What I Learned from the Man who Shot 60 on the European Tour

Markus Westerberg is a golf teaching pro, former Euro Tour player, author, and entrepreneur. He was born in Sweden and played many sports growing up. He is one of my ‘go to’s’ for information on focus, learning and playing the game of golf. He is currently coaching the Swedish National team and is the Inventor/Founder of a cool new training product, the deWiz. For more info on the deWiz, click here.

Learning Point #1: How you practice is just as important as what you practice. If you stand on the range hitting 7 iron after 7 iron, you might start hitting them great, but you won’t be preparing yourself for the game of golf. If you want to take your game from the range to the course, you need to make your practice look more like your play.

Learning Point #2: Golfers instinctively (wrongly) try to lift the ball into the air. This fundmental belief (wrong) causes many issues as the golfer moves forward in their golf career. You must learn to drive thru the ball with no attempt to get the ball in the air. Shameless Plug: the Speedball is a perfect way to defeat the ‘lifting reflex’ and teach you to hit thru!

Learning Point #3: Make Practice more Difficult than Play. ‘Desirable Difficulties’ when you practice will harden you and allow you to easily take on any shots on the golf course. Markus goes so far to say that you should AVOID all attempts to make practice easy/good. Shameless Plug Part Deux: the Speedball is difficult to swing thru, you must learn to Overcome it!

Learning Point #4: You can learn Hot from feeling Cold. You can learn open from feeling closed. You can learn left by going right. So, if there is a problem with your swing, you can learn the opposite to help you feel it and eventually improve it. You can also make the problem more pronounced to feel it and become aware of it…which leads to….

Learning Point #5: Awareness with Feedback is Key. If you can become more aware of what you do and have feedback to verify it, you will create a true learning environment. The deWiz golf trainer gives you that feedback on important variables in your swing such as Tempo, length of swing and even hand path. Most golfers aren’t aware of their swing and they typically have no feedback mechanisms in place to create more awareness.

Learning Point #6: Golfers (wrongly) believe slow equals control. This is one reason for slow backswings. Tour Tempo allows you to break this erroneous belief and swing to a rhythm that will give you maximum power and accuracy. The greatest players in the world swing fast (both tempo and club speed) and although it feels you give up control to swing fast, you will gain control and cut down on thinking with a faster swing (tempo)

Learning Point #7: for the short game: Pre-Shot evaluation is a skill that needs to practiced and improved. If you get a handful of balls and chip (or putt) to the same target, you rob yourself of the need to evaluate how the shot will play. A better strategy is to never chip (or putt) to the same hole twice in a row. By mixing up targets, you will hone in your ability to develop touch on the golf course.