GAPP — Golf Assimilation Play Process
In order to play a complete game you need to discover GAPP. Best described as “game-fitting,” GAPP compliments every aspect of a golfer’s pursuit to optimize their play.
Since the game was invented players have chased a myriad of ways to improve their performance. Through equipment development, the improvement in playing conditions as well as better instructional techniques today’s golfers play a vastly different game than their ancestors. But is it reflected in better scoring? Does today’s personal experience exceed or fall short of expectations?
Let’s look at playing conditions past and present. Byron Nelson once quipped the greatest technological advancement in his day was the lawn mower. Granted, if you watch films of players from yesteryear the greens were likely not as smooth as the teeboxes at one of today’s public tracks. The conditions we play on today are exceptional compared to only fifty years ago. Fairway drainage is optimized, grasses and their nutritional needs are better understood, design techniques appeal to golfers of all ability levels while green speeds can run the gamut of fair to US Open ridiculous. The last point illustrates how precise a superintendent can tweak his layout. Obviously maintaining a course for the masses is a bit different than preparing a course for a major championship. Yet it’s easy to say we’re playing on vastly improved conditions today than we were several years ago.
Equipment has taken a quantum leap from the old hickory shafts and razor thin forged heads Old Tom Morris employed. Golf balls have gone from pouches stuffed with feathers to projectiles that now fly 300+ yards. Everything is better. Every aspect can be fitted to individual preferences. In a way, you can’t blame your equipment any longer.
Today’s game is about speed apparently. Open any golf periodical and the ads jump off the page.
“Artificial Intelligence and Real Ball Speed.” “Stop Steering. Start Driving Faster.” “Speed Injected.” “SpeedBack.”
You can match the claims with the manufacturer.
Connecting speed with lower scores is somewhat of an ethereal challenge. Sure, speed leads to distance but distance can come in a variety of patterns. Straight is usually better. Consistency at times is sacrificed with the distance dispersions.
I have a problem with golf companies inferring the transitive property of equality with their clubs. Remember, if a=b and b=c then a=c? Can that be applied to if speed = distance and distance = lower scores, then speed = lower scores? Can we make that assumption based on the middle premise? Will distance lead to lower scores? In some cases yes. Universally, no.
It’s understandable that equipment manufacturers could care less in lowering your scores. They want to sell clubs. They want a player to pick up their driver, pound it into oblivion, granting the swinger a SportsCenter moment, and walk away with the cash. “I hit it 325… into the penalty area. Damn, it felt great!”
Today’s instruction is also light years ahead of anything that came out of the twentieth century. There is virtually no aspect of a player’s swing that can’t be technologically analyzed. Machines that used to formulate how to get a man on the moon now tell you if you squat enough on your downswing.
I understand that change is inevitable but the one thing that has not changed in 500+ years is the primary goal of a player is to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible. Nor will this ever change in my mind. If it does it will no longer be golf.
I feel we have veered away from teaching the one vital principle crucial to golf — how to play it. We’ve shifted our focus to the technological wizardry that has take a simple game and turned into a maddening science. It is about speed. It is about maxing out measurements that won’t fit in the boxes on a scorecard. Perhaps we’re approaching the point where we tell a student if they can’t achieve the desired swing statistics they should go buy a boat. It’s impossible for them to have fun with an unconventional swing, old clubs and no speed. Sound hysterical? I tend to think not.
As we move forward (supposedly) with golf instruction in this century, we are missing that vital principle I mentioned earlier. There is a way to make today’s player better. Even if they discover their best set of fitted clubs, absorb themselves in Trackman, commit to a physical training regimen that rivals Dustin Johnson, they can do one more thing. Players can discover their GAPP — Golf Assimilation Play Process.
Club fitting, ball fitting, fitness fit-ing, we’re all trying to FIT the peg in the hole. GAPP is game fitting. It is the part of the puzzle that FITS YOUR GAME TO THE GOLF COURSE. GAPP examines a variety of aspects that make up a player’s game plus their tendencies and translates them into the optimum play process. It is the final step in any instructional process. It teaches a player how to play the game thus optimizing the golf experience.
I can jump into a NASCAR simulator, max out all the numbers, but it’s doubtful you could put me on the track at Daytona and expect me to win. There are too many variables that enter the equation. GAPP interprets those variables for each individual.
The best thing about GAPP is does not conflict with a player pursuing any other methods of instruction. Changing a swing? Have at it. Searching for speed? Go as fast as you’d like. Want that set of PXG’s? Pull out your wallet. When you’re done with all of that, find your GAPP.
For more information, go to getpureplaygolf.com