Keys To Match Play Success

Today is the penultimate day of the Solheim Cup, with the USA currently leading the European Team 4.5 to 3.5. Personally, I am still waiting to play my Club Match Play semi-final (I've already won my flight, and am now in the Final Four) and this time, I am playing a golfer who is clearly better than I am and will not make tactical mistakes to save me should I have an errant hole.

Even when one is playing a better player, the same principles of match play success still apply. Here are my keys that have served me well thus far:

Play the course, not your opponent.

This key comes from one Bobby Jones, one of the great golfers and most fearsome match play opponents in the history of the game. Even though match play is mano y mano, it is still you versus the golf course first, and most likely, last. Don't get caught up in the emotion of what your opponent is doing, and take dead aim with your own ball and do the best you can -- this will serve you longer than trying to out-do everything your opponent does.

Always play first.

It's always better to play first, because that leaves your opponent in the position of answering your good shot.

Walter Hagen, who won five PGA Championships at match-play, would often start a game by hitting a 3-wood from the tee. That assured him of being in the fairway, leaving his opponent in the position of having to do the same. If s/he is not playing the course first and trying to best you instead, s/he'll have a lot more pressure on them, which already gives you an edge.

Get the ball into the hole first.

This is anotiher way of increasing the pressure on your opponent. Don't rush, but by putting out, you're done, you can relax and catch a mental break before the next tee and you will leave your opponent feeling the pressure to beat or match your score.

Always, always, ALWAYS assume that your opponent will make the putt or make a great shot.

This might be the most important rule of match-play.

There's an old saying about assume: there are two words in assume, ass and me. By taking for granted that you've already won a hole or that there's no way that your opponent can do what s/he needs to do, you've given them the edge by letting your guard down and with it your dropped concentration.

Take one shot at a time.

You can only hit one shot at a time, so give each one your level best. That doesn't mean don't play each hole to your game plan, but you can get yourself into trouble with half-baked layups or lag putts...so give each and every one your total concentration.

On the other hand, what's done is done, and if you made a poor shot last time, forget about it. You can't undo it, and you can only deal in the present. Even more importantly, if you just made a GREAT shot, that was also in the past and don't let it make you overconfident. Overconfidence also leads to dropped concentration and dropped concentration leads to bad shots. That in mind, keep your head level and take each shot as if it were the most important one in the match.

Watch your opponent. Closely.

There are two reasons for this: first of all, by watching your opponent, you can see where their head is at, and you can tell if they are struggling. If you notice that your opponent is struggling or has gotten out of his or her routine, it's a golden opportunity to stay relaxed and try to increase the pressure even more. You do this by making a great shot on your own.

Secondly, and let's be honest: people make mistakes, or worse, cheat. The Rules are your friend, and if your opponent breaks the rules, you've just won the hole. Don't feel bad about calling them on it, because you are bound by the rules, and obliged to follow them. So are they. And besides, if you call them on an obvious rules violation, that will get in their head and very possibly will give you a major mental edge.

Study the Rules of Golf and Its Decisions.

You have to know the Rules, for the reasons listed above - you have to follow them and so does your opponent. Even as an amateur, you should have a solid working knowledge of the rules and how they are applied. While the USGA and the R&A's rulebooks can make for dry reading, go through them in the offseason and learn them well.

Then, as I have advised in the past, read Barry Rhodes' "999 Questions On The Rules of Golf." Mr. Rhodes has written a very-easy-to-read book that's enjoyable and will allow you to improve your knowledge as much at a time as you are willing to take on. You can also read Mr. Rhodes' fine web site at www.barryrhodes.com.

I cannot stress enough or too often that the rules are in place to help you -- and the only way that they can do that is if you know them. They are your friend, so visit often.

Finally, never, ever, NEVER give up!

I once heard the great basketball coach, Jim Valvano say that as he was stricken was cancer and close to death. Valvano was using his NC State team's 1983 run through the NCAA tournament as a metaphor for life - and his battle with cancer. In that run, NC State found themselves in a position where they had to win their conference tournament to even get to the larger NCAA tournament, and to win that, they had to beat the defending national champion -- the Michael Jordan led North Carolina team. They did that, and were rewarded with playing the University of Virginia - only the #3 team in the country and the heavy favorite in their game. They won that too.

In the NCAA tournament, NC State found themselves often trailing and in dire circumstances. They never gave up, they never gave in, and by the time all was said and done, they won despite all odds. "The Cinderella Slipper fits!" was the exclamation of NC State's play-by-play announcer, but the truth was that hard work and a never-say-die attitude is what carried the day.

That applies as much to golf as basketball -- by never, ever giving up you can do what you think you can't do. A positive attitude is key. You can't say can't, because as soon as you do, the next word that follows will be "couldn't."

It's a simple truth that in match play: "It's never over until it's over." You may pull off a miracle shot or your opponent may surprise you and miss a relatively simple shot, and let you back in the hole - or even the match.

Arnold Palmer Returns To Raleigh to Open New Golf Course

Arnold Palmer returned to his college roots and his first home away from home today to help dedicate the opening of the on-campus course that Palmer's design company built.

