Sweet Music

If anyone noticed, the Masters took place this weekend. I watched a good amount of it. This year I'm taking more of an rudimentary approach to my golf game. Rather than continue to make the same mistakes over and over, I'm taking a step back to learn a little something about the golf swing.

So, I'm reading Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf". In addition, I'm trying to watch these guys on the PGA tour to see how the stuff in the book looks in real life swings. "Yep, I see his grip, elbows pointing towards the hipbone, head is steady, etc.". This is all stuff that was completely lost on me until I started reading this thing. Everything kinda just looked like a good swing. But now I'm zeroed in on certain things. And it seems like all of the guys on the PGA tour have read Hogan's book too.

The thing that I notice most is that a proper golf swing makes everything look so effortless. "182 yards out, looks like he's playing an 8-iron", and then you watch a skinny little guy take a silky smooth swing and stick it to within 10 feet. Most amateurs would be coming out of their shoes to get the same results. Pro swings are as efficient as Japanese auto plants. Mine looks something you'd see in Detroit.


This is the greatest golf swing in the world. His swing is a collection of a thousand different movements that perform in concert with each other to achieve this:



And we're talking classical music here. Not some spontaneous, jam band like Phish or Dave Matthews. An incredibly complex, intricate piece that requires laser-like precision.


This is music that most golfers cannot even hear, let alone play. Tiger's exquisite golf swing falls on many deaf ears. If I were to record his music, and try and replicate it myself, it would come out sounding something like this:



Like anything in life, practice makes perfect. I'm hoping one day, with some hard work, I'll be able to create my own music. I'm not looking to be Yanni, or Yo Yo Ma...I'm shooting more for a Jim Plunkett type thing. Nothing crazy, I just want to be comfortable. I'll be performing "gigs" all over the South Shore this summer.

My ideal swing

P.S. Congrats to Angel Cabrera, the 2009 Masters Champion.

I can think of 1,750 things wrong with this photo