Lesson learned

It's nearly two years since I first took up golf but I have finally learnt the simplest and most profound lesson. You have to take responsibility for your own game. Bizarre as it sounds up until a month ago that is not what I was doing. You see I was buying regular lessons, I was devouring tips from magazines, taking heed of sage words of advice from playing partners, seeking guidance from virtual friends online but none could pinpoint the reason why I was so erratic and inconsistent. Each tweak promised a new breakthrough that failed to materialise, each moment of nirvana proved to be a false dawn. The reason why was staring me right in the face. I was allowing other people to diagnose my issues, I was not doing it myself.

I guess it is a bit like going to the doctor when you are feeling under the weather. The diagnosis and prescripted treatment you receive is only as good as the information that you provide. The malaise I had was range syndrome: great on it, but useless on the course. Now I have resolved the root cause I have mixed emotions. Relief that I can finally start to make some headway and frustration that is has taken me so long to figure it out.

I can't talk about all golfers but for me at my current stage 80-90% of my problems were caused by my set up. It was not consistent, I did not feel comfortable over the ball and it was not repeatable. As a result the results were unpredictable. You can have a great grip, excellent back swing, nice smooth tempo and strike the ball cleanly but if there is trouble left and that's where you're aiming you are screwed. I can recall now the times when frsutrated I would look to the heavens unable to decipher why I larruped my tee shot arrow straight and inexplicably smashed my approach out of bounds/into gorse.

Master Oogway offers sound advice to Kung Fu Panda

It is difficult when you first set out. Everything is new, the game and the swing are so complicated and you can be easily blinded by all the science. Fundamentally my approach to the game was flawed as it was built on the premise that other people knew best. That was fine for the first six weeks when you are learning the basics but after that you have to take ownership of your own game and your own swing. My pro couldn't know my set up was awful because he wasn't with me on the course and as such couldn't see where and why it was all going wrong. A playing lesson some months ago would have been a sound investment but that's all water under the bridge. I'm just glad I've learnt that lesson and realised that I am the master of my destiny. For now I'm just enjoying my little purple patch. As the sage old tortoise in Kung Fu Panda said "the past is history, the future is a mystery and today is a gift, which is why we call it the present".