Japan and Korea have practice centers everywhere and a typical day may feature 8 hours of practice. Photo: Poagao.

One of things I've worked on to become more successful in my "business of golf instruction" is learning from other successful businesses and business leaders.  Certainly not the typical approach to becoming a better golf instructor, but there are simple and surprising systems you can apply to golf.   In this post, we are going to apply Michael Gerber's E-Myth to your golf game. The most valuable lesson any instructor, boss, or leader passes down is teaching clients or employees to produce on their own.   Gerber's E-Myth teaches small business owners simple and systematic techniques for success. 

The Golf E-Myth Step One:  Determine Your Primary Aim

Take a moment to think about your golf and determine the Primary Aim.  The Primary Aim is the mission statement that expresses the essence and legacy of your golfing life.  Here's an example:   "To Play Good Golf With My Friends And Family For As Long As I Can".  Another example for a more competitive player could be:  "To Become A Successful Competitive Golfer." 

The Golf E-Myth Step Two:  Determine Your Strategic Objective

Next, take a moment to create a vision of how you will meet your Primary Aim.  The Strategic Objective is  your golf game vision and how you complete the necessary processes required to achieve the vision.  An example Strategic Objective for golf could be:  "To become a 5 handicap by pursuing consistent performance in my driving, iron play, fitness and shortgame."  

The Golf E-Myth Step Three:  Strategic Work:  Assigning systems to the Technician, Entrepreneur, and Manager of Your Golf Game.

The Technician:  The Technician of your golf game is the person that wants to perfect technique before play on the course.  It's the feeling inside that wants to swing well, but swing correctly.  The Technician would rather hit the perfect shot, the perfect way, regardless of the situation.  The Technician will change certain swing thoughts and feels repeatedly until one works.   The Technician would practice and perfect rather than play on the course. 

The Entrepreneur: The Entrepreneur of your golf game is the person that dreams of successful golf.   It's the player inside that wants to shoot even par, win the nassau, or win the tournament.  The Entrepreneur dreams big and drives the Technician crazy.  All the Entrepreneur wants to do is win, but the Technician can't fathom how to win unless the technique is perfect.  

The Manager:  The manager of your golf game uses the Entrepreneur and the Technician to produce results.  The Manager is the player no one likes.  The Technician and the Entrepreneur  feel like they are held back by the Manager.  The Technician wants to go out to the course and perfect the game.  The Entrepreneur wants to go out to the course and win all the matches. But the Manager is the person keeping score.  The manager sees whats wrong or right with the golf and makes adjustments affecting the Technician and Entrepreneur. 

Implementing Systems of Strategic Work For The Technician, Entrepreneur, and Manager

Take a moment to identify areas of your golf game that need improvement.  Apply the 80/20 rule of economics to your game and determine the 20% that's producing 80% of your weaknesses.  For this example, if you are a 10 handicap (ten shots over par) and you average 35 putts per round, improving your putting average by 20% (7 putts) will lower your handicap by 70% to 3). 

For a given golfer, let's say he plays and practices once per week for a total of five hours.  Four hours of the time is spent playing, or 80%.  Twenty percent (1 hour) of the time is spent warming up and practicing.   For the Manager to successfully meet the Primary Aim by implementing the Strategic Objective, he must balance the work for the Technician and the Entrepreneur during practice and play. 

During practice and warm-up the Technician's goal is to find a rhythm and good swing feels for the day.  The Entrepreneur's goal is to feel confident and ready to win.   The Manager's goal is to meet the Primary Aim and the best way to accomplish that is by focusing on putting.  Therefore, 80% (48 minutes) of time is focused on putting and feel for the greens while 20% (12 minutes) of time is focused on getting lose, swinging right, and feeling confident.

During play the Manager must allow the Technician to feel comfortable with the swing by giving a certain amount of time to swing mechanics before the shot.  The Entrepreneur must have equal time devising the best strategy to win by deciding the best shot to play.  The Manager will then take the swing thoughts, the plan for the shot, and execute.  A good illustration would be 10 seconds deciding the yardage and shot, 10 seconds for practice swings, and 10 seconds to execute.  

Applying the 80/20 rule to the time it takes to play 18 holes for this example will surprise you as well.  If you shoot 80 taking 30 seconds for each shot, you only spend 40 minutes actually golfing.  Over 3.5 hours of time it takes to play 18 holes, you only spent 20% of the time playing golf. 

Makes you wonder why it takes so long to play golf.  

Try the E-Myth approach to your game and become a more efficient golfer taking less time to play.