Black Magic Timing If it helps, add some swing to your swing
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hinking back a few years ago, at the Willow Point Country Club Men’s Club Championship, I was in the middle of the first fairway, preparing to hit my first approach shot, when suddenly, I could hear the song Jessica by the Allman Brothers Band playing. I thought it was coming from a car driving into the club, so I backed off the shot and waited a moment. The volume of the song didn’t change, so I asked the players in my group, “Do you guys hear the Allman Brothers playing from somewhere?” One of my fellow competitors proudly spoke up and said, “Oh yeah, I love them. It’s coming from my Bluetooth
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speaker.” I said, “They’ve been one of my favorite Southern Rock bands since 1971, and I would be delighted to listen to them between shots, but I really need for you to pause it while I’m preparing to hit a golf shot.” He understood and didn’t waste any time complying with my request. There were no hard feelings, and we had a great time playing together that day. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I cannot play golf when music plays in the background. It possibly influences me more than some people because I was a drummer for many years. If a song is a smooth tempo, I’m going to swing smooth, and if it’s a fast tempo, I’m going to swing fast. The fact of the matter is, I swing and/or think at the same tempo of the song that I hear playing. When I was in school, from the seventh grade until I graduated high school, I played drums throughout the school year and then played golf all summer long. During the school year, there were all sorts of parties my band would play at during the fall and winter. I played golf on the junior and high school teams, but it wasn’t as demanding of time back then as it is today, and I could still play with the band throughout spring. Summertime was all about golf, but still, there was a lot of time dedicated to music in my youth. One summer day, while practicing golf, I discovered that the song Black Magic Woman, by Santana, was the perfect song to play in my head while playing golf. It allowed me to maintain a good tempo, especially the keyboard intro of the song, so much that I figured I was doing well because of the music. I then thought, maybe I could be more productive listening to music while I practiced. The next day, I brought a transistor radio to practice and tuned into my favorite radio station, and began to hit balls. After about six songs, I was spraying the golf ball all over the range
