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Lonely Looking Basket

The hardest part about winter practice is all mental. It is hard enough to get out and spend an hour working on your putting during the summer when it is 95 degrees out with high humidity, but when you have the urge to get out and thrown you can slip on some shoes, grab your putters, and just do it. It is a completely different story when winter comes along.

It is coming up on midnight and I haven't been out to putt today. I went to the gym and played basketball for two hours instead. I lifted weights this afternoon instead. But I didn't step out and go at the easy task of getting in 100 putts from 25 feet, a task far less strenuous than either of the others. As an American you would think that I would gravitate toward such a simple task over the other two...

But my basket is under a few feet of snow drifts. Okay, that isn't so bad... But I'd have to put on boots, gloves, ear covering hat, underarmour, a couple of t-shirts, a heavy hoodie, spandex leggings, jeans... couple of pairs of socks for good measure... Doesn't that sound monotonous just to get out and throw a few putts? Doesn't that sound a bit tedious and annoying just to get outside and throw a few drives the length of the park behind my house?

It isn't so bad, I understand that a lot of people probably have to do more. But it is a barrier. And the fact that I haven't been able to do this since our first heavy snowfall back on Sunday is significant. If I can't motivate myself to do this it won't kill my game. There aren't any sanctioned tournaments for around five more weeks. I'm sure I could practice for a short three-four days and play some 950 rated golf, play to my rating. But who wants to play to their rating?

Winter golf and getting over the mental block that keeps one from getting out into the inclement weather conditions to practice is definitely key to fast improvement on the course. If I got out and put in the time every day, wouldn't it be more likely that I'd play 975-980 rated golf when the end of January comes around?

... Now I want to putt. Why didn't I decide to write this blog at three in the afternoon? I really should work on this decision making process of mine...