Greetings Golfers,
I just watched a video of a tennis instructor talking about the nasty remarks regarding his latest teaching video.
He’d been talking about strategy … and using his 4.0 student in his examples. People couldn’t believe the student was a 4.0 player. Why? … well, the guy was middle-age, chubby, and moved a little awkwardly.
So, I went back watched the referred to video. The guy looked to me like a good 4.0 player. Sort of like golf handicaps. Some golfers are a good 12 hcp and some are a bad 12 hcp. This guy was a good 4.0 tennis player.
I was going to write about Bryson DeChambeau this week … but, I’ll save it for another time. Everybody’s writing about him now – you don’t need my thoughts. However, Bryson is an example of what I’m talking about. His swing and putting stroke look awkward … but they work.
We all need to find a golf swing that works. Too often we get on the path to the “perfect swing” but don’t have the time or talent to develop it.
Most of us want a low maintenance swing that works pretty well most of the time. That’s about all we can ask for. We need to realistic.
Over the years, I’ve had some assistant pros who had high maintenance golf games. I tried to explain to them that as they progressed in the golf business, that they wouldn’t have much time to play or practice, but still needed to shoot decent scores.
And to do that, they needed a swing that was more of an old Volvo than a Ferrari. The old Volvo could sit outside all Winter and still start in the Spring. Could the Ferrari do that? Probably not. Would the old Volvo beat a tuned-up Ferrari? No. But it would beat an out-of-whack Ferrari.
Of course, one young guy thought that I didn’t know what I was talking about. But he thought everything I did was wrong – not just about playing golf but also how to run a golf course.
A few years later – when he was working somewhere else … his group was playing right in front of me in a ProAm tournament. It was in April, and his Ferrari struggled to get around the golf course. The old Volvo beat the out-of-tune Ferrari by over 10 shots.
College players and Tour players need to be tuned-up sports cars. And it takes a lot of maintenance.
The rest of us should be happy to be old Volvos.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Deer Run Golf Club
8661 Deer Run Drive
Victoria, MN 55386
(952) 443-2351
www.deerrungolf.com
www.facebook.com/DeerRunGolf
www.twitter.com/DeerRunGolfClub