When it comes to coaching golfers, one of my go-to questions is, “What is the point of the golf swing?”
Invariably the answer comes back, “To hit the ball.”
That seems incidental. Yes, we put club on ball to hit it but what for?
We have a pre-determined target (well, we should have) in golf. Whether it be a flagstick or a tree or a cloud. We decide that before we hit the shot. In that case the point of the golf swing is to propel the ball to a pre-determined target.
How does that happen?
It happens when we control the clubface to the moment of impact. The golf swing is built around controlling the bit of the club with the grooves on it to strike a little white (or yellow, or orange) golf ball to when it leaves the face milliseconds later. That’s it. If we can learn to control the face, we will play great golf. There are a number of factors that go into controlling the face but let’s keep it simple for now.
In the world of pro golf there is no “one way” to do it either. Look at Tom Lehman. The face of his club would be on an inside-to-out path as he struck it with a relatively shallow angle of attack and a slightly open face. Conversely, Bruce Lietzke had a face path that out-to-in and slightly closed leading to a big pull-cut. The point is you can hit it well by tightening up your parameters – it doesn’t have to be textbook.
The point of the golf swing is to move the ball. The point of the clubface is to tell the ball what to do. The point of you is to tell the clubface what to do.
Leave a Reply