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 (Illustration: John Cheresh) Most teachers will talk about the technical aspects required to make the ball draw and fade. They will talk about grip and club path. I look at it a little differently. In this computer age we live in where everything is instantaneous and electronically based, it’s easy to forget a very simple fact. The most amazing and advanced computer in the world resides right between our ears. Everything we know was learned. Some things are learned instinctually and are necessary for survival. Others are experiential and serve as the basis for everything we do. Walking, running, speaking, singing, even swinging a golf club are examples of the computer in your head putting together pieces of information for practical use. On a golf course we know from experience how elevation, wind, ground condition, equipment, fitness level and our own physical strength will make a ball move. When you break down that process, you can see how amazing it really is. When we don’t play well, it’s because we have gotten in the way of our computer and not allowed the knowledge in our own head to flow out naturally. When we play well, we get out of the way and it just happens. We routinely see it at the highest level. If you ask a Tour player how they make a shot shape in a certain way, they won’t spout technical details. It happens because the mind’s eye tells them that the ball needs to move in a particular fashion and they allow it to happen. Despite having been in the game a very long time, it never ceases to amaze me what we can learn from our students. I’ll talk to a person who plays the same golf course for 30 years yet is unaware that a particular hole plays uphill or that the perennial wind on a certain approach comes out of the left. Mention those facts to them and they will tell you that they always come up short on the uphill hole or that they regularly end up in the right hand bunker on the hole influenced by the breeze. It wasn’t until they got out of their own way that they realized it. That’s the biggest difference between the average player and the Tour professional: The Tour professional is a better computer programmer. They know how to work the keyboard and access the information inside them. A young lady who works with me is a wiz on the computer and she makes that thing sing with a flurry of effortless keystrokes and mouse clicks. It looks like the computer is working in concert with her. I jump on the computer and hunt and peck my way around. I have to think my way through it. It looks uncomfortable and it’s not nearly as efficient. Learn how to get out of your own way and let your mind shape the shots you see in your mind’s eye. You might be surprised what you find inside of you. Jamie Mulligan is chief operating officer and an award-winning PGA professional at Long Beach’s Virginia Country Club. |
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