Seems to me the golfing world is a little out of whack at the moment.
Take the obsession with distance for one thing.
It seems at the moment the only thing that matters in the game is how far you can hit the ball. Now don’t get me wrong, hitting it longer is no bad thing, I would rather be longer off the tee than shorter. But it’s not the be all and end all.
Especially in the amateur game.
In fact extra club head speed can be dangerous in the wrong hands.
How so.
Well, you may have heard me say or write about this before on this blog, but club head speed without clubface control is useless.
More club head speed with no clubface control means you just hit the ball further into the junk and that’s why in my very humble but accurate opinion, distance is overrated.
Now if you have clubface control and need to get a few more yards, then that’s no bad thing, but clubface control comes first before you even thing about striving for extra yardage.
If you’ve got clubface control and think you are lacking a bit of yardage, check out this free report here, it outlines why so many regular golfers are being robbed of distance and you how can reclaim back that lost yardage.
Now for a very underrated skill.
Learning and knowing how far you hit every club through the air. Through the air being the key part of the equation.
Forget the time you once hit a driver 300 yards downhill, downwind on a rock hard fairway, you need to know what your carry yardages are with every club in the bag, for an average strike.
Why average strike, because that is how you will hit it most of the time. Granted you may flush the odd couple, but most of the time it will be an average strike.
By knowing how far you hit each and every club through the air carries some big benefits, namely:
- You’re not tempted to over hit and therefore get in trouble as your forcing a shot
- You have a better chance of finishing flag high the majority of time and therefore stand a better chance of having your approaches finish closer to the whole.
- You can plot your way around the course effectively, plan to lay up or carry hazards when needed.
- Ultimately possesses more control over your game.
One of the best players I have seen at this was Colin Montgomerie. He won the money list seven times in a row and eight in total in Europe and was a dominant player for nearly twenty years.
The amount of times his approach shots finished flag high was unbelievable, and he played the game with such control ,was renowned for his straight hitting. Which is no bad thing when it comes to golf.
So If I were you my learned friend. Ignore all the adverts screaming about the latest driver that can send the ball twenty yards further, and learn the more important skill of exactly just how far you hit each club through the air.
Something I go into in more detail in my free ebook “9 Ways to Lower Your handicap & Shoot Your Best Round Ever”
Play easy.
Bob James PGA