The Grateful Golfer is ready for the new season.

Are you ready for golf season?  Are you ready physically?  Are you ready mentally? Are you ready with the right equipment?  Are you ready?  Are you ready?  Are you ready?

As the last of the snow leaves northern Canada, many golfers are frantically running around asking these questions over and over.  The anticipation of playing soon is raising their anxiety level because after 5 months putting on their carpet, it will soon be time to hit the links.

Preparing for a golf season is something unique to each player.  Everyone has different ideas on how their season will unfold; they have dreams of the elusive hole-in-one; breaking 100 or 90 or 80 or even 70; or winning their local club championship (or flight).  So how does someone prepare for success in the upcoming season?

Some focus on fitness.  At Golfsmith.com, Brian Hill from Demand Media suggests that working on your upper body, core, lower body and flexibility is the way ahead. Callaway Director of Fitting and Instruction, Randy Peterson, talks about looking after your equipment, starting early and working on your short game in the early stages of the season.  At mindbodygolf.com, Rick Williams, a PGA member, tells how he uses various tools to keep fit and flexible during the off-season.  All of these suggestions and hundreds more can help prepare you physically for the upcoming season.  Personally, I believe staying fit for golf is a year-round process, but everyone has to decide for him or herself what level of commitment they are willing to put forth.

However, is fitness the only area that needs preparation?  How about being mentally ready for the up coming season?  Mental preparation is as important as physical preparation to succeed in golf.  Napoeon Hill‘s famous quote:   What ever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve is so true for golf!”  So what exactly does all this mean?

Dreaming of success on the links gets everyone excited.  At golf-mental-game-coach.com  suggests that preparing for a round of golf (which can be applied to the season) each player should establish their rhythm, preview their round, and have a game plan.  These three points can be very important to lowering your score.  At the Heart of Golf, Rick Semple lays out an off-season process to use mental imagery that will prepare anyone for swinging the clubs successfully at the start of the season.

If you are like most golfers, all of this can be overwhelming.  There appears to be no right or wrong answer.  However, preparation can be boiled down to one simple concept: managing expectations.  That is it.

Managing one’s expectations is the basis to an awesome golf season.  Before the season starts it is helpful to establish a couple of goals.  Make them reasonable, but something you have to work at to achieve.  Think big and do not worry about the details; they will take care of themselves.

For example, this year’s goal is to break 80.  Start to focus on this idea.  Just quietly think about breaking 80.  Do not dwell on the details, but just mull it around for a little while.  Next ask what part of your game you should work on to achieve this goal; your swing, short game, off the tee, etc.  Once you have selected the focus area, break it down further.  For example, if you have a tendency to three putt, work on your lag putting.  Finally, write down what you have been thinking.

Go through this process a couple of times.  After a short while, a realistic game plan for the season will unfold.  You will have managed your golf expectations, written it down (thus making it real) and reduced the mental anguish not changing anything, but expecting different results.

Golf is fun.  Each player has different goals, expectations, and aspirations. Regardless, golf is meant to be enjoyed.  How are you managing your expectations this year?

I am a grateful golfer!  See you on the links!

Sport Is Everything. The Grateful Golfer.