Opinion & Analysis
In golf, perspective is more important than perfection
By Dennis de Jesus Jr.
GolfWRX Contributor
I’m a mid-handicap golfer who would love to be a single-digit or even a scratch. It’s not so I can join the tour and compete for the big (but often times small) purses of a tournament, it’s more of a badge of honor and to brag to friends that you can hit a dimpled ball pretty consistently and manage a decent round every once in a while. Anyone who is a casual golfer knows of someone who is a pretty solid golfer. He or she is that person who you want to be paired with for a scramble tournament and would only play for skins if they gave you a handful of generous strokes. I wanted to be that person – a guy that can run with the low handicappers and be somewhat envied by the mid-to-high handicappers.
But the reality is that I don’t practice or play enough to warrant such unreasonable expectations and I don’t have the natural talent to hide the imperfections (and there are many) in my game. But that doesn’t mean I’m not trying. A year ago, I decided to take lessons for the first time in my eleven year golf “career” because I really wanted it to be my goal to be that low digit handicapper that I’ve always dreamed about. So I packed my bags and went down to Palm Springs for a week of one-on-one sessions with a PGA Master Professional – a wizard who would presumably magically transform my swing from a weekend hacker into the rhythmic balance of Adam Scott. Turns out that to be Adam Scott you have to be born with some sort of physical gift that allows you the flexibility and length that he possesses. So a week of drills and many practice rounds later, I still had not perfected the golf swing, but I managed to take home with me a better tool set than I came with and improvements that actually helped lower my handicap a few strokes.
But with that kind of investment in time and money comes expectations and for whatever reason, I thought I could translate all that knowledge and good habits immediately and better my game by at least 10 or 11 strokes in the next season. Realistically, I probably improved about four-to-five strokes, but it didn’t feel like that was enough. I began to over think my swing and brought too much of the mental aspect into it, which as many of you know, is the harbinger of disaster when it comes to your golf game. With too much of my brain affecting my swing, I experienced a case of the dreaded —- (four letter y-word) and really tanked my game to a point where it wasn’t as fun anymore. I resigned to playing Tiger Woods on my PS3 to bring my confidence back, which would be similar to wearing a bandana tightly around your head to cure a migraine.
So there I was, less than a year removed from the excellent instruction I received from a PGA Master Professional, yet frustrated at the realization of sitting in the valley part of a roller coaster ride that is my golf game. I had already seen the improvements and I revelled in the little things that helped me go from being happy to have a 60-foot putt for birdie to actually seeing an approach shot as flag hunting. I knew it was a cyclical thing and often times getting out of the rut is a mind over matter, but I didn’t know what kind of trigger would help me this time around.
Almost by chance, I came across an advertisement from the local chapter of the Special Olympics looking for volunteers. I had been looking for a new volunteering opportunity around the same time, so the opportunity to work with such a respected organization already had my interest, but when they highlighted their need for coaches specifically in their golf program, I knew this would be a perfect fit for me.
My first day on the job wasn’t easy. We were asked to evaluate the athletes in a way that would allow the organizers to divide the group up into the various skill levels. This was the first time I was around golfers who had disabilities that limited their physical movement while others faced mental challenges which affected their motor skills. Up to that point, I was so critical of my own swing and those of my regular playing partners that I couldn’t quite grasp the concept of how imperfect the swings of these special athletes were. That first day was designed to just observe and judge and it was a struggle to do so objectively considering all the things I have been taught and conditioned to look for while watching golf telecasts and reading golf instruction books. Breaking plane, arms misaligned, bad grip, poor foot position, little shoulder turn — all the things that an instructor would cringe at were right in front of me. But in this environment, we celebrate the occasional good golf shot and encourage them to stay positive no matter what. To be honest, I think I was tough in my assessments of each athlete but at least I was consistent. As expected, each athlete had their own flawed swing all to their own and there wasn’t going to be a cure all drill or adjustment that would fix all of them at the same time.
Based on the assessments from the first day, each coach was assigned a handful of athletes that they would work with over the next two months on a weekly basis to develop a proper golf swing based on traditional instruction methods. Being a lefty, I was assigned the lefty athletes that were a mix of beginner (never swung a club) to intermediate (has played on a course a few times). Each week we worked on one component of the swing and then built upon that the following week, the intent being that by the end, the athletes are given the right tools and associated drills that would help them hit the ball more consistently and with more confidence. In essence, I would be teaching the golf swing from the ground up, starting from the basics all over again. In addition to teaching the sport to these eager athletes, this would be a nice refresher for myself because after a few years of being active in the sport, the basics can be quickly ignored in favor of bad habits and perhaps a reset was what I needed to get out of my rut.
