Four Fundementals

[Adjani]

If you had to choose just four from the list below, what would they be; the four things you consider fundemental to the game of golf.
If i have missed anything out, try and choose the closest one to your selection.

 

[HTL]

GASP.

Grip, accuracy, stance, posture.

 

[shanker]

I've chosen tempo, balance, course management and mental approach. Tempo because I tend to swing too fast and course management because most of make daft mistakes in this area.

 

[haplesshacker]

Tempo, feel, grip and course management for me. Though my Pro would probably disagree!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Grip, posture and alignment (plus tempo as a 4th). Without the first three being correct you cannot make a repeatable and accurate swing.

 

[CarpeDiem]

Same as homer but I would have impact rather than tempo. Depending where the club face is 'looking' at impact has a major effect on where the ball goes, does it not? If you look at guys on tour their swing speeds vary a lot but they all shoot low scores.

 

[theeaglehunter]

If you look at guys on tour their swing speeds vary a lot but they all shoot low scores.

As far as I am aware there is a big difference between swing speed and tempo though. Even though the pros generate massive amounts of clubhead speed, they always end up balanced and don't swing off of their feet. They tend to swing back and through at the same speed as well, especially with irons / wedges, and these add up to a good, smooth tempo. Obviously there are exceptions (such as JB Holmes) but most pros, I think it is said, can hum consistently throughout their whole swing...Try it, it's not as easy as you think!

 

[Atticus_Finch]

Great poll.

I went with Grip, Stance, Tempo and Course mangement.

I have changed my grip many times over the years, so I've came to appreciate how important it is.

Stance, I would say, covers many things. One of them being alignment IMO. You have to be correctly set up as Homer says or everything else goes to pot.

Tempo is very important to me as as soon as(*) I try and melt the ball, My drives turn into a duck hook and I pull my irons also. So nice and easy for me.

Finally, Course management is one of my major faults. It's one of the things I'll be trying to improve on this year.

(*) Three "as" in the space of four words!!
Any English teachers in the house to tell me if this is OK?

 

[CrapHacker]

Grip, posture and alignment (plus tempo as a 4th). Without the first three being correct you cannot make a repeatable and accurate swing.

True.

But.

I went for Grip, Mental approach, Course management, and Tempo.

If you wanna improve, to be the best you can possibly get, you have to work on the basics ( BTW I always think that takeaway is vital, and impact is something to ignore - just have a good position at the top of the backswing, and a good position at the end of your followthrough, and hopefully at some point in the middle the ball will have kerthumped off somewhere in the right direction )

But to get out there and have fun, and be able to hit the ball a couple of hundred yards or so, then too much emphasis on preshot routine can cause paralysis by analysis ( any more old cliches, anyone ).

A half decent grip is vital. Use tempo to swing through the ball, not to hack at it. Then after that learn to get the ball round the course. And learn not to take the game, or yourself too seriously.

Then once the bug has bitten spend a fortune on books, videos, training equipment learning the minutiae of ball position, hip alignment, swing plane etc. before realising the game is impossible.

Then as a last resort visiting your local pro, when you can leave it to him to worry about your posture etc, and get back to having fun. Coz if you play crap after a lesson, it's his fault isn't it.

 

[CrapHacker]

Tempo is very important to me as as soon as(*) I try and melt the ball,......

(*) Three "as" in the space of four words!!
Any English teachers in the house to tell me if this is OK?

No English teacher, but I know enough to say this is, of course NOT ok, but I understood every word of it, so who gives a damn.

( For any pedants, how about, '' Tempo is awfully important to oneself, for the moment one lets one rip, one's balls fly off in everywhich direction....'' - or does that not give the correct impression )

 

[gjbike]

Had to go with Grip, Stance, Alignment, and Mental approach the reason being without the first three you would not hit the ball and when you are preparing to take your shot you have to be in a positive frame of mind.

 

[bobmac]

If I may add a few to really mess things up
clubhead speed
where you strike the ball on the clubface (sweet spot)
swing path
angle of attack
where the clubface is pointing at impact

 

[TonyN]

Although I feel a couple if things cover each other from the choices,( posture, stance, balance) I found it a little difficult to choose just four.

