Golf technology question

Do you think playing wii golf will hurt my game?


Haha - Okay so not serious but really what do you think?

We gave my son a wii for christmas and its alot of fun, I especially like the golf game.

In real golf I am a 15 handicap and on the wii I shoot about 45 for nine holes so I have to sharpen up, but what do you think hurt or help?

I find that I end my watching the screen too much, I am worried I'll start lifting my head.


HH

I've been a golf professional for over 15 years and have given many lessons.

I have never played wii golf but in my opinion is that it will help your game with tempo and judging distances, especially in the short game.

Worry about keeping your head down is for 30 handicap players not 15.

I'm a 4 handicap golfer myself and grew up in a family heavily involved in golf (Father and brother played in college, Grandfather had a stint on the pro tour, and my uncle made golf his living as a head pro at a course.)

I've heard about 100 ways to ruin your swing over the years and here are a few:

Playing Baseball, tennis, lacrosse, badminton, ect

Practicing other "Stick sports" obviously will effect your swing and I can't recommend playing these religiously if you want to take golf seriously.

Hobbies like skiing, weightlifting, and construction work supposedly affect your posture. I haven't experienced any evidence of this since I lift weights and water ski.

Reading golf magazines and watching the golf channel put way too many swing images, motifs, ideas, and corrections into your head that will ultimately take you far away from improvement. This is the one I think hurts players (especially new players) swings THE MOST. Each person has a distinct swing and there are a ton of moving parts in golf that can never fully be discussed in an article or show. These mediums will have you second guessing yourself a ton. Self correcting a golf swing using info meant to be read by millions of golfers with millions of problems and differences is ridiculous. If you want to be a good golfer you need to have someone (who knows what he's talking about) watching your swing and helping you. Even tiger woods has an instructor and he's the best ever.

as for the WII game:

I doubt it will affect your swing. I've played it and you really dont need to make a real golf swing to do well. You dont shift your weight and turn like the other sports i have mentioned so you wont experience and adverse muscle memory. Its more like a flick of the wrist then and athletic move.

Play on.

Regarding keeping your head down:

I used to work for Karsten Manufacturing, makers of Ping golf clubs. We would get dozens of professional golfers through there every year. I had a chance to talk to a few of them.

One was a lady who gave golf camps and trained hundreds of people. When I told her that I was topping the ball and asked if I needed to keep my head down she told me that she only saw 3 people in her life that lifted their head during their swing.

This only makes sense. Try this yourself. Grip the golf club and place the head on the floor in the same position where it would strike the ball. Now try to move your head back and forth. It's hard to do from that position.

I couldn't give you advice about how the wii affects your swing though.

bullets, where did you give lessons at?? i work at a golf store in nebraska and remember you being on nationwide tour or dakotas tour, something like that

cjv_11 said:

bullets, where did you give lessons at?? i work at a golf store in nebraska and remember you being on nationwide tour or dakotas tour, something like that

Click to expand...

Played Dakotas and a few smaller ones. Never the Nationwide.

Worked at a few private course back in the day. Don't want to get into much detail here.

alright, wont ask you any more ?s about it, gl in your golf game and hopefully we can get some weather to play in the midwest