O'Meara - poised with balance.
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At this time of year when it tends to be cold and wet it's a good time to work on speeding up your pace of play and developing your rhythm.
If you can learn to get a move on - the group behind shivering on the tee will at least be grateful - by reducing your pre-shot routine and going with your first instincts, it will encourage you to be far more decisive and aggressive with your shot making.
And if, despite behind wrapped up in warm clothing and waterproofs, you can learn to swing the club more freely and with a smooth rhythm it will undoubtedly pay dividends in the summer months.
Balance, too, is important and is something you can work on during the winter.
We all have an inner rhythm. Ian Woosnam, Craig Parry, Colin Montgomerie, Sandy Lyle all like to get on with it. Bernhard Langer, Padraig Harrington and Christian Cevaer, infamously the Frenchman who was first to be penalised for slow play on the European Tour, prefer to deliberate over almost every shot.
You must find yours and if it's on the quick side learn to avoid hitting shots while impatient or frustrated.
Parry told me once: "Do nothing to sacrifice balance. You can swing quick - like Mark Calacavecchia or Nick Price or slow, like Mark O'Meara or Paul Lawrie, but you have to finish nicely poised."
Here's a few of his pointers that amateur golfers may find useful:
1. If you are falling towards the ball at or just after impact…
'Sit down' by bending your knees, pushing your bottom out and holding your chin a little higher to get the weight off your toes.
2. If you are walking after the ball and falling to the left…
Turn the toes of the left foot slightly in towards the right foot. Keep the weight on the left side in the downswing.
3. If you tend to fall backwards to the right…
This is caused by incorrect weight transfer and a reverse pivot in the backswing. The weight stays on the left as you swing the club up and as the club comes down, the only way to hit any sort of shot is to transfer the weight to the right - the reverse of what should be happening.
The remedy is to transfer your weight on to the right side in the backswing.
