You may have wondered, in a moment of idle reflection about this game, why more people don’t play better golf than they do. It should be a simple game. You are hitting a ball that doesn’t move.

You are swinging clubs that have been designed with a great deal of care, involving time, money, and engineering skill. No one does anything to hinder you, either, or even to distract you.

One reason most of our scores stay high is our mental approach to the game. We are beaten before we start. The golf game has defeated the player for so many generations that the player now has an inferiority complex that would defy the combined skills of Freud, Jung, and Adler. To the man who habitually goes around in 93, the thought of breaking into the 70’s is the height of absurdity.

A complete reorientation is necessary in golf. This has been accomplished in other sports, particularly in track and field. The four-minute mile, the seven-foot high jump, the sixty-foot shot-put are only three examples. It would take a superman, the track experts said, to run a mile in under four minutes. But once Dr. Roger Bannister did it a new plateau was established, onto which many other milers soon proceeded to climb. Back in 1920 Dick Landon won the Olympic high jump with 6 feet 4 inches. At Rome in 1960 a leap of 7 feet 14 inch was good for only third place.

The point here is that mental barriers were broken, as well as those of time and altitude. The normal golfer has a similar mental barrier, and it, too, must be shattered. Once you believe you can improve your golf game, it will all become much easier.

Naturally, Dr. Bannister and the other pioneers in the track and field record-breaking did not set their marks merely by thinking they could. The new marks stemmed from improved training methods and, especially in the field events, from vastly better techniques. This is true in golf.

Here we come very close to golf. Golf is a game of techniques. Training, in the sense of physical conditioning, is relatively not of great importance, unless we are engaged in tournament play. The average man, once he gets out on the course a few times in the spring, finds no physical difficulty in playing an eighteen-hole round. Often he is fresh enough to play eighteen more holes, or nine, anyway.

So get the best advice and practice as much as you can. Your golf game will improve no-end.

Many golfers often wonder if they are using the proper length golf club. I remember when I first started playing, I was on the range one day with a new driver I received as a gift and found myself spraying balls all over the place, finally, a fellow golfer mentioned he thought maybe my club was too long for just starting out. I thought about this and it pointed me on a journey to find out exactly what length my club should be.

Naturally, I went to Google and lo and behold there is an abundance of information regarding the proper length, grafts, and charts etc. all kinds of stuff to figure it out. Determining a comfortable length is pretty easy.

Normally you would take a floor to wrist measurement. Wear your regular shoes; stand straight up, back straight and level, arms relaxed straight down. Its best to have a friend help you so have them measure the distance between the floor and your left wrist, if you’re left handed, measure the right wrist.

Golf club manufacturers have pretty well established the average length to satisfy the market and I believe they are close to being right-on. Here’s a site with a good chart to determine the length based on height, etc. – golf club length

This chart will give you a pretty good idea where you should be. Check the clubs in your bag and compare. If you find a glaring difference you may want to consider making some adjustments. If you wish to experiment and do so at minimal cost than choose a low cost custom club manufacturer. I would suggest you start with a couple clubs before making a major commitment.

Good Luck,

Stew