I’m a DIY kind of guy

My blog this week is not for beginners. If you’re just learning to play golf, find a teacher or coach, take some lessons and do whatever he or she tells you.

Similarly, if you’re already working with a coach and getting good results, pay no attention to me.

I want to reach out to the Do-It-Yourself types that aren’t connected to a coach or learning program. Golfers like me. I’m a DIY kind of guy too.

There may be stats on the number of golfers that work with a coach vs the number that are trying to figure it out on their own, but I don’t have any. My guess is that even though most teachers, clinics, camps and golf schools are busy, it’s still a pretty small slice of the golfing population that actively works with an experienced teacher or coach to find improvement.

The rest of us are enjoying our golf but frustrated by it too. We want to play better but we’re not willing to spend the money or time to seek professional help. Most of us do something – from reading books to watching videos to asking our friends, “What’s wrong with my golf swing?”

(Note: while golf isn’t medicine or psychiatry, it’s still best not to ask your friends for advice.)

DIY types come in all shapes and sizes. I’m of the variety that needs to know why. Probably the bane of many instructors. If someone tells me what to do and how to do it, I still want to know why. Why does my right elbow need to be there? Why do I angle my left foot in that direction?

“Because I told you to or because that’s just the way you do it,” are not great replies for my type.

If I know ‘why’, it makes ‘how’ a lot easier to execute.

The internet has opened the flood gates for millions of DIY types to explain their solutions for everything from how to build a set of stairs to how to groom your cat. Golfers can find thousands of videos on virtually every topic too. Some are very good.

Readers sometimes ask me why we include instruction video in our weekly newsletters, saying, “You can’t learn golf from a two-minute video.” No, you can’t. But you may find a helpful hint to correct something that was bothering you. I find them quite entertaining too.

As a DIY guy, I’m also a skeptic. A good case in point involves golf equipment. For years we’ve been told that this year’s new toy will give you an extra five or ten yards. Yet despite having tested all the new drivers every year for the past twenty-five years, I don’t hit the ball any farther with any of them.

Beware of new and improved! It may just be a different colour.

However, there are truly some new and improved and quite different pieces of equipment on the market designed by other skeptics that don’t just accept what the big OEMs are turning out. I’m currently testing a new set of wedges from Edison Golf that so far have made a difference. I spent some time on a Zoom call with founder Terry Koehler who explained why his wedge designs are different than conventional wedges. His explanation made sense to me. I’ll have a full review next week, but let’s just say that Terry designed the clubs for amateurs, not pros.

There are drivers, fairways woods, hybrids and irons – putters too – that all flout conventional wisdom, are USGA approved, easier to hit and perform better for many amateurs. I can hit clubs designed for Rory McIlroy, but I can’t swing like him.

Beware Performance Golf too! Just kidding. These guys are great for DIY types but once they get their hooks into you, they’re relentless. Last winter I purchased a video from them, and it was excellent. Within a week I had four phone calls and at least several emails a day reminding me how good that video was along with the hard sell for others I should add to my collection.

Now I’m on their mailing list and the flood of emails hasn’t abated. Some I read but the ones that drive me crazy are the ones where someone like David Leadbetter leads off by telling you that he can fix your slice in just five swings and promises to show you how, but before he gets to that, he’ll spend twenty minutes extolling his method, showing testimonials from ecstatic students whose lives have been turned around, all the while repeatedly reminding you that he’s going to show you how it’s all done in just a few more minutes. But he never does. It’s just a pitch to sign up for another video series.

Don’t take this as a knock against Leadbetter or his actual video series. I’ve seen lots of them and they’re very good and quite beneficial to DIY golfers. It’s just that the marketing can take you down a rabbit hole from which there’s no escape.

One thing about self-improvement is getting appropriate feedback. Coaches can give you immediate feedback and have lots of technical tools for analysis. I learn best by watching and mimicking. Some videos are terrific at explaining how it should feel when you perform a specific motion. Tiger Woods often talks about his “feels”. That’s the best feedback I know. The sound the ball makes when you properly compress it; the look and feel of your finish; how you feel as you take the club back. Experiment with it. Learn how it feels when you do it right.

I expect this may resonate with some of you. The rest are probably thinking Old Mumford has really lost it this time.

But consider this: if there was one piece of golf equipment that was the absolute best or if there was one easy foolproof way to get better at golf, wouldn’t everybody be using it? We all want easy solutions, but golf is hard, it’s different for everybody and the best thing you can do is question it and find what works for you.

Ben Hogan may have been the best DIY golfer ever. His secret was, “Dig it out of the dirt.”  I take that to mean keep working on your game until you understand it.