112 Miles to the Pin by Duncan Lennard

Author:Duncan Lennard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2011-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

Our perception is that power golf does not mix with scoring golf, but perhaps it is false. Fister and Shinnick are accurate drivers while golf legend Arnold Palmer is all the evidence we need that smacking the ball hard doesn’t have to come at the expense of control. When Arnie was learning the game as a child, his father told him, “Hit it hard, boy. Go find the ball and hit it hard again.” It was a lesson Arnold learned well; he even called his first book, released in 1961, Hit It Hard.

Inspired by Shinnick and Fister, I set out to play a round of golf in which I let fly at every full shot. My shots were no less and no more accurate, but they were, when I got the timing right, a lot longer. What did improve was my enjoyment. My desire to do things “correctly” evaporated; mentally, I was freed up to play golf. The experience reminded me of the simplest and best piece of golf instruction I have ever heard. “After taking the stance it is too late to worry,” said Bobby Jones in 1929. “The only thing to do then is to hit the ball.”

Playing a spot of power golf is easy; all it takes is a bit of extra loosening up, while entering into a contract pledging to judge the shot not on where the ball ends up but on the arc the ball makes as it sears the sky. It’s a much more disinterested criterion, and all the more powerful because of it. This is a form we should be willing to sign more often.

Power hitting may warrant physical strength, but golf is a game that can bring out mental fortitude too. The golfers in the next chapter take golfing courage beyond holing a putt when the match is at stake or coming back from five-down; these are people who owe their very survival to the game of golf.

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