How to Create a Theme to Your Golf Game

The game of golf is a difficult game to learn and an even harder one to master. There is no possible way that one could go through and work on all the possible golf shots and become a master. Professional golfers could try, but they know that there is not enough time in the day to practice. What I see good golfers do that struggling golfers do not, is good golfers develop a theme to their game. There is some sort of signature move that flows from their short game to the long game that allows them to perform at a high level.

The first move that comes to mind is Jim Furyk whose swing is unmistakable with high arms in the back swing that loop down to the inside of the golf ball while the body clears excessively to make room for the club to be delivered to the ball. Its a swing that definitely needs a lot of practice to repeat, but Jim gets to practice it all the time because when you watch the other parts of his game, there are similarities throughout all his shots.

When I get a player who overall struggles with scoring in their game, we will start out by running through a variety of shots covering all different areas of their game. What I want to see is that there is some similarity to what they are trying to achieve. Usually what will happen is a golfer will be trying to focus on something like shoulder turn in the full swing, but keeping their wrists firm and locked in the short game. Two ideas that are not really connected and would thus take two separate training sessions to work on.

An idea I would more like for example is how we are going to perfect our ability to properly hinge the golf club so we can swing it on plane for the full swing and short game shots. That way we have more time to put our training into this one idea that we can truly master and then hopefully transfer to the golf course with ease.

The idea does not have to be the one I proposed above, but if you can find something that you focus on throughout your entire game, you will see faster improvement and lower scores which are always more fun.