Pull up a chair and gather round. Let me tell you a story about a young golfer who thought he had it all figured out, only for this cruel game we all love so much to smash him in the ankle with a pitching wedge. And cue the tiny violin.
As he grew up, the ability with a wedge in his hand remained (more often than not), but his skills with the putter began to slip away as his mind was affected by scars created via an array of missed putts from inside gimme range.
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At the same time, the young boy was beginning to realize he could still score well enough should he keep his golf ball in play and scramble like prime Seve Ballesteros. (He was nowhere near this good, but for the purposes of this story just go along with it, yeah?)
Nevertheless, the keen player yearned to hit longer drives as he watched his favorite tour pros mash it over 300 yards with unerring regularity and his mates strike it 250 for fun.
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Then, one day, following a lesson with a magical wizard known to many as ‘Ateach Ingpro’ the aspiring single-figure handicapper unlocked a mysterious ability which allowed him to gain an extra 30-40 yards off the tee. It was a spell called “added hip rotation.” Very mysterious stuff indeed.
The dedicated amateur, who plays off about 17 at the time of writing, was thrilled to see his habitual slice disappear and be replaced by a cultured draw which regularly ran out to around the 250-yard mark.
However, the handsome (according to his mother) golfer’s new power arrived with some devastating side effects – chiefly, he was now rubbish with an iron in hand.
A couple of trips out to the course allowed him to exhibit his new prowess with the big dog, but his scores remained similar to that of days gone by because of the unwanted iron-related by-product.
He now wonders what the future holds for his game and whether it will all tie together at once like it did that one and only time he somehow broke 80.
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Let me shock you now. That story was, and still is, about me… I know. What a rollercoaster.
But what makes me feel slightly better is the fact I know I’m far from the only one this has happened to. If you’re still reading this (well done by the way), then I know you will have experienced a similar situation where you’ll have ironed out a kink in your game, only to see another area melt away.
Why does this happen? It’s so frustrating! To be honest, we all probably know why. It’s because we don’t perhaps have the time to work on our game as much as we’d need to or we’re not toiling over the correct things.
(Image credit: Jonny Leighfield)
Alternatively, it might be because we haven’t booked a lesson in the first place which would go a long way to easing our strife.
Then again, even pro golfers struggle to maintain their world-class ability in every aspect and constantly tinker around to find that extra 1%. So we probably shouldn’t take it personally.
But we should all keep persevering. Why? Mainly because we’ve not got much choice if we want to carry on playing and improving. And also because there is nearly always a tangible reason these issues come up.
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I’m certainly no coach, so don’t take my word as gospel, but I’ve played the game for 20 years so I’m pretty sure there are different requirements involved in hitting every club. Once we work them out, the world is your oyster!
Plus, until someone does come up with a magic potion which allows the humble amateur to develop a helpful level of consistency without any effort, then our relationship with golf will never have its ‘Happily Ever After’ ending.
Then again, isn’t that why we all love the game?