There are no magic fixes in golf that will transform your game at the flick of a switch. No secret potion that can be consumed and instantly result in 18/18 Greens in Regulation. No technique you can learn to never miss a putt within 10 foot. No club and shaft combination that will immediately transform you from hitting 200 yard drives, to competing on the long drive tours. It just doesn’t happen that way.

Think about it:

• The fitness magazine says that you have 30 days to get ‘ready for the summer’ and with a brand new diet/exercise regime/mind-set you will achieve the body that you have always dreamt of. Unfortunately, it is not quite true, even if you do start NOW.  Change takes time.

• Dashrath Manjhi single-handedly spent 22 years digging out a 110 metre long tunnel to reduce the distance to the next town (which had the nearest hospital) from 75km down to 1km. Little chunks combined can equal a large result, but change takes time.

• Your favourite club manufacturer comes out with a new driver and you wonder what all the fuss is about as you struggle to see the difference from the last offering. But look at a modern driver against one from 10, or even 5 years ago and you will see these little changes have culminated in quite a large shift over those years. Change takes time.

• I am currently learning Spanish to help with future job opportunities. Acquiring a new language with its words, grammar rules and sentence construction can be daunting. So I am chipping away at the task by using my 40 minutes of driving each day, plus any spare moments to listen to a language course. Change takes time.

• Henrik Stenson, winner of the 2013 FedEx Cup said after his final round: “This shows that I never give up, it's been a lot of hard work and a couple of changes…it's been some good work that's starting to pay off big time. It wasn't like you wake up in the middle of July and you start playing fantastic. I put the work in during the spring. Change takes time.
So…what does this mean for your golf game? Many golfers I work with would love to have the time to play 5 rounds a week and practice each day; unfortunately life gets in the way. Does that mean they cannot play better golf? I don’t think so!
I am going to give you some of the best ways to develop your skills so that you can get a tiny bit better at golf every day. When totalled up, that equals a visible change.

• Working on shoulder alignment at address? Initiating the downswing with your lower body? Sequencing drills? A grip change? Experimenting with hitting different curves? The good news is that ALL of these can be
worked on in the mirror, without ever hitting a golf ball. In fact, separating these movement changes from a ball-flight is often very valuable for getting the best possible results. If you spend a few minutes, a couple of times a day working on these things, picture the cumulative time spent in a few weeks.

• If you are trying to make any movement changes in your swing, try making really slow swings, emphasising and exaggerating the changes you want to feel. Partner this with swinging with your eyes closed in order to heighten your senses. This extra awareness would not be felt from mindlessly hitting golf balls, so you can make more improvement in less time!

• In a few spare moments, have a recap of your last round of golf. What REALLY caused the dropped shots? Look deeply into this. Was it really that you had a few 3 putts or was it that your pitching wasn’t good enough, which forced you to get over-aggressive with your putts to try to force a birdie. The more honest and thorough you can be, the more feedback you have to be more effective in subsequent practice sessions.

Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day. Get started, build a habit and reap the rewards.