The new Lonnie Poole Golf Course will serve as home to NC State University's men's and women's teams as well as serving as a living laboratory for the school's award-winning turfgrass management program.

Wearing a bright-red N.C. State shirt and accompanied by a gaggle of old friends, Palmer gave the keynote address for the opening ceremonies for the first on-campus course built by his course design company, signed autographs and took a few swings in front of a gathering of fans.

Palmer spent his college years in Wake Forest, NC, attending Wake Forest University from 1952-54. Soon afterward, in 1956, the school moved to Winston-Salem. NC State is actually one of Palmer's alma mater's archrivals, as collectively NC State, Wake Forest, the University of North Carolina and Duke University are known as The Big Four and comprise one of college basketball's most treacherous neighborhoods for visitors: Tobacco Road.

Times may have changed since Palmer spent time here: Wake Forest is now a suburb of greater metropolitan Raleigh (the cities actually touch each others' borders) and many of the courses he played are long gone, victims of "civic progress": Wake Forest Country Club was shuttered a couple of years ago and the former fairways are thick with waist-high weeds, Cheviot Hills was plowed under recently and will soon be the site of a major automobile dealership. Still others remain, however. The tough Carolina Country Club is still essentially its original form, the Raleigh Country Club, the last course Donald Ross built is still open, as are many others, but the formerly sleepy towns are now integral parts of a bustling city that over a million people call home. Of Raleigh, Palmer remarked today that “it's grown a lot but this area still has a familiar friendly feel to it."

For its part, NC State has evolved from an agricultural and engineering land grant college founded in the late 19th century to the largest university in the state of North Carolina, and is recognized as a top-20 research institution in many of the fields for which it offers instruction. Matt Hill, the current NCAA men's golf champion and Atlantic Coast Conference Athlete of the Year attends the school and plays for the Wolfpack, and PGA players Tim Clark, Carl Petterson and Marc Turnesa are recent alumni of the State golfing program.

Compared to the courses that Palmer played in the metro area, the Lonnie Poole course -- named for its alumni financier -- is an absolute monster. The par 71, 7,358 yard course is challenge enough for even the biggest hitters of the game, and the course itself is deep in risk/reward options, with green complexes that will demand precision to avoid three putts.

Along with Palmer, NC State graduates Erik Larsen and Brandon Johnson, who are architects with Palmer's firm, saw the course to its recent completion and opening. Palmer said today that most of the heavy lifting was done by his Wolfpack-alum employees, as they did much of the design work and were on site for th two years it took to construct the course. Palmer was a frequent visitor, giving his guidance and thoughts. When asked today how much help he gave Larsen and Johnson, Palmer said humbly that “I helped them a little.”

Palmer said he is very pleased with the young course, and added that he had delivered what he promised: one of the finest on-course golf courses in the country. Indeed, early reviews of Lonnie Poole are effusive in their praise and many have made comparison to the Scarlet Course at Ohio State and the Yale Golf Course in New Haven, Connecticut. Palmer said that "the golf course is beautiful" and added later that “over time, it's only going to get much, much better with maturity.”

Much like Arnold Palmer himself has.

NC State's Matt Hill Wins NCAA Tourney

When you think of powerhouses in college golf, you probably never think of NC State University, and you probably shouldn't. Yet. The likes of Oklahoma State, Houston, Stanford and others are the real royalty for the moment, but the Wolfpack is making strides, the largest of which came yesterday when sophomore Matt Hill won the individual NCAA Title with three consecutive 69's at the 112th NCAA Championships at Inverness.

NC State, if you don't know, is the largest university in the state of North Carolina, and sits about twenty minutes from its more well-known (nationally anyway) sister institution, UNC-Chapel Hill. That, and it is equally close to Duke University, and together the three of them are the cornerstones of the 1.2 million resident Research Triangle in the heart of the state. State is a leading land-grant research instution, granting degrees ranging from the engineering disciplines to turf management, teaching, and many others.

The PGA's Karl Petterson and Tim Clark are Wolfpack alumni, and many here are hopeful that Hill will join them on the Tour, and have as much or more success than the two of them.

Also, NCSU alum Bri Vega won the Big Break 7 on Golf Channel some time back and is working her way up the women's pro golfing ranks.

The best news for NC State golf may not be Hill's win, however. In just a few weeks, it will finally debut its own golf course, the Lonnie Poole Course, set on the edge of its new Centennial Campus and a stone's throw from downtown Raleigh. The Arnold Palmer design promises to be very challenging for all levels of golfer, but will give NC State its own home course for the first time since the 1930's when a Donald Ross course adjacent to campus was lost to the Great Depression. When Palmer Design was announced as the course architect and builder, Arnold Palmer told head coach Richard Sykes “Richard, you are going to have the best golf course in the ACC.” Considering that there are many fine college courses in the golf-rich ACC (Wake Forest, Clemson, UNC, Duke, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech) that's no small boast. And from the looks of the place as it grows in and prepares to open (it could be played now) Palmer may well have told it like it is. The Poole course will be very special indeed.

In short, this is a college program that is growing, and is now making waves at the national level. Expect more good things to come from NC State in the future.