Format: Stableford
Venue: [Home course]
Score: 29pts
Handicap mark: 15
Themes in reply: The mechanics of hitting and throwing.
Dear Colin,
Thanks for the time you spent with me yesterday.
I played the swindle with 5 handicap, an 11 and a 13. I enjoyed the round and had 2 birdies, the 5th and 8th.
The 8th was particularly pleasing. A good drive, a 3 wood and an utility wedge to about 4 feet.
I managed to play the wrong ball on the 6th and messed up the 2nd, 4th,and 7th.
I putted well on the front 9 with no 3 putts and two single putts. On the back 9: three lots of 3 putts with one single putt. I scored 29 points but the winner only had 33 – again difficult conditions.
Today I played at Ross. I really enjoyed it . I drove really, really well but missed some putts.
All for now,
Matthew
Dear Matthew,
I really enjoyed chatting with you yesterday – it was fun.
E-mail – Thanks again for taking the time to write. I do find it extremely useful. I’m very pleased that the first thing you wrote about your round on Wednesday was: “I enjoyed the round and had 2 birdies…”. Enjoyment is the aim; fun, and a smile, and a zip in your walk.
Rounds – That was an unusual front nine!
1st – Par?
2nd – cock-up
3rd – Par?
4th – cock-up
5th – Birdie
6th – Big cock-up
7th – Another cock-up (that’s 4 in 7 holes!)
8th – Brilliant birdie
9th – Par?
And, despite the erratic nature of your play, you still managed to hit only 16 putts. That’s very pleasing.
29 points is also very pleasing given the nature of that front nine and less successful putting on the back nine.
And then you enjoyed your round at Ross. Good.
Lesson – I want to clarify my thinking to you about orthodox golf teaching. Basically, I have no opinion as to its merits because it exists to do what people want from it. That is, it operates in a market and so one can safely assume that whoever is paying for it must be getting some value from it.
I think that a better description of what I do is that I enable you to find out for yourself how to enjoy playing golf. I do this by giving you the one piece of information you are missing: “the key to the door”, as it were.
This key piece of information is that we apply accurate force to a golf ball by harnessing gravity through the double-pendulum that is our golf swing. With it comes the startling realisation (which is, in effect, my unique insight) that it is impossible to swing like a pendulum when you have to start the swing from a standing position behind the ball. (This insight explains why the world divides into natural players and hackers. Our first attempts at swinging at a golf ball with a golf club will almost certainly involve us accelerating away from the ball – instead of decelerating – simply because we will start the swing from behind the ball with the clubhead motionless: and you can’t decelerate from a standing start!)
Of course, you also have to accept that applying an accurate force using an implement is an activity controlled by the subconscious. Once you accept this then it is just a matter of learning how your subconscious likes to operate, and that’s what my teachings do.
An aspect of my teachings is that I warn you constantly about the dangers of allowing your conscious brain to interfere with the subconscious’ attempts to put the ball where you want it to go. My intuitive understanding of the relationship between the conscious and the subconscious has enabled me to devise a routine that puts the conscious at the beck and call of the subconscious, thus removing at stroke the threat of interference while at the same time enhancing the function of the subconscious.
Your enjoyment will come from the realisation that the subconscious is incredibly powerful, you just have to learn to trust it. As you learn to find the pendulumic rhythm more and more often, you will experience an amazing sense of control over the ball. It can be scary, and a lot of fun. Even better news is that the body is designed to get better at hitting and throwing if it is something it has to do often (the principle of energy conservation). This means that to get better at playing golf you just have to – wait for it – play golf! As Harry Vardon said “It’s not helpful to play too much golf – two rounds a day is enough!”
Back to the lesson. The one thing I want you to get from the lesson is that the subconscious has got minute control over your muscles as long as you are relaxed. The stronger the messages it gets, the more it exercises minute control. That is why you need to get a vivid image of the intended flight path of the ball before you take your stance, that way the subconscious will react to the vividness of the image and put you in exactly the right position to execute a shot that flies along that path. The only thing that will stop it putting you in the right position is if you allow a conscious thought such as “ I must open my stance” to formulate and take over proceedings. This is the case even if your subconscious puts you in an open stance! Basically, the principle is: you do the image and your subconscious will do the rest.
Enjoy Cyprus.
Regards,
Colin
