Most golfers like a good challenge. That's because it provides many benefits. A good challenge drives you to perform better, increases your interest in playing, and pushes you to achieve a specific goal. A good challenge also forces you to take the game more seriously, to hone your skills more, and to practice more. In addition, a good challenge provides the objective feedback you need to improve. In short, it makes the game more fun.
Taking the Golf Digest Challenge (www.golfdgest.com) also makes golf fun. That's one reason why I encourage golfers to take it. This Web site is easy to do and free to join. All you have to do register and then enter in your stats after playing 18 holes. The Web site does the rest. In addition to the benefits mentioned above, the GD Challenge drives you to work harder at our game. Anyone who's serious about chopping strokes off his or her golf handicap should take the Challenge.
Highlights of The Challenge
Conceived by the publishers of Golf Digest, the GD Challenge provides numerous features to improve your game. It offers a library of video golf lessons from pro players, like Phil Mickelson, video tips on golf from Jim Mclean, one of the game's best and most respected teachers, and health and fitness tips. This year it also offers a free video analysis of your swing by Jim Mclean and his instructors. All you have to do is upload a video of your swing.
In addition, the GD Challenge tracks key stats, like greens in regulation. It also provides a lesson tracker to plan and map your progress. New this year is the Challenge's giveaways. It provides a weekly prize (King Cobra golf gear) and a grand prize (a golf getaway for two at the lavish Marina Inn at the Grand Dunes, Myrtle Beach, SC) just for registering. The site also let's you sign up a buddy to help him or her improve his or her game.
Getting Started
Taking the Golf Digest Challenge is easy. The first thing you do after registering is create a profile. Here's what's involved: First, you select your top priority. Choices include power, consistency, short game, scoring, and golf for woman. Each profile has a program designed specifically to strengthen that area of your game. Each profile also has a pro assigned as a Tour model. For example, if you choose the short game profile, you get golf tips and golf lessons to hone your short game. Your Tour model is Phil Mickelson.
After creating your profile, you can view golf tips in the respective category. With the short game category, for instance, you get tips from Annika Sorenstam, Todd Anderson, Butch Harmon, Stan Utley, Tom Watson, and Hank Harvey. The tips are simple, straightforward, and easy to read. You can even comment on the golf tips after you read them. When you finish with these, you can move on to the library of video lessons.
In addition, the short game category offers a bonus tip focused on the mental aspect of the game as well as some video drills. For example, one video drill covers the circle drill for short putts, in which you put several balls around the hole no more than three feet from the pin. Then you try to sink all the putts without missing. There are also drills like this on pitching, chipping, and sand play. Like the golf tips, these video golf lessons are simple and straightforward.
Progress Tracker Rocks
The best feature on the Web site is the progress tracker. First you update your stats, which includes providing information after playing 18 holes. You enter your score, how challenging the course was, its slope, and its course rating. The site also asks about things like how many chips and pitches you took and how many saves (one putts), and how many sand shots and saves you made. Once you save this information, the Tracker graphs the information so you can see how you're doing.
From this info, the site provides a long game and short game handicap. And you get to see how well you're doing on pitch and chip shots, plotted out on a graph to provide a snap shot of your progress. You can also print out a scorecard designed specifically for the Challenge, with all the appropriate categories marked, including greens in regulations and total number of putts. And the site even gives you a mulligan. It lets you erase one round from your stats.
All in all, the Golf Digest Challenge is a super way to improve your game. It's great fun. It’s addicting. And it's interesting. Taken seriously, it helps you achieve lower scores and knock strokes off your golf handicap. All you have to do is update your stats faithfully. What more could you ask?
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.
