How I Prep for Golf Tournaments // One Month Out

he everyone it's Paige and welcome back to my YouTube channel so I have an event at the end of August that I want to get my game in shape 4 so I thought I would show you leading up to the event what I do four weeks out 3 weeks out two weeks out week out and as I'm at the event this one is an important event it's a stroke play event which I don't normally play stroke play events especially under pressure and so it's really important that I feel super conf confident with my game but unfortunately I don't have a lot of time because my August is going to be extremely busy and I know that a lot of us actually don't have a lot of time to be able to practice on our game so this is what I'm going to do to get my game in shape with not a lot of time to be able to practice and prepare so we're about 4 weeks out which means that we're going to work on technique and make sure everything is in the right spot so let's just get right on to the video I said I'm about four weeks out which is a good amount of time to be able to work on my technique and also shots you never want to work on your Technique really close to an event or a situation where you need to play Under Pressure because you have too many swing thoughts in your head so right now I know I have a lot of time to be able to work on technique and work on different shots that I want to have in the bag at the driving range I like to give myself about 30 minutes to an hour sometimes more if I have the time and I'm really working on something but you don't need to spend hours on the driving range you just need to work smart and work on the right things most people come out to the driving range and they just hit and hit and hit and hit and they don't work on any specific items to really improve their game and so I like to work on alignment working on shots and also my technique we're going to start with my wedges with my wedges I'm working on flighting shots what that means is when you flight a shot you bring the trajectory down and this is really important because it helps you with distance control and also with controlling spin most people think with their wedges that they want to hit them really high in the air and that's how it's going to spin and stop on the green and when you're watching the professionals play and hit their wedges you might notice that their swing is really Compact and they're really controlling their Spin and their distances and the ball flight is a lot lower so I'm going to show you how to do that and what I'm working on so let's go so I'm hitting my 54 degree wedge I normally warm up with this club and when I'm warming up the first thing I do is just basic chip shots with my basic chip shots all I'm focusing right now is tempo Rhythm and finding the center of the club face I always tell people this if you're struggling with finding the center of the club face start small and work yourself big if you can't find the center with a short little Chip Shot then chances are it's going to be really hard for you to find the center when you're swinging full out with a driver so do this drill and if you can't find the sent in the club face then keep doing it and keep doing it and this is also great too because you're working on your short game at the same time you're working on your full swing and so it's amazing it's a win-win situation and so I'll do this until I feel really good and feel solid contact is great Rhythm feels good and my body also feels loose after that I'm going to keep moving bigger and bigger until I get to about a wedge distance that feels comfortable to me so now we're going to work on flighted wedges and so this is what I do I have my normal setup and I'm going to move the ball just a little bit farther back in my stance not off the back foot um but just a little bit back I like to say about an inch and then I'm going to choke down and I'm going to set my weight slightly forward from here I want to feel like I'm not trying to hit it harder I'm actually more of a slower kind of swing and one thing that I do is I get quite steep on my wedges so I actually like to feel like I'm bumping my hit forward and my arms are almost dropping behind me and I'm turning it down and through it so it's almost like I'm hitting this kind of punch little draw with my wedges which flattens out the trajectory and brings it down a little bit lower and then it's a abbreviated follow through and again Tempo is the most important thing here most people think if it's a shorter swing they have to hit it harder and actually want you to have a little bit more rhythm with it you're going to choke down as well not a lot this is more personal preference but choking down will give you just more control and you're not super set I would say it's about if this is 5050 you're about 7030 or um about [Music] 6040 so an issue that I have with my flighted wedges is just that what I did I tend to again come a little steep on it and hit them slightly fat and I don't want to do that so that's why I'm working on trying to flatten out my swing and flatten out that ball [Music] light you also don't want to feel like your hands are super cocked or doing too much on this one it almost feels like it's a dead hand swing there we go after I work through my wedges so I'll hit my 54 the 50 and then also my uh pitching wedge as well I'll do all the same shots I work into my irons with my irons I want to focus on some keys here first is ball position and grip and Alignment those are a couple things that are fundamentals that if your swing's a little out of whack I always say check those first check your alignment which is what the stick is for make sure I'm I'm perfectly aligned on every single shot make sure your grip is in the proper position and also your ball position having your ball position too far forward or too far back really does impact your swing and how consist assistant you are so make sure you have a checklist check those first and if you're all good to go then you can work on other technique here are a couple things that I'm working on in my