OMG!!!

Hehe..in fact if I lost the crowd of my blog readers, there is no surprise. Seriously, I nearly forget about this blog of mine. So sorry guys. And today I kinda think of it and in fact yes, there is the reader who post up to me saying..please update.

Hmm..I don't know how long will I take before I update my this blog again, because I'm now in my most hectic week ever. But I'll get back to you all ASAP. sigh..really sorry guys..

in fact I didn't update since Garcia lost his bout up until Tiger have won the PGA Championship. Congrats, Tiger. Anyway let me post up today entry with something about mental golf again.

And this is seriously very applicable to me right now because it's been like 2 months since I last went to the driving range as there is no range of golf courses around Cyberjaya. Even if there is any, I don't have any car to drive around to have a couple swing. That ain't important..today's entry will be all about players who still play golf, but really rare probably due to studies, laziness or whatsoever. And how mental affect the game.

Okay..Many of us sure have a period or time when you feel like just give up the game of golf and pursue on other sports or just sick of playing badly. If you ever think about it, all I can say is you are not a good golfer enough. And seriously, you are not a GREAT SPORTSMAN as well. I, however, hmmm..can't be consider as someone who give up golf. I still have the passion in golf, the enjoyment of playing and winning if possible and of course the challenges in golf that taught me so much things. I still enjoy reflecting on how last time I used to play golf. I'm still keen on playing golf but then when go back to my hometown, I rather stay at home and relax. Not a good sign but definitely, I'll touch back all my stuff when I'm working next time. Study in University now, hmmm..really don't give those ample time to think about golf. hihi..

Alright, let's put it this way. You have been absent in golf for months and feeling wanto get back to the game. You feel like brushing up your game by going to driving range first. You think overnight to plan how you want to be a golf enthusiast again. But when it comes to the time like 4pm for you to go to the range, you are too tired to do it. What I can say is, flap your butt, get your set and HALLELUJAH..driving range, here we go. The first step of trying to go to the range is important, as it builds something in your brain that I want to pursue something. And in range, don't force yourself. Try to get back our swing and swing comfortably. A lot of players who return to the game will find it even more discouraging are mostly because of their high-expectation to play well. That shouldn't be the case, as we should know that humans ain't perfect and definitely, we have very very rough edges around here and there. So just be patience and you don't have to whack 200 balls just because you think it can helps you get back to your performance..NO!!! Hit sufficient balls like 100 probably, just to get your routine started. If you feel like you want to achieve more, then go ahead with 50 balls stacking up. Don't just go there and hit a ball blindly. I once read from Tiger's book of How I Play Golf..that Tiger mentioned that 'one of his most effective training may only require him to hit 20 golf balls'. What he is stressing on is about the QUALITY..not the quantity. So for people like me who nearly lost touch in golf, we should learn to train more quality short than hitting so much that turns out no results. Be patience in golf, and let the time do the job..

Back to Work..

For the last whole week, I was truly busy with examinations and assignment. Finally I get to sit down on my chair, facing the computer to continue my golf blog. So the same word over and over again, my more sincere apologies to all.

So, today my topic will be more about mental golf again. Today's mental golf will be about being able to bounce back. Probably relating to Garcia's British Open serious loss, but truly applicable to all whenever you all play golf.

Bouncing back is the ability to recover, to come back, to save or secure shots to reduce the stroke after you probably make a mistake blowing a hole or two. In PGA Tour, it is quite obvious that Tiger Woods truly have the best bouncing back status among all. Bouncing back can be the status on a particular day or even more specific one will be particular holes. Sometimes, have you met with some players, that didn't really play well at the front, but suddenly keep recovering and bouncing back as he/she gets along. If any of you who is reading this also can do those stuff, I can just salute you all and say that you all have a very cool and systematic pace in your mental game. This is purely because usually, after some blunder in a hole, players tend to get panic and instead, making more and more mistakes. But sometimes, we should learn to overcome this prob slowly. Though it is not really easy, but this ability can help you in your game. In what WAY?? What I think that it helps the most, is when you are playing with somebody you think is much better player with you. But with a cool, slow and steady mental, you can settle your mind neutrally and just wait for the other player to make mistake.

