Don't fall in love with Dr. Longball

One of the most frustrating aspects about golf is that lessons learned one day in what seem like epiphanies often are lost after a few rounds and must be re-learned. It is easy to get off track of something that is working because we are always attracted to the idea of hitting the ball farther.

Playing Thursday at East Golf Club, Oldgolfdawg ran into a former City of Columbus firefighter who currently works for the Transportation Security Authority at Port Columbus Airport. Turns out, Gary used to work for the bomb squad as a fireman and he has the words "Bomb Squad" embroidered on his golf bag. After seeing him hit a few drives, I came to realize the words did more than explain his occupational training. They also described his golf swing.

Gary, a solidly built fellow in his late 50s, was routinely hitting drives well over 300 yards. He told me his club-head speed had been measured at 110 mph. So after being out-driven by 60 or 70 yards a couple of times, Oldgolfdawg started trying to put a little more mustard on his own drives in an effort to keep up with Mr. Bomb Squad. Well, it didn't work. In fact, it had the opposite effect. The more mustard I tried applying to my swing, the wilder the shots became and the less distance they seemed to travel. I had learned from experience that the pursuit of Dr. Longball was never going to be the cure I needed to lower my scores. But here I was whaling away in an effort to keep up.

Eventually, reason prevailed and I dialed down the swing to about 85% and I was suddenly hitting the ball back in the fairway in reasonable position to pursue par. You would think an Oldgolfdawg like myself wouldn't need to re-learn this lesson so often. But I'm guessing it's something a lot of golfers have a problem with. Here's a video explaining why the pursuit of Dr. Longball is filled with drawbacks:




There are times, however, when hitting a drive 10 or 15 yards farther then normal can really make a difference, especially on holes requiring carry or avoidance of a sand trap. Here's a video that might help you next time you feel the urge to add a Monica Seles grunt to your swing:

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