Having lived my entire life in South Texas, one of the things I had to learn very quickly when I went into the golf business nearly 40 years ago was that this was a much more “seasonal” activity than I had ever thought about. As we look forward to our first real cool front of the fall, I realize that half of the country’s golfers are counting the days they have left to get on the course, if they haven’t been run off already. Not to brag, but some of our best golf weather of the year is in the 4-6 weeks ahead.

Over those 4o years, I’ve talked with lots of golfers about what they do to “get their fix” during the long months when the weather just does not allow you to get out at all to work on your game. It seems I’ve heard everything from “I just try to forget about it” to “I’ll take a couple of trips to southern climates” to “it hurts every day”.

But I would hope I can offer you a bit more than that today, with some tips anyone can use to actually improve your game during the long offseason. So here goes:

Improve your putting stroke. All you need is a strip of commercial-grade carpet about 8 feet long if you don’t want to purchase one of the specialized putting mats (get it in a green color if you can, but any neutral earth tone will do). Find a place in your home where you can set this 15-24” wide strip of carpet down on the floor and leave it for regularly scheduled sessions. The goal with this offseason exercise is to improve your mechanics to a point where you have so much trust in your stroke that when you get to the course in the Spring (or on one of your trips) that you can focus entirely on making the putt.

One of my very closest friends was/is maybe the best putter I ever saw in the recreational ranks . . . because he dedicated time nearly every day to honing his putting stroke to a razor edge. He would spend a half hour each night watching the evening news with his putting mat in front of the TV and stroke 6-8 footers . . . one after the other . . . probably several hundred every day. He had so much confidence in his set-up and mechanics that the only thing he thought about on the greens was the line and hitting the putt the right speed.
While you might not work on it every day as he did, you can build an extremely reliable putting stroke over this offseason that will pay off very well for you in 2020.

Rebuild your chipping/pitching technique. Making significant changes in our techniques during the golf season is the hardest thing we golfers try to do. What happens is that you learn something new, but on the golf course you are really wanting to get results, so you end up trapped between old and new, and quickly lose confidence in the new. I’ve heard it said that any new physical activity become a habit after 21 consecutive days of doing it. Well, the guy who wrote that probably was not a golfer, because this is a lifelong learning experience.

If chipping and pitching the ball are not your strengths, maybe this off-season is the time to do something about it. In my opinion and years of observation of recreational golfers, poor chipping and pitching are the result of poor technique. There are dozens of good books and videos out there showing you how to develop a proper technique, and physical strength is not an obstacle around the greens. ANYONE can learn to chip and pitch with sound fundamentals, and those can be better learned away from the course than on it.

All you have to do is commit to making the change, get one of the great books by Stan Utley, Tom Watson or others, purchase some of the soft “almost golf balls” that won’t break anything and work on it through the offseason.

Keep yourself “golf ready”. As I deal with life in my 60s, I came to realize that keeping my flexibility was the key to feeling great every morning, and to being able to maintain my golf skills. I had let myself get away from my daily stretching routine, and I was feeling it. This body was creaky and stiff when I got out of bed every day, and it took hours before I felt “normal”. So, I began to dedicate 12-15 minutes every morning to stretching every muscle I could think of, and very quickly regained a ton of flexibility I had lost. Now, I have a simple 4 to 5 minute stretching routine I do every day before I even get out of bed, and it has made a world of difference in everything I do and the way I feel.

Especially for those of you 40-50 years and older, I guarantee you that if you will commit to a daily stretching routine, your golf will dramatically improve, not to mention just the way you feel every day.

So, there are three ideas for you to consider for using the offseason to improve your golf game for 2020. Regardless of your age, there is no reason not to set a goal of making next year your best golf year ever.

* * * *

BIG NEWS COMING SOON.

Sometime before Christmas, I will be making a public announcement here on my WedgeGuy blog on GolfWRX.com about a project I’ve been working on for well over two years.

But I will be making a private announcement to my most loyal fans and followers much sooner. If you would like to be among the first to know what I’ve been up to, please email me at [email protected] and I’ll add you to my personal contact list.