A story from my junior days

Public Forum—Concepts in Advanced Ball Striking
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Funny how learning ABS is sparking memories from my juniors days. At my club (late nineties) there was the usual clique of juniors. We all lived & breathed the game as you’d expect. if we weren’t coming down the 18th in pitch darkness at 10pm in the summer we’d have our heads buried in the latest Golf monthly or leadbetter manual, studying the ‘textbook’ swing. Some of us had great looking swings, and were good players (0-4 hcp). The practice ground was a haven of tips, drills, new magic moves and encouragement. Happy days…

One lad however stood head and shoulders above us all, the pro’s son. Obviously everyone’s thinking he had a massive coaching advantage. But his swing was far from our percieved perfection. I can still see it now, burned into my minds eye as it sweeps back inside early ending up across the line at the top, only to loop back over and cut across the ball. Over the top we all squarked, and discussions were writhe about how could such an unpretty action take us apart time and time again. Our textbooks had no answers. With a wry smile his dad would drop hints to us about watching his hands at transition. The only thing going over the top was this knowledge - right over our ignorant heads.

Picturing the swing now I realise he shallowed the club out behind him. The hands appeared steep & OTT but the club certainly wasn’t. his perfect post impact low & left action further added to the optical illusion we all sniggered at. Guess the joke was on us, +4 handicap and a scholorship to an american college was the reward.

i’m not saying that this lad was an outcast, we were all very good friends, but we had such tunnel vision about the swing its obvious there was a definate element of the green eyed monster around. if only i’d have been enlightened back then, I would have been studying his swing instead of Leadbetters faults & fixes…

Lesson learned… the only judge of how pretty your swing is? The ball.

I havent picked up a textbook since :bulb:

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Same thing when I was growing up.
At my course there was a 9 year old kid “Dean” who made a hole in one on the 9th hole at age 9, and the 10th was a par
3 also, and he made a hole in one on the 10th at age 10. Put him in the Guinness Book of World Records at that time. He was definitely on track to becoming a great player until he found out about girls and hotrods (66 Mustang) a few years later.

He had the inside takeaway… dragged the club for about two feet across the ground in a tight arc around his right foot, then looped it back through like clockwork. The same kind of look with the putting stroke also.

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Funnily enough same happened to Ian, discovered booze and birds and the rest as they say is history. he still competes at an amatuer level I believe.

I’ll drop him a message on facebook see if i can get him on here.

its just come back to me about a lesson his dad once gave me, out his own free time. he’d mentioned he had an eye on my swing to another junior. Tried to teach me how to release the club properly, cant remember the lesson but it involved no hand roll after impact :open_mouth: if only i was wise enough to heed the advice and not stay loyal to the local “ex tour pro” (dubious claim) at the nearby driving range…

the benefit of hindsight eh?