What a game!

Having played a blinder a week or so ago, I went to the course for my next game desperately trying to lower my expectations, knowing that high expectations usually mean the round will end in tears. Unfortunately, the golfing gods do not reward good thinking any more than they reward good stroke making with good scoring. I then played some of the worst golf I can recall playing in recent years. Consistency seems to be as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel.

In both rounds I had been attempting to make a return to the Paul Wilson (PW) concepts of body rotation, passive arms, loose wrists, etc. But while this worked a treat one day, it didn't work at all the next day. My game collapsed, my confidence with it, and my frustration soared.

So, I am now in search of a new strategy (for want of a better expression) for my next game.

I have been working for some time on what I regard as three key elements of the golf swing - no sway, weight on front foot at impact and no over-hitting. I see no reason to abandon these. But I feel like I need a model or method, or maybe a picture of a swing to copy. I don't mean a tournament pro golfer's swing, however, that at my age and with my physical limitations, would be silly.

The model I am coming back to is not Paul Wilson's, which although excellent in may ways, has a few too many 'adjustments', maybe 'refinements', and I'm not sure what to call them, to work for me consistently. The model I like a lot and the one I'm going to try again is the one promoted by Ross Duplessis, whom I've mentioned before.

To paraphrase loosely, or borrow from his method, the critical thing in the RD golf swing seems to be an awareness of the finish position together with the avoidance of lots of adjustments in the downswing to achieve a good, consistent finish position. Awareness of the target is another important element of the RD method.

If I have this correct, to achieve consistency, RD advocates a set up with most of the weight (60%) on the front foot (not unlike stack and tilt) and the club set in line with the lead arm. The wrist position is then maintained throughout the swing, with very little if any use of the wrists or hands. The swing is essentially about body rotation back and through to a finish position facing the target (not unlike the PW method, but without some of the requisites of that approach).

In a way, the RD method, and I apologise if that is an inappropriate word for his approach, is an extension of the widely accepted approach to hitting mini shots or chip shots - weight forward, wrist-cock retention, etc. It is, just like the chip shot, aimed at repeatability and consistency, and I think it has quite a bit going for it.

Anyway, in my next game I am going to try to use this approach and, as always, going to try to keep my expectations low. Let's see what happens.