If you are looking to improve your game or learn to play golf in Derbyshire, coaching can make a huge difference. At Matlock Golf Club, PGA Professional Craig Pollard runs regular coaching sessions for golfers of all abilities.
Craig works with beginners who want to learn to play golf. As well as experienced players looking to lower their handicap and gain more control over their game. Craig is based in the heart of the Peak District. His coaching sessions are available to golfers from Matlock, Chesterfield, Bakewell, Belper and across Derbyshire.
Through structured golf lessons, practical course guidance and focused practice sessions. Craig helps players understand not just how to swing the club, but how to manage their game.
Below, Craig explains one of the most important mental approaches in golf. Understanding what you can and cannot control on the golf course. How all of this can have a huge impact on both your scores and your enjoyment of the game.
Get Your Game Under Control
There is so much out of our control in golf and yet we try so hard to think that we can control it all. So what exactly can you control in your game of golf?
Preparation
You can map the golf course and give yourself a great idea of good areas to miss and places that you definitely don’t want to hit it.
Mapping the course can help you understand what club to take off the tee to avoid bunkers and clear danger. It also helps you understand how greens are shaped and how the slopes will affect the ball.
Practice
You can control what to practice, which types of shots may be required and how much time you apply to each area.
You can also choose to make the lie difficult and structure your practice so that it matches the reality of the game you are going to play.
Process
What I mean by this is your routine. Your pre shot routine and post shot routine are fully within your control.
You can control how you approach each shot, your mindset, the decisions you make, the club you select and the targets you choose to aim at.
After the shot, you can choose how you react. You decide your emotional response and what you carry forward into your next shot or your next round.
The things that you cannot control are quite a long list.
You cannot control how the ball will bounce. You cannot control how the wind will gust on a certain day. You cannot control how your opponent will play, the luck they will get, or the score they shoot.
You also cannot fully control the variability of your technique. It is quite possible that you have never made the exact same swing twice. And how often does the same golfer show up day after day?
But you can choose to accept it.
You can choose to control how big that range of movement is and how diverse the variability of your technique becomes. That is where coaching comes in.
So basically what you can control are the controllables.
You can choose how to deal with the bad rounds. You can choose how much to care. You can choose how much you think the game owes you in return for cleaning your clubs the night before.
And most of all, you can choose to have fun.
It will help your score massively. But it is up to you.
Golf Lessons Available at Matlock Golf Club
If you want to develop your game further, golf lessons with Craig Pollard are available at Matlock Golf Club throughout the year.
Coaching is available for:
- Complete beginners looking to learn to play golf
- Golfers returning to the game
- Players looking to lower their handicap
- Junior golfers developing their skills
With the facilities at Matlock Golf Club including the driving range, practice areas and course itself, lessons can be tailored to suit real playing situations.
For golfers across Derbyshire and the Peak District, it is an ideal place to start improving your game.
Book a lesson with Craig
Peak District Golf Membership
For golfers who want to practise regularly and improve their game, becoming a golf club member at Matlock Golf Club gives you access to the course, practice areas and club competitions throughout the season.