New Post #45 Wisdom Wednesday

Hi Friends

Apologies for the radio silence with this newsletter, I’ve been away.

Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix and a sojourn to the Peak District.

Enough about my vacations,

The last few days has been all about the Ryder Cup, and in particular the Captain’s picks.

Should Keegan have picked himself?

Should Matt Wallace have got a pick? Harry Hall?

How about the big hitting Marco Penge? Surely Bethpage would have suited him?

Interestingly (to me anyway) I was hyping Marco back in 2015!!

When and where is it?

Fri 26th to Sun 28th Sept @ Bethpage Black, Long Island New York

Bring it on.

Quick mention to Tommy Fleetwood for his win last week in the Tour Championship.

Great to see Tommy finally break his PGA Tour duck (to be fair, he has won 7 times in Europe. I think the commentators forget about that sometimes)

Now that monkey is off his back will he go on and win a load more ?

As Tommy himself said

“You can’t win lots of trophies if you don’t win the first one”

Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” has sold over 25,000,000 copies in 38 languages!

It’s considered one of the best self help/business books ever printed. Is there anything we can learn from these principles that might help our golf?

Here is my take,

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Focus and act on what you can control and influence instead of what you can’t

Be Proactive.

Book that lesson.

Do that short game practice.

Get that fitting.

Don’t feel like going to the gym? Go anyway, you don’t have to feel like doing something to do it!

Don’t like the person you are paired with? You can’t change it, so get on with it.

It’s going to rain? it’s the same for everyone. Make sure you have your rain gear, Umbrella and extra towels. Let everyone else be affected by the weather but not you.

I’m proactive, I’m in control and I’m ready

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Define clear measures of success and a plan to achieve them

I love this one. What is the destination? Win the Club champs? Single figure handicap? Win the English Am? Qualify for a major? (Rich W and Tom S 😃)

Set the destination and that will define what the steps and how much preparation you will need. No point being a 20 handicapper having a goal of single figures but you are not prepared to practice or get any lessons.

Results don’t happen without any work and some sort of plan.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Prioritise and achieve your most important goals instead of constantly reacting to urgencies

Picture the scene, we’ve looked at our stats and had a chat with our coach and decided that we really need to sharpen the short game, specifically 80 yards and in. We then have set up our plan involving lessons, practice and new equipment.

But then you play with your mate Rowan and he smashes his driver 20 yards past you. Right you think, new driver is actually what I need and then off to the range to smash said driver.

Meanwhile you still can’t get it up and down and continually miss the green from 80 yards.

Put first things first!

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Collaborate more effectively by building high trust relationships

This is slightly tougher to attribute to our golf but hear me out,

In the book Covey says “One’s character is the foundation of Win-Win” and this is where we can apply this habit.

He goes on “There is no way to go for a Win in our own lives if we don’t know in a deep sense, what constitutes a win - what is in fact harmonious with our innermost values.

If we can’t keep make and keep commitments to ourselves as well as to others, our commitments become meaningless. We know it, others know it, There is no foundation of trust with yourself or others.”

Integrity to your commitments is the cornerstone of this habit.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand Then to Be Understood

Influence others by developing a deep understanding of their needs and perspectives

The part I will take for this habit is when the book talks about “Diagnose before you prescribe”

When deciding to put first things first - how do we decide what they should be?

Seek first to fully understand your “needs” then prescribe the actions needed to remedy.

For example - Do we think we are a poor putter? Do we know we are poor putter? What evidence are using to determine this?

Diagnose before you prescribe!

Habit 6: Synergise

Develop innovative solutions that leverage differences and satisfy all key stakeholders

Stephen writes “What is synergy? Simply defined, it means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It means the relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself. It is not only a part, but the most catalytic, the most empowering, the most unifying, and the most exciting part”

So this is about the synergy between all parts of your game. How does it all fit together.

We will have strengths and areas to improve within our games but we have to be able to function in every area to some degree to achieve our goals.

How does your game as a whole synergise together?

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Increase motivation, energy and work life balance by making time for renewing activities

This is all about keeping your skills sharp. A carpenter wouldn’t get very far trying to use a blunt saw.

In effect your Saw is your skills in each area of the game.

Long game, short game, putting, mental skills, strength, mobility, course mngt etc etc etc.

How are you keeping your skills sharp??

Really it’s all common sense, but the problem with common sense is that it isn’t that common. Should be called uncommon sense!!

Before we go some news from the DP World Tour 

Sam Bairstow was disqualified from the Scottish Open at Trump International for a rules indiscretion. The incident was seen and filmed by a spectator and reviewed by rules officials when the spectator made them aware.

In the video you can see Sam address his ball in some rough on a sand dune, the ball pretty clearly moves. Before Sam has a word with his caddy and then plays the shot with out replacing the ball.

Once Sam was shown the footage he disqualified himself and the tour has subsequently fined him £25,000.

What do you think?

That’s all folks,