A Consistent Golf Swing is an Oxymoron

I was in a groove for a few holes this past weekend. Have you ever gotten into one of those grooves where you feel like everything with your golf swing is clicking?

I felt super comfortable as I roped a drive down the middle of the fairway. One of the tell-tale signs of a good swing (for me anyway) is I’m not falling all over myself after my follow-through.

On this particular swing, my balance was perfect and the result of my shot was also…well, perfect. It all clicked again on my approach shot – smooth and balanced. I putted-out for par and continued to play the next few holes in “the zone.”

But eventually, something happened between holes. Or maybe it was as I bent over to put the tee in the ground. Who knows? But my swing was no longer fluid. I was uncomfortable just standing there on the tee-box. But I brushed it aside and swung…and then watched my shot duck-hook into the woods on the left.

Miraculously, I only took a bogie on the hole, but something was definitely off – I could feel it. On the next hole, I knocked my 5-iron down from the fairway – a 50-yard worm-burner. But again, I only suffered a bogie.

I remember telling my golf buddies that my game was hanging on by a mere thread. I felt as if at any moment those bogies could turn into doubles and triples – I felt as though my swing had deteriorated to the point where I could legitimately dislocate my shoulder on a swing – that’s how uncomfortable I felt!

The sad thing is, I just described my typical golf game. I play a few holes like a champ and a few like a golf newbie and a few somewhere in the middle of both. The key for me is limiting the damage when I play like I’m holding a club for the first time.

But the most frustrating part is I never know what goes wrong or when it’s going to happen! I don’t feel like I’m doing anything different – but something must be different!

I’ve come to realize that having a consistent golf swing is an oxymoron. No one can have a consistent golf swing forever – it’s not a question of if you will hit a bad shot, but rather when. The best golfers are the ones who can limit the damage when they do have a mishit.

And that’s what fortunately happened to me this past weekend – I was able to limit the doubles and triples and ended up playing decent golf (or what equates to decent golf for me).

But as for what goes wrong with my swing – why it changes…That’s as ambiguous as it was my first season playing. Is it mechanical? Is it mental? Is it both (probably)? Can I get better? Sure – If I practice enough, I can probably stay “in the zone” longer, but that’s the thing with golf – even the best players have trouble keeping it together (both physically and mentally) all the time.

My advice to you is don’t worry about it! Play golf and have fun – no matter what swing shows up on any particular tee-box.