Be Careful Of Change
Do you believe that there is a “textbook” golf swing that we should all strive to have? If you have ever taken a golf lesson, did the instructor try and overhaul your swing or just make minor adjustments to improve upon what you were already doing?
All to often when I give a lesson to a new student, they are asking me to have them get into certain positions. They are striving to have their body and clubhead act and perform the way that they read about in the latest magazine article, or saw the elite players on the PGA Tour performing. This is a great concept, the problem is that most golfers, myself included, aren’t designed to hit the ball the same way that say Tiger Woods does. There are countless factors that go into a golf swing that all add up to the complete package.
It is very likely that you don’t have the same strength or flexibility, maybe you have had an injury in the past, a knee, shoulder or back problem that limits your golf swing in some way.
What golfers need to do, is take their current golf swing and figure out ways to make it more consistent and repeatable. This is the way to play your best golf. To shoot low scores doesn’t require that you hit the ball perfectly straight all of the time. What you need to have is the knowledge of what your golf swing will produce. If you head out to the course and have no idea if the ball is going to go left, right, or sometimes even forward, you will struggle to have even a respectable score at the end of the day. However, if you know that your golf swing will produce a repeatable fade, you know how much the ball is going to turn, then you can play your round with a minor adjustment to your initial aim points and keep the ball in play. This consistency is what will help you shoot the low scores that we all strive to achieve.
When you look at the players on the PGA Tour, you don’t see the same swing with every player. Some look better than others. Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Adam Scott and many others all have swings that are pleasant to watch. But look at players such as Jim Furyk and the most recent winner, Tommy Gainey. They have swings that aren’t necessarily pretty to watch, but they are repeatable and produce a consistent ball flight for those players.
If you ever take a golf lesson, don’t let the instructor drastically change your current swing. If they want you to do this, you need to find a new instructor. What you should be looking for, is the golf pro that will make an adjustment here, and a tweak there to help your existing golf swing become the most efficient that it can be. Remember, at the end of the day, you don’t have to write down how pretty you played the hole, you just put down your final score. How you get the job done makes no difference, it’s getting the ball in the fewest strokes. If you can do that, then don’t worry about how your swing looks.