Golf - Secret Behind the Game
The game is not business, but business decisions have been made before, during, and after this game is played. The game is golf. Golf has been recommended for generations to help in ones pursuit of success. Golf is a great way to network with people. I see that even in the small community in which I live. You learn a lot about people and community from the tee boxes, fairways, greens, and clubhouse. I read recently that next to having a good understanding of accounting and learning a second language golf is a “must have” to add to your personal repertoire of life skills.
It’s true, golf is hard, but the game is great; greater than any player. As Hardy states in the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance “it’s fun, it’s hard, and you stand out there on that green green grass and it’s just you and the ball, and there isn’t anybody to beat up on you, but yourself… it’s the only game that you can call a penalty on yourself, if you’re honest, which most people are. They’re just ain’t no other game like it.” I do not proclaim to be a great golfer, nor do I know how to perform every technical golf shot. I do feel a good golfer is within me because I know the secret.
This secret I have a lot of golf pros probably disregard and maybe prefer I keep it to myself. When I was thirteen I showed interest in golf, and so my parents bought me lessons at the golf course. The golf instructor boosted my confidence when he saw me swing for the first time and told me I had a natural golf swing. The next five years I managed to completely forget my natural golf swing because I took the swing straight to my head. I lost my swing. Jack Nicklaus once said that there are 17 things to think about when performing a golf shot. I think I took that literally and my brain could only think of one thing at a time. My high school senior year I tried out for the golf team. I was swinging the golf club strait back and forward keeping the face perpendicular with the ball fearing that I would hit another slice. I did not make the team.
This is where the secret comes into play. When I first put a club in my hands at twelve people were telling me that I had a natural golf swing. Here is the secret: the golf swing is a natural movement. I wish I had read Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book when I first started golf, within the pages was what I had performed unknowingly throughout my young life that engraved the golf swing into muscle memory.
The golf swing is a natural movement. It needs to be learned, but it is as natural as riding a bike or swinging a baseball bat. Yes, the baseball swing is another natural movement that is different than the golf swing that needs to be learned; accept it, move on, play golf!
The house I grew up in had a vacant lot across the street. The empty lot served to the surrounding neighbors a place to take garden and grass clippings. Our neighborhood had several locations that us kids played. This lot was one of the unpopular locations because in the middle a grove of trees grew thick with nettles. The area closest to the road was grassy and ten feet in accumulated blackberries. It was my duty to keep the grass down on the area near the road. I would usually run the lawn mower over it, but some of the grass I could not cut or get to with the lawn mower. My dad had this really old grass whip I found in the outside utility closet. I called it an old-fashioned weed whacker. There are two types of grass whips. The one I am referring to looks like a golf club with a 10” blade on the end of it. The better ones have a shaft made out of steel. The tool is well balanced and you swing it exactly like a textbook golf swing. Instead of hitting a single golf ball where each shot counts, one swings back and forth chopping blades of grass and weeds without a care in the world committing the natural movement to muscle memory. All the major bad habits in a golf swing disappear after 5 minutes.
It took me two minutes to figure out how to use the grass whip. Swinging left to right, right to left, right hand over left, left hand over right, any which way finding the channel to the swing. The only real difference between swinging a golf club verses a grass whip is the grip, which is fundamental to swinging a golf club. Gripping a grass whip verses a golf club is more like gripping a bat and not the overlapping or interlocking like a golf grip. There is just something about swinging a grass whip that is addicting. Most people that have them say that the tool is there favorite garden tool in the shed. I would cut grass until I either ran out of grass, or I physically could not swing it anymore because of the blisters the plastic grip would make in the palm of my hands.
Harvey Pennick back in the 1930’s used to give his students these grass whips and tell them to go out in the field and cut grass for 20 minutes and act like they are making an hourly wage. His students were picking up golf so quickly that it upset other golf pros.
I am not proclaiming that all you need is an old-fashioned weed whacker and you will be shooting par. Ben Hogan stated that golf is a game of misses. Golf is hard. To understand the intricacies of individual golf shots takes practice, study, and execution. Find a good golf pro and take lessons.
All a person wants to learn about golf can be found on YouTube, but golf at its core is the nature of the swing. The nature of a golf swing is within the feel and feel you get through repetition. If you did not grow up on a golf course the quickest way to hone a true golf swing is by cutting some field grass with a grass whip.
I have showed a couple of friends the grass whip, but I have not had much success improving their golf game. Either they just did not take me seriously, or they were not interested. It was interesting showing people that already golf. They would swing the grass whip with their bad habits and usually only take two or three swings and then stop. As I drive by fields and open grass I find myself rating it on how well a grass whip would work. I envision an area on or near a golf course where the grass grows where people can go discover the nature of the golf swing. A place for someone to catch-up or fine-tune that true path to the swing.
There is a lot of pressure on a golf course. Hitting balls on a driving range for a beginner golfer is intimidating. Most everyone there has experience with the game and usually the driving range is near the clubhouse or fairways. Hitting one ball at a time keeping it out of fairways and trying not to look like a fool takes the fun out of it. Anyone can cut grass with a grass whip and burying the blade into a clump of grass is about the worse thing a person can do; the mistake is not going to send you back to your car with your shirt pulled over your head. I honestly can say that 50% of the time I would rather go cut grass than hit golf balls. There is no disappointment, and it is a lot of fun.
After one commits the golf swing to muscle memory by swinging an old-fashioned weed whacker I have a couple more recommendations. Read Ben Hogan’s book Five Lessons. It’s the Bible to golf, but the book reads much more like Cliff notes. The next step is simple; find a field and chip and pitch ball to your hearts content. As a recommendation by Ben Hogan chipping and pitching will increase muscle memory at ball impact and will reduce 4-6 strokes to your game.
Less than 1000 people invented the world we live in. In the current state of evolution I hope we all have the sense to operate bladed manual tools, but it is becoming quickly questionable. This tool is dangerous. Make sure surrounding areas are safe to use a grass whip. Do not use your grass whip when your kids or pets are outside close to you.
If you are new to golf or you just need to straighten out some kinks, it may be as easy as cutting field grass the old fashioned way.