It turns out the refresh of the golf swing mechanics was not what helped me. I thought that reviewing the basics of the “perfect” golf swing and teaching/learning it with these athletes would help me get over my own mental hurdle of the golf swing, as though repetition and teaching good habits out loud would trigger the proper swing thoughts even for myself. Nope — in fact it was witnessing the simple joy in the athletes when they occasionally hit the ball clean off the face and it would fly and go straight in the intended direction. Sure it might not have traveled an adequate distance for the club they had in their hand, but it was recognizing that it was a good golf shot versus a shank or a mishit. And a good golf shot was worth a high five.
My students also showed composure when they did mishit or miss the ball entirely. There was no swearing, no slamming the club to the ground, no club toss. They just reset, went through the prescribed pre shot routine and tried again. Not once did I hear any complaining from the athletes when I suggested an adjustment, even if the adjustment was physically impossible to achieve based on their disability. They still tried and allowed me to see how my suggestions would take or not, often times forcing me to make the adjustment.
Through it all, one thing remained constant – a good golf shot was welcomed and celebrated and a not so good one was quickly erased from memory until a solid shot was made again. This was all under the guise of athletes with less than perfect golf swings. Again, we can teach what an ideal setup is or what it means to be “on plane,” but the execution of it is usually less than ideal, even for an able bodied athlete.
Observing their composure and noting how to enjoy the simple success of a well hit golf shot helped me to appreciate the game as a whole again. I managed to take the intangible things I learned from working with these athletes onto the course and wouldn’t you know it, my game improved again. I began to see the game differently and instead of worrying about what I was doing wrong, I tuned my brain to believe in the shot I wanted to make and appreciating it more when it was well executed. I also learned to have a short memory with my bad shots and not dwell on them so much. I managed to stay relaxed throughout my round and just enjoy being out on the course regardless of how many circles/squares were on my card. And as an added benefit, my scores started to come down and I started to hover in the low-to-mid 80s, which is not bad for a hack like me. Obviously, there is still a lot of room for improvement and I’d like to be able to approach a round with breaking 80 in mind, but I think I’ve learned enough about perspective in the last few months that I won’t stress myself to get there.
Sometimes, it’s embracing imperfection that truly helps with one’s perspective. I didn’t need a sports psychologist or hours upon hours on the range to fix the mental block I created in my own mind. It was a simple matter of surrounding myself with the right mix of people with good attitudes and learning from them. I already received excellent professional instructions to fix the mechanics of my swing, but I overlooked the importance of the mental component of my game. It may seem strange that in addition to lessons, I learned how to play better golf by helping out disabled athletes who cannot physically or mentally build a perfect Ben Hogan-esque golf swing, but I can honestly say that what those athletes taught me about golf was more helpful than what Peter Kostis and the Swing Vision camera could ever do for me. I know I’m never going to be a pro golfer and I might even be hard pressed to be a scratch golfer, but I’m not going to resent the game because I’m unable to achieve those lofty goals. Instead, I’ll just enjoy my time on the course and high five my buddies every so often, even for a well-played double bogey.
As the editor-in-chief of this website and an observer of the GolfWRX forums and other online golf equipment discourse for over a decade, I’m pretty well attuned to the grunts and grumbles of a significant portion of the golf equipment purchasing spectrum. And before you accuse me of lording above all in some digital ivory tower, I’d like to offer that I worked at golf courses (public and private) for years prior to picking up my pen, so I’m well-versed in the non-degenerate golf equipment consumers out there. I touched (green)grass (retail)!
Complaints about the ills of and related to the OEMs usually follow some version of: Product cycles are too short for real innovation, tour equipment isn’t the same as retail (which is largely not true, by the way), too much is invested in marketing and not enough in R&D, top staffer X hasn’t even put the new driver in play, so it’s obviously not superior to the previous generation, prices are too high, and on and on.
Without digging into the merits of any of these claims, which I believe are mostly red herrings, I’d like to bring into view of our rangefinder what I believe to be the two primary difficulties golf equipment companies face.
