Golf Changes

Posted on October 19th, 2006 by Brian

If you play golf you’ll know what a frustrating pursuit it can be.

I think, in the last 6-8 months, I have played well about twice. Things started to go wrong when I took a couple of lessons and it was suggested that I make some fairly major changes to basic things like my grip on the clubs. Well, I have given the advice a good try and have been using the grip ever since – then it dawned on me.

When I first started playing, I could hit the ball miles, quite often straight or at least in the required direction. This was when I was using an old set of clubs (blades) with old shiny rubber grips and no modifications to take account of my above average height. I was playing golf by striking the ball correctly with the tools available and that, I believe, is pretty much all that is needed.

During those early days, I started to get quite a bit better and bought a better set of clubs, had them fitted to suit – things improved further albeit slowly. Then I really started trying to improve my game by reading all kinds of books and articles about how to hold the club, how to stand etc etc…. Suffice to say that little of it made any improvement to my game, in fact the opposite is probably true.

I then came across a little book called “Golf is not a Game of Perfect” by Bob Rotella. I read the book in a couple of hours or so and started to follow some of the advice it gave. Nothing about stance or grip or anything like that, just some advice and examples about what to think while you are playing.

Something happened, I don’t really know what but suddenly, I started to put in a few noticably better rounds. My handicap started to drop, not by a lot at first but eventually by 6 shots in a couple of months.

By taking those 2 lessons earlier this year and making the grip changes, I think I cancelled out all the benefit I got from the book – they made me think about the little things again instead of concentrating on the whole picture.

I have just read the book again, reverted to my original grip and guess what? My game is, slowly, coming back…. It must say something.

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2 Responses to “Golf Changes”

  1. Simon, on October 25th, 2006 at 10:03 Said:

    I remember a friend of mine describing how he went through the same process a few years ago – wanting to get better and finding that that actually restricted him.

    I thought the book he mentioned was Mind Golf … but having just had a look around for it on Google/Amazon, I’m not so sure, as nothing jumped out called that.

  2. Brian, on October 25th, 2006 at 10:10 Said:

    Thanks Simon, there are quite a lot of books on similar subjects – I have a few!

    My confidence that they actually work is now becoming dented though. Last weeekend’s trip to the mainland was a golfing nightmare for me.

    Darts anyone?

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