In the game of golf, as is the case in life, the little things matter. There has always been the old adage spoken around the clubhouse of "drive for show, putt for dough."
Put it in layman's terms, putting and the short game around the green are the most difficult parts of golf to master and are far more important than bombing a drive down a long fairway.
Even Happy Gilmore has proven that any old hack can drive the ball a country mile, but even he needed Chubbs to teach him that he needed to be able to putt to win.
And the short game is what makes Tiger Woods so impressive. He can drive the ball well over 300 yards, but when it comes to putting, the man has got the touch -- he is automatic and routinely one of the top five putters on the pro tour.
With all of these examples of the need for a good short game, it's not difficult to figure out what the Penn State women's golf team has been practicing over and over for the past two weeks: The little things.
The season began with two tournaments, the Lady Northern Invitational and the Nittany Lion Invitational, on consecutive weekends. This gave the team only two real days of practice time between the events.
This past two-week break, on the other hand, has given the Nittany Lions an opportunity to rest up for the remainder of the season, but head coach Denise St. Pierre feels it provides a lot more than simply an opportunity to take a break from competition.
"Being home, we've been able to really work on certain areas of our game and really get some good practice time that we didn't have at the beginning of the season," St. Pierre said.
For senior Evelyn Paik, one of the main areas of concern that she addressed over the break was her putting. At the Nittany Lion Invitational two weeks ago, Paik, the individual champion, was upset with herself for not scoring lower because she missed several makeable birdie putts.
"My score definitely could have been a lot lower if I had made some putts here or there, so I need to work on that," she said.
But, after two weeks of practice, Paik has a much more confident attitude around her short game.
"After having the chance to actually practice, sharpen our skills and fine tune our games, we're all really excited to go out and compete this weekend," Paik said.
When the team makes the trek south this weekend for the Mercedes-Benz Championships, it will be filled with plenty of confidence gained from the past two weeks of constant drilling and practicing.
"This time has given us an opportunity to make changes that you can't make during the course of a round or even during two or three practices," senior Maggie Lester said. "We've really been able to work on the little things which should help lower scores."
The two weeks have not just been about practicing and changing swings and strokes; the time has given the team the opportunity to refresh mentally.
"When you're able to spend some time away from competing and working on things to make you feel better about different areas of your game, it helps the flow of things and makes you feel more at ease," said St. Pierre. "I'm comfortable and I'm sure the girls are much more comfortable."
