Do Today's Pros Understand the Golf Swing?

[Clambake]

Is it just me, or is it feeling more and more like many of the newer pros today can't understand the golf swing without a small army of swing coaches (of course different for long and short games), psychologists, etc? Case in point from the March 2009 issue of Golf Digest in "10 Rules" by Butch Harmon:

"Nick Watney...used to have a tough time fading the ball. .... Nick had a vision of what a fading ball flight should look like, and when the ball wasn't responding to the things he tried...he came to me. We worked on weakening his strong left-hand grip....".

Wow, to fade the ball they tried weakening his small grip! What a revelation....who would have guessed that weakening his grip would contribute to a fade! Did he need a $250/hour golf coach to introduce him to this nugget of wisdom?

[Stacey_E]

Wow, to fade the ball they tried weakening his small grip! What a revelation....who would have guessed that weakening his grip would contribute to a fade! Did he need a $250/hour golf coach to introduce him to this nugget of wisdom?

LMAO

I am sooo sick of all the instructional BS. One article in this month's magazine is directly contradicted by the next month's magazine article. I really think a lot of it is just smoke and mirrors, "emperor's new clothes" type of stuff. I realize a lot of people would disagree with me. I hope I don't loose a ton of rep for saying this. But basically everything you need to know about your swing can be figured out by watching your ball flight. On the flipside however, I am still guilty of reading those golf articles. You never know when you will stumble across that one nugget of info or a swing thought that can put you on the right path. For this reason I still check out the articles and such.

[iacas]

Wow, to fade the ball they tried weakening his small grip! What a revelation....who would have guessed that weakening his grip would contribute to a fade! Did he need a $250/hour golf coach to introduce him to this nugget of wisdom?

There are, of course, other ways to hit a fade.

And $250 (or $500) to him is like $6 to you and me. I'd pay someone $6 to give me the answer that would work best for me without any trial and error.

[Andrew Rice]

Stacey,
I could not agree more. There are so many instructors out there today peddling their swing style versus anything of substance. If you look at the greatest players of all time, none of their swings are alike, few of their grips are the same, some go inside and others vertical, yet all their golf shots looked and sounded somewhat similar. The key is impact - find out what a good impact position is and work toward that. The 'fundamentals' are not fundamental at all, but merely a part of what contributes to the final outcome. I have seen too many golfers with good grip, aim and posture hit poor golf shots to buy into that.
A good impact position is the only thing the great golfers have in common - the rest is simply style!

[beachbreak]

I don't even read the full swing instructional articles anymore. They usually put a subliminal thought in my mind that screws me up when I play. I play by feel. I can pretty much fix what goes wrong in my full swing by myself. My short game is woeful, so I read those articles and try to put some of those instructions to use. Then again, I've been playing a long time so I know my own swing.

[FortAsel]

sometimes you need someone to point out the obvious to you

[shortstop20]

As far as I'm concerned those "swing tips" in golf digest have ruined more swings than they have helped.

[Chief Broom]

As far as I'm concerned those "swing tips" in golf digest have ruined more swings than they have helped.

I tend to agree, but like junkies we keep going back for more.

[Eeryck]

But basically everything you need to know about your swing can be figured out by watching your ball flight.

While watching your flight will tell you quite a bit about your swing, it won't identify the cause of the error.

Since you can not see your body positions when you are making a swing sometimes it takes someone else that you trust taking a look and giving you a little tune up and confidence booster. Top level pro's are still human, and after enough bad shots self doubt will compound their errors just as it will the weekend players. Plus they have every jack..s on TV commenting on how they did this or that, with all the scrutiny I am not suprised to see they have a team of folks they trust to help them maintain their confidence. If they did not have the experts and listened to every thing that was written about or spoken about their swings it would be effectively like attempting to fit every swing tip you ever read to your own swing. All that being said, some have taken it to what appears to be excess from the outside observer, but the golfers ego is a fragile thing. They need to do what it takes to keep the confidence up to compete at that level. Regards, -E