Vic Williams on Forgetting About the Score

The motto of my site is "It's All About the Score" but sometimes the score can get in the way. So when I found Vic Williams's article called Forget The Golf Score And Just Play I knew I needed to bring it to your attention.



To the best of my knowledge, Vic isn't an instructor. He's just a guy struggling to get better, like most of us. But his article about dealing with the frustrations of a game that just didn't come to the course with you rings true. In part, he says:

I realize that the numbers we write down on that scorecard are, to most of us, the point of playing golf, but by constantly keeping tally as we go, we often short-circuit our innate, subconscious ability to get out of our own way and simply execute.

See target, swing at target, hit target.

The one out there, that is — the fairway, the green, the hole itself — not the accepted “par” printed on the card and in our heads. Hit the real target, and the other one will take care of itself, shot by shot and hole by hole.

He also links to a couple of instructional pieces that Golf Tips Magazine has on their site -- one on the mental game and one on the mechanics of the swing -- and you might want to take a look at those.

But his simple take on just playing the game when the scoring isn't there is something we all need to be reminded of. You don't have to "work" on something every darn day, you know? Some days it's better to just go out and enjoy the game we love.

After all, everybody needs a vacation from time to time.