Caddie's Role: The evenings are stretching to the point where you might fit in 18 holes after work. What an invigorating thought having been cooped up in the office all day.

If time does not permit a round there is plenty of time to at least whack a few balls on the range or in some remote field somewhere. How often have you played your best golf when you just stole out by yourself with no expectation and no self-consciousness? It might be a state to try to emulate when next in competition.

Anyway if you do find yourself with an hour to figure out the finer points of the swing you might benefit from what I gleaned from some pretty good players a few weeks ago in Asia.

When I was in Thailand for the Tiger Skins game, part of the four competitors' obligations was to give a clinic to some of the chosen guests. Usually myself and the other attending caddies tend to switch off when we are not directly involved.

This time, for some unknown reason I happened to listen to what my man Retief Goosen, Colin Montgomerie, Thomas Bjorn and Grace Park had to say. I actually found it quite insightful. Not only from a playing point of view but also from a professional angle. Their thoughts on hitting the golf ball could give the observant toter clues as to what to look for in their player's swing when they complain of not hitting the ball the way they would like to.

Retief's lesson was pretty much what I have understood him to emphasise in the swing, namely the basic set-up and address position. Whenever he feels he is off his game he always looks at his set-up. It is an instinctive thing with talented golfers to feel good or bad when they stand over the ball.

If Retief feels uncomfortable he spends as long as he needs to on the range trying to regain his equilibrium. This, of course, is what he told the guests during his lesson. You can never put enough emphasis on basic set-up and alignment. This is why choosing a target is so important. In short, check that you are aiming where you want to aim.

Bjorn caught my attention when he started his instruction by talking about getting out of bed in the morning. Now we all can get out on the wrong side of the bed at times and that's what I thought the Dane was going to lead into when he mentioned starting the day on the right side of the bed, but he was not referring to his attitude. He was actually talking about balance. He said he finds his balance changes dramatically from day to day. So when he is playing he is constantly trying to find the position over the ball from where he can swing freely and always maintain his equilibrium.

Of course, his caddie and I smirked at each other as he mentioned physical balance and omitted the mental stability that both he and most of us can at times be accused of letting get out of control on the links.

Effectively, Bjorn was saying very much the same thing as Retief, but with a slightly different emphasis. He talked about whether his weight was on his heels or toes at address, Retief asked where those toes were pointed.

Montgomerie is probably easier for most amateurs to identify with because he has very much an individual style based on a fluid motion.

That was what the Scot was trying to convey to his pupils in Phuket. The golden tip I got from Monty was that he was always hitting the ball all the way through his follow-through. There is no hitting area for him, he is still hitting the ball even though the ball has long since left the club-face. When you watch Monty swing, that is exactly what it looks like with him.

Given he is not a great fan of the range you are more likely to see him chatting to other golfers during his pre-round warm-up. He explained that naturally he has 14 clubs in his bag and one of them is his putter. So he warms-up with the 13 other clubs at his disposal.

With each of these clubs he hits just two balls. So his warm-up consists of hitting a very small bucket of balls. In fact, his academy in Turnberry supplies balls on the range in rations of 26 balls, two balls with each club, so you can practice just like Monty.

An important observation of Monty's on the mental side of the game was on the need for positive thoughts. He said any negative ideas must not be entertained if you want to be successful. If you have 10 thoughts and nine are positive and only one is negative then of course that negative 10 per cent will overpower the positive 90 per cent.

What Grace Park did rather than what she said was more revealing about how she wanted to prepare for a day's golf. As Monty spoke Grace was readjusting her very well-applied lipstick. Grace's visage is very much a picture of stoic elegance. Beyond the make-up of course lies a very well-prepared golfer.

She told us stretching in her room before she left for the course was something she always does for at least 20 minutes. Despite being naturally flexible, these top golfers do stretch religiously. As Park talked I noticed Monty was readjusting his shirt. We all need to feel physically comfortable before we start competing.

So if you do venture to the range on one of these long evenings, maybe some of the above advice will assist you. Remember quality is better than quantity; Monty's 26 balls with application may well be better than 260 swipes in frustration.