Having spent last week at Augusta National working with CBS Sports, this has been the hardest Masters I have witnessed. Congratulations to Zach Johnson.

It has reminded me how important course conditions are when playing tournament golf. This does not change for the weekend warrior. There are some weeks when the course plays easily and others when you wonder how you possibly broke 90/80 out here last time.

Generally in Chicago the worst conditions we face are wind and rain so the course superintendent has no real influence there. Extreme conditions exist at Augusta where the tournament committee determines course conditions on a day-by-day basis. I can assure you that the greens were brick hard on Thursday and Friday.

So what can we learn from this? When you consider that 1-over-par won The Masters, you realize that course conditions mean a great deal to the tournament player.

My advice is fairly simple. When the wind blows or the rain falls and you are playing in a tournament or your normal weekend game, shorten your arm swing (not your turn), don’t even try to hit your normal yardages and play every shot with a slower more deliberate swing.

Tour caddie Mike Jeffery says “a boring game of golf may not be fun to watch but fairways and greens translate into a solid round. Sometimes the battle is to keep yourself from playing your normal game and letting the conditions dictate your game plan. The best players adapt when it counts. This can turn into a learning experience in course management for everyone”.

The benefits to this plan can be amazing. Most players are already defeated on the first tee in inclement weather. When I played tournament golf in Scotland as a kid, I loved bad weather. It removed half the field on the first tee.

Try this the next time you face a bad weather round:

1. Shorten your swing
2. Slow down everything, even your walking cadence
3. Adjust your clubbing for the wind honestly — don’t be a hero
4. Adjust your expectations to hitting good shots, not great ones
5. Play the long par fours as par fives and hope to make a birdie
6. Remember that everyone is struggling out there. Don’t join the crowd.

Next week: Top 10 courses you can play in Chicago.

Golf columnist Ian Grant is a PGA teaching professional and a member of the teaching faculty of the PGA of America. He can be found at Oak Brook Golf Club in the summer and White Pines Golf Dome in Bensenville in the winter. You can contact Ian at (708) 917-8951, or at iansgolf@aol.com.