Food, water and the back nine, hot or cold
Concentration fades before the swing does. Humid July hides the losses, and a cold May round has its own rules.
Section
Practice
Practice that transfers to the course. Course management, the short game, putting on poa greens, cold-weather distances, and the habits that take strokes off a card.
Fairway bunkers: the lip, then the club
One more club, three-quarter swing, feet barely dug in. Wet spring sand is firm and bounces the leading edge into the ball.
Wedge numbers: nine distances, measured indoors
Three wedges by three swing lengths. A February simulator session gives you a chart worth a season of guessing.
More fairways, and what cold air does to them
Aim at the edge your miss moves away from, take the club you control, and take an extra one in May when the ball…
Five numbers to track before the snow returns
Fairways, greens, three-putts, up-and-downs and penalties. Three rounds of counting decide what you work on all winter.
Range and dome sessions that actually count
Warm up, work on one thing, rehearse nine holes. And what a dome or simulator can and cannot teach you over winter.
Lag putting: pace on slow spring greens
Three-putts are about pace. Aim past the hole, ladder the distances, and remember that mountain greens break toward the valley.
Chipping: three shots that cover every lie
A low runner, a standard pitch and a high soft shot, plus what to do about spring greens that will not hold.
Pace of play: four hours in a five-month season
Ready golf, the provisional ball, the cart used properly and tee intervals: four hours without hurrying.