My nickname was 'Loopy Lou' and it got into my soul. It challenged my person. Freud would have had a field day with me. But I lived with this all summer long and throughout my most formative years.
I will add that I did surprisingly manage to get down to a three handicap with this technique but that was just down to sheer hard work and a fortunate degree of natural hand-eye coordination. I even somehow won my Junior Championship, got into the St Andrews University first team and once in a club match (to his utter dismay) hammered the future Scottish team captain Scott Knowles 7 and 6 over his home course. However, my game was massively erratic and I do believe honestly, that it underlies a highly charged and whimsical aspect of my nature. Although I am not truly sure what gave rise to what?
At the core of me though I believe is simply poor golf coaching.
For a couple of decades, I read up on technique and went through numerous teachers. I must have been as equally frustrating to them as their lessons were to me. I had (still have!) nightmares about the principle of the ‘one piece takeaway’. But it was no good. I spent hundreds, thousands on lessons and to no avail. It was desperate and my game went through troughs and peaks which made the Tour de France look like a cycle in the Fens. I have had more swing thoughts and changes than deleted Hilary Clinton emails.
The funniest thing was that I actually got a job teaching golf for Club Med one summer. Funny on two levels because I had to teach it in French and because I had no real idea or understanding of what I was doing. I feel very guilty about this. So, if you do happen to come across a French national with a weird and wonderful swing you could mention Marbella 1992 and this may elicit a very surprised look. Please don’t give my whereabouts though.
So, this has gone on throughout my entire 40-year golfing career and most of my life.
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