Why Do You Play Golf?

Unless you're a professional, adult sports activity is predominantly played at the recreational level. Naturally, there is competitiveness at the recreational level and golf is no exception. Most golfers have some type of friendly wager during a golf match with their foursome. The competition may involve a mundane wager such as a soft drink or beer and possibly as much as a large Nassau or other more meaningful wager. Certainly, competition might be the attraction for a small fraction of golfers, but most golfers are concerned with their score.

Most golfers start the round out with a new golf balls, clean clubs, and smiles on their faces. By mid-round the smiles have most likely turned into annoyed attitudes at the slightest adverse circumstance, and finally by the end of the round into relief that the game is over. I have seen this display in countless golfers over decades and hundreds of rounds of golf. You have to ask yourself, "Why do these people play golf"?

Most golfers say they love the game and just enjoy playing the game with friends. However, if that is true, then why does the described sequence of events seem to occur on an all too frequent basis? I believe most golfers want to play better golf and start out each game with the unrealistic expectation that the current round of golf will turn out as good if not better than prior rounds.

Why do we hear expletives echoing over the course, clubhouse, and even in the car on the way home? Could it be that most golfers really do want to play better golf and really do continue to play because they are under the delusion that they will shoot a better score? I believe they do, but have given up believing better scores are possible. They have tried by reading self-help books, gone to the driving range to practice their technique, and in many cases have taken lessons from a perfectly competent professional. Unfortunately, they’ve finally settled into an attitude of “some people were predestined to be good at this game and I’m not one of them”. I don’t believe that’s true.

I believe most golfers don’t get help from books because the overwhelming majority of the books don’t address the most important aspect of the golf swing. I believe that most golfers are not practicing the most important swing key in golf and in fact are only in-graining their swing flaws into a permanently flawed swing. And finally, I believe most professionals teaching golf at best make a quick mention of this area of the golf swing and at worst don’t even bring it up and certainly not to beginning golfers.

The most important area of the golf swing is “spine angle”. If you’ve given up believing that you can improve at the game, if you believe that only the “chosen few” can significantly improve their game, and if you believe that mediocrity is your lot in the world of golf; cheer up, there is hope! The golf swing is not all that complicated and much of the swing will fall into place if you’re willing to spend a reasonable amount of time practicing one aspect of the swing that ultimately will affect other aspects of the swing. Maintaining your spine angle throughout the golf swing will affect how you turn your shoulders during the swing, it will quiet your upper body during the swing, and it will affect how you shift your weight during the downswing. Maintaining your spine angle during the swing will allow you to see how the golf swing divides your body into three sections, the lower body, the upper body, and the shoulders. Only two of those sections move before contact with the ball, the lower body and the shoulders.

For more information see the website referred to by this article.