What You've Always Thought About Golf May Be Wrong

So golf nuts, you want to break 100, 90, 80? You've read all the books you could get your hands on. You've spent hours playing round after round hoping that everything "clicks" this time. You think about golf at work, you dream about golf clubs when you're mowing the lawn, you can't wait to get back out there in pursuit of that mysterious magic number that makes you finally a "golfer" and not a hacker. All you need is that one tip or new swing thought that transforms you into that next great wizard of the fairways. You visualize yourself as the golfer who wows the crowds at Augusta National year after year with your flawless play (and amazing recovery shots on that rare occasion that finds your ball somewhere other than preciously the right spot for an attack at the pin).

Wake up and pinch yourself.

I would wager a small sum that you are no different than most of the people I've talked to during the countless hours I've spent on the golf course. Almost without fail, they have two basic truths of golfing wrong and therefore waste a great deal of time, energy and money chasing a shadow. Simply put the two fundamental things about golf that most people get wrong are:

1) Scoring is the sole object of golf.

2) There is a great veil of mystery to being a great golfer that only a life transforming pilgrimage, sacrifice, or eye opening epiphany can pierce (in other words, there's a secret that once known, makes the game easy).