Swinger’s List

I have an awful memory, which is why I need to write things down. When I first learned golf, I used to carry around a piece of paper with a diagram of how the clubface should look when I looked down at set-up. I also had a bunch of little notes scrawled on it, a list of things that would help me remember how to swing.

Now that I am pretty much back to square one, and re-learning the golf swing, I need to carry around a list again. Some of these items are from my old list, but they serve as perennial reminders:

Relax grip

Left arm straight

Head down

Arms long

Don’t reach

Rotate in the trunk

Hinge wrist

Check swing plane

Right elbow

Get weight left

Feel the lag
Knees touch

Some of the items on the list are shorthand. “Head down” means I should keep my eye on the ball and not lift up too quickly. “Right elbow” means that my right elbow should not be too close at the top of my swing, but then should tuck close on the downswing. And “knees touch” is a reminder that my right knee should almost touch the left as I finish.

Before I drift off to sleep at night, I silently recite the list, picturing the perfect swing in my head, hoping that mental rehearsals will result in flawless execution the next time I find myself standing at the tee.

The reality is I can only keep one or two of these thoughts in my head as I am swinging. So it goes something like this: "Grip relaxed? Okay, take it back and keep the left arm straight. Head down… swing, swoosh, done!”

If the ball goes more or less where I wanted it to, then I sigh in relief. If it doesn’t, then I check the list and try, try, try again.