If you’ve played golf for more than one season, then you’ve experienced the disappearing swing syndrome. It strikes without warning, irrespective of skill level.

To quote the late Bobby Jones in his masterful book, Secrets of The Masters:”one always feels that he is running from something, without knowing exactly what nor where it is.”

In most sports, sound mechanics and dedicated practice offer some assurance of constant improvement. In golf, however, there are no guarantees.

The first step to consistency is accepting that results are beyond your control. The second step is learning how to minimize the effect of the disappearing swing syndrome by deliberately controlling your attention.

Based on my experience with over eleven-thousand students, most once-a-week golfers assume that faulty memory is the culprit; you must have forgotten to lock your left elbow or shift your weight or cock your wrists or…

While beating yourself up may provide some satisfaction to assuage the masochistic tendencies (which is universal to all golfers), it only serves to exacerbate the symptom. Attempting to rationalize the collapse usually leads to an endless cycle of fault-finding and error correction which in turn manifests in the proverbial blow-up hole.

Contrary to popular belief, the culprit is not a lack of memory, but rather trying to recall every nuance of proper technique. The secret to a quick recovery is re-directing your attention to the feel of your best shots.

Every golfer has heard that golf is a game of feel. How you feel is a by-product of your attention. What you pay attention to affects how you feel; the better you feel, the greater the odds of creating your best swing.

At least one-third of the time in a round of golf is walking/riding between shots. Use the time to mentally replay past success and recall the predominant feel.

Have you ever been stuck behind a student driver? Do you ever wonder why they are going so slowly? The student is trying to pay attention to everything; oncoming cars, traffic lights, when to apply the brakes, etc. They haven’t developed the ability to distinguish between attention and awareness.

Regardless of skill level, every golfer can consistently play to the best of their ability by focusing on desired results instead of replaying past mistakes. The biggest misconception in traditional golf instruction is asking a student to constantly recall mistakes instead of trusting their natural ability to just hit the damn ball!

Thanks for reading.