This should be my last Practice column from the Royal Golf Club in Hua Hin (Thailand) for this year before I leave for two months in France, where I will have little opportunity to play.
I have been playing golf for 21 years and power and swing speed have never been my main weakness, quite the contrary.
About fifteen years ago, during a fitting, the pro asked me to hit a few balls with a 6-iron to analyse my swing.
After watching me, he said, "That’s not bad, but I would have preferred you not to swing at 100% so I could see better."
I replied that I didn’t think I had swung fast.
He said, "Could you try hitting a few balls at 80% of what you just did ?"
I did as he asked, but as you can imagine, this is not my strong point.
He burst out laughing and said, "That was 80% ? OK ! Could you try 40% ?"
A few years ago, another pro (thank you, Erwan de Quènetain) identified that my big problem was not only too much speed but above all a lack of rhythm : "You do your backswing as fast as your downswing, if not faster !"
He advised me to count 1-2-3 with two beats on the up and one beat on the down.
It works pretty well and improves my rhythm.
But as you know if you’ve read my brief about my friend Super Relax, I work better with mental images.
Many golfers I talk to admire the swings of Mac Ilroy, Scheffler or Dechambeau.
Not me.
What I’m looking for is not power but fluidity and elegance, which I lack.
It turns out that my favourite swing is that of a Korean player who will never be world number one despite several LPGA victories (and a record -21 at Evian) but who, in my opinion, has the most relaxed and elegant swing imaginable.
What does this have to do with the above ?
This player’s name is In Gee Chun. Her name has three syllables.
For many years now, I haven’t been counting 1, 2, 3, but instead I say her name as I swing :
In Gee for the backswing and Chun for the downswing.
This allows me to associate the right rhythm with the image of that perfect swing that I will never achieve but that I visualise with every shot I take.