Lesson 3: Keep playing the entire round.
Mickelson was leading Charlie Wi by two strokes going into the final hole, a par 5. Mickelson, who was playing ahead of Wi, made a medium length birdie putt to increase his lead to three.
The putt seem insignificant when Wi had to lay-up in the fairway with his second shot. But his third shot nearly hit the flag. If Mickelson had missed his putt, Wi could have tied the tournament with that eagle.
You may never win a National Pro-am tournament, but you’ll play better if you concentrate on your game, practice putting and keep playing until the last putt falls in the hole.
For a little comic relief, here’s an outtake from our Lessons Learned video. Enjoy.
I’m not a golf player so obviously, I can’t relate to some of the things you are saying here. I enjoyed learning some of the things you discussed here though. This is specially the part where you said things about focus. This is really needed in almost every game.
Moreover, I really like your father and son partnership soon. When I will have a child, I might do the same thing in the future.
About the video, I like what you do here, I mean, the way you discuss things in a video and not just in texts. I can say however that, I hope you also got some video clips of that PGA Tour and included some of them in your video presentation as well. I’m sure it can even be more engaging.
Anyway, this is really cool and I always enjoy reading your tips and watching your lectures here Steve and Daniel. I’ll surely bookmark your site when time comes that I will start to learn how to play golf.
Hi Cham,
That’s a great idea to add the videos from the PGA Tour site. We’ve done that in the second installment of the series, which focuses on the Northern Trust Open.
Thanks!
Steve
I never watched this particular match but your description gave me a really good idea of how it all went and how to play to win
I have just moved into a condo which gives me access to unlimited golf…looking forward to improving my game with some of your tips. thanks!
Golf requires so much focus and teeing takes also into consideration other factors such as humidity and the wind speed. With these great info, any golfer can be good in implementing an action elsewhere other than golfing.
This is really a great feature to add in your site. What better way to learn golf or anything for that matter than to learn from those who do it best.
You get me more interested in golf every time dude!
Great addition to the site..I agree with Cham, if you get some actual footage in there as well..that would bring it to whole new level.
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