There Is More Than One Way To Swing A Golf Club (Video) - by Pete Styles
There Is More Than One Way To Swing A Golf Club (Video) - by Pete Styles

I think it’s fair to say when you watch a guy like Jason Dufner out on tour and particularly when you see the amount of money that he has won, you can understand that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and there is certainly more than one way to play golf particularly in the era of the big long bombers. You know you’ve got the guys out there Bubba Watson and Mcllroy knocking out comfortably over 300 yards, and in actually one of Jason Dufner best season, the season 2012 where he won twice out on Tour he actually ranked 64th on the list of long hitters which you know doesn’t sound very good you know he still hit the ball 294 yards that year which for most club golfers and myself I think I would buy that off him, but that actually he was only ranked 64th on the order of merit in terms of long hitters, he had two wins in that year. So how does he sacrifice distance of the tee and certainly give up 64 positions to other players that he is actually able to get the results and get the wins in twice in that season? Well a lot of it comes down to the way he manages himself around the golf course, and that is where we can look at this, there is more than one way to skin a cat idea that you play with a golfer like Bubba Watson, you have to agree he is going to outdrive you and you have to allow yourself to have that belief that he is going to knock it 30, 40, 50 yards past me on some holes.

I’m going to be hitting much longer clubs into a green, but if I’m smart and I play the right way I might lose less balls than Bubba Watson, I might be in the trees less often, I might be hitting a five iron out in the fairway where he could be hitting a nine iron or a pitching wedge out the long grass. And if you find yourself in those situations in your club golf, you are not the longest hitter, but you are a straight hitter, you don’t necessarily hit pitching wedges into many green, but you hit five irons accurately, and you don’t take flags on and you don’t run the risk of making bogies, but you keep the five iron in the middle of the green and two putt pars, there is more than one way of skinning a cat. So maybe next time you go out and play try and look at it in two different ways, try and play nine holes hitting the ball as hard as you can, being super aggressive, see how you score. Then play nine holes more within your comfort zone, go to Jason Dufner mentality, three woods off the tee, driver off the tee to the wider part of fairways, hitting shots into a green with longer clubs that you maybe play a little bit safer, play away from the pins, keep yourself in a nice even Jason Dufner type cool rather than getting too aggressive and then to deflated and see whether you can play the Jason Dufner approach rather than the Bubba Watson approach, and see if that helps improve your scores, because you wouldn’t mind being a few dollars behind Jason Dufner at the end of the season, would you? 2015-10-15

I think it’s fair to say when you watch a guy like Jason Dufner out on tour and particularly when you see the amount of money that he has won, you can understand that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and there is certainly more than one way to play golf particularly in the era of the big long bombers. You know you’ve got the guys out there Bubba Watson and Mcllroy knocking out comfortably over 300 yards, and in actually one of Jason Dufner best season, the season 2012 where he won twice out on Tour he actually ranked 64th on the list of long hitters which you know doesn’t sound very good you know he still hit the ball 294 yards that year which for most club golfers and myself I think I would buy that off him, but that actually he was only ranked 64th on the order of merit in terms of long hitters, he had two wins in that year. So how does he sacrifice distance of the tee and certainly give up 64 positions to other players that he is actually able to get the results and get the wins in twice in that season? Well a lot of it comes down to the way he manages himself around the golf course, and that is where we can look at this, there is more than one way to skin a cat idea that you play with a golfer like Bubba Watson, you have to agree he is going to outdrive you and you have to allow yourself to have that belief that he is going to knock it 30, 40, 50 yards past me on some holes.

I’m going to be hitting much longer clubs into a green, but if I’m smart and I play the right way I might lose less balls than Bubba Watson, I might be in the trees less often, I might be hitting a five iron out in the fairway where he could be hitting a nine iron or a pitching wedge out the long grass. And if you find yourself in those situations in your club golf, you are not the longest hitter, but you are a straight hitter, you don’t necessarily hit pitching wedges into many green, but you hit five irons accurately, and you don’t take flags on and you don’t run the risk of making bogies, but you keep the five iron in the middle of the green and two putt pars, there is more than one way of skinning a cat. So maybe next time you go out and play try and look at it in two different ways, try and play nine holes hitting the ball as hard as you can, being super aggressive, see how you score.
Then play nine holes more within your comfort zone, go to Jason Dufner mentality, three woods off the tee, driver off the tee to the wider part of fairways, hitting shots into a green with longer clubs that you maybe play a little bit safer, play away from the pins, keep yourself in a nice even Jason Dufner type cool rather than getting too aggressive and then to deflated and see whether you can play the Jason Dufner approach rather than the Bubba Watson approach, and see if that helps improve your scores, because you wouldn’t mind being a few dollars behind Jason Dufner at the end of the season, would you?