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The Final Piece to your Swing
 It was time for your regular evening session at the driving range with the guys from the office. You stretched a bit and rolled up the first ball and grabbed your trusty 7 iron. You went through your usual preshot routine of making sure your grip is ok, your feet are aligned, your clubhead is square, and take a deep breath. Backswing, downswing, thwack.. Then you stared open-mouthed as your 7-iron striped the ball majestically down the range long and straight, to drop 150 meters away, far from your usual pulled effort which barely breaks 100 meters. You tried it again. Whoom, another rocket. And another. And another. Growing excited, you grabbed your pitching wedge and swung away. Same result. Murmuring "Oh My God, Oh My God" to yourself, you grabbed your 5 wood and teed it up. 250 meters, straight and true. You decide to throw caution to the wind and took out your new square driver, the one you shelled out loads of cash for on the strength of the salesman's pitch, and the one which, in your hands, have seemed to work as well as a broom handle. By this time, your buddies have stopped practicing have gathered to watch you in a hushed bunch. You tee up the ball, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. With an almighty SPANGGGG the ball leapt off the driver's face just like you've seen it done at the Golf Channel. The white range ball dwindled to a speck against the night sky, and disappeared behind the far netting at the end of the range. The silence was only broken by one of your friends giving the highest compliment a Singaporean golfer can give another: "Wah Lauuu... you on fire, man !".
You staggered off to sit down, your thoughts racing. Have you found it ? Is this the Holy Grail of Golf ? What changed ? How did this happen ? Then you realized it. You were lifting your left heel just a fraction on your backswing, something your coach has been telling you not to do. But you feel freer doing that, and it allowed you to turn your waist more on your backswing. That was it. That was the final piece of the puzzle to complete the perfect swing. YOUR perfect swing. Forget what your coach said. You jumped up and grabbed your 6 iron to test this theory, and sure enough, it works again and again. You even got your friend to film you in slow motion using his 120 fps cameraphone. You ended the evening with a mad grin on your face. What's next ? Single digit handicap ? Scratch ? The Asian Tour ? Nah, bigger. The PGA Tour beckons. These guys make more money placing 18th in a tournament than you do in one whole year. The wife will understand. Nothing but the best private schools for the kids. That's it. That evening, you tried to convey this to your wife and was only met with a "Sure dear, that's nice" and you caught her rolling her eyes when she thought you weren’t looking. Never mind, she will see how right you are when you cash your first pro check.
 After a night of restless sleep because of all the mad grinning you did under the covers, you met the gang at the first tee. Feeling supremely confident, you declared that today the three of them will be playing against you, their best score vs yours. This was met with laughter and cries of "Sure or not ??" But you will have the last laugh, you are sure of it. Stakes agreed on, you stride up to the tee with your driver. On your backswing, you lifted your left heel just a fraction to allow a bigger turn, just like last night. Locked and loaded. Nothing can go wrong now. Swing away. There was the usual shiver of contact up your arm, but the ball is nowhere to be seen. God, you've hit it so far down the fairway it's invisible ! Tragically, a second later a soft 'plop' announced the ball's return from above, just beyond the red tees. You've just hit a towering skyball. Snorts behind you indicated that your friends are enjoying the moment. One of them said "Next time use 7 iron lah", which you felt violated Rule 8-1 against giving advice, but you decided to maintain a dignified silence on the subject.. Your next shot, a 3 wood from the rough, (OF COURSE you can use a 3 wood from the rough ! Your magic move will cure everything ! Right ? Right ?), flew weakly to the left for about 70 meters. And your descent into to golfing hell begins.
You scored a triple bogey on the first hole, and a quad on the second. By the third hole, you have given up on your magic move from last night and have resorted to the usual second-guessing of yourself at every swing, much to the amusement of your flight mates. You had a real low moment when you realized that even the different parts of your preshot routine, the grip, the alignment, the square clubhead and the deep breath, had been taken from different golf books and videos. Which one of them is more ‘right’ ? What if none of them are right ? What if they are all right but they cancel each other out ? All these thoughts went through your head even as you hit yet another ball out of bounds. Mercifully, the day ended with you 'only' losing 12 holes, as your friends' mistakes are sometimes even more spectacular than yours.
Back home, tired, broke and demoralised, you ignored your wife's smirk as she greets you with "So shall I pack my bags for Augusta now ?". You sank to the sofa, berating yourself for even thinking that you could ever break 90, much less be a pro, what were you thinking ? Almost reflexively, you turn on the Golf Channel. Jim Flick is on, pitching a hot new training gizmo that promises to get you on the perfect plane on your backswing AND downswing EVERY TIME. GUARANTEED. FOR ONLY USD $29.95 !!! You sat bolt upright, frantically writing the web address shown on your TV. This must be it. The missing piece to your puzzle. Your wife walked past, saw the expression on your face, muttered a quick "Aiyo, not again" and wandered off. Never mind her, she won't be so dismissive when you show her all the trophies you are gonna win. Yep. As soon as you fix that final missing piece to your swing. That was when you realized it. Golf has you by the range balls. And it’s not letting go. And you will come back to it again and again. And you would not have it any other way.
Himawan Prajogo (Who has absolutely no idea what will happen on his next swing)
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