Don’t Mess with the Cardinal Rule

Remember when you were somewhere between 16 and 20 years old and someone told you about not drinking liquor after beer eg (“beer and liquor makes you sicker”)?  Then at some point you tested that theory.  Later that night while hugging the toilet you probably told yourself “never again”.  That is what I call a cardinal rule.  Unfortunately, we tend to break those rules many times before we get the point-Don’t break a cardinal rule.

Be very careful about breaking a cardinal rule

The same goes for golf.  We all have a few cardinal rules, or a least we say we do because we break them way too often.  For example, how many times have you been standing over a shot when your head starts to itch or a bug lands on your ball or some other distraction happens.  The voice inside your head says to back away but, no, you just try to play through it.  The next thing you see is your ball being shanked, honked, bladed, chunked, pulled or sliced.  Then you say, “I knew I should have backed off of that shot!”.  Time to make a cardinal rule-and stick to it!

I only have 3 cardinal rules.  They are:

1) Back away from a ball if a bad swing thought enters my head. By far the hardest rule to keep.

2) Never, ever, ever play out of turn when playing an important match because every time I do, I rush or think about the fact that I am playing out of turn.

3) Mark all putts that are not tap-ins.  (This is a rule I probably break more than any other, but never in tournament play).

Now I cannot tell you what your cardinal rules should be, but I can tell you that if bad things or good things happen every time you do something in particular, then it is time to make a cardinal rule – and stick to it!