Why isn’t the average golfer improving ?

Mike Pedersen wrote an article last month about the Top 5 Reasons Golfers Don’t Improve and he listed some good reasons why the average golfer is not improving.

As I wrote in my comment on Mike’s site :

The “lack of improvement statistic” story, seems to have been around forever, and while it may in fact be true, there’s a saying about statistics can be interpreted any way you want, or some such variation.

IMO, the statistic would be more meaningful if it was applied to only those golfers who were actually TRYING to improve their games. “

From working at a private club, and also from just playing at public courses, and frequenting driving ranges, my observation is that only a small percentage of golfers vastly improve their games.

They are the “keeners”, and are probably the type of people who improve at any other activity they attempt as well. They seek out the correct information (instruction),then practice efficiently at whatever area of their game requires the most attention.

Then there are other golfers, who never learn the correct fundamentals, and groove a sometimes very unorthodox “swing”, with various degrees of success. Generally their results are inversely proportional to the amount their swing motion varies from the basic fundamentals.

Along with some basic talent (“hand/eye coordination”),that I believe almost everyone possesses to a degree, and some good basic instruction, after that, the amount of time a golfer dedicates to their improvement is going to be the biggest factor.

It’s the extremely rare golfer who never practices, plays once a week, and can break80, or even 90 regularly.