When I joined my local club more than a decade ago I was an 11 handicap golfer. The game seemed pretty easy and I fully expected to easily move on down into single figures.
Instead, my handicap has gone up steadily practically every round I have played since then. There was one notable exception. In a major club competition I just seemed to hit every shot just about perfect. I won comfortably. My name is still on the honors board in the club house to this day. At last I thought – I can play this game again.
Not so! Pretty much every round since then my handicap has ticked up another notch. At last, with my handicap at 17 but shooting round after round in the 20s I decided to do something about it. I had some time off between contracts (and a bit of cash to spare) so I went to see my teaching pro. Now, much of the information you can access through this web site is self-help. It’s all good and some of it is outstanding. But…
If you really want to get started on improving your golf – see your pro first.
If he (she) is any good they are going to be able to pinpoint your major swing problems within a few minutes of watching you striking a few balls. Take it from me – it can be really difficult to diagnose what you are doing wrong yourself.
In my case I had got into a long term model of reactive golf. On joining the club I really wanted to do well so I tried especially hard. My nice relaxed swing became tighter and my game started to suffer. I still hit some great shots but they were less frequent. When I went on to the practice ground (and yes, you are going to make some time to practice if you expect to improve) I tried to replicate my good shots. The problem is that the worst swing in the World can occasionally produce a great strike. By reacting to my last good shot all I was doing was drilling in what might well be a bad habit. It might be good – I just didn’t know. All in all, by reacting to the good hits all I was doing was reinforcing almost random good results.
My golf technique was basically shot to nothing. The basic mechanics of the swing were, at best, suspect. In fact I recently found a few video selfies of my swing on my phone – it was ugly. Sure, I got better with lots of practice but when I took it out onto the course I would play 10 or 12 holes to par or bogey. The rest I would double or triple with scary regularity. I loved the game but it was sending me crazy too. My visit to the pro really helped. The pro:
- Quickly diagnosed just why my swing was so inconsistent
- Got me working on exercises to put my back swing on to the correct swing plane
- Gave me a couple of simple trigger movements to keep my swing on line
That was it. Doesn’t seem like much but it meant that, for the first time, I was practicing with purpose. The first few times I put the pieces together and really hit the back of the ball properly, nipping it between the club and the ground, feeling the compression of the ball on the back of the club – now that was a few moments of pure joy.
Sure I hit a few bad shots but I don’t get too depressed. I know what I should be doing so I just try to get back to that swing.
It is clear that I should have had some proper lessons years ago. Somehow I never seemed to have the time. Or other things, like family, took priority. The thing is, I know I am not on my own. Most of us don’t have the time to visit our teaching pro. To be honest, after my first couple of sessions I am back in that place.
But now I know what I should be doing. I have a basic technique to fall back on. Having that understanding is an amazing aid to make better use of all the self help material on the internet.
It was a great theory. Then I found just how much stuff there was that you could use. It was daunting. There are some amazing videos available on youtube but they can be highly contradictory. Just search google for “How to draw with a driver” and watch a few videos. You’ll see what I mean.
As I have said, I am no golf pro – just a (for now) rapidly improving mid-handicap player. So I started an almost forensic investigation of internet golf tuition books and training. That’s what this site is about. Here’s all of my research into what is good on the internet to help you improve your golf game.The page title may say about us but in reality this web site is all about me. Hi, I am Ken Long. My golf story is on the home page. My intention is to provide you with access to the best golf improvement material available anywhere on the internet.
From my studies and research I believe the keys to playing great golf are, in priority order with the most important first:
- Technique
- The mental game
- Course management
- Physical Fitness (you definitely don’t need to be a Usain Bolt but as fit and flexible as you can will pay dividends)
- Execution (putting it all into practice)
- Equipment
The website is organised around these themes. Please feel free to add your views on this below.
Feel free to check out our content and if you have any questions at all contact us.