We have a question from Inner Circle member, Lou. And Lou says: “I just got into the PPGS and would like to know how long it takes before I get this swing down and how do I know I'm doing correctly since I'm hitting balls by myself. Any help would be fine. I'm 68 and feel fine and normally hit the ball straight but then again that all depends on my alignment which is the start of everything. Thanks, Lou.”
Well, Lou, I guess the only thing I can really say is that, first and foremost, you are 100% right that alignment is critically important. Since you're concentrating on that, I guess the last thing we can say about how you know you're doing it correctly is simply right in line with the old axiom, “the proof of the pudding is in the tasting.”
The pudding and tasting in hitting a golf ball is how does it sound, how does it feel, where did it go and how did it go there? Did I hit it solid? Was my contact to the ground good? Was the impact solid, the ball flight and trajectory good?
That's the key. I bring in sound because, in many cases, sound tells you a lot about where you hit it on the club and what happened. If you played golf long enough you'll find that you can recognize a good hit just by the sound of it. In many cases I can be standing on the lesson tee and be looking away from the student and I can tell, just be the sound of the impact, what kind of shot he hit and where the ball went with pretty good accuracy. Sound is important.
But you have to what you consider to be a relatively good shot for you, an average shot, a mediocre shot and a bad shot. Your ball flight is going to tell you, because it's all about impact and ball flight, and where the ball goes and how it goes. That's your ultimate answer.
So once you determine what our level of playing ability and ball striking ability, that's how you judge all your shots.
Remember one big thing: In golf, compared to most other sports, we tend to be overly critical of our shots and the way we're playing golf. We are very hard on ourselves. In many cases were ready to blame ourselves when it could be equipment. If you have one or two clubs giving you a problem and everything else is pretty good, check those clubs out.
Let's not get overly critical. Remember, there's nothing wrong with pretty good golf shots. One of my Surgisms is, “Golf is a game of misses. He who misses best wins.” You have to learn to tolerate good misses. Sometimes getting better doesn't mean that you're hitting the ball spot on, 100% better. It means your bad shots are less bad, there are less of them, and you're hitting more good shots and better misses.
Tolerance and giving yourself a break is a big part of playing better golf and not expecting more than what your skill levels really are. On some days, when things are quite so good, and you're hitting a lot of good misses, it's better to come up thin and hit it short of the green than pure it into the right bunker. Or hit a drive a little thin right down the middle than pure it dead solid perfect into the right woods or the left woods.
Good misses are great shots. Learn to pat yourself on the back when you hit good misses and your ball stays in play; you're missing the ball in the right place and you can get it up and down and, in the end, shoot lower scores. That's what it's all about.
The Surge!