Giving You The Straight Goods I once played a round of golf with a young apprentice professional. Before we started out he was telling me of this goal of not just being a club professional, but of playing on the big tours. In his estimation, his only shortcoming was the fact he could only hit the ball straight. He felt that in order to make it to the top level he would need to learn to work the ball. I was quite excited about the forthcoming round because I had never played with someone who could only hit the ball straight. In fact, I had never even known of anyone who could only hit the ball straight, except perhaps for childhood hero Moe Norman. And by the conclusion of the round with this young man, I had still never played with anyone who could only hit the ball straight. Unless you count "straight into the trees". You would think that most golfers would love to hit the ball straight, if straight only. Yet I am constantly surprised at the number of golfers, most of whom cannot break 100, who think they need to know how to "bend the ball"; that fading, drawing, slicing and hooking - on demand - are vital assets to a good game. I always counter that just learning to hit the ball straight, and straight only, is challenge enough, and if even mildly accomplished will do more for your game than "working" the ball. And I will share with you a very common reaction, and you tell me what you would say to a fellow who says the following: "But what if you are in the right trees and need to hit a slice to get out of the trees and to the green?" What would you say to this fellow? Probably, hopefully, the same thing I say, "If you hit the ball straight you wouldn’t be in the right trees in the first place!" Honestly, working on hitting the ball straight only has a double-benefit. One, the obvious, that you will hit more fairways, and more greens. The other, that working on this will mean you have one swing to work on and memorize, whereas working on trying to shape a variety of shots means potential confusion to your swing muscle memory. Remember too that it is harder to judge the potential result of a curving shot, whereas it is much easier to predict the result of a straight shot. Straight is straight, whereas a slice can vary in shape and distance dramatically. So, you could end up hitting that slice out of the trees you wanted, only to see it slice right back into the trees again. Work on hitting the ball straight and when that gets boring, get your putter out! Clive Scarff www.hitdowndammit.com
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