Over the past decade, I have seen grit become a recipe for parents and coaches to prescribe to kids to justify practice. As a result, many junior golfers spend countless hours on the range working on their swing, hitting thousands of balls. The problem is, despite engaging in deliberate practice and being gritty, a ton of these players never get better. Why? Because golf is a game of skill. To make it at the highest level, one needs to be able to have the self-awareness to develop enough skills to make six birdies a round while limiting bogeys. The more variety of skills a player poses, the more opportunity a player has to either optimize the opportunity for birdie or to recover from a poorly executed shot.

The problem with grit is that it is often prescribed by parents and coaches who don’t truly understand the game. Junior golfers who have aspirations of college golf or beyond should focus less on grit and more on developing an understanding of the game and an arsenal of shots. By college, an elite player should be able to curve the ball; control trajectory and have a broad selection of shots around the green, at the very least. In building skill, players must remember that grit is far less important than understanding the elements necessary to execute a shot and having the self-awareness to monitor each variable.

In my own game, I struggled with chipping off dormant wet Bermuda for more than a year. It was awful and I was lost. However, that didn’t stop me from spending time at the green each day, working on my game. This is because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do; be gritty and put in the time. The sad thing is that I never got better. Why? Because I didn’t have the self-awareness to understand what I was doing wrong, nor the understanding to fix it. This means I could have practiced forever, and I would have stayed as the world’s worst chipper.

A couple of days ago, I played with a talented young player. For the first seven holes, he was flawless. Then he started to hit a number of bad drives. He explained the frustration of “missing both ways” and described endless hours on the range, working through it. He also described the frustration (and fear) of having to play when not knowing where the ball was going but felt he had no choice but to grit through it cause of his scholarship. Finally, on the 11th tee, he turned and asked if I had any feedback. The issue was that
he was setting up with the face too square. When his path was right, the ball would start straight and hook. Under pressure, he would increase side bend (a lot) to try and square the face. The result would be a block. I told him to fan the face open, try to hit a draw, and swing hard. Now that the face and path matched, tight draw that never crossed his target line. BOOM!

By the time a player is on the first tee, be it for a tournament or a money match with buddies, they should have spent adequate time building skill. When applying them, players don’t need grit, they simply need to relax and draw on their experience and imagination. Trusting that whatever happens will either lead to lower scores or give feedback for their next practice session.

The joy of golf isn’t working hard, it’s shooting low scores by having control of the ball. A little tour sauce here. Low bullet there. A massive curve around a tree or a lower spinner into the green for a par save. This summer, I hope you fall in love with golf by having more practice sessions where focus is on self-awareness and developing different shots. This will not only make practice and playing more fun, it will lead to lower scores. I promise.