My mind is cluttered. Cluttered with thoughts of golf. Properly cluttered like the kind of antique shops you find in small rural villages scattered throughout England. Lots of things in there, spread about willy nilly, some interesting and some not, some significant and some not but all there none the less.
You have to trawl through a lot of the irrelevant junk to get to the good stuff.
Finding the right thing in these places can take time and patience.
I look around my cluttered mind to find the right thought that will bring my search to an end. You see I’m trying to find my golf swing. Not any golf swing, certainly not Justin Rose’s golf swing or Jordan Speith’s golf swing (although I do like Justin’s), I’m trying to find mine.
Just a bit of background. I played competitive sport until I was beyond the big 4-0 and while this kept me fit it also satisfied my need to be competitive. I think this competitive edge is in everybody and when it’s gone…well, it’s not actually gone. Something else comes along – chess with the kids, arguments with your mates over a few pints for example – to fill the competitive void. For me golf came just before I fell out with the kids but after I’d lost touch with my mates.
I had played a little golf from my late twenties but it was sporadic, with society events once a month in summer the norm. I liked it a lot but I hadn’t fallen in love with the game. That happened in 2014 when I became a member of the beautiful Bunclody Golf and Fishing Club in Co Wexford, Ireland and just before I turned 48. After returning my three cards I was given an initial handicap of 17, drifted out to 18 over the course of the first few months but have since come down to 13. (I’m playing a bit better over this winter so I’m hopeful that my modest goals can be achieved this summer). My intentions are to play as low as I can but first I need to find my golf swing. Here’s what I mean by that.
I need to feel that every time I stand over the ball, with a driver or a 6 iron in my hand for example, I ‘know’ how I am going to swing the club. Right now there are many different swing thoughts racing through my mind as I address the ball, which obviously affects how I swing the club. Address position, weight distribution (not on my heels I hope), weight transfer, spine angle, shoulder turn, grip, ball position, takeaway, downswing trigger, downswing, follow through, finish position to name just a few. Oh, alignment and target too. Just to be clear, I am not thinking about all these things at the same time as I stand over a golf shot. However, I am sure that at least once in a round I will think about each of these things and often some combination of the (by no means exhaustive) list. As a result my ball striking can be erratic along with my scoring.
This uncertainty about what my swing actually should consist of, manifests itself in a physical way. I will regularly feel differently about my swing and I am sure I swing it differently depending upon what my thought process is on any given day. I know I am doing plenty of things correctly because I take (reasonably) regular lessons from my club pro Gary McClean (He’s an excellent coach by the way) and he assures me that things are pretty good swing wise. My tempo is a little quick but the fundamentals are there. So here’s the thing I’m struggling with. Because of the different swing thoughts and the random nature of the thoughts – one day I’m focusing on shoulder turn and on another it could be weight transfer depending on how I feel I’m swinging the club – I am never sure about which swing is really mine! Is this the typical golfers lot I wonder? To constantly be searching for something? You know, an overall swing sensation or maybe a downswing trigger, which will be the last piece of the jigsaw and when found will complete the picture of MY swing. Not Justin Rose’s swing but mine. For now, I’m still searching for that piece of the jigsaw and hopefully every hour spent on the range or on the golf course, brings me closer to finding it.
I recently heard Charl Schwartzel being interviewed after the second round of a tournament where his putting had improved dramatically from day one. When asked for a reason for this improvement he said he had found a local club maker overnight and got him to add half an inch to the putter shaft and this made all the difference! This got me thinking. This guy is a multiple winner on tour, has won a major (The Masters in 2011) and must be regarded as one of the world’s elite players.
Even Charl Schwartzel was searching for something from one tournament day to the next.
There might be hope for me yet!
This is the first of a series of ‘searching for …’ blog posts. I hope you liked it and all comments etc. will be gratefully accepted.
Cheers, Declan
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