Have you ever taken a golf lesson that helped you hit the golf ball better for a short time? For example: you were told to keep your left arm straight in your swing and then all of a sudden you started to hit the golf ball better.
Then a few days later, you would go to the golf course and lose your swing. Regardless of how much you focused on that same swing tip … you can’t find that effortless swing you had on the driving range.
We continually hear similar experiences from Golfers that have taken a 30 minute lesson … where they felt as if they improved … but once on the golf course — it was disaster.
However, it’s not the Golfer’s fault. It’s the lesson process being used that’s holding the Golfer back from sustaining their results. An essential part of this process that usally isn’t included is taking you on the golf course to see how your swing performs on the field of play.
This should then be followed by going back to the practice range to work on refinements that are based on how your swing performed on the golf course.
Then after the refinements on the practice range … going back to the golf course. And then back to the practice range. And then back to the golf course.
The proof of whether you’ve improved your golf swing lays totally on how well you hit the golf ball on the golf course … not how you hit the golf ball on the driving range.
Why?
Because on the driving range, it’s very easy to cover-up glaring swing flaws when you can hit multiple golf balls in a row and continually make small tweaks in your golf swing each subsequent shot.
But those tweaks are just more compensations being piled on top of your existing compensations. And although those extra compensations maybe fine when you have the luxury of 105 golf balls on the range tee … it isn’t going to go as well on the golf course with only one golf ball, water, trees, rough, sand, ob and other Golfers to worry about.
In addition, on the range, if you hit a bad shot, you can correct it at your own pace … as opposed to being on the golf course playing at the pace of the 3 other Golfers in your group, as well as the 4 Golfers behind you. That extra anxiety certainly doesn’t allow you to cover-up your swing flaws.
The true test of your swing is how it holds up under pressure. And there is more pressure on the golf course versus any shot you hit on the driving range. In fact, you could probably multiple the pressure you feel on a driving range shot by 10 … and still not come close to what you feel on the simplest shot you’ll face on the golf course.
Think about it this way: you go to the driving range and hit a few good shots. After those first few shots, your swing falters and you hit 5 or 6 bad shots before you get your swing back.
Not a big deal on the range … but a huge deal on the golf course. Because those first few good shots is just one hole on the golf course. But those next 5 or 6 bad shots would end up costing you 9 or 10 strokes on the second and third hole.
So you scored – par, double bogey, triple bogey … and you’re 5 over after 3 holes. But that probably has never happened to you on the golf course … has it?
Yet on the driving range … those 5 or 6 meaningless shots were just a small blip.
If you’re not seeing swing improvements on the golf course … it doesn’t matter how much improvement you’re seeing on the range — as no one ever asks “what’s your Driving Range Handicap”.
The Monkey can’t take his/her “range swing” to the golf course
The Player goes the range to make refinements after playing on the course
Go ahead, be a Player!
Regards,
Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life
www.GolfMadeSimple.com
