[8. Trying not to hit the ball too hard]
“Hitting the ball too hard imparts spin” is a classic piece of old bollocks. It is one of those bits of knowledge that golfers like to think is part of their craft, their trade. Painters and decorators will tell you that mixing in a dab of black gloss into a tin of white gloss makes the white shine whiter. Really! Wow! Even if it does, who the hell can tell, and who the hell cares. The way to distinguish this type of rubbish is to try telling it to somebody without winking at the end of the statement. Know what I mean, Guv?
To demolish this mischievous dollop of bullshit, I will simply ask you to consider for a moment or two what exactly (and I mean, exactly) is meant by “too hard”. I rest my case, M’lud.
We need to go back a few millennia to the Serengeti where a John ancestor is out looking for his lunch. John Ugug’s subconscious is only too aware of the many dangers that lurk in the long grasses of the Serengeti, and has learnt by the mysterious process of natural selection that the best chance of survival is to have all the senses on alert.
So, before Ugug sees the lion, he can hear something approaching, he can maybe smell something familiar and he can . . .
—————————————————————————–
I might be in danger of over-egging the pudding, but I want you to get away from “old-think” style of assessment because it isn’t helpful. I think there is a more helpful way of looking at your performance, and that it works because it is more logical and therefore easier for your conscious brain to accept and quicker for it to assimilate. This makes it more likely that you are able to approach the next shot with a clear head and thereby give yourself a better chance of creating a sharp and vivid “visualisation and feel” routine. And given the often short time between putts on a green this could be an invaluable technique.
The excellence of the rest of the round is very pleasing and encouraging, and is yet more evidence that you are finding “timing” easier to locate, easier to re-locate, and easier to hang on to. And more evidence that with “timing” comes performance. To keep pace with Geoff (2) over 17 holes says it all.
18th – There is a chance that you got a little tense on the 18th because you were . . .
