Chapter 1
So, Who Is This Guy?
If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably want a warm fuzzy that the author knows a little more about the subject than you do. So who is this guy? Well, he’s not a household name, and he hasn’t coached any big names on the PGA tour.
After 2 tours in the Army and 11 more working as a DOD civilian, he left civil service to open and operate Magee Golf Company, a retail, repair, and PGA-accredited teaching facility for the next 25 years.
He was a master club maker, club fitter, and a teacher. His father was a lifetime PGA member, instructor, and club pro, so golf has been a dominating influence since his formative years.
Like most things in life, the least complicated solution is often the best solution. Golf is no different, especially for older and weekend golfers, for whom the solution is so simple it gets ignored.
I knew my customers were my best advertising, so I offered free lessons to all my new club buyers. I averaged 15 lessons a week, 45 weeks a year, for the last 16 years, until I retired.
During those years, I isolated 3 key elements that improve and maintain everyone's ball striking ability.
I patterned my teaching around 3 key elements that instantly and effortlessly improved everyone's shot-making. Their swings didn’t look any different, but their ball striking was more solid, straighter, and their distances were more predictable.
None of the principles I’m going to present here are new. There just isn’t anything new about how to hit the ball better, except for how it’s presented.
Golfers achieve success through self-realization, not just through instruction. You have to see the sense of something before you will grasp its relevance and importance, and come to terms with it.
I have tested and proven wisdom to share that will help you defeat your toughest opponent, yourself. And all that is required on your part is to keep reading.
Now, go get a club. I can’t teach without one in my hand, and I’ve never seen anyone learn without one in theirs. Get a six iron. I’ll wait. Go!
Golf instructors are the most frustrated demographic on this earth. Their students rarely have enough time to practice, but still expect great shots. Yeah, I’m talking about you. Hand-eye coordination and muscle memory develop slowly. You can’t will it to happen, and it won’t happen just by playing golf. Focused, repetitive, targeted practice is the only way to improve hand-eye coordination and muscle memory, so stop reading here if you won't practice.
Oh, wait. That's right, I said better ball striking was instant and effortless, didn't I? And it is, if you have a repeating swing.
Beginners, of course, need to learn the fundamentals. Intermediate players need to learn self-control, the physics of ball striking and ball flight, putting, how to read wind and the course, and course management. Advanced players need to master ev-er-y-thing and always improve on their consistency.
Better ball striking isn't necessarily your best ball striking. Most golfers never invest in a professional lesson, and those who do never learn why the ball goes where it does. They just keep trying to do what the pro tells them to do. This rote style of instruction works for some people some of the time, but has to be repeated by too many people too much of the time. I think it’s an evil plot hatched by the PGA to keep their pros employed ;-). If only the principles of ball flight and the rationale for the basic swing fundamentals were explained in the beginning, lesson time would decrease, proficiency would increase, and a 4-hour round might again be a reality. The average score might even drop below 105.
Many golfers use instruction books and videos instead of asking for help. This approach is dangerous unless the golfer understands which individual swing fault or faults are causing their problems. Nothing ruins a decent golf swing faster than working on a problem that doesn’t exist.
The actual instructional portion of this book isn’t very long because I’ve only included the stuff that worked best for my students over the years. By the time you finish the “Cause & Effect” chapter, you will have a much better understanding of the three swing factors that most influence a golf ball in flight. Once armed with that information, you will be better able to self-diagnose and repair your swing during the course of play, where you don’t have the benefit of an instructor.
We have been brought up to believe that unless we can make our bodies duplicate the swings of the masters, we can’t play a decent game of golf. That's nonsense! If we were all built the same and we all possessed equal abilities, this approach might have some merit, but we aren’t, and we don’t, so it doesn’t. We can’t all reproduce the same swing!
I’m going to explain how to diagnose your swing faults by watching the flight of the ball. Golfers aren’t stupid, just misguided, stubborn, and lazy. Once you understand what influences ball flight, you can make the necessary adjustments to correct it. Yeah, right.
We have all heard that there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. But when it comes to golf, the so-called right way isn’t always the only way, or even a possibility. You can probably do it your way better than you can do it “the right” way. Bobby, Arnie, Jack, Gene, Chi Chi, Gary, Raymond, Lee, and Ben certainly did it their own way! Experience, technology, and common sense have brought me to the conclusion that the average golfer requires only two things to have fun and score as low as possible. The first is a properly fit and matched set of golf clubs.
Custom-fit clubs won’t always make you a better golfer by themselves, just as getting the proper eyeglass prescription won’t make you a better reader, but they both are necessary to the learning process and will certainly have a negative impact if they don’t fit. The second is a proper understanding of what influences a golf ball’s flight pattern.
I can’t help you with the fitted clubs. Club fitting is a hands-on operation and can’t be done well remotely. Find an established facility that specializes in club fitting. The illustrations and associated explanations that follow are all the average golfer needs to keep their ball in the short grass. Once you know all the elements that affect ball flight, you can begin to heal yourself.
In order to make this understandable for right and left-handed golfers:
- “Front”, “forward” and “ahead” refers to that side of your stance closest to the hole.
- “Back” or “rear” refers to that side of your stance furthest from the hole.
If you are not a beginner, you will realize nearly immediate results if you read and practice the tenets in the chapter on “Tempo” first. Follow that with “Divots 101” and finally the “Golf Clock”.
Once you have completed and mastered those chapters, you should realize a marked improvement. Then, start at the beginning and read the whole book.