For the past 3 months of so, I have discussed the conflicting viewpoints of various aspects of the golf swing. Is there anything that practically all golf instructors agree upon. There are a few but not many. Before we get to today’s subject let me briefly delve into how my own golf game is coming along in the new season. SUCKS. Now on to today’s subject.
If you read any golf instruction or take a lesson, what can you expect will be a common under lying theme, no matter who you read or have direct contact. You must have a correct or good grip. Now there may be some differences in what constitutes a good grip but the good grip is a must. The address position or what you do before you swing is more important than the swing itself. However, there is one thing that all golf instruction seems to obsessed with, and that is square. I do not care who you read or watch on the internet, the one thing that is pounded into you mind is that your feet, hips and shoulders must be parallel and square to the target line. There is even the square to square method. I suppose the thinking here is, if everything is square, there is more of a chance to make square contact with the ball down the intended line. After all of that, the comment is made, that the hardest shot in golf is the straight shot, and you should play your tendency to curve the ball. If your shot pattern is left to right, then you should play down the left side of the fairway and let the shot curve back to the middle, which gives you a bigger margin of error to keep the ball in the fairway. You would reverse this of course, if your tendency is to hit the ball right to left. Now let’s think about this for a minute, and take it to the tee box. Here we are on the tee, and we are looking at a straight away fairway about 40 yards wide. If we are a left to right player and follow the plan we would aim 10 yards from the left side of the fairway, with the objective of curving ball back to the middle of the fairway. But do any of us curve the ball that consistently. We are only allowing ourselves 10 yards of error on the left side. How many times have players double crossed themselves and then pulled the shot or even pulled hook the shot into deeper trouble. If you aim right down the middle of the fairway you are allowing yourself 20 yards on either side to keep the ball in the short stuff. If curving the ball is the thing to do, which everybody seems to think so, then why should everything be square. Even though it seems that this is one point everybody agrees on, square, it still is a very confusing situation to someone who is trying to learn the game.
In the next post I am going to go review all 15 of the conflicting areas of golf instruction and give my opinion on what’s important, not important, and what you really need to do to hit that little ball.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 