The title of this website is “Pure Contact Golf”. There is a good reason for this title. Any golfer who has ever played the game before has hit the occasional perfect shot that feels so good it keeps the golfer coming back. They practice more to repeat the same motion and feeling over and over. I can tell you, when a golfer begins to perfect this great feeling, they begin to build trust. They begin to know it is going to happen instead of hoping it will happen.
This starts with learning that a student does not have to swing hard to achieve long distances with their shots. Invariably with students, I tell them that they should be able to use the same swing for all their golf clubs. The length and the loft of the club determine the trajectory and the distance. I also tell them that by the time they get to their long clubs, their personalities tend to change, and they become Godzilla with a golf club, swinging very hard! This revolves around learning that the better the contact is, the further the shots go. In essence, the quality of the contact outweighs the quantity of the contact. This means that an easier swing will produce a higher quality of contact where a more forceful swing is more difficult to control. Much of this is about trust. Over the years of teaching the game, many of my students have often indicated that they are the best driving-range-golfer, of all time. Now, if they could only get that to happen on the golf course. This is a very common theme. To me, it truly becomes about trusting that this same motion will work for them on the golf course too. When a golfer begins learning the game, they are ecstatic when they accomplish great shots on the driving range first. It is just a process. When they take this to the golf course, the same process begins all over again. Nervousness and anxiousness set in. They start not trusting and begin to swing harder with more effort. However, as they become a more seasoned golfer, they will begin to trust that results will happen through good contact. They will begin to slow down, and their tempo and rhythm will become more consistent, producing high-quality shots.
How to build trust in your swing and how to build trust on the course.
Building trust in your golf swing starts with taking the time to learn the proper mechanics. I recommend that people should not tinker and guess. You should see a trained PGA Golf Instructor who will make the process fun and informative. This reduces the time spent creating a more efficient golf swing. In the beginning it will be difficult. Working through it will improve your efficiency and your ball contact. This is only done through practice. Then the process is taking it to the course.
In bringing it to the golf course, on many occasions, I go out on the course with my students to insure a good transition from the practice tee to the course. From that point on, they are set on a practice routine and schedule that includes practice on the course. Their goal is to have a good balance between playing on the course and hitting balls on the practice tee. Prefacing they do not hold up play, practice on the course is extremely beneficial and helps them in building trust on the course.
Good advice for everyone is that there tends to be different levels of building trust for golf. This goes from knowing it can be done on the practice tee, then knowing they can do it on the golf course. It does not end there. Then knowing it can be done in competition at many different levels. It’s constantly learning to build trust. It’s what the game is about and truly a joy in building.
Give yourself the opportunity to build trust in your game!
Terry Shaffer, PGA Professional
