Stephen
Not ridiculous at all. It all boils down as to how one was taught. I was lucky that the game in St Andrews had not been infected when I started in my father’s (and his before him) footsteps. Distance in the form of a measured unit was not ever considered nor was any distance in yards feet and inches even brought into the conversation – but then why should it have been we were playing the Royal & Ancient Game of Golf. The gap was judged and from that one selected ones club, no need to pace, look for markers or shout out a distance. The only numbers I ever remember on a golf course was when it was shouted and usually sounded like “FOUR”, so we instinctively ducked.
That was the way we played and the way my forefathers at St Andrews played Golf, distance from the ball on a fairway to the pin was never mentioned. Yet we all knew how far we were hitting the ball thanks to that little flag we were all aiming at. Surprising those far more skilled and way better golfers than yours truly, like my father seems to manage to get to where he wanted placing his ball close to his target with just of few exceptions when he made a bad shot.
You distance guys are so het up with the need to know the yardage, just like someone wanting or requiring their daily fix, that your game has become obsessed by distance. Yet history seems to back up my view that this distance craven is new, no yardage books can be found pre WW2, nor writing or any other forms of distance that resembles the modern needs/requirement of many new golfers.
I presume you grew up with distance yardage books, was drip fed to you over the years that it now affects your confidence if you do not know the yardage, just like a drug abuse? Has it left you unable to judge any form of distance by just looking. Actually if you are in a car and I ask you to stop in 175 yards, can you do that, can you stop close to the 175 yard point or is that only possible on a golf course?
Stephen you have been taught, it would seem with distance being a paramount importance in your game. However, I was not, my teaching was about looking, feeling using my senses, listening to the wind and seeing the movement of grass, trees and the how the birds fly through the air. In the old days it was regarded as letting the land, the course speaking to you and you work with the conditions. Romantic, no, not at all simply playing golf by concentrating on what was and I still believe is important, that of rising to the challenge.
With all that said, you still have that final look to the target, to check it and tell me what do all the studies say about the brain (human computer) operating on the final information feeding it – not by an outside aid but by the information gathered by the eyes, fed to the brain before activating the swing. Are you really telling me the brain has ignored that final flood of information for something talked about some five minutes earlier. With all respect, I do not think the studies have resolved those issues.
I feel the way I was taught brings out the best in me, my game and golf, I just wish that you guys could see the target without cluttering up your game with pointless yardage info.
Distance aids should not be allowed, they pollute the game and worst still the minds of golfers and some blood good golfer at that.
Melvyn
Ed Its not just glasses you need but another test, as you seem to have screwed up the last one.