By Roger Knick, The Golf Performance Center
Golf is easy and golf is hard. Between the quick fix swing tips, highlights on the golf channel, golf magazines, multiple swing theories on technique, gnarly rough, super-fast greens, and our own egos – how do we know what to listen to?
Golf is only a matter of getting the small ball in a hole in the least number of strokes possible. However, we make it complicated by “leveling” the playing field with handicaps. We assume that if you play golf, we should all have the same score of par or better.
I know that we all want to be equal but really, we know the real reason for the handicap is it’s the easy way to settle a bet. Golf is meant to be played between the course and yourself, work to beat ‘old ma’ par. If you want to gain a “true” handicap, count up ALL strokes minus par of the course from your score and you have your “handicap”. Simple, but the proposition of “winning” is too great so we need to complicate the game with a slope and rating (nearly no one knows how it is calculated) to gain a handicap!
Really, what happened to playing the game because you like the walk in the park, or the challenge of the game, being with friends and having fun. Who cares about your handicap or your score but you! Of course, if you are playing competitive golf, its a slightly different story but when you are playing to “par” then who cares about your handicap!
Stop losing sleep over the game you love, the game you can play well past your athletic prime,, the one that captivates you like none other. It is perfectly fine to want to improve but to think you can skip years and years of needed exploration of the golf courses to gain or develop enough skills and knowledge to “conquer” the game, even for a day or two! A lesson or quick tip from the latest Golf Digest will not “fix” your game. It takes hours if not years to make real improvements that last.
Like I said, golf is simple. Just get the ball in the hole in the least amount of strokes possible. To do so you must control the ball, to control the ball you must control clubface, to control clubface you must control path, to control path you must control your body, from static posture to dynamic movement within a swing, to do this you must move well, to move well do your corrective exercise! Consistently!
The simple is hard, make it easier on yourself by following your plan, daily! If you do not have a plan, I would highly recommend coming into The Golf Performance Center to go through our 5 Elements of Success Evaluation and Assessment to understand your baseline and have a plan created for you to enjoy the game more with less frustration!
Enjoy your Journey!
