Golf Poll: Practice Question Results Are In

We recently asked a poll question about your golf practice thoughts. The question was “If you could only work on one thing in your golf swing practice, what would it be?” And the results from a large number of golfers are in and I will also share my thoughts on them.

Well, let’s start with what all of you golf nuts out there said. Here are your answers to the question:
Putting: 24%
Chipping: 16%
Driving: 16%
Middle and long irons 16%
Mental game 12%
Short Irons 12%
Tempo 4%
Now what is interesting (or maybe not) is that my choice is the 4% answer: Tempo. What I have found with my golf swing and see with a lot of amateur golfers is that they swing way too fast. And the faster you swing, the harder it is to get solid contact on the golf ball with the club face in the correct position.
I have been fortunate to attend several PGA golf tournaments including The Masters more than once. I remember the first time that I saw the pros up close. It was at a practice round at The Masters in Augusta. The thing that amazed me was how smoothly and slowly the pros golf swing seemed compared to what I saw on the golf course when I played (including my own swing).
And these guys are good as the commercial says. They are professional athletes with tremendous hand to eye coordination. But they aren’t swinging hard compared to what I see a lot of us amatuer golfers do.
And the main point is this. If you think about how complicated the golf swing can be, how much harder is it to get it right when we are going faster and faster? Now thank goodness we don’t have to pick just one thing to practice. But if we did, I would pick tempo because it affects everything else.
And for me, I try not to over practice. But when I work on things, I start and end with tempo. And it always helps!
Thanks to all the golfers who participated in the poll! And I was glad to see that over half of the respondents answered with something related to their short game! Good luck with your practice and good golfing.