Get Rid Of Your First Tee Jitters

One of the reasons you might be messing up that first tee ball of the day is because you’re putting pressure on yourself and swinging too hard. It’s easy to do: You want to show your playing partners what you’re made of, you’re going to pipe one right down the middle past all of them, and then… a duck hook into the trees 140 yards up on the left.

Annika Sorenstam told us that when you’re feeling some pressure, check your tempo. She said for herself, she’d think: “Swing 6.” This means that if 10 is the hardest you can possibly swing, swing at a 6. Or think of it as swinging 60% instead of 100%.

Trying to swing 100% is going to make your tempo faster and ruin any chance at hitting it solid. If you think about swinging 60%, your tempo is going to slow down and you’ve got a lot better chance of hitting the middle of the club face -- and the middle of the fairway.

For more tips on how to hit a good ball off the first tee, check out this video: