I've got 4 that really took me a long time to process. Maybe you can get there faster!
- I would always see PGA players with their club exiting left. I didn't grasp that. Wouldn't you need to follow through "towards the target" – like your basketball shot? How can the club exit left?
Well no. You're swinging on an arc, and – hey I'm not a geometry guy – the direction of ball is the tangent to the arc at that moment of impact. Ooohhhh.
- Contact with turf comes after contact with ball. Wait, so this is not like tennis, where I can take a low ball and lob it over my opponent at the net? It's not like baseball, where I can angle my bat upward?
Yes, it's not like those. You're hitting down, not scooping up.
- Something something blah blah bunker shot, where you hit the sand, not the ball.
Honestly that's so counter-intuitive that despite literally watching 100 videos and getting some lessons, I'm still helpless in there.
I would pay $1000 bounty to someone who can teach me to consistently hit a bunker shot that stuck for a full season. Live in Boston. DMs open.
- Random golfers you meet at munis are way nicer than you might expect. Technically not a swing thought. But: You can play a lot more golf if you don't feel you need to organize your pals. So it affects your swing….
I just played 3 rounds out of town.
a. Korean husband and wife – a little language barrier, he was very enthusiastic, both pleasant.
b. New best friend type – hunting and fishing guy and Gators fan – we could play every day, had a blast. Shoutout to "Randall" in Jax. I think I recall names of his 4 dogs.
Of course following golf protocol I will never see him again.
c. Two buddies having fun together – nice to me, we left each other sort of alone, I had earbud in, but the usual – help find a wayward ball, cheer the good shots, etc.
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What else is counter-intuitive?
by GoldShammGold
9 Comments
Biggest thing to me it seems is that the swing has to start at address and proceed to get back to address in one motion. Is baseball you start your move in the downswing, effectively. Idk if that would make the golf swing easier to understand or what but I feel like having to worry about tempo is really difficult on top of everything else.
Best advice I’ve heard for bunker shots:
Toe turned in on soft sand.. club head digs in and scoops ball out. Firmer sand you open the face and allow it to skim.
Good list tho. 🫡
That you can’t just muscle it. First time I picked up a club I was like “watch me smoke this thing” and proceeded to dink it 20 feet in front of me
The grip. You want it to be as loose as it can while still holding onto the club.
When you hit a flop shot you are hitting the club into the ground which then bounces upwards into the ball from underneath (hence the name bounce).
The ball flies further when air is “heavy” ie high moisture.
If you want the ball to fly up, you have to hit down. It’s the loft of the club that does the work for you.
Golf is about speed, not power.
The golf swing rotates vertically, not horizontally.
if you want the ball to go left you need to swing right, if you want it to go right you need to swing left
The entire fucking thing
Man idk, I thought that your number two is like the most common thing known about hitting a golf ball but maybe I’m wrong?
Also, you CAN hit up on a ball if its on a tee, but hitting the turf first is obviously going to kill all of your speed so it’s kinda like you are asking two different questions there