30. Step back from this conflict with the ball, swing the club, engage your hand and eye co-ordination, and just let the ball be in the way

The working relationship between a player and a golf coach is 50/50. A coach can give you a real good grounding and understanding of the fundamentals but the “thing” that makes it work comes from you, the golfer. The “thing” that makes it work and turns you from a frustrated beginner into a good golfer is something you are born with and possess in huge quantities. The “thing” we are talking about is hand and eye co-ordination. The problem is it is not fine tuned to the accuracy required for consistent success. This fine tuning takes time.

Hitting a golf ball is, dare I say, easy once you develop the accuracy to put the club head where it is needed to be, on a consistent basis. To get you to see the point in practical terms pick out a distinctive small piece of turf. Set up to it so it is in the ideal ball position and make some swings, trying to swish the patch. Until you can swish the same patch of grass 99 times out of a 100, then you will never have the game you desire. Catching it 3 out of 10 times is not acceptable.

Swishing this specific point of grass consistently is the first objective; learning to do the same with the ball in the way is the next. This requires trust. It does not easily gel in the golfers mind that this seemingly pointless approach will deliver the club to the ball in an effective fashion. It all seems too simplistic. Once you have it, you never lose it.

The presence of the ball unfortunately tends to draw us into a direct conflict with it as we try to force a result. Step back from this conflict, swing the club, engage your hand and eye co-ordination, and just let the ball be in the way. I must stress that success at swishing the grass does not take into account whether the club face is open or closed. That is the next hurdle you tackle after this first one. The precision that the top players achieve cannot be taught, bought, borrowed or stolen. Also, it cannot be forced. It has to be learnt as a personal experience through hours and hours of focused application. Just as a surgeon develops his skill gradually from simple wart removals as a trainee doctor, to a Heart or Neuro surgeon after many years, so the better golfer emerges gradually.