Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
If you’re someone who’s always looking to improve your golf game, you’ve probably done your fair share of tinkering. Changing swing thoughts. Changing putters. Changing grips. It’s common among avid golfers to chase that next change that will totally fix your game.
As we all know, however, that rarely happens. The potential final fix just turns into the next fix. Then the cycle repeats itself.
Much of this tinkering comes in the form of swing changes. While sitting at your desk at work, or on your commute home, or while you’re working out, a new swing thought pops into your head and … EUREKA! That swing change goes into play the next time out and their off and running.
It’s a trap we’ve all fallen into. But it’s one that rarely works. In fact, most of the time, these little changes do more harm than good.
If you really want to shoot lower scores, there’s an easy way to do so — and it doesn’t even require making swing changes. Lee Trevino is obsessed with that idea, as he explained how on the most recent episode of Warming Up, which you can watch below.
Improve without a swing change
You’ll typically have to make some sort of swing change if you want to improve, but before you do so, it’s important you get a strong grasp of the fundamentals. Sometimes, your woes can be attributed to poor fundamentals rather than a swing fault.
As Trevino explains it, every person has a golf-swing DNA. There are little things you can alter in it, but for the most part, it is what it is. The key for hitting the ball solid — no matter who you are — is finding the low point in your swing and making sure the ball is there when you do.
“You own [your swing],” he says. “You’re not going to change it. It’s like trying to teach a guy to walk differently. It’s like trying to teach someone to talk differently. You can’t do it. But you’re not changing a person’s swing — you can change his hands and you can change his [ball] position and it makes all the difference.”
Recreational golfers always go and change the way they swing the club, but most of the time, they can find the results they are looking for simply by tweaking their fundamentals a bit. If you’re chunking the ball, for example, you might need to move the ball a little back in your stance. Instead of changing positions in your swing, first consider that it might be your fundamentals that need a little tweaking.
Making a swing change is a tantalizing proposition — and one that could lead to excellent results. More often than not, though, it’s only going to do more harm than good. Instead of obsessing over swing changes, instead obsess over your fundamentals like ball position and grip. It’s a much easier way to improve than building a brand-new swing.
You can watch Trevino’s entire Warming Up interview on YouTube here.
