Watching the Aberdeen Asset Scottish Open at Castle Stuart in Inverness, Scotland, and The Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, we started thinking about how links golf is so much different from our U.S. brand of parkland golf.

And now this week the PGA Championship is at The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, which in many ways is also links-like visually, although it plays more like a typical U.S. course (unless the wind is howling).

What should you do to prepare your game for a trip to the Auld Sod of Ireland, or the Home of Golf, Scotland, or a seaside course here in the U.S.?

One thing that comes to mind is to not expect to have a career round. Unless you've been there often, it'll take some getting used to.

Beyond that, we turned to SwingFix instructor Doug Spencer of the Brian Mogg Performance Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Here's what he suggests:

"Being prepared for the weather and windy conditions is a must. A few areas that I would practice would be as follows."

1. Make sure to have fresh grips.
2. Practice wearing your rain gloves to get used to wearing two gloves.
3. Invest in a quality rain suit and shoes, and hit some balls with the rainsuit on to make sure you can swing effectively before the round.
4. The greens will be a bit slower so practice on slower greens to get used to hitting your putts harder.
5. Practice working on hitting a lot of longer putts through the fringe and from out in the fairway. This is a great way to work on getting used to keeping the ball down on the ground.
6. The bunkers will also be deeper with high faces, so getting used to hitting high bunker shots is a must.
7. The sand also seems to be firmer on links courses, so get used to the firmer base and the wedge bouncing more (check the bounce on your wedges to make sure you don't have too much).
8. Learning to hit lower flighted shots is also a must to control your trajectory. Go out and throw some balls in the trees and practice hitting lower flighted shots under the branches. Hitting balls on the range doesn't quite tell you how you're controlling your trajectory.

After his improbable British Open victory, Ernie Els stated the obvious to anyone who plays golf: "It's a crazy, crazy game."

He'd just watched one of the world's best players, Adam Scott, squander a 4-shot lead going into the final day, including closing with four straight bogeys, handing the Claret Jug to Els (who, by the way, played brilliantly on the final day and fully deserved the win).

Els certainly knows a bit about the crazy way golf plays with your head – he's given up a few final-round leads himself.

Even we amateurs know this feeling all too well: Whether it's the club championship, a $5 Nassau, or simply trying to break 90 for the first time. When you're down to the last couple of holes, the demons start screaming so loudly, you feel like you're in Dante's Inferno.

How to keep those demons at bay? We asked SwingFix Instructor and Director of Golf at the Biltmore Golf Course in Miami/Coral Gables, Fla., Justin Bruton, for advice on how to keep it together on the course that lies in the six inches between your ears:

"Great question. Not an easy one to answer either … Obviously there's a number of different ways to deal with pressure. Pressure is always there whether you're hitting your first tee shot of the day, or you're somewhere halfway through the round, or you're coming down the closing stretch as Adam was on Sunday.

“My key to dealing with pressure is trying to play every hole the same way no matter if it's your first or last hole. The best way to do this in my opinion is to not know your score or status in the tournament. Ignorance is bliss. By not knowing your score, you eliminate the distraction of what you need to do. Just record your score after every hole until you're done and then add up both front and back nine totals at the end of the round. Sometimes this technique is easier said than done the way our minds race during a round. But overall this might be the easiest and most effective mental approach out there."

And as a mnemonic to remind you of this advice, Bruton adds, "Less is more… Don't know your score."

For golfers across the globe, finding ways to improve their games is an unending pursuit.

Among other things, that quest often will include reading books or magazine articles relating to instruction, watching instructional videos or tuning in for hours upon hours of Golf Channel programming.

The No. 1 resource for golfers in need of advice, however, usually becomes the people that they tee it up with on the weekends or their friends who play the game.

And quite honestly, that can be a dangerous proposition. Certainly not all the time, but on occasion, seeking help from anyone who will listen or has the time to offer an opinion can be counterproductive when it comes to improvement.

This is especially true for someone who has decided to make an investment in taking lessons.

Many golfers who decide to take lessons are looking for immediate results from the lesson process, but typically even the smallest of changes take time. When results don’t come quickly enough, however, many players will turn back to their friends and the instruction they sought out ends up going to waste.

It needs to be noted that a big part of the lesson process is finding a golf professional that you trust and whose plan you can commit to when it comes to improving your game. That process will require some time and some research, but once that investment is made the student will benefit from a firm commitment to what they're being taught.

“All golfers, from touring pro to beginner, will receive advice from many sources,” said Tim Cooke, the Director of Golf Instruction at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, S.C. “ All advice is well intended, but if it conflicts with the swing shape and style a student is working on the advice can be disastrous.”

Cooke, however, was quick to point out that he understands that golfers will often turn to their friends for validation or feedback. It’s only natural, he said.

But he had some words of wisdom for players who fall into that category.

“If a student receives advice from someone other than their professional, I would recommend that they run the suggestion by their coach to see if it makes sense for their swing objectives,” added Cooke, who has been named by Golf Digest as one of the top 40 golf instructors under the age of 40.

As mentioned previously, finding a pro that you can trust and believe in when it comes to your golf swing and game is a huge part of the lesson process.

Is there a sure-fire way to find the perfect instructor?

Unfortunately, probably not. It’s inevitable that some teachers and students simply won’t click.

But according to Cooke, comfort level is a great starting point when you start looking for the right instructor.

“I like to spend a session getting to know the student, spending time talking about the game, seeing lots of shots and discovering/setting goals,” Cooke said. “A student should feel comfortable in a lesson setting. Ultimately, however, success and improvement is what builds trust.”