swing and these are things that I've talked about in the past it's just something I always struggle with and I always have to work on it and that seems to be consistent with a lot of people where there's just one thing that they have to work on throughout their entire playing career and for me it is my takeaway I work with John yarwood he is out of Alpine Country Club in New Jersey he does online lessons if you also want to work with him or in person he's fantastic and he has really transformed my swing I would always get really inside cross to the top and then from there my hips would fire I would come over it I'd get stuck and nothing good comes from any of those positions I would hit a nasty snap hook where I would try to save it and hit a big block on the right side and um you already know that is a two-way mess and you never want to have a two-way mess and so something we always work on is my takeaway and especially the very start of my swing for me I would get especially under pressure when I'm nervous I'd get really fast off the ball and so we work from about here to here on my swing and it really has truly transformed my swing and my ball striking my short game has always been amazing always something I can rely on but irons and driver under pressure not always the best and so here is what I do when I am grinding on my swing and working on swing corrections I do this drill every single time I hit golf balls and I'm on the driving range and you put a ball right behind the club face I've showed you guys this drill before it's an amazing drill and this helps you with the first 6 in so you want to feel as if you're pushing the ball backwards and the ball's going to go straight back so again you just push it back on the back of your takeaway you don't want to feel like you're hinging your wrist too soon you want to feel as if nothing moves except your shoulders and everything is connected and you just push it back and once the ball disappears that is when you can start turning and hinging what I would do is I would hinge too early off the ball I'd go almost a little outside and then my hands would go out club would go in and then I would cross the top and so by doing this drill it really helps me keep everything connected at the start of my swing and you can even hit shots while doing this drill for so this is something new that I'm working on and it's my left hand making sure it's a little bit more flat at the top and then it almost turns down and it's flat on the way down I tend to have a bit of an open Club face and so the shots can get a little bit cuty for me and so making sure that I'm flattening at the top and then turning it down and keeping it almost flat and shut that's how it feels to me it's actually square but it feels shut and that's going to help me with my ball flight we're kind of looking for like a push draw right now to get rid of that kind of cutness on my swing and will also help me hit it farther in more compression this is um it feels quite odd because I haven't been doing this and so I try to really exaggerate and feel like I'm really turning it down this isn't something that everyone should think of I think that um it tends to be people talk about it all the time that they flat and turn their wrist down but if you're not aligned or set on your back swing then if you turn it down you could actually cause a lot of injuries and the ball flight's not going to quite work properly I'm right on a good swing path on the way down and so I'm now able to be able to work on this but I had to make sure that everything was set on the way back and on the way down to be able to do this properly so make sure that you do that as well because I don't want anyone to get hurt and try to do something that will end up hurting their swing so um make sure you work on the fundamentals first that your swing path is proper and this could be maybe a secret tip for you if you tend to get a little bit open and you hit those really Cy shots for one thing I really have to think about when I start to think of my left wrist is making sure that when I'm at the top that I don't do over the top and come down on it I got to make sure that I'm still bumping my hip and coming down and then turning it over it's really easy when you're trying to almost turn your hands down that everything comes out in front of you and and you got to make sure that again you're still on the proper down swing to be able to do this correctly this last tip that I've been working on has been the secret sauce to better ball striking for me and that's how my hips move through the ball so what I you guys know I have a very active lower body but I tend to do this I tend to get up here Squat and this hip turns back in on me this one gets in a really awkward position and then I look like this and no one wants that so what Jonathan told me is feel like I'm bumping my hip outward but not directly to my left side almost at a DI diagonal angle diagonal angle that when I'm at the top instead of bumping just straight left it's almost straight out in to a diagonal almost to the point of where my alignment stick is so it's like this if you watch my hands when I do that they drop down into the slot perfectly instead of what I would do is I would do this or if I would slide I would slide and I would kind of Bend back and in so bumping to a diagonal really helps me get my hands into the right position and then from here boom you can fire through it so again it's this not this or this it's it's slight and subtle but that diagonal kind of bump change my swing change my ball striking and sometimes I don't fully think about it but if I bump through it and it almost feels like before my hands even get to the top I'm starting to bump it down helps me get shorter on my back swing as well this tip I can't tell you how much this tip has helped me um helped me change my my back swing to make it shorter to my down swing getting the right position there to firing through it I don't have these like left shots anymore because what would happen is I would get stuck here and then i' would flip