Ask Emma: How do I overcome my bogey hole?
Lady Golfer columnist Emma Booth is a PGA Professional at Avington Park, Winchester Golf Academy and is here to answers all you niggling questions.
Dear Emma,
What is your best advice to tackling a certain bogey hole?
Whether it is the drive, the second shot or around the green I always have this sense of dread playing a specific hole at our course and it doesn’t happen anywhere else so it has now become mental.
Laura, Cumbria
Emma: Well, as I may have said before, you produce what you fear, so if you are always worried about messing this hole up you will continue to do so.
My advice is to change your usual routine for how you play the hole. So if you normally take a driver off the tee try hitting a 5 wood, which will alter the distance you have left to play, forcing you to use different clubs.
I also strongly recommend you go out by yourself and play two balls on this hole and, if possible, walk back and play it again. Repeating the exercises above should take the fear out of it.
Dear Emma,
Have you got any tips on how to help a friend with etiquette – where to stand, when not to talk, where to leave their bag etc – without sounding like a school teacher?
My friend has just started playing, which is brilliant, but then it strikes you that there are so many rules and nuances in golf that we all take for granted?
Kayleigh, Nottinghamshire
Emma: As she is your friend ask her how she is finding playing on the course. Tell her how you needed a bit of help when you first started with some of the etiquette and course rules, and that you will help guide her.
Like most new lady golfers, she is still probably nervous, worried about people watching her and worried about being slow.
If you reassure her that she is doing well and give her tips to help keep play smooth and rulings that save her shots, I’m she will be very grateful to you.
