Let us begin with a few myth busters, shall we.
Myths:
1. If you have a perfect golf swing you'll have a perfect game.
2. You can buy a better game.
3. Technology has lowered golfers scores.
Most every golfer subscribes to these beliefs in one way or another. The entire golf instruction, training aid, and golf club-making market bear this out. Golf magazines, TV shows, and article after article offer tips, fixes, cures, and virtually every imaginable training aid conceivable to craft the perfect swing. All with the pretense of helping you play better golf.
Well has it worked? Let's take a look.
In 1978, 75% of all golfers never broke 90. So barely 25% ever shot in the 80s.
In 2004, a full 26 years later, after the advent of 460CC drivers with 45" multi-kick point shafts, cavity back irons, balls that prevent hooks and slices, and world class instruction from the smartest minds in the buz, that number has been increased by a whopping 3 percent!
So now a full 28% of all golfers have broken 90 at least once. But hey, let's cut the industry some slack. There's only been 90+ billion spent on golf equipment over that time. That doesn't include lessons or training aids. All that technology and collective wisdom and this is how far we've come. Impressive.
Any other business that produced numbers like these for their customers would be out of business. But the golfing public has an insatiable appetite that an ever growing horde of manufacturers and marketers are more than willing to feed.
Okay, do you want to pay me now or later for the moral booster? What? This doesn't get you pumped about your prospects of dropping your handicap by 10 strokes by buying the next training aid?
You mean to tell me you're not going to do that $2,500 re-shafting, ball changing, loft angle adjusting, launch angle increasing, club-fitting session you had booked for next Saturday? Hmmm, was it something I said?
As golfers we are bombarded with instruction tips, training options, and product offerings that'll have your head spinning faster than Paris Hilton after swizzling a half dozen Crantini's.
Where's the moral, you ask?
So where's the moral of this myth busting story? Do we all just give up trying to improve? Absolutely not. We all need to fulfill that important human craving of getting better at what we love. Yet where we place our attention to achieve this goal is what has to change.
Article comments
1 - Jim
I have found that practice, and a good thought process is the way to lower scores, thinking about every shot before your even on the course is helpful, knowing what club you hit last time that got you into trouble and change it to the correct club for that hole is a score lowerer, but chipping and putting are the real scorers, a good chip and a good putt will save a lot of strokes, my dad always told me: it is not how you drive it is how you arrive.