Most Significant Advice I Ever Got In Golf

In the summer of 1998, I was playing pretty well, but it felt like I was on the verge of playing really well. I called my good friend Jackie Burke and told him I wanted to come down and seek his wisdom. So I went to Houston and had him watch me hit a few balls.

After about 30 minutes, he said, “You only get one chance in the golf swing to reach maximum speed. Make sure it’s in the right spot.”

I asked him what he meant, and he explained that it looked like at times I was trying to create maximum speed right out of the transition from backswing to downswing. In reality, maximum speed should occur just after impact, and you have to build toward it gradually. He also said that under pressure it probably got even worse, and that I needed to resist the urge to force maximum speed and instead let it happen naturally.

At first this seemed strange to me, and I know it probably will to many of you as well, because the entire golf swing happens in about a second and a half. When he used the word “gradually,” I wondered how anything could happen gradually in a swing that fast. After thinking about what he said overnight, my objective the next day was simple: let it happen.

After hitting a lot of balls, I began to feel what he was talking about. I had been trying to create maximum speed with less than a second to do it, and everything in the swing was rushed because of it. Once I accepted that I needed to let speed develop instead of forcing it, I felt like a completely different golfer.

That fall I went on to win the Texas Open and then the Tour Championship at East Lake, where in my opinion I hit the ball as well as I ever have in my life. After those couple of days in Houston, my understanding of the golf swing went to a whole new level. Today, the game’s constant push for more distance causes many golfers to struggle with this same concept. Hopefully this story helps some of you learn to let speed happen and find the best version of yourself as a golfer.