I chose grip, stance, tempo, c.management as my top four but could easily have chosen more.

 

[RGDave]

GASP.

Grip, accuracy, stance, posture.

Grip, alignment, stance and posture.....


accuracy comes later, or never, in my case!!

 

[RGDave]

Tempo
Alignment .. tick
Feel
Posture .. tick
Balance
Impact
Grip .. tick
Vision
Stance
Course Management .. tick
Pre Shot Routine
Mental Approach

 

[Cernunnos]

Fundementals. Well there is perhaps a difference between the fundermentals needed for swing & that needed for the game as a whole.

If it were simply the swing then the answers would be very simple.

Swing: - Alighnment, Posture, Balance & Grip. would be the main ones.

But I think any of us would be hard pressed to find just 4 to sum up the game as a whole.

I went for the following

Tempo, Alighnment, Posture & Balance.

I've chosen Tempo as this is one of those things that is like a glue that is much a focus thing as anything else. Tempo & Timing is as much a part of Preshot routine & Mental approach as it is about, Balance, posture, impact & feel. Without alighnment there will be no accuracy. Without Posture & Balance, there will be no Stance. And stance is Alighnment & Posture & balance combined. Feel is Posture & balance with Tempo. Everything is intertwined, so imo no simple answer.pickany 4 important to yourself & you wont be wrong. Or at least that's my opinion.

Just wish I could put the feel back into my game, as I think over the past few years I've allowed myself to get so technical its at the detriment to my Golfing Karma.

 

[AliB]

Like Atticus and for same reasons, I have gone with grip and stance plus course management and mental approach.
These are the things that have made a difference to me. Okay, that makes me no technician!

AliB

 

[CrapHacker]

The most interesting thing I've just noticed now 30 odd people have responded is how few ( 2 ) have chosen preshot routine.

Going back a few years it was always considered vital in creating a repeatable swing, and a PMA.

Is it generally thought to be less important now, or are we all just a bunch of underachieving n'er do wells ?

 

[Cernunnos]

Many Pro's consider a consistent pre-shot routine as important as a repeatable swing.

For me this all comes under the heading Feel...!

Preshot routine is setting the right state of mind, or more to the point Focus again, which for me is all part parcel of Feel. Focusing the mind & soul upon the object of the aim of the shot, this is our vison of where we want to ball to be & how it will get there, which for many is course management. Yes we can think course management, but shouldn't this be almost instinctive. Hence Feel. It really depends in my view as to whether you are naturally a Technical or Feel golfer. As stated before I'm a feel golfer who has been taught technical, but trying to now re-focus upon the feel aspect of my game. Hence why for at least the time being I have stopped my lessons. Not because the lessons were wrong but because I need to get back in touch with the instinctive feel nature of my game. Which is something I had when I first started playing when technically many things were wrong my scores were good because I instinctively felt things, instinctively went through routines, instinctively managed the course to the way I felt the course would flow.

My coach would get me to think more about the where's & the why's & the what's, but all this does is raise questions. I'f you have questions you have uncertainty & this effects the mental side of the game & means you need to try adding false ways to try & return again to where we started.

Its sort of like getting an untrained artist to paint by numbers, before long any ingenuity is lost. The artist need the correct fundementals in order to understand perspective & shade etc, but without soul, any art is dead. We end up being taught to be an achitect, when what we need to be is a graphic designer, using the best of both worlds, to make the next leap.

This is the problem with golf, as its as much an art as it is a science. so you need to re-learn the art to make use of the science & improve.

So for routine read feel & focus & Vison, then you can sub head focus & vison for mental approach & course management.

I know I'm waffling, but hope this poor student of gods own game, who's trying to get back in touch with what first atracted himself to the sport/game, I hope I'm getting over how I see what is important & why a lot of what is in the list is so conected, that it doesn't really matter what we call the fundemental that is important to us, its a case of interpretation, in the same way each artist or graphic designer or achitect will draw what he sees.

 

[The23rdman]

Alignment, posture, grip and the most important, Balance. Actually, grip and balance are probable close, but you can make up for an aweful lot of crud by having great balance. You can have the best fundamentals in the world, but if your balance is off you'll hit it crap.