Greetings Golfers,

Yesterday afternoon, a fellow around 70 years old told me he just shot 76. Last week was his previous best score – 82. The week before that was his typical 96. What happened? He just focused on making a golf swing on every shot. A golf SWING.

Last night, a Men’s League member told me that he had just shot 75. Last weekend we talked about how he needed to swing through the shot and not beat down on it. He was worried that his backswing was too steep. I told him that what mattered was that his downswing shouldn’t be too steep. He needed to swing through the ball – not hit at the ball.

On Wednesday we hosted an event, and the guys were warming up at the range. One guy had the biggest shoulder turn I’ve ever seen. That’s all he focused on and he hit it a mile … everywhere. I tried to get him to just swing the club on the backswing, and then swing the club at the target on the downswing. When he did it … he hit it straight and beautifully. But, I don’t think that interested him. After the round, I asked him how he played – he said he hit 5 drives out-of-bounds. He just shrugged it off to the price of hitting it far. Ironically, he could hit it crazy far and straight if he just swung the golf club.

When Vijay Singh would practice … he would say 17 with each swing … 7 on the backswing, and teen on the downswing.

When you go out to play … forget all of the “stuff” and focus on making a swing. Maybe saying 17 will work for you. Remember … it’s a golf SWING.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com