A heightened sense of awareness is an essential ingredient for playing a better game of golf. Awareness is best defined as "knowing"- knowing what lies before you and having a sense of the relationship between your abilities, your physical state and what you see. Awareness allows you to be a more conscious player, so you can manage your way through a golf course.

When you are standing on the tee, awareness helps you get a feeling for the general layout of the hole, where the trouble lies and where you can miss your shot and still be okay. Being alert to this information allows you to design a strategy for playing the course that suits your abilities. Your heightened awareness instantly focuses you on gathering this data consciously, so you can pull the trigger with confidence. For example, if you're most confident club for attacking greens is a 9-iron, you would want to remain fully aware of this strength and play to it as much as possible.

Approaching the green, awareness instantly clues you in to the terrain of the green and its relationship to where you ball has settled. I can't tell you how many times I see plays begin to read the path of their putt after they have reached the green. Gathering all the information you can as you approach the green saves time and instills more confidence when making the putt.

With your set up, awareness let's you sense your grip pressure, alignment, the tempo of your practice swing, your level of confidence and your self-talk.

Having a highly developed awareness of your mental and physical abilities is incredibly important. Sensing unwanted muscular tension, a wondering mind or an uncomfortable set-up is priceless. Designing and maintaining supportive self-talk throughout the round is important for preventing yourself from becoming your own worst enemy.

As you can see, awareness occurs on many levels. In order to effectively play this game of mind and body synchronicity, you must always be aware of what you are thinking, feeling and observing while playing. This might seem like a lot to take on, however as you become more adept at the conscious application of this process; it will grow to be a natural part of your game and a tremendous ally for that lower score you strive for.