The score

I've realised that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with my golf swing, just my golf thinking.

Some ten years ago I decided I needed to work on my golf swing because I had a chronic slice, along with some other swing faults. I worked out that by setting up differently (square or slightly closed shoulders) and synchronising my arm swing with my body turn, I could hit the ball relatively straight.

I then proceeded to complicate matters by fiddling with my grip, stance, aim, elbows, wrists, backswing, weight transfer, and also introduced a host of swing thoughts. Not all of this was negative or wrong, but in the end I was no better off than when I first discovered a decent swing.

In my previous post, I talked about rhythm and tempo, concluding that rhythm is the most important key to good golf, once the fundamentals are in place. I don't resile from this position. However, there is something else that makes for satisfying golf - a good score.

Scoring is something that pro golfers need to do - it's there job. The score is not nearly so important for most golfers, but a decent score is still the target, the goal, the measuring stick. We can hit great shots, but if we three-putt every second hole, take two out of every bunker, duff those crucial pitch shots, or find some other way to regularly wreck a round, we can become frustrated, even to the point of giving up the game.

This is where course management, temperament, concentration and, as mentioned, rhythm come into play. The best swing in the world will not guarantee 'success' if many of the other elements of the game are not in order.

I've been too preoccupied with my golf swing for too long. It's fine. It works. The time has come for me to go back to concentrating on THE SCORE.