Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Post the First: The Problem of Man's existence

Firstly, this is primarily a golf blog, but as is often the case in sports' performance issues, lessons learned here often translate into other areas of life. And, oh, do not in any way confuse Wounded Duck (a golf term for a struggling shot) with Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" . Now, I know this first post is a lofty title for a golf post, I know, but it nonetheless points to the essential problem of golf. "How so?" you say, dear reader. I shall attempt to explain.
Since time immemorial, mankind has been confronted with the same fundamental Problem, which can be framed in the question, WHO AM I? Good question.

Luckily, mankind's great thinkers--Jesus, Buddha, Harvey Keitel, Johnny Miller--have pointed, in their various and sundry ways, to a solution to the Problem, which, stated bluntly, is: only when the ego is disengaged can the Self express itself. "Self-schmelf," you say? Check this out. This isn't bad either. Once the ego goes by-by, men do things like write Macbeth or the Moonlight Sonata, come up with e=mc2, etc., etc. We, as golfers, express this when we shoot a score out of our minds, a score we knew we were capable of but never could seem to achieve because our ego was in the way.

"Listen buddha-boy, you're starting to annoy me with all this esoteric crap. Golf isn't this complicated, dig?" Dig I do. The solution to the aforementioned Problem is what allows us, as golfers, to play our best. But don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to convert to (_insert your religion of choice here_). This is about using the best swing and equipment to bring that egoless golf state into existence. It's been said ad naseum (Latin for "I've heard this so many times from so many guys like Peter Kostis, Dave Pelz, and Hank Haney that if I hear it again I'm going to puke thick black bile all over myself"), that having a quiet mind during your golf shot is essential, but, and here's the rub, so is using the right clubs and right swing. Here's where I take a huge turn away from the above mind stuff and head crashing and screaming into the golf stuff, because what I'm going to achieve here on this blog is the separation of the wheat from the chaffe, the mice from the men, the men from the boys, the shit from the Shinola, the talk from the walk, the hype from the truth. In a word, I will find what clubs work, and which don't, which ones make golf easier for y'all, and which make you wish you could get your old set back from the guy you sold them to on Ebay.

Firstly, here's a great little lesson on how to
swing the club. This may not seem like much, but it's the same thing Tiger Woods has been working on, plus it's simple so simple to understand that if you video tape yourself you can tell if you're doing it right.


To summarize: Jesus, egoless, probably a good golfer; to not suck at golf, can't care about yourself during the act of swinging; good equipment can aid in egoless golf, i.e., Y.P.B. (Your Personal Best).

I'll post club playability results from PING,
TaylorMade, Cleveland Golf, Wilson Staff, and others. Until then, take it easy on yourself and play great.

1 comment:

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