This past Saturday, I found that I could actually hit the ball accurately!
Now, this wasn’t due to technique necessarily. For a week or two now, I’ve been using the 1W (or driver) and 3W (or fairway wood) to understand the basics of simply hitting the ball. According to most information that I’ve read, hitting the ball off the tee, even with the driver’s wide club face, still presents trouble to the majority of golfers. Now, that doesn’t mean people miss the ball; rather, the swing might cause the ball to slice or fade unintentionally. The goal is to hit the ball straight; if you don’t hit it straight, then it’s difficult to control the ball in a real-world golfing situation. Golf requires almost no strength at all. More than likely, strength becomes a detriment since a straight shots requires knowing how to hit the ball above all else. Accuracy, in other words, will always win the day.
That accuracy requires the proper swing. Your body, in effect, becomes a sort of pendulum by which your arms swing from side to side. This sounds like a slight exaggeration, but I assure you it is not. Most of the swing’s movement comes from your torso’s torque than it does your arm strength. Golf swings feel awkward because they use the body’s momentum to create enough force to hit, then loft, the ball into the air. Think of it like a broom. You let your arms hang down with the right golf grip, then swing to the side until you’d started the wind up with your arms bent and forearms twisted, then you twist your body while unfurling your arms and hitting the ball while the arms remain straight. Then, you lift the ball once you hit it into the air, making sure to twist your forearms for the right direction (that part is, obviously, the hardest). Your gaze follows the swing, not the ball. Literally, you involve the entire body into the dynamics of the swing, and once you get that part down, natural physics take over. If you’ve ever wondered why people of all age ranges play golf, it’s because the technique requires nothing of great physical import.
If you’ve ever been curious why some golf players slice to the left or right, much of that comes down to the accuracy of their swing. That includes the timing, the angle, the part of the club face that hits the ball, and their standing position when starting the swing. Grip, of course, can come into play, but I found that the actual stance you take can determine whether or not you hit the ball. Any and everything can go wrong during the swing, and that especially goes for where you are standing relative to the ball, and with what club you are hitting the ball. I discovered this little quirk because, as I found, standing with the ball in the middle of my stance made me hit the ball too early. Because of the long swing required for a line drive, standing in that position means that, no matter how hard you try, the driver will hit the ball early, causing a huge slice to the right or simply grounding the ball. The force is there, but the club hits too early.
Stand with your left/right foot right in front of the tee instead, however, gives time for the swing to build momentum and hit on the upswing. You can’t even imagine how simple a change that was, and yet it completely fixed my problem with line drives. I was able to hit the ball at least 200 yards, with a bit of slice and fade here and there. I’m just grateful to be able to hit the ball without it sailing sideways on the complete other end of the driving range! Needless to say, that’s a huge improvement. It almost feels a bit like magic when you hit the ball just right. It gives quite the satisfying feedback, especially once you see the ball fly far, far away from your current location at an incredible speed and height.
So yeah, golfing is still fun! I haven’t done any actual courses yet, but the sheer fun of golf is definitely worth a shot (har har) so far!
Although, I did just discover that I’m using a women’s driver. The color purple probably should have given it away. Guess I’ve got a long way to go…
