Almost all of my pupils, whether they are tour professionals or keen amateurs, tell me that the reason they have come to see me is that they are not consistent. I am sure that many of my fellow teaching professionals would say exactly the same about their pupils.
My previous blog was about boring scoring shots and this blog will focus on how true consistency is impossible. People have played golf for over 700 years and no one in this time has been truly consistent.
The reason is very simple. The club head will travel up to 30 feet before impact and the golf ball is on the club face at impact for half of 1,000th of one second with all parts of the body moving at the same time. Consistency is therefore impossible.
Let us imagine though that consistency was possible and the following scenario could take place.
Four golfing friends are playing a round of golf and off the first tee, they all hit their golf balls onto the fairway. Then they all hit their second shots onto the green and they all take two putts. Wow ! they all think four fours – fantastic. On the second hole they all hit their tee shots on to the green and they all take two putts. This is amazing they all think.
This happens all of the way round so the four golfing friends have hit every fairway and every green and taken two putts per hole and they all have the same score – true consistency. The next time they play they have same result. Then the next time. How long do you think they would carry on playing? Not very long I suspect as it would become very very boring for the reasons explained so all golfers love the game for what it is as the inconsistencies make it very exciting and different for every round and for every person.
I once played the first nine holes of a golf course in 40 shots and the second nine holes in 30 shots. I was pleased it was that way round.
The mighty Jack Nicklaus once scored 83 in his first round of an Open Championship and 66 in the second round.
I have many records of scores in my studio and a professional, S. Webster, once scored 80 in the third round of a tournament and then 62 in the last round.
Tiger Woods at the Torry Pines Golf Club, San Diego, USA scored 66 in the first round and 77 in the second round. In the same tournament B.Schwarzrock scored 71,71 and 83 in his first three rounds.
Billy Mayfair once scored 71 and 61 in his last two rounds and Anika Sorenstam scored 59 and 69 in her second and third rounds at the Moon Valley Country Club in Mexico.
One of the professionals I teach scored 70,70, 70 in one tournament followed by a 68 in the next tournament in the second round and an 82 in the last round and in our discussions afterwards there was very little difference in the ball striking just other factors combined produced a 14 shot difference.
