If I Were Her Coach

[virginian]

If I were Grace's coach. Doesn't that sound just like an idiot fan acting foolish? What the heck makes a fan who is not good enough to be professional on his own merits think he can fix the problems of a professional? Yet, how many times have teams or players had to put up with statements like "If I were Grace's coach." Probably way more times than they can count and certainly way more times than they want.

I do not want to appear idiotic or foolish. And yet here I am saying "If I were Grace's coach." The fact is I am not a coach and I am not a teacher. But one thing I am is a darn good analyst. In fact, I am the best analyst I know. Give me a problem and give me some time and I will figure it out.

I've seen Grace in person for more than 20 rounds of golf in the past 2 and 1/2 years. That's certainly not a ton of times, but it is enough to observe patterns of performance and behavior.

First a question that leads to an observation. What is the difference between Grace as an amateur and Grace as a professional? Health would be an obvious and easy answer to come up with. But Grace has had back problems all of her life, so I don't think health is as much of a factor as it would seem.

So what is the difference between Grace the amateur and Grace the professional? Coaching.

As an amateur, Grace had a coach working with her every day; working on her swing, working on her game plan, working on her mental approach, working on her thought processes.

Grace is the most talented female golfer I have ever seen. That is not the ultra fan talking. It's not. But being the most talented does not automatically mean you will be the best. Grace's fatal flaw is her inability to control damage. When she hits a bad shot, she loses her way. Her focus blurs, her thoughts scramble. As a result, her execution is not good.

So what is the answer? Have a constant, unchangeable game plan so when damage occurs, she doesn't need to focus, she doesn't need to think. She just needs to execute the rules.

So what are the rules? There don't have to be many and they don't have to be complicated. They apply to every round on every course. To work they must be absolute and they must apply in every case. You can not pick and choose. You have to do it. There are only 2. Here they are:

1. Try to birdie the par 5 holes, try to par everything else. Dang it! I can not stress this enough. I can write paragraphs on why and if someone wants me to, say so and I will.

2. Except on par 3 holes, if you have hit a bad tee shot, advance the ball as far as you can back onto the fairway. I repeat BACK ONTO THE FAIRWAY! A bad tee shot is more than 3 feet into the rough. I don't care if you feel certain you can get the ball onto the green, lay up in front of the green. Your third shot will get you close enough to the hole to guarantee a par.

These are not rules for all time. These are rules for the current times and Grace's current method of operation. She thinks she should be at the top of the leaderboard and at the top of the rankings. It hurts her that she is not near either of those two goals. And she wants to make it right in an instant ... right now. So every mistake she makes throws her into a mental frenzy rendering her talent useless.

These rules will cut through the mental fog. You don't have to do anything dramatic. Just follow the rules and let your talent show itself.

[xman5]

Originally Posted by virginian

1. Try to birdie the par 5 holes, try to par everything else. Dang it! I can not stress this enough. I can write paragraphs on why and if someone wants me to, say so and I will.

I can't agree with you at all. You neeed to play the course. If in contention you need to play the course and the people you are in contention with. There are times when you need to attack and be agressive and times to back off. This is what people like Tiger and Annika know how to do. If you watched the Players Championship yesterday, that is what Sergio finally did (and finally made some big putts.)

Everyone tries to birdie the par 5's, thats always a given. Just trying for par else where is playing scared. You can not play this game scared.

I think her main problems are physical. I doubt that she will come out and say how badly she is hurt, but it is no doubt that she is hurt. It could be a chronic condition that she can not adjust her swing to. As you said she as all of the talent in the world to be a top player and has the brains too.

Just my opinion.

[NTB]

Xman you are probably correct but we really don't know what is wrong
unless she tells us.

[MarinePaul]

I agree with Xman on this one. If it were as simple as you seem to think it is, just birdie the par 5's, I'm pretty sure more coaches would stress it.

