Thursday, October 9, 2014

Where Technology Fails: On the Golf Course



Where Technology Fails:  On the Golf Course


Video.

Launch monitors.

3-D Swing Analysis.

None of these are available where it counts:  On the Golf Course.

To PLAY THE GAME the PLAYER must use his/her strengths, abilities, skills, and most importantly – WITS to PLAY the golf ball around the COURSE.

The COURSE is not flat.  It is not artificial turf.  Golf is not PLAYED into a net in a studio. 

The PLAY of the GAME is never the same.  It is not consistent, especially over the course of 4 rounds.
PLAYERS don’t PLAY the same shot to a hole every time.  Because of CONDITIONS, they CAN’T.

A PLAY in the GAME is a tactic used to NEGOTIATE THE COURSE CONDITIONS.  The course conditions are never the same, which means the same PLAY won’t work every time.   

Which is… the point.

Suppose you just want to hit it straight.  The course designer has thought of this tactic, and has conspired to design the course NOT to be 18 driving ranges. 

There is fairway.  There is rough.  There are straight holes.  And doglegs.  There are slopes.  Nothing is flat.

The wind swirls.  Or it’s dead calm.

The landing zone is NEVER flat.

And just when there’s that one day that you’re proud of the way you PLAYED, the next day is different with different hole locations.

Or, you’re playing a completely different golf course altogether!

Everyone fails at some point in golf.  We’ve been taught that everything depends on having a consistent swing, yet just when we think we’ve got it, it doesn’t work.

Yet we PLAY golf because it is not the same.  It is never the same.
If it were meant to be played on flat, artificial turf, then we wouldn’t have COURSES.  It would be too easy.  Would you want to play on a flat surface that is completely covered in artificial turf?

Yet, that’s where the LAUNCH MONITORS, 3-D SWING ANALYSIS, and VIDEO are used.

A GAME OF GOLF consists of different conditions, different distances, and different swings.  A full swing with a driver is not the same as that used for such as a 6-iron, a wedge, a pitch, a chip, a sand shot, a putt…

Yet the technology is devised to make the swings THE SAME.  Consistency.

But what we should strive for is not consistency, because consistency fails when you least expect it to ON THE COURSE.

What we should strive for is… wait for it…  PROFICIENCY.

We should strive to know when the conditions say that our consistent swing will FAIL.

We should strive to know our ON-COURSE GAME, and base our performance on what happens ON THE COURSE AND NOT ON THE RANGE.

On the range we strive to be consistent and learn to hit the ball straight.  But the COURSE is designed to screw that up. 

Ball above feet?  It SHOULD hook or pull.

Ball below feet?  It SHOULD push or slice.

The ball should not always go straight, yet we’ve been taught that what we do on the range is what should happen on the COURSE! 

And it doesn’t.  And it shouldn’t.

But we love the GAME OF GOLF because it is NOT the driving range.

Humbling?  No kidding.  Fun?  ABSOLUTELY!

-- Bob Duncan, PGA Golf Professional