it quick cuz everything was out of sink and so when I bump I get space and I'm able to get in the right position and then I can fire through it and my timing is working properly and you're still using your legs where you're using them in the right way that is so important because all of your power comes from here you got to use the ground but you have to use it properly and that's what I was not doing before my foot slipped but I actually that perfect so it's a lot to think about right because right now I'm thinking about my back swing my the hinging of my elbow making sure it's short uh bowing my wrist turning it down making sure I bump my hips and that is why when I have about four weeks out or more I'm working on all of this stuff I'm trying to get this ingrained I'm trying to get in a really good spot I probably won't get it absolutely perfect but I want to get into a place where the good outweighs the bad and there is more good swing thoughts and more good things happening in my swing because I know Under Pressure the first thing that goes my arms get a little stiff I go a little inside but if I'm able to think of at least three of the 10 things I'm thinking about then I'll be in a better spot and I'm going to try to ingrain this and so this is why you don't want to have all these thoughts a week before or right before because it's just a lot and it clouds your mind and so give yourself four weeks to more to be able to work work on all of your swing thoughts and swing tips and really ingraining the good habits most people think when you're working on technique that only applies to your full swing and that's not true it applies to everything in your game and so here is something that I'm working on with my putting stroke that has really helped me so I tend to get a little over it and Cy on it and I will hit these kind of right not so great putts and so this was a tip that colt noos actually gave me when we were playing the good good uh Midwest open together he's a incredible incredible Putter and so he noticed that too where I was getting here and coming over it and kind of slicing my putts I can play like that because I played like that for so often but I tend to on short putts I'm fine but longer putts that's really when it shows up cuz you really need to be right on with your line and where you're rolling it so what he told me to do is feel like I'm hitting almost the inside of the golf ball and from there it's almost like you're hitting a little mini draw with your Putter and it feels so much better it feels like the putts are solid like I'm hitting it exactly where I need to the only thing I want to say with this is you can see I cut the first one and I made it and then the next to I hit really great putts and I missed it when you get used to doing something so consistently with your putting that you need to make sure that your alignment is now adjusted I tend to open up a little bit play a little bit more on the left side cuz I know I'm going to cut my Putt and I don't want to do that because I just don't make as many as when I really focus on my alignment and I'm making sure that I'm having the proper stroke through the golf ball there's so many different ways to think about putting some people say that don't worry about it and just do what feels comfortable to you but in the long run having proper technique and proper alignment you are going to make more putts and I know that putting is all about confidence and so again some people might say that the philosophy is just do whatever you want it doesn't matter if you cut it there's a lot of great Potters who have cut it but again that only works for a little bit and especially Under Pressure you want to have something that is so dialed in that nothing can go wrong and so having that proper technique also goes back to what I said about full swing is the fundamentals check your grip check your ball position and check your alignment people's ball position can get way out of line and especially their setup so here's a couple things that I do that helps me with my setup here's how you check to make sure that your eyes are at the right point in your setup so again you want to make sure your eyes are just slightly inside the golf ball so right about here here you don't want to have your eyes too far over or too far behind it and so this is what you do you're going to set up then you're going to grab a golf ball and put it on your left eye and then you're going to drop it so as you can see it dropped about right here which means that I'm a little bit too far U behind the golf ball and if I was a little bit too far forward then it would drop in front of the golf ball so you want to to almost ideally when it's perfect it should drop oops not there either hold on hold on hold on okay let's let's get serious about this this is this is business perfect that was perfect okay I was getting concerned there for a second I was like that's why I'm not making as many 10 Footers um when you set it properly make sure you go through your whole routine obviously I kind of stepped in on the first two they weren't correct go through your full routine and then set up and then that's when you check it you want to hit on the inside of the golf ball and it should hit it and the balls will fly and that's totally fine but if you consistently can do that then your your eyes are in the right spot our eyes are now set up perfectly so where should ball position be ball position should be slightly forward of Center my bad habit is I tend to get it pretty far forward and so I always have to feel like it's a little farther back for me but it's just slightly forward of Center so for me I look at um cleavage line always helps for me and I draw a line down and then from there I just move it slightly forward we're not talking about uh where a driver would be I'm just saying pure Center just slightly slightly forward of that this will help your hands kind of forward press slightly and not want like you're want to hang down on it because that's not really the motion but this just helps um hit the ball perfectly