Do You Play Golf or Golf Swing?

Do you practice pure mechanics or do you work on controlling distance, direction and trajectory in all the parts of your long game and short game? The ability to control your golf ball instead of worrying about perfect swing mechanics is what you should be focused on. Most players have become so mechanical that they are working solely on their golf swing on the course and can't score, and they never learn or practice shots they need on the golf course. For example, most of the time on the course it's rare to end up on a perfect yardage each time you are playing. How many times do you practice the shots that are less than a full yardage? Did you just practice it once or did you get good at it? Here is an example of a situation on the golf course maybe you have encountered. You hit a drive straight down the middle; it's a good golf shot, and you are happy. Then, the next drive was thin, low, didn't feel very solid but still went pretty straight and ended up about the same distance as the other drive and didn't cost you anything. If that happens a couple of times a round and doesn't cost you any strokes, does that mean you change your swing because the ball flight didn't look or feel perfect? Sure, we all want to hit every shot solid, but where do you draw the line on making a change to try to have a flawless golf swing or accept shots that don't look perfect and don't hurt your score.

As Jack Nicklaus said in his book My Story about Lee Trevino, "He discovered what worked best for him and stuck with it through hell and high water. He learned golf by instinct, mimicry, experience and hard work.  The key to Trevino was that he had the intelligence and strength of will not to abandon his own techniques for what so easily could have seemed more correct, better or orthodox ways of playing. He was quite smart and secure enough to put scores ahead of style."

Focus your practice on scoring. The ability to control your golf ball instead of worrying about perfect swing mechanics is what you should be focused on. Evaluate your game based on the trends you are seeing that are costing you shots. Put more time into controlling the golf ball by practicing distance, direction and trajectory. Spend the time that you do have to practice on strengthening the other parts of your game that are hurting your score.


www.pbjgolf.com