Beware: It’s Too Much, Golf

“Life is about balance, too much excess is chaos” - Bill Vaughn

Instruction is Everywhere

Filling the Jars. Do you go from this platform to that platform, YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook … searching for that magic something? That single hint, that just might do the trick and transform your swing. Or you are just scrolling, enjoying the posts, social posts, you swipe up, and a golf clip appears, showing one tiny element of the swing persuading you that this is the key to turn your life around.

You dream of hitting the long, piercing drive, the best you have ever hit and want to repeat it, forever. Then looking for validation you scroll your favourite platform, to understand how that drive happened. You are not alone, I do it too, to this very day I still do. It is what happens when golf instruction is everywhere, especially visually.

Beware

Too much instruction, instruction without context, can confuse you no end. Your mind knows what it wants to do but your body follows its own beat. On YouTube I have a folder titled ‘Golf Keepers’, another for Everything else Golf. Golf Keepers is intended to hold no more than 15 golf instruction videos. I don’t count anymore, the number of videos in Golf Keepers. ‘Everything else Golf’, its somewhere up there in the wild blue yonder. You get my drift.

My Experience

I was on the right track to getting rid of those shanks and developing a reliable swing. I couldn’t resist, I looked at more golf hints on social media. I thought to myself that makes sense, I’ll try it out, test it on the range. Next day at the range, it worked, ONCE!! After that, the shanks returned, what I had learned earlier, stuff that was good for me, went out the window. Frustration, frustration. I went back to basics, soft grip, good address, good triangle, clubface looking at the ball. By the end of the session, I was back to developing a reliable swing.

What to Do?

Power from the lead side or power from the trail side. Who is right Pete Cowan or Sean Foley? There is no wrong answer, there is only the how in golf. What matters is contact on the ball and getting the ball into the hole in the least number of shots.

If you are returning to the game and had success with your original swing, stick with that and tweak it to improve it, you may find that ‘magic something’. If you are a beginner, or a long time player, and your game fell apart like mine, read my “Golf Fundamentals” blogs.

What works for me, may not work for you but there are fundamentals in all swings. My blogs will help you with them.

As always, have fun out there.