The biggest problem with golf for the average person is time. Between work, family, and all of our other obligations we just can’t get to the course or the range as often as we would like. In the past, we were limited to reading golf digest, putting on our living room carpet, and practicing our takeaway in our cubical (sans golf club).
There’s nothing like miming your golf swing at work to let your boss know you are a real go-getter with upper management potential.
All of this has changed thanks to modern technology and a little platform called YouTube. Now we can spend all of our waking hours binging golf instruction content from hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of instructors. A simple search will reveal promises of “Never three-putt again” or “ How to always flush your irons”.
YouTube is an embarrassment of riches for great golf content. Sadly it is also a desolate wasteland of bad advice. Why is this? The greatest attribute of YouTube is also its biggest detriment. Anyone can put their ideas out there. While there are many excellent, long-established golf channels, there are also many more terrible ones.
Some of the popular channels like Me and My Golf or Rick Shiels offer great advice, work hard, and create quality videos. In return, they receive a ton of views, likes, and subscribers. People see this and decide they want a slice of the pie. They quickly realize that, while it isn’t hard to make videos, it is hard to get eyes on them, so they often resort to clickbait titles and too good to be true promises.
The worst-case scenario is they decide they need a “unique take” on the golf swing. Want to be confused? Just search “hips in the golf swing” and watch everything that pops up!
Ready to quit yet?
So what do you do? As per usual, life is easier for a Stick. A Stick knows his or her swing and can usually sift through the nonsense and find content that can actually help. The poor Hack, however, doesn’t have it so good. They can spend their week watching hundreds of videos, committing each to memory. By the time they are standing over the ball on the first tee, their brain is as cluttered as a subway platform. They will be lucky to even make contact with the ball!
My advice?
Go back to putting on your living room carpet and practicing your takeaway at work. If you insist on fixing your game with YouTube, find the guys with the English accents. Even if the videos don’t help you, the chaotic voices in your head will sound classy and knowledgable.