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Friday 8 July 2016

Golf is All About Striking the Ball With the Head if the Club

I keep having to be reminded that, as Bobby Jones said, "Golf is played by striking the ball with the head of the club."  It seems rather obvious.  But somehow, because of the way the game is generally taught, it gets overlooked.  Instead golfers get caught up in thoughts about the swing.

Consider in a bit more detail what the master, Bobby Jones, said on the subject of striking the ball:

    "Golf is played by striking the ball with the head of the club.  The objective of the player is not to swing the club in a specified manner, nor to execute a series of complicated movements in a prescribed sequence, nor to look pretty while he is doing it, but primarily and essentially to strike the ball with the head of the club so the ball will respond according to his wishes.
     No one can play golf until he knows the many ways in which a golf ball can be expected to respond when it is struck in different ways.  If you think that all of this  should be obvious, please believe me when I assure you that I have seen many really good players attempt shots they should have known were impossible."

Yesterday we had another "practice round," which led to lots of experimenting with my swing.  Many of the results were less than favourable.  Eventually, I just went back to just hitting the damned thing--just hitting shots.  In fact, I hit three twenty to thirty yard draws into pins that barely missed the flagstick.  I was back to striking the ball, instead of thinking about swinging the club in different ways.  It's not the swing that counts.  It's the strike.

Everyone owes themselves the time to read and think about the information Bobby Jones provided in his book Golf is my Game in the second chapter entitled Striking the Ball.  I have covered that information in detail in my featured article on my blogsite.  I need to go back and read it regularly so that I can get myself thinking straight. 

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