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How to Improve Your Golf Game
Dave Tutelman -- June 28, 2006
Dedicated to Roberta Yellin Barron and her husband Hal Barron
Recently I have been in touch with a bunch of my old high school classmates; we have a Yahoo!
forum for our graduating class. Today I received a
note from one of those long-lost friends who had seen the golf technology
articles on my web site. Roberta ended her note with, "Maybe you'll come up with a golf club that will help my husband become a great golf player." That struck a chord; it's all too common a response to what people expect from golf club research.
This article is intended as the antidote for such thinking. I have no
illusions that it will cure the disease, but it may help people realize
what they really need to become a great -- or even somewhat better --
golf player. What you find here will better align your expectations to reality.
First... the idea that a new golf club design will make you a great
golfer is exactly what all the manufacturers want you to believe. It
doesn't work that way. You know that. Your husband knows that. But
every golfer, deep down, wants to believe. The idea of a magic club --
that you can buy a golf game -- is a lot more fun than the hard truth.
The truth is that the way to improve is:
- Lessons from the right pro for you.
- Practice, lots of it, and of the right kind.
- Clubs that fit you! Not the latest technology. Not some magic invention. Just be sure it fits your game and frame.
Let's look at these three items a little deeper. And remember, you probably need to do all three to see
improvement. If new clubs alone help much (and continue to help for
more than a short "honeymoon"), then your old clubs must have been very ill-suited to your game to begin with.
1. Lessons
If you don't know how a golf swing is supposed to work, or you don't know what your
golf swing is actually doing, then you will never improve. The job of a
teaching pro is to identify the most important disfunctional parts of
your swing, and teach you how to make them functional. The right
teacher for you is one who can (a) identify your biggest problems, and
(b) convey them in terms that are helpful to you. For more on this...
2. Practice
Unless you are inherently an outstanding athlete, simply knowing what
you're doing wrong -- and even how to do it right -- will not go very
far to letting you do it right. Of course, it's an essential first
step. But you also have to practice doing it right until you "groove"
it, until it becomes "muscle memory". That is going to take more
practice and more discipline than you might imagine. For more on this...
3. Clubs that fit you
There is no magic! Technology has put a few extra yards on how far a
club can hit the ball (compared with ten or fifteen years ago), but
claims of 30 extra yards are completely bogus and even 10 extra yards
must be viewed with skepticism. The most important thing about your
clubs is that they are the right clubs for your game and frame -- that they fit you.
If they don't, you could indeed be losing a lot of yards and adding a
lot of strokes to your score. But the answer isn't "the finest clubs
that money can buy;" it is a competent club fitting. For more on this...
Last modified 7/3/2006
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