One: As Terry Koehler, back when he was the CEO of Ben Hogan, told me at the time of the Ft Worth irons launch, if you can’t regularly hit the golf ball in a coin-sized area in the middle of the face, there’s not a ton that iron technology can do for you. Now, this is less true now with respect to irons than when he said it, and is less and less true by degrees as the clubs get larger (utilities, fairways, hybrids, drivers), but there remains a great deal of golf equipment truth in that statement. Think about it — which is to say, in TL;DR fashion, get lessons from a qualified instructor who will teach you about the fundamentals of repeatable impact and how the golf swing works, not just offer band-aid fixes. If you can’t repeatably deliver the golf club to the golf ball in something resembling the manner it was designed for, how can you expect to be getting the most out of the club — put another way, the maximum value from your investment?
Similarly, game improvement equipment can only improve your game if you game it. In other words, get fit for the clubs you ought to be playing rather than filling the bag with the ones you wish you could hit or used to be able to hit. Of course, don’t do this if you don’t care about performance and just want to hit a forged blade while playing off an 18 handicap. That’s absolutely fine. There were plenty of members in clubs back in the day playing Hogan Apex or Mizuno MP-32 irons who had no business doing so from a ballstriking standpoint, but they enjoyed their look, feel, and complementary qualities to their Gatsby hats and cashmere sweaters. Do what brings you a measure of joy in this maddening game.
Now, the second issue. This is not a plea for non-conforming equipment; rather, it is a statement of fact. USGA/R&A limits on every facet of golf equipment are detrimental to golf equipment manufacturers. Sure, you know this, but do you think about it as it applies to almost every element of equipment? A 500cc driver would be inherently more forgiving than a 460cc, as one with a COR measurement in excess of 0.83. 50-inch shafts. Box grooves. And on and on.
Would fewer regulations be objectively bad for the game? Would this erode its soul? Fortunately, that’s beside the point of this exercise, which is merely to point out the facts. The fact, in this case, is that equipment restrictions and regulations are the slaughterbench of an abundance of innovation in the golf equipment space. Is this for the best? Well, now I’ve asked the question twice and might as well give a partial response, I guess my answer to that would be, “It depends on what type of golf you’re playing and who you’re playing it with.”
For my part, I don’t mind embarrassing myself with vintage blades and persimmons chasing after the quasi-spiritual elevation of a well-struck shot, but that’s just me. Plenty of folks don’t give a damn if their grooves are conforming. Plenty of folks think the folks in Liberty Corner ought to add a prison to the museum for such offences. And those are just a few of the considerations for the amateur game — which doesn’t get inside the gallery ropes of the pro game…
Different strokes in the game of golf, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I believe equipment company engineers are genuinely trying to build better equipment year over year. The marketing departments are trying to find ways to make this equipment appeal to the broadest segment of the golf market possible. All of this against (1) the backdrop of — at least for now — firm product cycles. And golfers who, with their ~15 average handicap (men), for the most part, are not striping the golf ball like Tiger in his prime and seem to have less and less time year over year to practice and improve. (2) Regulations that massively restrict what they’re able to do…
That’s the landscape as I see it and the real headwinds for golf equipment companies. No doubt, there’s more I haven’t considered, but I think the previous is a better — and better faith — point of departure when formulating any serious commentary on the golf equipment world than some of the more cynical and conspiratorial takes I hear.
Agree? Disagree? Think I’m worthy of an Adam Hadwin-esque security guard tackle? Let me know in the comments.
@golfoncbs The infamous Adam Hadwin tackle ? #golf #fyp #canada #pgatour #adamhadwin ? Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz – MaSssuguMusic
Episode #16 brings us Cliff McKinney. Cliff is the founder of Old Charlie Golf Club, a new club, and concept, to be built in the Florida panhandle. The model is quite interesting and aims to make great, private golf more affordable. We hope you enjoy the show!
Last week, I came across a reel from BBC Sport on Instagram featuring Scottie Scheffler speaking to the media ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush. In it, he shared that he often wonders what the point is of wanting to win tournaments so badly — especially when he knows, deep down, that it doesn’t lead to a truly fulfilling life.
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“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport,” Scheffler said. “To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point?”
Ironically — or perhaps perfectly — he went on to win the claret jug.
That question — what’s the point of winning? — cuts straight to the heart of the human journey.
