Golf Reality -- Amateur Lessons for Amateur Golfers
Introduction
So, you started playing golf “seriously” … one, two or maybe even ten years ago. But you still can't seem to break ninety (90) consistently. You spent a few bucks on lessons, good equipment and read the latest tips in your favorite golf magazine, but no amount of tweaking and tinkering with your swing will enable you to shoot a decent score with your regular buddies. Okay, so you've invested endless hours of your time to practice, while ignoring your household duties -- you know, yardwork and that honey-do list that is about as long as your face after you've managed to massacre the golf course with a stunning score of 103 when your last round week earlier was a mediocre 95. You're getting tired of losing your well-earned quarters and dollars to them. What's wrong with this picture?
Well, welcome to the world of the average golfer. The national scoring average for men is between 22 - 25 over par, which correlates to 94 - 97 for most par-72 golf courses. Your consistency. or should I say inconsistency. enables you to shoot a mulligan-less score in the mid-90's, occasionally drawing nearer to 90 but more often drifting toward 100 or higher.
If you're the average schmoe (and who would admit to it?) who has bought into the latest training aids and the best equipment you can afford, and you still can't get “into the slot”; well, I'm sorry to tell you `You're not going to break ninety unless you change something drastically … YOUR SWING!! Whattya mean, you ask? I respond, "Whattya mean `Whattya mean'!". Shouldn't you and I be able to break ninety just by course management? That's true, but if your swing has 'gone south' enough that you can't even keep a 7-iron in play, then course management-smanagement .. it doesn't help one iota. They say it's all in the noggin' .. the old mental ruse. Of course, it is; but we can't seem to maintain a high level of concentration just for a bunch of weekend golf outings that get you out of the house. We're not vying for club championships or striving to earn our Senior PGA Tour cards. Average golfers just wanna have fun!
So, unless your spouse is a sports psychology coach, you're only left with -- ditching that `almost there' swing and experiment with a different way to hit the ball. Sure, it may take some practice, but so what? You been practicing what you've been taught for the past few years, and you're still inconsistent. Even the pros will admit that golf is a fickle game of swing nuances. There are many one-time PGA Tournament winners, never to be heard from again. Why? There game (and their swings) have degenerated to a level that we probably will never reach in our greatest dreams .. shooting par scores regularly. One twitch here and another twitch there, and your regular swing is reduced to beginner status all over again. Terrible thing for one's psyche, and not to mention your general mental well-being.
The majority of golf professionals have shown and tried to teach us average golfers, that there seems to be one and only one way to effectively hit a golf ball with a golf club. Well, in reality, there is more than one way to strike the little white orb and obtain a more than satisfactory degree of distance and accuracy. How? you ask. Well, it is well documented by many teaching and playing professionals that the traditional or conventional golf swing can be as quirky as that weird neighbor or cousin of yours. You know, the one who insists that toilet paper be loaded under as opposed to over, or who can't understand why you don't want to go fishing or cruise in his fiberglass bathtub in the pond behind his house. They have also shown many of us other ways to strike a golf ball with a great amount of success. I have been surprised at the number of golfers who are unaware of this or just refuse to acknowledge it. They are locked into the most popular conventions of golf history. In the following pages, I will briefly enlighten some of you with the other ways to swing at that `dang' ball. If you already know about them, but you refuse to try them, then you don't really need to be reading this anyway. I'm wasting my time, cause you say that you won't ever get any better. Geezz! Why play the game, if you have no intentions of getting better!!
You've been told by many teaching pros “just swing and let the ball just get in the way”. Truthfully, the only way I've been able to do that is just to close my eyes. The ball never gets in the way, because I just whiff it! Nevertheless, my golf experience is reaching its sixth year and you're right .. I'm no authority on the game, just an ordinary golfer striving to play this game well enough to justify the time I spend trying. Although I have threatened on more than one occasion to quit this `stupid' game (I've called this game worse, so please don't report me to the USGA .. just the heat of the moment), I continue to strive to improve my gawd-awful swing, so that I can at least break ninety, at least five or six times a season or year. Once every two years is just not good enough! So, if you've tried everything under the sun, take a step `outside of the tee box'. It can't hurt. You only have your swing to blame.
(This is a work in progress ... To be Continued .... )