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Hey guys,

I was playing a practice round with my team yesterday and I started to notice that my group fell behind. I know I usually take 1 practice stroke and them go ahead and hit. I pared the first 2 holes then all of a sudden as I'm trying to speed things along I guess I stopped concentrating and lost complete focus. Incase this happens in my match tomorrow should I just not worry about it at all or were the faults caused by another reason?

From my own experience and from watching lots of very good golfers through the years I can tell you one thing that good rounds all have in common. Total (or near total) focus on your own game and the ability to "tune out" what's going on around you. It's one of the reasons a pre-shot routine is so important. That gives you a short time before your shot to focus on only one thing. That shot! If you find yourself being distracted by what's going on around you, recognize it for that and make an effort to stay in your own game. Most of the time falling behind is not a matter of a preshot routine being too protracted. It's usually because of that guy that's taking 3 to 5 minutes reading his putt and plum-bobbing every time he gets on the green.

Thanks,

in this case it was due to this guy because he would take 8 practice shots and all of a sudden hit a 30 yd slice. Ends up double paring almost everyhole and the constant wait for him to get past my ball would be the reason I lost control I think.

I agree with the above sentiments, stay in your own world as best you can. Obviously that's tough to do sometimes.

The worst thing that I experience when playing is a great example of what you described -- I've played with guys who hack it around a couple of holes, and before we know it, we're a hole behind the group in front. Hard to not notice that. And even harder to not feel like YOU YOURSELF can make up that time all alone, and you get out of that nice flow you were in and start rushing. Before you know it, you're not marking balls that are still 4 feet from the cup and electing to finish out, and missing putts that you would normally make. All because the guys you play with are stinking up the joint or just not playing with a purpose.

But still, play at a reasonable pace and stay with your flow. If you're not the reason the group is lagging behind, there's really nothing you can do about it other than encouraging your group to pick up the pace. Ready golf -- get them in the mode from the beginning of the round. That will help prevent more days like this.

Good luck, blocking the distractions is commonly one of the most difficult parts of the game.

While it would be great if you could tune this out and not let it bother you, another option would be to encourage the guy to quit taking all these clearly useless practice swings!