Practice Tee/ Playing
 

I remember watching Arnold Palmer on the practice range. When he is there he appears pretty smooth and balanced. Now... put him on the golf course, and you will usually see a different thing. Whirley-bird finishes, leans, punches... with an occasional smooth one in there. Quite different.

If you watch Chi Chi Rodriguez, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, or Tiger Woods on the range... then watch them play golf on the course...the same type of thing will be seen.

Then, there is the player that nearly looks identical on the range as on the course. Gene Littler, Julius Boros, Fuzzy Zoeller, Adam Scott... you can think of others on both sides.

I tried to think of the two extremes. Most people are some where between these two.

Discussion... why do you think this is this way? Temperament, style of play, personality, etc.? Is this a good thing? Would Mr. Woods do better if he was more like Mr. Scott? Would Mr. Scott do better if he was more like Mr. Woods?

What do you think?

Good question . . . I'll take you one further . . . what about differences between PRACTICE SWING and REAL SWING?

As far as Eldrick goes . . . His swing on that Nike Slo-Mo is WAY different from his typical motion Fo-Sho.

Good topic.

...

Playing pressure does things to you I guess.....it seems that not many people slow down that's for sure.

Added anxiety.

As for practice swings....the way I see it there's no pressure or anything you're trying to actually hit so tempo-wise that can make a player smoother.....and usually you're TRYING for a nice tempo and Rhythm in a practice swing anyway....

....and also, clubface control doesn't matter in a practice swing. Not to say it shouldn't matter...but there's no ball to tell you if you've done it well or not.

intent , action and motion
 

People usually behave differently with different intent, for example:

swing (the club) v.s. hack (the ball),
rotate (the shoulders) v.s. swing (the club),
sustain v.s. throwaway (the lag),
.
.
.
.

999.9 out of 1000 intend to "swing the club" smoothly, yet "hack the ball" high, straight and far.

Only 0.1 out of 1000 intend to "sustain the lag" only.