Golf is Terrible at Partial Credit

A golfer came to me with your classic over-the-top move and a big banana slice to the right. During our first lesson, we discussed what makes the ball curve and how the face-to-path relationship applied to his slice.

Clubhead path describes the direction the clubhead is traveling at impact. Clubface direction describes where the face is pointing. Face-to-path is the difference between the two.

His path was 6 to 7 degrees left and his face was pretty square to the target. Because the path was always to the left of the face, the ball curved to the right.

We worked on moving his path more in to out and getting the face more square to his new path. After a grip change and a discussion of different ways to change his path, he started seeing straighter shots and even a few that curved left.

He left a happy golfer.

Fast forward to his next lesson. The slice was back, even though he thought he was doing everything we had worked on. He was no longer the happy golfer who had left the first lesson.

We needed feedback on what was actually happening at impact.

Trackman to the rescue. For my sake, and his.

The numbers showed progress in the path and clubface direction we had worked on. His path was now much closer to neutral. The work from the first lesson hadn’t simply disappeared.

So why was the ball still sailing right?

Impact point.

He was hitting it off the heel.

Even though this golfer did a great job changing the face to path, the fact that he was now hitting it off the heel completely negated all this progress.

Golf is mean.

Golf requires us to abide by the laws of impact on every shot, and it doesnt care if you forgot a swing thought or did account for the wind.

If we treated his second lesson slice as proof that his path hadn’t improved, we would’ve spent the next hour barking up the wrong tree.

We needed to understand why the ball was still curving despite the progress in his delivery. We needed to know which box to check next. Finding the heel contact gave us a specific impact condition to address.

Just because this golfer changed his face and path relationship didn’t mean that we could throw the law of impact point out the window. He still had to hit the ball in the right spot on the face while making those changes. Getting two things right didn’t excuse the third.

That’s the frustrating part of learning this game. You can put your attention into one part of the swing, make a real improvement, and still have a few other things that need to improve before you get that great shot you are looking for. The face, path, and impact point always apply to every shot we hit. They don’t take turns just because we have to work on them one at a time.

So yes, give yourself credit when you’ve actually improved something, but understand you still might have a few more things to do before you get paid. We as golfers have to do everything correctly all at once while swinging at a high rate of speed. And humans are not designed to work on multiple things at once.

Golf is terrible at partial credit.