High Tech/Low Tech: What Is This Game About Anyway

   Speaking of high tech/low tech, I am diligently working on updating the Golf Is For Everyone website today. That means that I am up to my eyeballs in alligators and am in more of a website development mode instead of a writing mode. Have you visited the website recently?  Take a look at it by going to http://golfisforeveryonemd.com and see what you think. At some point soon, I think I am going to actually go out and play a round of golf. Enjoy this blog that I wrote a couple of months ago.  I should be back tomorrow with another exciting (?) new post.  In the meantime, here's this wonderful blast from the past.

    A couple of days ago I noticed a post on FaceBook that was talking about the way the game is taught these days. The discussion focused on the high tech methods as compared to some of the low tech approaches to teaching the game. I am not against high tech in any aspect of the game, but there is something to be said about the low tech as well.
     When things get too complicated the human brain can shut down. I know, it happens to me all the time especially when my wife gives me too many tasks to do at once. We are trying to get too technical with a game that is oh so simple. Plus, the human experience factor is very much a part of our game. Machines can't play golf but humans can.
      I think many times we get so wrapped up in the machines we have created not only to teach the game but in all aspects of the game that we have forgotten what the game is all about.  This is a simple game with a simple outcome and that is to hit a ball with a stick and get in into a hole a distance away in as few hits as you can. That's it. We have become so dependent on technology that we don't talk about the game, but the technology involved with the game and that gets in the way of the enjoyment of the game.
     Golf is a strategic game. If I am stuck behind a tree, I have to use my knowledge and experience to try to hit the shot that I can recover from behind the tree and save as many strokes as I can.  I don't go to my computer and ask how I should play the shot.  I know how and it is only a matter of execution. My laptop doesn't tell me what to do, my brain does and most of the time it woks out just fine.
     On the course, before I hit a shot I am thinking about what kind of shot I am going to hit and how far. A driver I try to hit as far as I can to a spot that makes the hole play better. I don't use a Sky Caddie but trust my instincts.  If I haven't played a course before I will check the scorecard map to see what lies ahead.  I try to put an iron or whatever club it takes and hit it on the green. I check the fairway markers and adjust my distances accordingly in order to select the club I am going to use on my second shot.
      My short game and putting also depend not on technology, but on my experience.  I can see the slope of the green and where to hit the ball. I estimate the distances to the hole and the speed of the greens and then hit the shot. I read the green and putt. It is that simple.
     We have tried to bring technology to the game. I don't know how good this is. We have brought launch angle, ball hardness or softness, shaft flex, wedge loft, swing speed and a lot of other math to the game. I don't know how good this is. I am not against it and it makes for great conversation. For me though, I prefer the Keep It Simple Saint method. By the way, can I still get some hickory shafted clubs, some true woods and a featherie ball?

High Tech lesson for a low tech guy. What are you showing me.  Don't you know the screen is blank?