1801caddie

THE KILTED CADDIE

Don’t Get Hung Up on Your Unorthodox Swing

If Jim Furyk had got analytical and hung up about his backswing like all other golfers, he would be probably in a lunatic asylum

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The Kilted Caddie took a lesson at the St Andrews Golf Academy and being told not getting too hung up on his unorthodox backswing…

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HK GOLFER・JAN 2018

HK GOLFER・JAN 2018

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said I’d never do it again but the ca la m itous state of a f fa irs on a Saturday with my drives off the first tee of the Old Course in the Autumn Prizes Competition have coerced me into book a final golf

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lesson.

I feel obliged to attempt one last stab at salvation and atone for the battering and bruising of buildings, cars and unsuspecting tourists up the Links that afternoon.

Yes, I have been forced to this ultimatum.

These two seismic duck hook shots, which careered out of bounds up Granny Clark’s Wynd (which takes some doing!), intimate t hat a l l is not wel l wit h my technique.

In fact, these shots, although spectacular and impressive in their own right, were down right da ngerou s. A nd not ju st to Granny Clark’s Wynd. They were the canard of all hooks.

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So, it was with a heavy heart, an open mind and the knowledge that I’ve been here many times before that I booked a lesson at the St Andrews Golf Academy.

And on Tuesday at 2pm I was greeted by a lovely, fresh faced young chap called Scott Herald. Fortunately, he did not know my long history and the many neutered attempts to reprieve my shocking golf swing. Indeed, he was unaware of the number of teaching professionals, the many fine and gallous men who have fallen into despair, left the country incognito, given up to drink, and taken up rifle shooting. In fact, one has even given up the ghost altogether.

However, I’m in a new town, a whole new place and different phase of my life. I have bought my annual Links ticket, joined the historic St Andrews Golf Club and am having a last gasp at youth and stardom.

Well I’m 55 and an eternal optimist.

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Now, I w i l l not bore you about t he i nt ricacies of my lesson, nor be overly dramatic about this, but I will actually go as far to say that I’m now a new man. Well at least on the golf course that is. Other things, at 55, are of course well shot.

The basic premise of my revelatory hour with Scott is that he accepted my slightly steep and unorthodox backswing on the basis that I was delivering the club very well on the downswing.

What? I’ve spent forty years getting hung up on something that is not that important?

In fact, it’s the only half of the golf swing that I’ve ever really thought about!

Shouldn’t be getting too hung up about what is happening on my backswing? Not to hung up! I’ve been agonizing over it for four decades. I was nicknamed ‘Loopy Loo’ throughout my most impressionable and formative years. It affected my life, my family, my psychological well being, its made me whimsical, excessively thin skinned and shoved me a few notches up the autistic spectrum. Ask my golf shrink.

However, on ref lection Scott is right.

That ’s simply not the important bit. He then went on to point out the poignant example of Jim.Furyk. Scott said that if Fu r yk had got a na ly t ica l a nd hu ng up about his backswing, then the poor chap would be in a lunatic asylum or some very expensive Californian rehab joint. In fact, that Dechambeau character would probably be going down the same path. The Fosbury flops of backswing technique? Never. But it doesn’t really matter.

It t urns out t hat my problems come through the ball at impact and not clearing my body away so that I can maintain the club face on target. Ergo the severe hooks!

S c o t t t h e n t a l ke d m e t h r o u g h a n d illustrated the swing dynamic with the aid of the new Trackman video technology. That’s some piece of kit. I was bowled over by this actually and surprised to see that I have a fairly high swing speed. In fact, higher than Matt Kuchar at 110mph. And all I can say to that is ‘coo’.

However, on the downside Scott pointed out that I had a pretty bad smash factor. 1.4 I think.

But I a l ready k new my smash factor wasn’t in good shape and have come to terms with it. As have Cynthia at number 17, The Links and that rather grumpy guy with the nice Ferrari.

Bryson Dechambeau is known for getting very analytical about his golf swing on the PGA TOUR

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Madelene Sagstrom of Team Europe gets instuction from her coach on the range during practice for the Solheim Cup

Please write to thekiltedcaddie@gmail.com if you have any comments.

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