Will someone in the brotherhood of golf lend me a hand? I have a problem. Help is needed, with a capital H.
I am not beset by the shanks or the sockets. I do not thin my chips nor hit them fat. I neither slice nor do I hook. Not often, at any rate. The yips have not been visited upon me.
My problem is the speed of my downswing. I have absolutely no control of it because I don’t know what happens during its passage. As far as I am concerned, some Celtic god who splits his winters and summers between the Cotswolds in England and Snowdonia in north Wales, the two places where I learned my golf, taps me on the shoulder at the top of my backswing and takes control of my club until the moment my hands have arrived at the finishing point of my swing. What goes on in between? Don’t ask me. I haven’t a clue.
A golf teacher once said to me: “John, it will never say on your grave: ‘He swung too short and too slowly.’ ” I have made some progress in reducing the length of my swing, but none in slowing it down.
Can I remember what happened the moment I began my downswing? No. Can I slow it down? No. My mind has gone completely blank.
I have tried pausing at the top of my backswing as did the late Sandy Tatum, one of the game’s notable administrators and gentlemen. A colleague’s friend stopped for so long at the top of his swing that drops of dew fell from his shaft. I am getting better at pausing.
But just as every action has a reaction so my pause seems to generate more speed in my downswing. The longer I pause, the faster I downswing. Can I remember what happened the moment I began my downswing? No. Can I slow it down? No. My mind has gone completely blank.
I have hit millions of golf shots in my life, and if each downswing takes a second or two then an awful lot of time in my life has gone missing. What was I doing when I should have been bringing down my club with languid ease? I haven’t the faintest idea.
Please, someone, help me. Before I die or give up this maddening game, I would quite like to know what goes on during this part of my golf swing.
John Hopkins
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