#9 GOOD SHOT, SH*T SHOT (THEY’RE NOT THAT DIFFERENT)

“Yes! I’ve got it!” “That’s it, I’m giving up”

In the first instance we label this a great shot, a success. In the second we feel only failure and embarrassment. But what is the difference between the two? Perhaps half the height of a golf ball, 2cm? In any other walk of life we’d label this a tiny, acceptable margin for error, but in golf, it has the power to make us feel like kings or jokers.

Rule of thumb

Let’s look at this another way. The sweetspot of a clubface is about the size of a thumbnail. If we miss this tiny target by more than a cm, the consequences for our golf ball and scorecard can be dire. This makes golf, officially, a Very Hard Game. Yet I constantly meet golfers – even inexperienced ones – who are puzzled at their inability to master it, to do what they see more accomplished players do. They cannot understand how they can hit a perfect shot followed by an awful one – even though the two swings they made were practically identical – and because of this confusion, they lose confidence and belief.

There are three payoffs here:

1. Understand the difference between a great and poor shot is almost nothing at all. You didn’t suddenly make a poor swing; you simply don’t have the skill to apply the clubface in the same place every time. Don’t feel bad about that: very, very few golfers do.

2. Use this understanding to manage your expectations, to improve your levels of acceptance. This will help you retain confidence when the ball is misbehaving.

3. Work on developing your skill. Forget that latest, technical Youtube video and instead spend time on the range developing the quality of your strike. Use clubface stickers to monitor your performance. That’s what every accomplished golfer has done. Sure, it takes some application; but that’s exactly what makes achieving it worthwhile.

Here is one thing I’ve noticed down the years, which if anything is getting worse: the typical club golfer has no idea just how close a ‘perfect’ shot is to a ‘terrible’ shot. And although not a technical thing, it has the power to destroy confidence and wreck performance. To make my point, here are two potential contacts: