Golf is a game of feel. The mechanics are important to get the ball on line, but you still need good pace on the greens and you need to strike the ball with the proper intensity and trajectory into the greens.
Mashie and I played Pasa Tiempo today. I struggled a bit and shot a few over par, really due to not feeling the pace of the greens, and miss clubbing a few iron shots.
One funny thing on the short par three 8th, I was looking at the green and had my hand on an 8 iron. Mashie asked what the yardage was, and I hadn’t looked at it… and it said 165. After seeing that, I thought maybe I should hit a 7 iron. I hit the shot and knocked it a club long leaving myself a very difficult downhill putt. This is perfect example of why I think yardages are overrated. Just for fun I dropped another ball and hit a 8 iron 10 feet from the pin. I could also have just 3 quartered a 7 iron.
My instinct was right. It’s not always right, but neither are using exact yardages going to put me pin high on every hole.
I suppose had I jumped on TM right after the round, my numbers would have been slightly off compared to my last round I played, but then maybe not. I think today I just didn’t feel my distances quite as well as I normally would into the greens.
I hit a lot of shots right at the pin today. I think it’s easy to focus too much on line and not enough on feel for distance and shot trajectory. Not surprisingly, my feel for speed on the greens was off slightly. Nothing mechanical in my stroke, just pace… and that comes from playing and a little practice.
The problem I see with any swing analyzing device is that you are going to need to know what to do… to better your numbers, because I don’t think the machine is going to tell you the answers. Is the machine going to say, John, pressure down more into the right foot at transition, then spend an afternoon doing 300 module 3 reps?
The cure is going to be subjective. One coach might say put a beach ball between your legs, and another might say just take it more outside and try to cut across the ball to square out your numbers.
Playing good golf is not about having a set of perfect numbers… it’s more about taking the numbers you have, no matter how bad they are, and finding a way to apply that to fairways and greens… even if that means aiming 20 yards left and push blocking your drives down the middle all day… or hitting run up shots into the greens with the low punch draw shot you can seem to produce with today’s action. Golf’s an art. The mechanics give you the skills to express the artistry of your shotmaking abilities.
