Making the connection between business and sport
There was a post on LinkedIn recently that caught my attention. It was by George Brontén, CEO of the Swedish SaaS company, Membrain (a great CRM tool by the way). In his post, he made comparisons between sales effectiveness and golf, and specifically what metrics to improve. I love that analogy as there are so many things a business can learn from sports and vice versa.
I’ve played golf for thirty-three years (makes me feel old suddenly). Golf has seen a renaissance during the pandemic and active golfers in most markets are at record levels. Friends and colleagues, who have recently taken up golf often ask me about the best way to improve their game fast. Now, I’m not a golf teaching professional but here are my seven tips to improve your golf game – with the help of your local golf teaching professional.
Trust the process
Just like with any job, you won’t master the golf swing within a couple of weeks. But the great thing is, if you keep doing the right things, then you will see significant results in a short period. And just like with your job, you will experience setbacks. That’s why you should trust the process of improving your golf game. If you watch golf on TV or follow the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, or DP World Tour, you’ll often hear players say “I just have to trust the process and the results will come” during interviews. Everything they work on will help improve their consistency and help them towards better results.
Take lessons from your local golf teaching professional
I can’t emphasize this point enough. Golf is much more fun when you play well and improve – your local golf teaching professional holds the keys to your success. Why? Because when you take lessons from the same person multiple times over six months, you’ll get consistent results. They get to know your golf swing, how your body moves, and where your weaknesses are. But what about Youtube and social media I hear you say? There are lots of helpful tips out there for free. Can’t I just follow them? Well, of course, you can. But what you have to keep in mind is these are generic tips and often cover only small parts of the golf swing. Working with a golf teaching professional regularly will make sure you’re given drills and exercises that improve your golf swing.
Work on your fitness
The golf swing is a complicated sequence of using most of your muscles and body parts to send the ball on its way. If you have any pain or restrictions when you move, this will severely limit your potential to improve your golf game. Improving your ability to turn your hips or shoulders just a fraction can result in a significant gain in driving distance. And let’s be honest – we all want to smash our drives 300+ yards.
The good news is, working on your fitness doesn’t have to mean spending hours and hours in the gym. Personalized exercise programs designed to help you improve your golf fitness will make all the difference for you. Where do I find a personalized program like that, I hear you ask.
I may be slightly biased on this one as I worked for this company for a few years. Nevertheless, Kinexit offers golf personalized and golf-specific fitness programs – based on your body’s ability to move. You will take a fitness assessment the first time you log in. It’s 7 different movements and takes about 12-15 minutes. Based on your results, the app will identify exercises that specifically will address your fitness challenges.
I work out with Kinexit 3 to 4 times during an average week. At the moment I’m focusing on improving my mobility as my hips and thighs have restrictions that prevent me from moving the way I would like to.
What are your KPIs?
Now that we’ve covered the basics like getting a coach and working on your fitness, it’s time to look at your swing and the numbers it produces. Most golf clubs and academies use technology to measure key metrics in your swing such as swing speed, attack angle, and spin rate. You have likely heard about Trackman and Flightscope. These are the top-of-the-range launch monitors measuring all sorts of things about your swing. On top of that, they also have simulator capabilities and you may have tried one in one of the many indoor golf centers which have opened in the past two years. If you’re in Sweden and haven’t tried one, book yourself in at one of Ruff Indoor Golf’s centers and try it out.
I’ve always been interested in tracking my own stats. That’s why I bought a personal launch monitor last year. I went with one from Rapsodo which works with your iPhone or iPad. You don’t get as detailed information as you do with the premium launch monitors, but I can track my swing speed, ball speed, distance, and launch angle. The Mobile Launch Monitor (MLM) also visualizes my shots on a map of the driving range. Which is really cool. Mygolfspy tested the leading MLMs on the market. You can read their findings here.
Get fitted
Most of us don’t fit a normal pair of trousers from the clothes shop. Golf equipment is no different. Once you’ve worked on your golf swing, your fitness, and know your numbers, go see your pro and try out different clubs and shafts and find out which ones give you the best results. I changed my irons about three years ago. I went through a lot of testing to find a combination of clubs and shafts that gave me my preferred ball flight, distance, and feel. Again, golf is more fun when you play well – and chances are you play better when the equipment you use is fitted to you.
The golf ball you use may be the most important piece of equipment in your bag. Make sure you try different balls too and choose the one which fits your setup best.
Keep track of your stats
I mentioned before that I love stats. In the early nineties, I created my first spreadsheet in Excel to keep track of how many fairways and greens I hit during a round as well as the number of putts. Technology has of course come a long way since then and there are many apps out there that can give you detailed information about your performance. If you miss the fairway to the right 80% of the time, you’ll be able to address that together with your coach.
I’ve tried several different stats and scoring apps. My favorite at the moment is the Golf GameBook app. The free version allows you to keep track of the basic stats for each round. The paid version gives you extended stats. The thing I love about the Golf Gamebook app is connecting with your friends and creating games with real-time leaderboards.
There is also an app called 18birdies. I’ve used it for a while and it has some great features. With a paid subscription you also get your own coach using Artificial Intelligence. All you have to do is film your swing from behind and from the front. Based on that, the app will analyze your swing and give you recommendations to improve your swing.
Have fun
Finally, the most important point to make is to HAVE FUN. We spend a lot of time playing golf, thinking about golf, and talking about golf. Even if you’re having a bad round, make sure you have fun. Some days you just don’t play well. Maybe you’re tired, have a little bit of pain in your back or something. Enjoy the surroundings and company.
How important is gaining distance?
I wrote a blog post for Kinexit some time ago. It’s about the impact gaining distance can have on results on the PGA Tour. You may not be playing for money, but I suspect you want to win – read more here.
