One of the most common refrains in the world of golf is that the game is “all in your head” or “it’s 90% mental” or as Bobby Jones famously said “Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course, the space between your ears.”
The quote that I would counter comes from a guy who knows a thing or two about effort:
“You must work very hard to become a natural golfer.”
- Gary Player
I provide my answer to the question in the video below, please leave a comment if you agree and especially if you disagree. In essence my belief is that while the mind is in charge of the body, it is limited by the extent of the player’s ability on any given day, which is shaped by innate athleticism and most important, by training and experiences.
Golf Fitness is an Industry Because of TPI
Anyone who has read my blog or met me will know that I’m a big supporter of those who treat golf as a motor skill. Yes the mind plays a major role but every golfer is limited by what their body is capable of, just as a racecar driver is limited by the car they take to the track. It’s my firm belief that the frustrated midhandicap golfer (my target audience) is most likely wasting their time with their golf improvement efforts if they haven’t been physically screened. For instance, the inability to hinge at the hip joints is rampant for middle aged executives, partially due to sitting at a desk staring at a computer monitor all day, with other causes that I’ll save for future posts.
The 2010 World Golf Fitness Summit presented by TPI
In November 2010 dozens of the top minds in golf fitness and biomechanics gathered in Orlando for the semi-annual World Golf Fitness Summit as put together by TPI. This is my tribute to the presenters that week.
Here are the golf fitness professionals mentioned, in the order they appear in the video
Dr. Greg Rose
Dave Phillips
Jamie Sadlowski
Ben Shear
Jeff Banaszak
Mark Verstegen
Lance Gill
Jason Glass
Ryan Crysler
Milo Bryant
Sean Cochran
Sean Foley
Gray Cook
Janet Alexander
Mike Bennett
Andy Plummer
Craig Davies
Dr. Harry Sese
Dr. Mike Voight
Granger Beaton
Tyler Ferrell
Dee Tidwell
Mike Dixey
James Sieckmann
Robert Yang
Don Parsons
Mark Blackburn
Thomas Plummer
My Red Foam Roller
My 16kg Kettlebell
Gray Cook & Brett Jones: Kettlebells From the Ground Up
Golf is hard, consumes a large block of time, costs quite a bit to play, and humbles us at every turn. Yet so many of us are admitted addicts of this game, even as we struggle with 3 foot putts, sliced drives, and chunky iron shots. We skull chips and fat wedges and four-putt greens but there is something magical about this game that makes it different from any other, and there must be a good explanation of why we play golf.
Why we play golf
In my mind the fundamental reason we play this game is to become one with the universe for however brief a moment on the golf course. When you strike a golf ball exactly as intended using the leverage of the shaft, finding the sweetest spot on the clubface, and harnessing all the momentum available between your own human body and the earth’s gravity, you can briefly create a work of art in the air that defies that very gravity and then uses it to drop the ball back to earth where you imagined it should land. We are both creating art and exercising the brute force that we’re capable of when given the right tool.
There’s the feeling of compressing a ball with an iron that provides inarguable confirmation of our mastery of the tool in hand. The walk from the tee to a drive in the middle of the fairway allows time to reflect on how far we’ve come, and to enjoy having made our path easier to the green. The crafty escape from a difficult mess in the woods reminds us that we can respond to adversity because of our acquired skill. Draining a 15 foot putt and watching it follow our intended line exactly as imagined allows us to develop a vision and watch it come to life. Golf provides businessmen the chance to be artists and for someone slight of build to generate explosive power. The game can be played from birth to death and each round is a journey with a known start and finish but with outcomes that cannot be predicted. No two courses or golf shots are identical, and a controlled shot is the reward for being able to let go of control–of the clubface, body, and mind.