As someone who’s spent over two decades in the trenches of professional golf, and in deep study of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the game, I see Scottie’s inner conflict as a sign of soul evolution in motion.
I came to golf late. I wasn’t a junior standout or college All-American. At 27, I left a steady corporate job to see if I could be on the PGA Tour starting as a 14-handicap, average-length hitter. Over the years, my journey has been defined less by trophies and more by the relentless effort to navigate the deeply inequitable and gated system of professional golf — an effort that ultimately turned inward and helped me evolve as both a golfer and a person.
One perspective that helped me make sense of this inner dissonance around competition and our culture’s tendency to overvalue winning is the idea of soul evolution.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has done extensive research on reincarnation, and Netflix’s Surviving Death (Episode 6) explores the topic, too. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, the idea that we’re on a long arc of growth — from beginner to sage elder — offers a profound perspective.
If you accept the premise literally, then terms like “young soul” and “old soul” start to hold meaning. However, even if we set the word “soul” aside, it’s easy to see that different levels of life experience produce different worldviews.
Newer souls — or people in earlier stages of their development — may be curious and kind but still lack discernment or depth. There is a naivety, and they don’t yet question as deeply, tending to see things in black and white, partly because certainty feels safer than confronting the unknown.
As we gain more experience, we begin to experiment. We test limits. We chase extreme external goals — sometimes at the expense of health, relationships, or inner peace — still operating from hunger, ambition, and the fragility of the ego.
It’s a necessary stage, but often a turbulent and unfulfilling one.
David Duval fell off the map after reaching World No. 1. Bubba Watson had his own “Is this it?” moment with his caddie, Ted Scott, after winning the Masters.
In Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, reflecting on his 2011 Super Bowl win, Rodgers said:
“Now I’ve accomplished the only thing that I really, really wanted to do in my life. Now what? I was like, ‘Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn’t give you true happiness?’”
Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
Eventually, though, something shifts.
We begin to see in shades of gray. Winning, dominating, accumulating—these pursuits lose their shine. The rewards feel more fleeting. Living in a constant state of fight-or-flight makes us feel alive, yes, but not happy and joyful.
Compassion begins to replace ambition. Love, presence, and gratitude become more fulfilling than status, profits, or trophies. We crave balance over burnout. Collaboration over competition. Meaning over metrics.
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can apply this same model to nations and cultures. Countries, like people, have a collective “soul stage” made up of the individuals within them.
Take the United States, for example. I’d place it as a mid-level soul: highly competitive and deeply driven, but still learning emotional maturity. Still uncomfortable with nuance. Still believing that more is always better. Despite its global wins, the U.S. currently ranks just 23rd in happiness (as of 2025). You might liken it to a gifted teenager—bold, eager, and ambitious, but angsty and still figuring out how to live well and in balance. As much as a parent wants to protect their child, sometimes the child has to make their own mistakes to truly grow.
So when Scottie Scheffler wonders what the point of winning is, I don’t see someone losing strength.
I see someone evolving.
He’s beginning to look beyond the leaderboard. Beyond metrics of success that carry a lower vibration. And yet, in a poetic twist, Scheffler did go on to win The Open. But that only reinforces the point: even at the pinnacle, the question remains. And if more of us in the golf and sports world — and in U.S. culture at large — started asking similar questions, we might discover that the more meaningful trophy isn’t about accumulating or beating others at all costs.
It’s about awakening and evolving to something more than winning could ever promise.
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Binx Watts
Oct 7, 2012 at 5:56 pm
What a great article and what wonderful insights you had! As the golf professional at a course in Elkridge, Maryland, I often comment that golf can be enjoyed on many levels…from beginner to pro.
I’ve felt the same elation while teaching students with physical limitations such as those in the Special Olympics. There’s nothing better than seeing the joy in their eyes after a shot they consider successful.
You and I have experienced first-hand the wisdom of the cliche’: one shot at a time. Congratulation!
Binx Watts
The Timbers at Troy G.C.
Dennis de Jesus Jr.
Jan 21, 2013 at 2:40 pm
Thanks very much for your kind words. It truly is amazing when you are reminded of the simple joys that sport can provide and more so when you are able to help make it a positive contribution. I have definitely learned to appreciate the sport a lot more through this experience and hope I can continue to help and encourage more students to pick up golf as a hobby. Thanks to you as well for growing the sport in your area!