by Bob Duncan
The only thing locked in about playing golf is that nothing is locked in about playing golf.
In many cases, the more you emphasize the keys to your swing, the less effective they become. Swing keys change. It’
s the golf law of diminishing returns: the more methodical the swing model is, the less effective it becomes. And the
one thing that makes playing golf even less predictable? If your clubs don’t fit properly...
As a teenager I had the ability to walk up to a ball and hit it solid, without really knowing how I did it. I secretly hoped
that feeling wouldn’t go away. Now that I’m ‘old school’ I realize that for the first 15 years of my professional career, the
more I learned about the golf swing the worse I became at doing it.
And the fact is, when I could do it but didn’t know what I was doing that’s when I knew best how to do it!
That doesn’t mean I hit everything straight - on the contrary: I usually knew which direction it was going to go, left,
straight, or right. As soon as I read about the golf swing and that the ball was always supposed to go straight when I
made a perfect swing, that’s when I lost the ability to play golf.
I cannot remain silent any longer. The ball does not always go straight because I do not play on flat golf courses. If I
always want the ball to go straight then I’ll have to find a flat golf course with perfect, artificial turf. In reality the perfect
golf swing is a reference, and something I no longer aspire to achieve, because the inference is that the ball will always
go straight. That is the major fallacy - it just ain’t gonna happen.
If you have 3 different lies, one tight to the ground, one ¼ inch up on a tee, and one sitting in deep rough you would have
to agree that each of the 3 would perform differently. Then why would I complain and blame my swing when each one
does perform differently? Why then would I believe that my swing is inconsistent?
Each condition has an influence: Balls on the sides of hills should go in the direction of the slope. Balls on tight lies
usually go to the right. Balls on uphill lies usually go left and downhill lies usually go right. Balls in the rough sometimes
go straight, often go left, and if you compensate they’ll go to the right.
Here’s a really tough one: Your ball lies above your feet (influence: left) on a downhill (influence: right) lie in thick rough
(influence: left). What’s going to happen? Good luck with this one!
Bob Duncan is the Teaching Professional at Tetherow Golf Club in Bend, Oregon, is a Master Clubfitter having custom
fit over $1.6 million in golf equipment, is the developer of the GolfeCoach at www.golfecoach.com, and has given over
8000 hours of golf instruction and coaching. Please visit the website at www.tetherow.com, and contact Bob at
[email protected].
Keys to Playing Golf? They’re Not Locked In...