I've been working pretty hard on my game (particularly the mental aspect) with a really good player, and had a recent lesson with Pat Goss (Northwestern's coach). The upshot of what I learned from them is that better players take more time to play because they have more things to think about than a player like me. Quite frankly, I never spent a great deal of time contemplating how much affect things like the wind, my lie, the slope of the surface my ball sits on, the weather conditions had on each shot. Since I couldn't ever really hit the ball left to right before, the concept of hitting the ball to "ride" the shape of the wind with the driver wasn't really a factor in my game. Choking down an inch when the ball's above my feet? Never really thought about that before -- many chunked irons of course followed. . .
I spent a lot of my time with Coach Goss talking about what his protege is thinking about when contemplating the correct shot shape, direction, and club. After speaking with him, it becomes clear to me that when you can really play, and have a multitude of options, the thought process is indeed important. And thus, I now have more patience when my buddy Nick spends what seems like an inordinate period of time getting ready to hit.
My goal, now, is to have a plan on each shot before I pull the trigger -- and I think all in all I'm playing much better (tho the results haven't been that much different in terms of the scores).
OTOH, I've also found that I can consider all of these additional factors w/o slowing anyone down. I'll also be hitting the putting green this afternoon to see if I can eliminate that practice putt and keep that left wrist locked in like our young friend from NI.