Golf Focus
We golfers all have our favourite golf course. This may be the course where you grew up playing or the one where you have had some of your best scores. Or it may be where you have not necessarily played your best golf but where you’ve had some of the most memorable times with your golfing buddies.
Whatever your reasons for liking a particular track or even style of course, thinking back to some of your best and worst games is sure to bring back some great memories. The days where you are playing well and the game seems just too easy are always a highlight, but so too are the times where you’ve made an uncharacteristic triple bogey on the easiest hole on the course and received a roasting from your highly supportive ‘friends’.
Being a member of a club is always good for your game and a great way to make new friends on and around the golf course and its facilities. However, it’s also good to get out and try a different course from time to time, especially if that course is harder than your home track.
Links golf is a great way to test how you’re playing and how your mind is working when it comes to approaching each shot and how you’re thinking about scoring. We can become a little too accustomed to the course we play each and every week and we can sometimes go into ‘autopilot mode’ when it comes to club selection and the type of shot we are going to hit.
If you are not a member of a links style golf club, then it’s always a good idea for you to find a reasonably tough links course and see how your game really stacks up. Links golf is how the game was original designed to be played. Shots need to be thought through more thoroughly and odd bounces, strategically placed bunkers and a battering from the elements are all aspects of links golf that can require more focus than a game at your regular golf course. Faults in your swing or putting stroke will be shown up more readily at a links course, and the tough conditions can also expose any mental fragility.
The thing about the occasional round of links golf is that it will improve your focus for when you return to your home course. Rather than playing ‘target golf’, you will find yourself looking for the exact spot you want to land your ball on a fairway, the flight of your approach shot to a green and the best place to leave a shot should it not come off exactly as you planned. These are all important considerations when playing at a links course and they generally have larger greens than normal so your long range putting will also be tested.
There are fantastic links courses throughout the world and two of the best are found in Western Australia. The Cut and Kennedy Bay, just south of Perth, are both super layouts and, although testing, are a must play for anyone living in or visiting WA.
International Golf Specialists Barnbougle Dunes hosted tours are a highlight for both guests and the IGS staff every year. Barnbougle and Lost Farm are rated amongst the best golf courses anywhere in the world and the return year after year by many of our guests is a credit to the courses and the tours themselves. IGS also offer the Barnbougle experience as a package and this incredible part of the golfing world along the coast of Tasmania can be accessed 365 days a year. These tours will test all your golfing abilities and will chisel a place in the heart of anyone still unconvinced that links golf is the game at its purest.
Wherever you would like to enjoy this wonderful game, the team at International Golf Specialists have the experience to develop the perfect golf holiday for you and everyone in your travelling party. Our contacts throughout Australasia, South Africa and Mauritius give us access to the best courses and tee times. The first-hand knowledge we have of each of our destinations means we will create a golf holiday which provides the convenience of locality to the courses you play, with all the other attractions at your chosen destination.
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