21.When teaching new players I always tell them that in the early lessons I am simply teaching them to swing the golf club; not how to hit a golf ball

It is a poignant time in ones life when you make a statement starting, "When I was a lad" but something I read in the last week stands out in stark contrast to what was once, for me, an accepted belief.

Tiger Woods in a latest national golf magazine was quoted "No matter your level of expertise, you are going to miss greens, especially on courses that are set up tough." For a while as a young Assistant Pro, I was exposed to the view that missing greens was not acceptable. To make par, you had to hit the green in the regulation figure and then 2 putt. Having to chip and 1 putt for a par was "not the done thing young man."

What Woods said is the reality of the game and I hasten to add, I did realise this many years back now thank goodness. However, I can vividly recall the pressure I felt when faced with what was, and still is, an unrealistic situation and it certainly was not helpful to me in those important early years.

Like many things in this game that sound illogical, you find that when you are not burdened by the pressure of having to hit greens in regulation, "lo and behold", you actually do hit a lot. A good player’s level is achieved by a sound short game. Having good recovery skills does take pressure off having to hit the green and when they do miss one, they still make par anyway

I am a great believer that the game if taught with the short shots first, developing pitching, chipping and putting skills, working back to the long game later would be far more beneficial on two fronts. First, learning to strike the ball consistently with a short swing is far easier to achieve than the inevitable mis-cues beginners have with the full swing. As your strike gets more consistent, lengthen the swing gradually and build up to the full version. The second point is that this foundation of "Layered Learning" builds a vital thing into the equation which we all need and that is confidence. Without it, we all fail.

Starting with a full swing at first and suffering the inevitable "misses" inflicts bad vibes on adult beginners and these vibes can have an effect on the player at a later date. I must add though that full swinging first off is okay as long as you are aware of what is realistic and what is not. When teaching new players I always tell them that in the early lessons I am simply teaching them to swing the golf club; not how to hit a golf ball. Even though the ball is in the equation it is of little interest to me and that results should be ignored at the start. Working on the ball and results comes later when you can make a swing without thinking about it. Too many people, myself included, start with unrealistic expectations.

However, it is obvious that our human instincts guarantee the "short shots first" approach will never be popular because it is in our nature to see how far we can launch the ball. The desire to hit the ball long distances is the bait on the hook that captures us all in the beginning. Some time in the distant future when millions of years of aggressive human conditioning have become diluted, I dare say the alternative learning approach may have its day and then the game may well become easy.