Golf isn’t about having a good looking swing. It’s not about hitting every fairway or hitting every green in regulation or making every 10-foot putt either. It’s about recording a score — and it doesn’t matter how you do it. A 4 on the scorecard looks the same for everyone, regardless of how they got there.
Sometimes you have those days when you’re striping everything but you can’t roll the ball in the cup to save your life. You also have the days when you hit every tree on the course but make every 15-foot par save you stand over. However, at the end of the day, it’s not how, it’s how many.
The player with the best swing doesn’t necessarily end up with the best score. Sure it helps to have good fundamentals but some of the best players in the world don’t hit the ball the farthest, they don’t hit the ball the closest and they don’t make the most putts, they just get it around.
So next time you’re in the middle of a round and you’re not swinging so good, don’t make it worse by tinkering. Instead, focus on strategy. Try to do whatever you can to get the ball in the hole. Tiger Woods use to be the best in the world at this (and he still is to some degree). He could consistently turn 76s into 72s by simply grinding out rounds, even when he wasn’t on top of his game.
Jack Nicklaus was notorious for playing the ball flight that he was hitting the day of his round. If he went to the range and was hitting a 10-yard fade, he played a 10-yard fade. If it was a 5-yard fade, he played a 5-yard fade. He realized that all golfers have a limited number of swings on the course and he didn’t tinker with his mechanics because he knew it would negatively affect his score.
On the range, however, you have as many swings as you want. And that’s where you should be working on your mechanics. There’s no pressure and your results are measurable. For all you know, it could be your alignment that’s causing you to hit bad shots and there’s no way of knowing how well you’re aligned without laying some clubs down on the ground or having someone stand behind you and look at your swing.
Remember, the best golfers aren’t the ones who can shoot the lowest score on their good day, they’re the ones who can shoot the lowest score on their bad day. And if you’re not focusing entirely on getting the ball in the hole during your round, your bad day scores are going to be pretty high.