Therefore, try to learn to bounce back instead of thinking what is going to happen in the coming few holes. Don't think about any mistakes and stuff that you make in your swing when mistakes happen, just go for it. Each and every shot, just go for it. Probably the best advise is, don't over anticipate your problems. Just remain cool and try to recover it back.

OH MY GOD!!!

I guess you all know what my entry today will be about already. Seriously and totally, about Garcia lost in British Open. How can that be HAPPENING???

Seriously, I felt sad for him. There are so many factors that cause his game to falter even at the beginning of it. I don't think Garcia can get over this trauma that soon. Even the world's best player probably need a day or two to get over such sad ending. Anyway, just let me brief for some who don't know about his game on Sunday. But before that, we have to CONGRATULATE mr. PADRAIG HARRINGTON for the win. In fact, last Sunday, my mum was complaining that she seldom see Paddy won't this few times. Probably he just wanted a major for this year. Great Job, Padraig!!!

So all about Garcia now. Probably my comments ain't that professional enough. But in my third person view, I'll just comment it. I think Garcia, as a touring pro definitely know it best. In my opinion, Garcia maybe felt the pressure of being one of the youngest major winner and having to win the FIRST MAJOR under his belt. We can never know, because in the game of golf, even great professional like Garcia probably face it on the last day of the Game. Besides, probably a lot of the other guys, who is supporting him gave him too many word of advise. This seriously in someway somehow can give more pressure to a player. During his game, probably something don't 'click' as how he wanted it to be. And Garcia's bouncing back status which I think is quite high, couldn't go up to expectation. This triggers his mental and emotion into a critical period as like an egg at the tip of a horn. That's the problem and there are many more factors too.

That was the ending for a great player who fought hard but did not get it. But then, of course he will get one major in his career. So, let's just wish him all the very best in his upcoming few more tournaments.

British Open at Carnoustie..

Oh..I'm truly sorry for not updating this blog. Not that I don't want, but due to the problems that you all know already. Anyway..let's not talk about that stupid services topic and move on to the latest stories. the Headlines for today..

Garcia is on his form with yellow-clad sweater with a turtleneck red shirt, matching his cap and his golf club's grip. In fact, the truly model for TaylorMade..was in his very fine and cool form. His game was so far in A- category, but that is good enough for him and if he still maintain that A- game, tomorrow we'll see a Spaniard in the footstep Seve Ballestros to win his first ever major. Let's wish Garcia all the best for his game tomorrow. Though I can't watch it live as I will be back to my campus, but I'll keep myself updated through the Internet.

But that's not all about this post. I actually wanted to comment about Sunday's Final Round for British Open. Let tomorrow be a sunny day in Carnoustie, and let's there be no delay. And I truly hope that we can see the best battle. In fact, I was discussing with my dad that who we actually wish to be the British Open champion. No heartfeelings, we want either Garcia and surprisingly, KJ Choi to win. There can only be one winner, and our percentages goes to KJ, though after the third round he faltered terribly. The reason is, if KJ was to be the British Open Champion, he will be the FIRST ASIAN TO WIN A MAJOR IN THE GAME OF GOLF..that actually will boost other Asian PGA Tour golf player to play even better. But he is 6 strokes back, and everything will be down to Stricker and Garcia battle. And of course, Garcia is one of my idol, so let's hope the latest British Open Champion be Garcia..hehe..will keep you all updated..

Apology

Hey guys, I'm terribly sorry for not informing earlier about my truly late post. And definitely I got a reason. The reason is I just moved to Cyberjaya to study for my major in my U, so at my new place there, for the time being there is no access to Internet. And my Streamyx or broadband application is still in the process, so sorry for not being able to update the latest info and everything to you guys. Please do still support me and I'll sure to blog ASAP. Sorry once again..

