Confessions of Inadequate Ball Striking
I can feel here that many are thinking it is pompous to say a golf swing is not hard when the preacher is able to hit the ball well. When I say that a golf swing is relatively easy however, I am clearly not speaking to you from a high and mighty pedestal of being a great ball striker. I have never been especially satisfied with my ball contact while practicing and playing throughout my golfing career. Never have I personally approached the contentment I occasionally felt back in my baseball days regarding my ability to hit a baseball, under conditions that are normally much more trying than hitting a golf ball. There are various reasons for my less than stellar ball contact at times when golfing, not the least of which is self-inflicted and consisting of intentionally swinging with divergent equipment specifications for testing purposes. Even when performing as such though, I have never been naive enough to believe that a golf swing is hard, particularly relative to other athletic skills. The best hitters in professional baseball completely miss the ball more than their fair share of times, yet all but the most novice of golfers are able to make at least some golf ball contact virtually every time upon swinging, even with the much smaller ball. Having experienced as well as observed these occurrences, I know that these different types of swing skills are what they are and nothing more, no magical secrets required.
From the standpoint of taking personal golf lessons and for reference purposes, I state here that I am predominantly a self-taught player. However, I give plenty of due credit to many individuals who have provided swing, clubfitting, and game playing information in books and other media. I am grateful to each and every one of them for contributing to the knowledge I have accumulated today, and I am quite sure I will mention some of them individually at times when writing. I concede to taking one individual lesson back when I first got serious about succeeding at golf. I predominantly had questions about how much one’s golf equipment could affect his or her swing and/or shot results. I already knew much of the answers based on my long, previous involvement playing baseball. Still, at that early stage of my golfing career, I did not necessarily know the degree of influence and in what way(s) the equipment could specifically exert control over one’s golfing performance in comparison to that which I experienced in my earlier baseball days. The response I received, from a well-reputed PGA Professional at the time, was inappreciable and made it fairly easy to decide not to take any more personal lessons.