One of the main challenges for first time visitors to a new tournament site is to lock into a game plan for the course. We call this process "establish, check, test & execute"
"Establish" usually refers to the first practice round on the course. For a touring professional, this is often the Monday round. Academy Members have already had the benefit of some of the scouting material on this site, and some the benefit of the tournament preparation training camp back in September.
"Establish" is about making some best guess preliminary decisions about lines off tees, landing areas, and best places to play approach shots from. The work Ryan has done with you has taken a lot of the guess work out of this process. For a touring professional, the only way to get to the level of preparation you have for this tournament "out of the plane" would be to visit a tournament site well before the tournament, spend time on google earth (see the other Blog about this), or at least organise a practice round with someone who has played the course before. Tour players with regular caddies add a further resource to the establish stage.
You have obviously been thinking about this course for a while now, and with the videos from Scott and Andrew, and the briefing from Ryan should have a pretty clear idea of your plan to "get the ball in play" on each of Amata's 18 tee shots.
Remember - there are 3 jobs on course - get the ball in play, set up an opportunity to have one less, and control the speed of the ball at the hole.
By the way, how are you going with fine tuning your speed control at the hole? Are we still working on Mike's recommendation about "speed up" at the hole?
Your tee shot game plan should include start lines, approximate landing areas, and finishing "spaces", or areas of the fairway you have chosen to play approach shots from. These plans need to consider the various wind conditions you will face on each hole. That is why we want to know what compass direction each tee shot faces. If you have watched Mike McClellan's weather video, and you will have already been looking for signs of local differences in the wind around the course, and especially after a rain squall comes through.
Your tee shot game plan also needs to include club and shape combinations.
Because there are few options that come into getting the ball in play in the best position for your game, the second practice round is usually where the "check" process comes in. Go into that practice round with your established plan in mind, and be prepared to play a second tee shot on a couple of holes to allow you to resolve any questions you may still have about the club / shape mix. The main aim of the check process is to confirm that you have a sound, high percentage plan for getting the ball into the spaces you want to play each hole from.
On the range, you can use the Aussie Rules Targets to play either a stroke play drill or a match play drill with the established and checked tee shot game plan. Good players also have in mind a "plan B" tee shot for each hole given certain possible scenarios - eg a serious wind shift / drop, not feeling wonderful with a particular club, or the possibility that rain may reduce run even further. These planning options are best done off the course.
If we take the AR Stroke Play option, spend a few minutes establishing some AR targets on the range (those bent trees up on the left long side of the range provide some good options), and also using the fairway cut at the far end of the range, play 18 tee shots, and attempt to score as many 10 point tee shots as possible. Make sure that you factor in the wind differences in the shots you are playing, and perhaps offset the finish of the shot if there is a different wind direction on the range than would be on the actual tee shot. Key control variables you are looking for are take off line and shot shape / swing feel. Establish a baseline 18 shot score (max 180), and each time you get a chance, challenge yourself with an 18 shot drill. Obviously you would use some of the target greens for your par 3 tee shots. You can do this through the tournament to either warm up your tee shots at the end of your normal pre-round, or to replay the tee shots after a round in your warm down / debrief session.
If we take the AR Match Play option, to help resolve any questions you have about any options you have for specific tee shots, consider playing your plan A tee shots vs your plan B tee shots in an AR Match Play drill.
To make your self work hard and also help strengthen your confidence in your tee shot decisions, consider playing a 2 all worst ball AR Stroke drill for your 18 tee shots.
As you can see, there are a lot of things that you can do to check your readiness to play those game plan tee shots.
The 3rd practice round, in pro land often complicated by the pro-am, is where you get to "test" your game plan. Decisions have been made, options have been considered, drills have been completed, discussions have been had, so now go out on your final practice round and test your game plan. Play the shots, shapes, feels that you have settled on for each hole. Commit to the take off lines, play 2 Point Golf for your tee shots. Get the ball in play. Aim to get a solid string of 2 Point Tee Shots going during that practice round.
This practice round is your dress rehearsal for what is to come over the following days. Get the ball in play, and you will be able to use the rest of your bag to take on the course. After the test practice round, return to the range and review the effectiveness of your tee shot game plan. If there is a question about whether the selected shot / shape / target is actually the best one for you, then consider swapping in one of the Plan B's that you have been practising. It's kind of like swapping out a long iron for a rescue.
We aren't reinventing anything at this stage, just fine tuning. If you are doing the "test" round during a pro-am, use the added challenge of the unusual pro-am environment to focus on targets, take off lines, pre-shot routine and executing quality swings.
All of this gets you to Thursday with a clear mind about how you are going to go about getting the ball in play. The aim of this work? It should be the same as back home - as you walk up to the say 7th tee, if your caddy says "what's your tee shot?", the answer comes quickly and simply. Starts there, moves there, finishes there, gives me an opportunity to attempt / execute my approach shot game plan.
Oh, that's right, there is more to this stuff. What you learnt from Ryan's briefing should have already put you well ahead of the field in knowing which areas of the green (and associated pin placements) are "green light" for you.
This is what is known as being "process focused" as opposed to worrying about the result. Take care of the process and let the result take care of itself. Busy yourself with executing your game plan for each tee shot and you will find your focus strengthens during the tournament. Have fun, this is what golf is all about.
Next time, using chair leg putting to base and rebuild your confidence in holing out.
JC
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