Mental Golf

Hey guys, sorry for these very late entry. I was very busy for the past few days, fixing myself in my new campus and still wasn't really make myself adapt to here yet. But I can't lag you all too long, therefore I decided to spare some time to blog something for you all.

As I promise earlier, I'll touch everything like introduction and sort before going to the more detail part. Therefore, as for today's entry will be about MENTAL GOLF. As you all know, golf ain't just about swinging the golf club and whacking that golf ball. It involves body coordination to hit a shot, and definitely mental to articulate your game ; explicitly, implicitly or tacitly. But how does mental golf influence our game and what's the percentage of it towards a game??

What I can say is, the Game of Golf won't be that interesting if our mental is not part of the game. Because if it is just about hitting the golf ball into the hole, then it is truly a lame idiotic game. Our mental is one of the major factor that might cause a player, not performing well or up to their expectations. And as you play more, you will know how important it is. In fact, Mental Golf is part of a growing process in your brain for golf. You experienced and learn more through practise, involving yourself in tournaments and any exposures that involves not just one party. As for me, I had been through quite a lot of experience regarding mental golf especially in the part of improving myself.

An easy way to enlighten you all about mental golf is probably, is your handicap. As you all know, handicap 24 are classified as beginner, 18-24 are novice,12-18 are intermediate, 0-12 advance and etc. And during this part of evolving yourself in either of the category means different understanding in your mentality towards golf. This is simply undeniable. You all probably will understand why because you all will know that people who handicap are lesser will definitely have better advantage in golf. This may not be the fact but it has positive percentage that the thoughts are true.

As for me, I started my handicap of 24, jumping to 21 and then to 19. During this part, I summarize in a shorter form that my game were very blunt. And probably you will blow your hole randomly at any hole or holes in 18 holes. If the blunder starts early, sometimes there are still room of improving your game. But if you blunder were in the middle, then you will definitely struggle with your head running around here and there. Picking up pieces and can't regain your contention back. As for my advise for novice players, stay calm in your game. You will definitely make mistakes, and pretty a lot of them, just slow down your pace when this things happen. And if you are playing in your homeground, don't take bad memories as a phobia thing for you. Keep in mind that everytime you play a game, everything is different than the others and don't bring back bad memories.

My handicap then decrease from 19 to 14 and I was then a intermediate player. This category might be the most major part of your game. You learn and understand a lot more in this process. Probably during novice period, you are still new to the game. But this category is the part where you learn the most and even more than when you are an advance player. Why is it so? Simply, you know much detail of the game and definitely you know what you are doing in the golf course than beginners. But what is the common mistake in Mental Golf in this category?? In my opinion, players between handicap of 12-18 will face big problem in the last three holes. Last three holes in their mental are the most critical one. WHY?? Intermediate players are able to cover early and middle mistakes easily. BUT during the back part of the game, they are relatively unstable (whether they are playing well or not at the front part of the game). This is because usually intermediate players will usually reflect how well they play throughout in the course earlier on. Or how bad they play. And with that mentality, (if they are playing good) they will try to maintain their forms and that's when trouble come. If they aren't playing well, they will be thinking why they play so bad, and instead this influence them to be afraid of making those mistakes. Last three holes are critical in the sense of playing a good game or covering a bad game. That's the reason I can think of. And to cope with this matter, I simply recommend to intermediate players, not to think about any part of your game and just play the whole game. Even you are playing badly or vice versa, you shouldn't even spare time for thinking those stuff. Though you have plenty of time to think for a shot in golf, but sometimes is better not to do too much critical thinking and focus on automatic response in your game.

