What’s The Worst Golf Advice You Have Gotten?
I was out on the course this weekend, playing a foursome with my caddy, Sniff, and 2 other gents (who I will call Bill and Ted because they took me on a “Bogus Journey” of a golf round).
Even though my name can be deceiving, I generally have a 10 Handicap, and I was playing at my level, and fairly pleased with myself for the first couple of holes. That’s when the advice started. The advice was wretched, and was more mentally harmful than helpful.
Wait! You’re doing it wrong!
“You need to keep your head down and eye on the ball”
Now this may be true when putting, but your eyes need to move to your target mid swing, otherwise your posture will dictate a horrible swing plane. But after a few holes, I started second guessing myself. It totally threw my game off.
“Your grip is too tight, you need to lossen it up”
It is true that too strong of a grip could cause you to slice the ball, but I wasn’t slicing that bad! The minute I started to loosen up the grip, the slice got worse, and I even lost the club at one point.
“Turn your hips more”
No! My hip rotation is fine. I listened anyway, I might have gained a bit more distance but, my weight began to shift incorrectly and the balls flew in every direction. And let me tell you, more distance when I am not on the target just means that ball will be further from where I want it to be.
“Aim further to the right”
This was directed at Sniff, since he is a southpaw, rather than “aim further left.” This resulted in him coming into the ball further on the outside and over the top. More slice.
This mental sabotage had the two of us second guessing our entire game. We had fail after fail. And the worse we did, the more we over analyzed and the worse we got. Best part was that the two giving the advice barely beat us regardless of how awful our shots felt to us. It is probably going to take me a few more rounds to recapture my confidence and get back into my own groove.
What was the worst golf advice you have ever been given?
~Scratch
