Michael Hendry on golf: Bringing home the......rice!

Michael Hendry picked up one of the biggest wins of his career recently in the Token Homemate Cup in Japan. Photo / Getty Images

Michael Hendry - one of NZ’s leading golf professionals - has a full schedule for 2015 playing in Japan, and writes from the road for the NZ Herald about life as a touring golf pro.

A month ago I wrote my first article for The Herald discussing my approach to peak for specific tournaments and referring to my personal plan for 2015 to try and do exactly that.

Since then, my season on the Japan Tour started with a bang winning the first event of the year, the Token Homemate Cup. Ironically, again I peaked the week before my goal which was at the co-sanctioned European Tour event, the Volvo China Open.

All in all I'm obviously ecstatic with the result in Japan. It was the biggest win of my career so far. Asides from the winners cheque, a car and a years supply of rice, the win means that I have secured a tour card on one of the biggest tours in the world until the end of 2017. And yes, I won a years supply of rice.....

After last month's column was published readers asked how I was going about my training to enable myself to peak at certain times. The question arose from the fact that 'form' with golf is difficult to control and requires a combination of mental and physical performance.

The key is to manage your expectations.

Richie Hunt is one of the most highly regarded golf statisticians in the world and my former caddy Jordan and I got to reading a lot of his work over the last couple years. Like most golf professionals I am trying to find that something extra and so I'm constantly learning and examining parts of the physical and mental game. One of the key statistics that Richie talks about is that it is almost impossible for a player to hold form for any more than three weeks in a row. Knowing this statistic allows me to be more accepting of when my form slumps a little after a period of good play.

Rather than panicking to find form again my focus now shifts towards setting smaller goals.

For example, during a week where I am building back to form my goal might be to commit to a technical improvement on every shot. If I achieve that goal over each shot then the week is a success regardless of whether I win or I miss the cut. The cycle becomes proactive rather than reactive. I regain control. It has also become very rare for me to come off the course feeling negative which obviously has a great effect on my confidence.

As expected my form over the last couple of weeks has been a little scratchy and I expect it to stay that way for another couple of weeks. The great thing about golf is even though I might not be playing my best if I hole a few putts you never know what the result might be.

Next week I'm back to Japan to play in the Mizuno 'Road To The Open'. You can follow it online at www.jgto.org