[Buzzer]

Sorry, Dale, but I can't agree with your coaching theory.
Annika just blew the field away with a record score. She had 22 birdies and only 5 of them were on par 5's. If she hadn't had birdies on any of the par 5's she still would have won by 2 strokes.

Viva Annika

[Blue]

There are a lot of rumors circulating around Grace. She's injured. She's having conflicts with her family regarding a boyfriend that they don't like. She's burned out. But none of us really know. I'd certainly like to see her return to her own form. she's one of my favorite players. But it's probably not as simple as trying to birdie the par 5s and par the other holes regardless of the situation and course.

[virginian]

I expected to have to dodge bullets when I posted this message. I'm pretty nimble so I will continue to stand by what I have said.

This is not a plan to put Grace into contention to win tournaments. This is a plan to stabilize her game and put her back into the top 30.

Her are some stats:

1 --- Grace's last top 10 was in October 2005
2 --- Grace has had 5 top 20 finishes in her last 39 tournaments
3 --- Grace has had 9 top 30 finishes in her last 39 tournaments
4 --- Grace has withdrawn, missed the cut or did not start 21 of her last 39 tournaments.

Nowhere, not once, have I said pass up the chance for a birdie or an eagle because all I want you to do is birdie the par 5's and par everything else. What I have said is the game plan should be to birdie the par 5's and par everything else. In the past, I have even said that her natural ability will offer opportunities for birdies and eagles. That is especially true if she follows the plan.

But starting each hole with the game plan in mind will relax Grace in the tee box. She doesn't have to do anything dramatic with her tee shot, particularly on par 5's. If Grace is going to go bad on a hole, it will usually be because of a bad tee shot that frustrates her and starts a flawed thought process.

That's it. Stabilize the game. Don't try to do anything dramatic. Don't try to set the world on fire. Don't try to gain 2 strokes at once. Get back into the top 30.

Then we'll do another game plan.

[Blue]

I understand your goal which is to play a conservative game.

However, tournament golf is more complicated than that. Attempting to birdie par 5's is SOP.

But are you saying she should not take advantage of a good opportunity on par 3s and 4s? That doesn't make any sense.

[MarinePaul]

Dale, it sounds more like you'd be coaching her more how not to lose than to win. That, to me, seems completely backward. Playing conservatively seldom pays dividends.

[virginian]

Originally Posted by Blue

I understand your goal which is to play a conservative game.

However, tournament golf is more complicated than that. Attempting to birdie par 5's is SOP.

But are you saying she should not take advantage of a good opportunity on par 3s and 4s? That doesn't make any sense.

Blue,

I kind of understand why people think all I want Grace to do is birdie the par 5 holes. After reading my last messages, I realized I could have worded the plan better. I'll try again.

Let me give an example. Grace is getting ready to tee off on a par 5 hole. Before she does anything, she thinks to herself "My goal here is birdie." It doesn't matter what she just did on the last hole. She could be the happiest person in the world because she just birdied the last hole to take the lead in the tournament or she could be mad as heck because she just triple bogeyed the last hole to give up a two shot lead. It doesn't matter. She should execute the game plan and not even think about trying to make up for what she just did.

Grace doesn't let the last hole go. Her next shot is based as much on what she just did as on what she should do now. Because of that she will gamble to try and make up for mistakes.

I have said before that Grace being a gambler is a good thing. But there is a difference between gambling because you are aggressive and gambling to try and make up for previous mistakes. There is a big difference.

I acknowledge that a constant, absolute, unchangeable game plan will take away some opportunities. But it will eliminate most of the mistakes she makes. And I am gambling that her talent will make up for a few lost opportunities and take her to the top again.

In the past 2 and 1/2 years how many things has Grace tried? And how many of them have worked? She's tried many things. None have worked. Why not give this a try? It's not like she's stuck with it forever if it doesn't work.

And it's only the plan until Grace is Grace again. Grace isn't Grace right now. I don't know who that is entering these tournaments. But whoever that is doesn't have Grace's heart ... and doesn't use Grace's talent. And it hurts to watch.