CHAPTER TWO: MEET DAN

At this stage of the book I would like to introduce you to our subject golfer who is going to represent what I call the average Australian male golfer. His name is Dan and he actually does exist, but his name has been changed to protect the not so innocent. NOTE: Dan could also be a female, but because Dan is such a typical, real life example (and a male) I have decided to use him to represent everyone. My apologies to all the girls who read this.

The story begins with me meeting Dan at a party. We get to talking and very soon a common bond (golf) is established. Dan is forty something years old, well educated and very intelligent. He has a good job which gives him more free time these days. Dan has played sport all his life and excelled in “ball” sports such as ‘Aussie’ rules football, cricket and tennis. He also played golf spasmodically when he was younger but gave up all sport with the birth of his two children.

Now the kids are grown up and he has more free time, but he is too old (read; too unfit) for cricket and football. Naturally golf became the sport of choice. Not only that; Dan has become a golf fanatic. He subscribes to a few golf magazines, bought some golf videos and practices a lot. He even took some lessons. By the time Dan and I met he had been back playing golf for two years, had joined a golf club and achieved a 19 handicap, but had stopped improving. He had hit what we golf coaches call a “plateau”.

During our conversation Dan tells me about his golf game and eventually the universal question pops up. He asks; why do I slice? This struck me as odd. Here is a guy who has succeeded in all aspects of his life, and is smart, yet doesn’t know the answer to such a simple question. When I asked him to try to answer his own question he gave me some very knowledgeable answers – but all wrong! With all of Dan’s knowledge about golf swing mechanics, he had not learned the most fundamental thing – the clubface causes the ball to go where it goes. He kept thinking that some magical new body movement would send the ball straight down the middle, and sometimes it can. This is partly true, but concentrating in this area alone will bring a lifetime of frustration. Dan was practicing hard to improve his swing, not really knowing how his swing movements were affecting the clubface as it struck the ball, and he had never practiced changing how the clubface struck the ball.

I have seen this situation many times before, but it was finally after meeting Dan, who should be an above average golfer and isn’t, which started to gnaw away at me and has driven me to write this book.