on the Arc of your putting stroke and this putt breaks and I should know that by now okay there we go and that is why it's important to always read your putts as well here is one more key tip that I try to work on when I am working on my putting so when I practice putting I used to do a ton of drills and I'd put teas out and I would spend hours and I would sit there and do like 300 three Footers in a row and although that's beneficial to ingraining positive thoughts and hearing the ball hit the cup and also working on your putting stroke I felt that what I was doing is I would step in hit step and hit step and hit step and hit and I actually wasn't being thoughtful and it wasn't translating over to the golf course I thought if I just put more hours in than anyone else that I would be able to play better than anyone else and you have to practice smart you have to focus on quality over quantity and so now I tend to practice as if I'm playing one of my biggest issues and when I've always struggled is mental for me and it was taking what I was doing on the driving range over to the golf course and I was just practicing in a way that wasn't conducive to that I wasn't really focusing in between shots I wasn't lining it up and so I could I knew I could make 300 three Footers in a row but that's only when my feet stayed still and I was just dragging balls in and I wasn't going through routine and so when I was out on the golf course I then would go through through my routine and it felt so odd because that's not what I was practicing so I do less of that there are a couple really good putting drills and things that I do do um but I feel like I become a better player on the golf course by practicing more realistic on the practice facilities and so Highlands Ranch who where I practice where the the DU players play I'm lucky enough that I get to have this amazing amazing pting green and all these different holes and so what I like to do is just go around and really just hit a bunch of different shots but I go through my routine and the biggest thing that I try to work on is because sometimes I have issues seeing the line correctly and this might help you guys is I try to find a spot like a foot in front so right here is my spot and where I want to go and let's say for time purposes I won with my whole routine when I set up I have to roll over that spot so did I hit the spot no I didn't hit the spot I was a little right of my spot and this also helps me too to be able to see the line and make sure that I am reading greens correctly I've always really struggled with reading greens mostly because I really wouldn't practice it that often unless I was out on the golf course and so you also need to work on your alignment and your routine and reading pots and so that's why it's really important to go through your routine and practice like you play because we're put in these situations on the golf course that we don't encounter when we practice different lies the winds going through our routine reading greens all of these things that we see out there that we don't see here and so it's a bit of a shock when you get out there and so for me reading greens is really important and I spent a lot of time reading greens and this drill is a great one for me because it tests me did I read it correctly did and I'm rolling it over the right spot cuz my my stroke could be good but if I didn't read it correctly it doesn't matter and so try this one out it's also very similar to with chipping where I've talked about this drill before where when you go through routine you find a spot that you want to land it and you get used to what the club does and where it lands and how it releases and so that's that same kind of thought process and you bring it to putting because most people don't think about putting um that in depth which you should because I mean it's where the smallest amount of M can really cause uh an extra stroke or two shots here and there so you have to be really precise with your putting and so these are a couple things that I think about and drills that I work on when I am practicing and getting ready for an event and that is all for today's video I hope you guys enjoyed I am four weeks out and this is what I do to prepare for an event this will also help you too when you have a good game plan it kind of just puts you in the right frame of mind if you're like me and you get nervous for big events or you know that there's going to be a lot of pressure and you tend to crumble maybe maybe only I can relate to this but speaking from experience I know that when I have an event that I'm nervous for I tend to uh just my mind starts to go all over the place and I start to almost like internally freak out and that comes out in my swing where I start to almost force myself to hit bad shots so I have something to freak out about and so having this really good game plan and making sure I'm preparing week by week and we're making small changes here and there really helps me just stay focused in on what I'm doing and it doesn't make the event seem as scary when I know that I am working on the right things and so for the rest of this week I'm really going to be working on my technique and making sure I'm hitting those positions and focusing on hitting the certain shots that I like to hit and then next week you guys will see what is coming next so stay tuned for that make sure to leave a comment down below like today's video subscribe to my channel we are actually closing in on half a million subscribers which is insane to even think about because YouTube has just kind of been a place for me to be creative and show more of my instructional side and more of my serious golf side and it's really been just a really fun place for me so thank you guys for being here and I hope that we can hit half a million subscribers by uh I don't know she we said a date she we do a giveaway all think about that for next video but again thank you guys so much I hope you guys enjoyed and don't forget to subscribe and I will see you guys next week for what's to come in my practice plan