By Janie C. Farina
\nmail@floridanewsline.com<\/p>\n
\u201cIt Don’t Mean a Thing, if You Ain’t Got That Swing\u201d \u2013 Music by Duke Ellington<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n How really important is having a \u201cmodel\u201d golf swing in playing the game of golf? If you\u2019ve been watching Tiger Woods\u2019s comeback from back injuries, the commentators are all raving about his improved golf swing. Not many golfers on this planet have the immense swing speed that Tiger delivers. \u201c8.9 on the Richter Scale,\u201d for certain \u2026 Tiger collapses the ball!<\/span><\/p>\n So why wasn\u2019t Tiger\u2019s swing a good enough \u201cthing\u201d to win the recent tournament? (Rickie Fowler ruled the day.)<\/span><\/p>\n Consider the components of game of golf employed during a normal round: <\/span><\/p>\n Teeing off Quite the list, and I haven\u2019t even talked about the swing yet.<\/span><\/p>\n While Tiger was making his debut, the player I have been coaching for 15 years was competing in a career defining tournament called Q School. <\/span><\/p>\n Does she have the perfect swing? Well, this girl smacks it longer than most men, but still experienced a severe meltdown due to nerves the first two days. Luckily, she followed up blasting two rounds of 67 consecutively. <\/span><\/p>\n So how does someone blow up for two days, then shoot two days of the best rounds of her career with the same swing all four days? The answer is simple \u2014 the swing is the instrument we play, set to the many notes, or conditions, that we compose to form the music of playing the game of golf.<\/span><\/p>\n I see people hitting golf balls on the range, day in and day out, searching for the perfect swing. When these same players play a game of golf, off the range, often their expectations get the better of them, and they are disappointed in their performance.<\/span><\/p>\n Just as my student cried out to me after those first two disastrous rounds: \u201cMy swing felt so good and I practiced harder than ever! Why did I bomb?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n My answer is simple: Having great swing is no guarantee for a great round. More importantly, expectation is signing up for disappointment, when what we really need out there is the discipline to focus on the conditions at hand.<\/span><\/p>\n To play the game of golf we would set to music, it’s not only about the instrument of our swing, it\u2019s a symphony of the swinging motion, properly fitted equipment, educating ourselves with the various techniques and strategies required during a round, and above all, conducting ourselves to have appreciation for the fortunate outcomes, and evaluate\u201d and rewrite the unfortunate notes for the next time (i.e.,focus!)<\/span><\/p>\n So for the player out there who has trouble carrying a tuned swing, remember, it\u2019s not always about that \u201cThing,\u201d the \u201cSwing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Janie C. Farina is a 26-year LPGA teaching and club professional in Duval and St. Johns County. Email her at hitthedirt2@gmail.com with comments or questions for future articles. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Janie C. Farina mail@floridanewsline.com \u201cIt Don’t Mean a Thing, if You Ain’t Got That Swing\u201d \u2013 Music by Duke Ellington How really important is having a \u201cmodel\u201d golf swing in playing the game of golf? If you\u2019ve been watching Tiger Woods\u2019s comeback from back injuries, the commentators are all raving about his improved golf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,4],"tags":[126],"class_list":{"0":"post-4110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-creekline-st-johns","8":"category-mandarin","9":"category-ponte-vedra","10":"tag-golf"},"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/span>Fairway shots
\n<\/span>Pitching
\n<\/span>Chipping
\n<\/span>Sand shots
\n<\/span>Uneven lies, hitting out of the rough and over water, various trouble shots
\n<\/span>Putting\/reading the greens
\n<\/span>Club selection
\n<\/span>Rules and etiquette
\n<\/span>Mental strategy for competitive golf <\/span><\/p>\n