If you played competitive golf as a junior golfer, whatever level, you can’t help but look back and think about the mistakes. The stuff you could’ve done better. The advice you’d give to your younger self that would save yourself some stress.
Turns out, even the best players in the world think about this. Or at least Ludvig Aberg does.
When I bumped into him on the range at last week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic, I asked him a simple question:
If you could go back in time and give some advice to yourself as a junior golfer, what would it be?
“Actually, I have two big things,” he said.
Take note, junior golfers…
1. Don’t run away to the driving range
It’s so tempting, when golfers start playing poorly, to run away to the driving range. To press pause on everything until you figure it back out.
Ludvig says that was his instinct, too. And it’s what he would do over.
“I always had a tendency to spend too much time on the driving range. I would play bad and want to go to the driving range and work it out. Now I’d tell myself to play through it. Keep playing. Figure it out on the golf course; learn how to play with it.”
2. Surround yourself with better players
The right environment can elevate a junior golfer farther and faster than perhaps anything else.
Ludvig is the proof. He was the product of a junior academy in Sweden, and he said the process of learning from other junior golfers helped transform his game for the better. Looking back, it’s something he would tell any junior golfer to do even more of.
“Surrounding yourself with better players. Playing little matches with them. That’s so important. You learn from them; it pushes you to become better. I did that a lot as a junior golfer, but I would tell myself to do even more of that.”
