Recently I heard a freaky and quite frankly, humiliating story.
Short story long, a bloke was invited to play in his company golf day with his bosses.
All the top brass from the firm were going to be there together with lots of clients and suppliers, it was going to be a great day.
Our man was thrilled to get the invite and was looking forward to a paid day out of the office and on the golf course shmuuuzing.
That was until he turned up on the practice range the morning of the golf day.
After the customary bacon rolls and coffee, the hero of our story thought he would go and loosen up with a few gentle swings on the range.
Now it had been at least a couple of weeks since our man had last ventured out onto the course, and from all accounts the last time he played, he played ok.
Out on the range he hit the first dozen or so shots reasonably well and was eagerly anticipating the round.
Then disaster struck.
He teed up a seven iron took a swing, felt contact and looked up to see the ball veering at right angles.
A shank. The worst shot in golf.
Trying to put that one shot out of his mind, he teed another ball. He made his swing and same result.
He teed again, same result, a screaming shank that was high tailing itself out of the range and onto the adjoining fairway.
He decided enough was enough and decided to dispense with the long game warm up and headed to the practice green to try and put it out of his mind and hole a few putts instead.
When the time came to tee it up, our man was a quivering wreck, right at that moment he would more rather be anywhere than on the first tee with his boss.
He teed his ball and somehow got the ball down the fairway. But then disaster struck, the dreaded shanks re appeared when he tried to hit his approach into the first green.
And it didn’t get any better from there. He basically shanked his was around the whole golf course, and recorded a miserable 11 stableford points.
Needless to say, he was never invited to play in the company golf day again.
I’m sure you can sympathise with our man here, I know I can. It’s a classic case of swing meltdown which can happen to anyone at anytime, anyplace and is definitely not pleasant if you ever have the misfortune to experience it.
To make sure this never happens to you go to this link here and download a copy of my free e-book
“9 Ways to Lower Your Handicap & Shoot Your Best Round Ever”. It won’t turn a chop into a player, but it will get strokes off your score
Bob James PGA