Golf is hard…

I had a big epiphany concerning the golf swing today. It was very thrilling. I realized that I had no idea how a swing plane feels. This was a sobering realization, but was very exciting to finally figure it out (I use those words cautiously because it is hard to say you’ve really figured something out in the golf swing). I want to let things settle and get a handle on what I learned today, but I am seeing how the hands work in a different way, which I hope will be a clearer image for golfers to imagine and feel (two key points before actually doing something).

So why do I rant her today? Look, I am like you. I am a do-it-yourselfer who has struggled with aspects of the golf game for years. My version of struggling is not what you might consider it, but it is my story so I will call it what I want.

At my peak, one year after college, I was a +1 handicap. That meant that for a while about one in five rounds I expected to be under par. I have always been a solid driver of the golf ball and struggled with the shorter clubs. I hit the ball a long way and putt pretty well. As one top instructor in my area claimed, “I do all the hard things well and struggle with the easy stuff”. Want to see my swing…well, here you go.

Not too bad. I sway off the ball; reverse spine angle at the top; early extend, slide and scoop a bit coming into impact. It really makes me wonder how I shot under par. Think about this, i’ve shot 30 for nine holes twice and I did it without being on plane.

Golf is mean, you’d think that you’d have to do something right to shoot under par, but you can get away with a lot if you are a good athlete. That being said, I don’t recommend those swing faults for everyone. More importantly, I think we can now fix most problems by testing for swing faults and fixing the biomechanics. But here is where the science breaks down a little bit. I can pass every test we have on requirements for the golf swing (my deep squat is borderline but much improved). So I could do everything required to swing the golf club correctly yet I still had all those swing faults. Why? I have drills to fix everything you could do poorly yet I couldn’t fix it until today. What changed?

Golf is about concepts. If you don’t know what you are trying to do you will never succeed. You might not use the same words as me, but you have to see it and feel it before you can do it. So this post is simple. You can do the best golf workouts and have all the golf tips in the world, but until you get someone to help you “see it” and “feel it” you will never do it in the swing. At least not repeatably.

Good luck golfers and thanks for listening…and stay tuned I’ll share what I learned about the swing plane soon!