Feedback: High praise for Kaspriske's "Ignore the ball" instruction piece.

Friday, March 9, 2012

In his "Close Out" column in the April issue Ron Kaspriske recounted how his game improved tremendously when he discovered that not looking at the ball during his swing worked much better than staring at it, was an unusual kind of tip for us. The realization emanated from a conversation he'd had last winter with former PGA Tour Pro and CBS golf analyst Bobby Clampett about his book, The Impact Zone: Mastering Golf's Moment of Truth.

That got me to thinking. If my goal is to get my swing to bottom out in front of the ball, why am I looking at the ball?

Kaspriske began practicing by looking at a spot in front of the ball....and over a few months dropped his handicap from about 14 to 10. His story and the unorthodox method got the attention of this reader:

Dear Golf Digest:

Just wanted to let you know that the article by Ron Kapriske in your April issue was the most interesting instructional piece you've had in many years. Since so very few have any success with conventional instruction, why not devote one issue or one article per month to finding some unconventional approaches (and instructors) to the game. It's what Golf Channel should have done when they had their "next instructor" search, and while they certainly got some unconventional videos apparently they had no intention of going in that direction. A missed opportunity for a reality show at the very least. Kiran Kanwar, Jack Kuykendall, Todd Graves, Simple Golf and Jerry Heard would be some good places to start. Thank you for your attention!
Steve Huckleby

Thanks, Steve. Having met Jack and Todd when Golf Digest partnered on some of their Natural Golf instruction materials, I know how smart they are. So your letter is high praise. And Ron's story deserves it.

Bob Carney