It’s so simple — not!

My daily inbox overflows with an abundance of emails of all things golf. Like a poorly struck club slammed back into your bag, my inbox is pelted with a relentless stream of ads promising to improve my game. There are newly released drivers guaranteed to add 25 yards off the tee and the latest set of irons, assured to hit greens with laser-like accuracy. Offers abound for wedges that will provide maximum spin and for putters that will impart a pure roll, destined to find the bottom of the cup.

If you love golf as much as me, I’ll bet you too have an inbox chock-full of absolutely gotta-have golf offerings. As if these golf equipment emails haven’t provided enough information, an unlimited supply of golf tips and instructional videos reside in the haunts of cyberspace, via quick searches on Google, YouTube and TikTok.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not being critical of our online attempts to quickly shave a few strokes off our scorecards. Desperate times require desperate measures and if standing on one foot or humming a few bars of “The Blue Danube Waltz“ (real internet tips) will help, I’m all in to give it a try. But as we golfers know, developing a great golf swing that results in a streak lasting more than one good shot, isn’t easily achieved. Arnold Palmer forewarned, “Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.”

We’ve all had those brief moments when the game seems so effortless. Maybe the stars were perfectly aligned, and we ran off a string of great shots, or a series of exceptional consecutive holes, or if really blessed by the golf gods, an extraordinary round or two. But those short-lived visits to golfing paradise were surely interrupted, often triggered by a single errant shot into the abyss.

It’s very tempting to wander over to The YouTube Golf Academy, to select an online instructor. As enticing as it may be, the likelihood of an internet swing coach, who has never seen us swing a club, correctly diagnosing our golfing ills is not very promising. We’ve all learned the hard way that there are a seemingly infinite number of causes for each of our specific swing maladies. Deciding which video tip to choose is like pondering whether to select fresh fruit or chicken and waffles or biscuits and gravy at your favorite breakfast buffet. They all may look appealing, but there really is only one that is actually good for you.

In addition to all this confusion, consideration must be given to the time-honored debate as to what percent of golf is physical and what portion is controlled by those evil gerbils rattling around in our brains. In his celebrated book, “Golf in Not a Game of Perfect,” renowned sports psychologist, Dr. Bob Rotella, wrote ”You cannot hit a golf ball consistently well if you think about the mechanics of your swing as you play.”

With full disclosure, knowing the average golf swing takes only 1.2 seconds to complete, I must admit to having a pre-shot checklist of my own.

Although it innocently began with a simple, single reminder to keep my lead arm straight, it has now grown faster than Jack’s beanstalk to include “maintain loose grip, turn shoulders, feel connected, keep head behind ball, pause at the top, lead with left hip and swing out to right field.”

Oh, I just heard my phone bing — there’s an alert that my favorite online sports psychologist has uploaded a new video — he’s got something crazy to say about how I should think about where I want the ball to go and focus on the target. Who has time to think of something as ridiculous as that?

Rich Bernstein recently moved to Sun City - Hilton Head. Rich has been experiencing the joy, challenges and frustrations of golf since his selection as the 6th player on his 5-player high school golf team.