Forget David Leadbetter- Golf Instruction has regressed in the last 50 years

Golf instruction, especially that offered by celebrity instructors such as David Leadbetter, is very different than it used to be, and the average weekend hack is suffering as a result. Sadly, he doesn’t even know it.

Every time I open Golf Digest or watch The Golf Channel in the afternoon, I see the newest and latest training aid developed by David Leadbetter. And every time he creates something new, whether it’s the Laser Guide, the Leadbetter Swing Setter, or his new interactive DVD, he is promoting the same fundamentals, and guaranteeing that his new training aid will get everyone who picks up a club into the elusive slot position.

For years I tried to pay attention to Leadbetter’s instruction, and for years I only came up with the same results - a nice early wrist set and a lot of sideways shots. It seems like every piece of instruction he gives in the “Leadbetter’s Lessons” section of Golf Digest is far too complicated and technical to be of any benefit to the average player. What happens when a guy who plays every other Saturday picks up a magazine and goes to the course the next time thinking about the position of his hands? Bad things.

If the average player really wants instruction that will have a positive and lasting effect on his game, he needs to look to the ghosts of golf’s past for simple and effective tips. Before there were interactive CDs, Harvey Penick was telling his students to “Swing the Bucket.” When amateur golfers would have had a stroke at the idea of spending $25, much less $100 on a training aid, Penick called the common weed cutter the best swing-training tool (no pun intended) available.

Another thing that makes Penick and Leadbetter’s instruction so different is that Penick actually gives strategies for playing the game, not just strategies for making the club position look good in the mirror. No one can dispute that the most challenging part of golf is learning to deal with part of the game played, as Bobby Jones said, on the “five-and-a-half inch course” we all deal with on a daily basis, and most of Penick’s lessons take this into account. Dave Marrandette communicates this difference perfectly in a recent response to Chris Baldwin’s blog of the day on Michelle Wie: “First, it’s whine, whine. Then she shows a complete lack of understanding of the game. Michelle, have you ever heard ‘ifs and buts were…(you fill in the rest).’ David Deadheader needs to counsel her on more than the technical aspect of the swing.”

Amen, Mr. Marrandette.

Many of Leadbetter’s students have a very similar swing, and obviously his tutelage is working for several of the world’s top golfers; what he doesn’t seem to understand, or what he certainly doesn’t admit that he understands, is that the same swing doesn’t work for everyone, especially those of us who can’t devote hours to practice. I’m no expert on the golf swing, but this is irrefutable, and it is a fact that Harvey Penick brings up constantly in his writing.

Penick’s books are so full of knowledge and interesting anecdotes that they would be worthwhile for a player of any level to read. While modern technology might have made older courses obsolete, hotshot millionaire instructors will never be able to make Penick’s Little Rainbow of books a thing of the past.