And for advanced players, mental golf are more polish at this stage. But they will still face problems but are lesser. And for advance players, blunders only happen when you put your expectation over your head. That's the only prob. You can't always think of the expectation you want to achieve but instead you must think of the other factors. Golf ain't perfect just like life, we just try to compensate and try to make it better than pushing ourself to the limit that we know sometimes is hard to achieve. Golfers at this stage should learn more about calming your brain time to time, and enjoy the game more than keeping the score low. Because players at this stage won't have much problems keeping the score low, but it is just mental that pulls them down. So relax and enjoy are the advise for advance players. Other factors will be discuss in detail in later post for mental golf. Sorry for the late post again..sorry.

My in-Favs Golf Courses..

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have played quite a number of golf courses and there are some that I truly felt miserable entering it. Not to say miserable, a better word is it didn't attract me to play in that course again. For some of them, I still enjoyed playing there but with the hope that they might improve in some way.

One of the golf courses that I probably are afraid of playing there will be Jasin Golf Club in Jasin, Melaka. This golf course ain't that bad in terms of the turf, which is cow-grass. But..BUT..that golf course is way too dangerous. Dangerous for golfers and PUBLIC! You all might wonder why PUBLIC are involved? My introduction will be, this is the FIRST golf course, where I tee off in front of a primary school. Come on, a primary school behind a golf course. It is so near, that whenever you tee off, there is young children shouting here and there. The worse part is, below the tee box, is a road. And it is the only road where you can access to the school. So you will have plenty of cars parking in front of the first tee box. Isn't that dangerous? What if you topped your ball? The distance between your ball (the place where you tee) and the car is the distance that a golf ball can KILL somebody. I played there once and have this so-called bad experience there. This is just danger to the public. As for golfers, I really can't imagine when it is at its peak time. You know WHY? I'll give you a scenario. Imagine yourself, playing in a golf course which have a shape of a circle. Where each circumference of the circle, is the place you tee-off. And the fairway is in the middle of the circle. Understand? You are like in NO-MANS LAND when you are in the centre. When people shout 'FORE', you don't even know from where the golf ball fly from. Probably I'm exaggerating a little bit, but due to safety, exaggerating may seem important. The golf course, if I'm not mistaken was closed already. Because of what reason, I don't know. But there is one thing for sure, the maintanence of the golf course, is much better than other public golf courses so far as I see (of course not better than Royal Johor but it is better than average golf club).

what i think about Jasin golf club..is something like this..

The other golf course which I played several time before it was close down will be Golden Valley GCC in Melaka too (nearby Jasin). The golf course was once known as the Malaysia's Best golf course. But due to poor maintanence, I mean truly poor maintanence, it is shut down, but NOT FOR GOOD. The golf course was designed by Japanese and it has a lot of Japanese elements in the architecture of the ClubHouse itself. This very golf course are long and even long hitters may consider it long. It has really challenging and interesting holes which you really need to use quite a lot of your brain instead of just brawl, to hit long and strategic shot. G. Valley, was a really great course. Unfortunately, due to poor maintanence by the Management and Golf Maintanence personel, the golf course degraded in a fast motion. The turf which is origally bermuda grass was slowly turn into half-bermuda half-cow grass and slowly turn to SWARM grass. It is really sad to see that whenver you play there. But what they do was just putting sand on top of the grass only. And when you play there, you can't play well because you were even afraid to hit down the grass. WHY?? Because it is so full of sand causing handpain when you play and damaging your golf club. The green's grass itself was uneven, which seems like there were herds cows went there and eat the grass DAILY. I truly like the golf course very much but what to do, sometimes people just do not know how to cherish golf course.

I think that's about it about the golf course which saddened me in my past experience. In terms of golf courses, you can consider myself as quite friendly where I'm not picky about golf courses. But sometimes, people didn't work as much as they should in order to make their golf course ' One-in-a-Million'. It's easy for me to say, and I know its hard to maintain the golf course. BUT I truly believe, if one are loyal to your members, your members won't run away just like that. Golfers are supportive when they come to improving their home-club. It's just the reality.


p/s : if anyone want me to review some of the golf courses, I may do so- of course subject I played there before. Just name it probably I can share a little. Thanks for the comment.