Dialing down the power

Having played golf for nearly a year now it still marvels me that there is such an over riding obsession with distance. Drivers that hit longer, balls that fly further, training aids to boost muscle mass. Fueling machismo seems to be the cornerstone of the golf business. From the outset I've focussed on wanting to be more accurate and have devoted a lot of time to practicing the short game. Today I made another conscious decision, I will change my understanding of how far I hit the ball.

I do consider myself lucky that I can hit a golf ball a fairly long way. However, my accuracy has been somewhat lacking. As a result I am now planning to take a more relaxed swing with more club in the knowledge that if I do accelerate and catch it peachy I'm going to sail past the green. To be honest this is something that most decent golfers do as a matter of course, but when I'm on the course I inevitably find myself thinking 175-180 yards to go, that's a 6 iron, rather than I'll hit a smooth 5 iron.

I'm off to the range this evening to find out my new distances based on a 3/4 swing. I hope that by curtailing my back swing I will be more accurate at impact and lose the disaster shots that have caused my scores to hemorrhage. Hopefully, that + increasing 3 wood confidence + short game practice on Friday = better all round play on the weekend. We'll see...