As every golfer knows, tour professionals have their bad rounds just like the rest of us. What doesn’t seem to be general knowledge is that tour players feel just as bad about shooting par as we feel about shooting bogey. I suspect that they might even feel worse. For most of them, a mortgage company will be contacting them about past due payments if they miss too many cuts. We have only our pride at risk.

Talk about dealing with pride, false pride I might add; I had a trainload of it to deal with after I got my card. I had to come to grips with the fact that the card was just a piece of plastic that had been issued on some past performance.

I’ll never forget my first round after getting back from Qualifying School. Weather and course conditions were perfect. I did okay on the front nine. I somehow managed to shoot the lowest score in our foursome. The back nine was a different story. The only thing I did right on the back nine was to keep my emotions in check and treat the other three golfers with the respect they deserved. My reward came at the end of the round. A golfer that I’d never played with before said, “I really enjoyed playing golf with you today. You’re a nice guy.” I decided right then and there that I would rather be remembered as a nice guy than a great golfer. The good news is that I think I can be a nice guy and a great golfer too. After all, it’s up to me to decide what “great” means.

As I was writing this, my mind raced back to a round of golf with an old friend who was the best recreational golfer I’ve ever golfed with. He was a scratch golfer and could shoot in the seventies from the tips on any golf course. Again, the weather and course conditions were perfect. On the very first tee my friend came over the top and sliced the ball. We both laughed not knowing that that would be his best drive of the day. On the ninth hole my friend ended up with the ball well above his feet. Sometimes knowing all the shots is not a good thing. He lined up to the right of the target and let it rip. At about twenty feet the ball started slicing and we watched helplessly as it sailed towards the three northbound lanes of an expressway. That ended our desire to continue, and we headed for the clubhouse. One of the members was having a birthday party, and as we walked in, a lady serving cake said to my friend, “You want a slice?” He answered, “ Not no, but hell no.”

 Set-up:

• As with the unintentional fade, make sure that the top hand (left) is not too weak. After taking a normal grip, look down at your left hand, the little “V” formed by the thumb and forefinger should be pointed just slightly to the right of your chin. Slightly is the key word here.

• Double check your shoulder and hip alignment to make sure you are not lining up open to the target (right).

Common swing errors:

• Inactive lower body
• Tension (stiff arms)

Now if you want a quick fix, a fix that I use when an outside-in swing comes out of no where, try David Leadbetter's cure. Looking down at your club head, set it at the 11:00 o'clock position, then take your grip. In other words, close the clubface. When your swing returns and you start hitting the ball left, simply return the club head back to the square position at set-up. In my opinion, Mr. Leadbetter is one of the best sources of golf instruction. He's also one of the nicest men in the business.