TEEING OFF: BRENDAN JAMES
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to regularly smash your drives 300 yards, consistently hit 15 or 16 greens in regulation a round and never, never, never have the fear of hitting a skanky shot along the ground, much to the delight of your mates?
I have. Probably from the very first rounds I played as a teen I would tinker with something. With each new golf magazine that hit the shelves, I would study the tips far more intensely than anything I brought home from school and I would be on the range working through the next thing that was going to cut shots from my handicap.
I’m now in my early 50s and I’m still tinkering away. Working for a golf magazine you’re exposed to reams of golf instruction almost on a daily basis. There is no doubt I’m a prime candidate for paralysis by analysis but thus far I have managed to tiptoe around its clutches and the tinkering continues.
Anyway, who doesn’t tinker? Blokes who love their cars are tinkering under the hood all the time, then there are the gardeners, who call their form of tinkering “pottering about”. Golfers tinker with their clubs and their swings, all trying to get that edge over their mates the next time they play.
Our form of tinkering can be quite enjoyable. I mean who doesn’t like that feeling of the light bulb going off in your head and, first chance you get, racing off to the practice range to test your new theory/ concept/magic move/swing thought or all of the above.
Then there is serious tinkering … the kind of tinkering you see Tour pros going through on the range at every tournament. When I see a Tour player hitting balls one-handed, with his eyes closed or with a towel under his armpit, I can’t help but think “why”?
It’s not just the journeymen looking for an answer either, its guys who are regular winners out there that are tinkering with their swing. Again, I ask “why”? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
I’ve seen some weird and wonderful things employed by world class players to try and boost their confidence or simply get the ball back in the centre of the clubface.
On the eve of the 2011 Presidents Cup, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa – a nine-time winner on the Japanese Tour – was alone on the practice fairway. Having worked his way through the bag, he then spent an hour hitting 50-metre pitch shots with his driver, with a swing akin to what you might see from a 90-year-old man – short and slow. After an hour, he then tinkered with half a dozen backswing positions before hitting another ball.
He started to tinker with the basics of the swing that had been good enough to cement him a place in the world top-50 by the age of 20. A Japanese journalist here to cover the Cup later told me the ‘Bashful Prince’ was making changes to find extra distance.
He’s not Robinson Crusoe at the top end of the game, especially now with the evolution of the game into a power sport.
Tinkering has taken a turn that might hurt more than it helps. Tinkering with your swing to beat your mates means nothing, but when it is going to affect your livelihood … what difference is a few yards going to make.