Inside The Ropes With Gary Bos

[SirShanksAlot]

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing well and staying warm for those of you up in the cold & snowy great white north! I want to talk tonight about the season to date, the state of the union today, and about the tournament road ahead in the next few months.

I want to start off with some thoughts about early season preparation timing. In retrospect, I think I would have taken more time to train and practice prior to entering my first tournament in early January. I think for anyone venturing south to play and compete, at least two weeks would be a good benchmark as a timeframe to properly prepare yourself and recover from the winter layoff. That way you will have the opportunity to work on your swing, find a groove, sharpen your short game, and adjust to your new surroundings. You also need to adjust and get to know the golf courses you will be competing on, and to familiarize yourself with the different types of grasses and greens you will see on a day to day basis.

The best way to describe my competitive season to date from a scoring perspective is to say that it's been somewhat of a roller coaster! My best finish so far this year is a tie for 6th at a Moonlight Tour event where I shot a 2-under 70. I closed that round with three consecutive birdies over the final three holes to finish 3-under on the back nine. It was a round where I was very patient and finally rewarded for some very good golf all day long. There have been a couple of other rounds to date where I felt like I played very well but was just not able to capitalize and make things happen. As we all know in golf, it's all about the number at the end of the day, and nothing else!

My game 'today' I have to say feels the best it has all year from an 'overall' perspective. I had a great practice session this afternoon on the practice tee. I worked specifically on tempo through my full swing using every club and concentrating on solid ball striking. I am very pleased and am going to continue to focus on tempo and building muscle memory with the proper swing motion through the use of video analysis and my own knowledge. My short game has been solid all year and is perhaps the best it has been in over 10 years. I have confidence on the putting green and feel as though I can pull off any shot aggressively with a wedge in my hands. I have had a number of rounds this year with less than 30 putts while hitting at least half the greens in regulation.

The final piece of the puzzle, and in my opinion the most important, is the improvement I have made in my competitive mental game. I finished reading a book earlier in the year that I ordered through Golf54 called 'Every shot must have a Purpose'. It is the basis for the program that was used to develop the Swedish national team and the foundation for how Annika Sorenstam was taught to play the game. For those of you not familiar, the number 54 represents the idea that your true potential is to hit every fairway, hit every green, and one-putt every hole, which on a par 72 equals an 18-under score of 54. The book deals with thought replacement techniques, games within the game, positive thinking, and many other things with an overall focus on the 'process' rather than the 'outcome'. I have read a number of books involving the mental game including 'Zen Golf', 'Golf is not a game of perfect', and 'The Little Red Book'. This is one of the best and well worth your reading time!

Coming up on the schedule.. Honda Classic qualifying this week in Palm City, Florida followed by NEXT! Tour and Liberty Series events over the course of the next few weeks on the Moonlight Tour.

Follow CPGA Professional Gary Bos as he chases his dream of playing on the PGA Tour. Check out regular updates on SirShanksAlot.com and Gary's own website. Gary is the Playing Professional at the Grand Niagara Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

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