Wednesday, April 14, 2004; Page T06

Tim Mealey, 47, Bethesda: "Once a year I've played a solid week of golf where you get off the plane and play 18 holes, then 36, then 36 more. A year ago, in April, I started to sense something about my swing by the end of the second day: more awareness. I just started to have a whole mind-body connect that helped me stop thinking about the hundreds of things golf pros have told me. There was a holistic approach to it. That allowed me to take it from atrocious to respectable."

Barbara Ketchum, 55, Arlington: "I got better by not focusing on the score, the score, the score. I'll keep track of my putts rather than my overall score. If I hit 30 putts, I can be really proud and tell everyone I know. It's about setting small goals and being really proud of those accomplishments. . . . . Finally, I play to have fun, so I don't play with golfers who take the game too seriously."

Mike Wilson, 56, Washington: "I was working at things and working at things [myself] and getting pretty frustrated. So I've taken two or three lessons a year for the past three or fours years, and it's helped a ton."

Tiffany Smith, 36, Arlington: "I took everything above a 5-iron out of my bag. I would just hit a really good 5-iron shot. It kept me feeling really good. . . . The ball kept moving down the course. It taught me to just trust my swing."

-- Brian Reid