Bit of a rethink

I love a good theory and a good golf theory in particular. I've tested and rejected many of them over the past ten years. As a result, I know more about the golf swing, but mostly I know more about why most of these theories are a waste of time.

Everyone is different, yet every pro golfer does some things well that weekenders don't. And all pros hit the ball much better than the average golfer. Why is it so?

The answer is basically that pros know certain ball flight laws. They know, for example, that you must hit down for the ball to go up (driver excepted). They also know that the club face to path relationship will determine the direction and spin of a ball. The fact that they are fitter, more flexible and generally younger (at the top levels) than the average hacker is a bonus.

However, it is not too hard to learn these ball flight laws, that is, to know these things. The hard part is to know them and put them into practice. There are many reasons why we have trouble with either or both of these tasks; sometimes it's just ignorance or indifference and sometimes it's lack of athletic ability or hand-eye coordination.

There is another major reason why the performance of the average golfer stagnates and that is the famous 'paralysis by analysis'. This has been a biggie for me, of course. There are so many theories, so many methods, so many gurus preaching their golfing gospel, that suckers like me get sucked right in.

So, and I'll keep this brief, I'm taking a new tack. It's an approach that I have actually been warned about taking, not least by one of the founders of 'modern' golf teaching, Percy Boomer, whom most golfers have never heard of. But no matter, he was good, very good.

Against his advice I am going to do two things in coming games, as follows:

1. I am going to follow the simple advice of Adam Scott, a consummate ball striker: start the downswing with upper and lower body together. This goes against much of the teaching about sequencing, rotation, lag, etc. etc., but it works. It keeps the full swing very simple. Forget about the backswing (at least don't sweat it) and then just let it all go as fast and hard as you can manage while keeping your balance and making decent contact.

2. I am going to copy, actually that is 'channel' the putting stroke of Jason Day. He has the smoothest and arguably most effective putting stroke in the pro game. Just thinking about the way he hits his putts is helping me with my putting. Nothing technical about grip or stance of swing arc or whatever, just one thought: 'keep it smooth'.

Let's see how this re-think works.