Down The Yellow Brick Road

Filed in archive Golf Instruction on November 1, 2007

Ernie's In Synch
Courtesy: Golf Digest

I have come to the conclusion that the golf swing is like religion - there is one that is perfect for each of us.

What happens when you realize that there is no One Golf Swing (like there's no One Religion) is that you are free from the shackles of dos and don'ts. You know, "do this and then that will happen; don't do this because that will happen".

That's why I have a problem with golf magazines that present their instruction in just such a tone: "you've been doing this all wrong. The right way to do it is this way".

Frankly, in the new world age where golfers are free to mix elements of different swing theories into a swing that fits that golfer, there is a greater chance of finding happiness.

So I shake my head when I see on Golf Digest's site (and likely it's in their November issue, too) an instruction on how to begin the takeaway.

"Forget the one-piece takeaway and get synchronized" is the cut line under the title.

Now, the one-piece takeaway has been used by superb professional golfers like Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and many others for years and years.

Yet, suddenly, we are told by Golf Digest that this is wrong, that our swings are out of synch if we use the one-piece takeaway and that we are busy compensating during the downswing as a result.

How much better a ball striker would Nicklaus have been had he abandoned the one-piece takeaway years ago? How much better can Tiger stripe it if he adopts the new Golf Digest "do this" command? Don't these guys know they're WRONG?

Instruction articles are always written to sound like they are the secret revealed. That's because the author (in this case, Jerome Andrews from one of Leadbetter's schools) firmly believes he's on to something (so did the "Reverend" Jim Jones).

And maybe Andrews' theory will be that final tweak to someone's swing that will put him or her into the top flight at the club championship. Who knows?

However, in the end, each golfer must explore the option - if it might hold a solution.

But abandoning the one-piece takeaway is not going to perfect millions of swings. The one-piece takeaway is one of the fundamentals in the game. There is a great risk that tossing aside one of the building blocks in the swing on the say-so of a magazine article is a grave mistake. And it's irresponsible of any magazine to couch its instruction in such a way.

Stick to the fundamentals; master them; practice them constantly. These are the key points that every top level teacher of the game will say.

A fundamental is just that: one of the foundation stones. Would you drive over a bridge that was built by an engineer who decided to ignore one of the fundamentals of structural support?

Caveat Emptor.