This season, I am asking the reader to follow along each issue as we build a “new” golfer from “scratch”, and who knows, YOU might even become a SCRATCH GOLFER!  Regardless of how long you have been playing, please don’t allow yourself to believe that you are “stuck” in a scoring range and can never get lower.  As human beings, we can “reboot” our brains anytime we want or need.

Proven motor skill research agrees that motions should be “built” from small to big, as each new piece becomes an “add-on” to the previous.  Your golf build should start with the minimum motions of putting and build into larger swings of chipping, pitching to full swings.  “There’s a putt inside every chip, a chip inside every pitch and a pitch inside every full swing.” 

This build-up could be called the “Snowball Theory of Learning.”  Picture being on the top of a snowy hill and making a small snowball (let’s call it putting).  Now allow the snowball to start rolling down the hill.  The ball will get bigger and bigger as it rolls (let’s call it chipping and pitching).  When it reaches the bottom of the hill, it will be at its largest size (let’s call it the full swing).  

The ultimate goal of this process is to become a GOLF MINIMALIST; by definition, having the fewest moving parts WITHOUT sacrificing accuracy or shot distance.  Have you ever watched the “TV Pros” and thought, “They make it look SO easy!”  What you are really witnessing isn’t as much “easy”, but EFFICIENT; a full-sized snowball no bigger (or more complicated) than it has to be.  Using this approach, your playing partners might one day say to you, “Gee Joe, you make it look so easy!”   

Putting is the CORE of our build and the core shot of golf; chipping is an add-on to putting, pitching is an add-on to chipping, and finally, full swings are an add-on from pitching.  Each issue of Tee Time Magazine will detail a new shot beginning with putting next time.