This is absolutely true for average golfer but it may be true for all golfers as well. There is loads of evidence on pro tours that ones making money are those best at chipping and putting. The golf research guru himself, Dave Pelz, actually followed tour players around for years taking detailed statistics and he proved it (see his book, My Short Game Bible). In addition to that, there are too many pros to list that admit that their swing is not "technically correct" or maybe not even very good...BUT THEY WIN TOURNAMENTS! Look at Jim Furyk, 2003 U.S. Open winner. He actually has a big loop in his backswing. Lee Trevino always told people that they should not copy his swing. Even Jack Nicklaus says in his books that he wasn't a very good ball striker. Bruce Lietzke has won tournaments on PGA and Senior tours playing his left-to-right shot his whole career - And he says he rarely practices! On top of that, tours are littered with past champions that totally lost their game AFTER they tried to change it for better. And now they are begging their sports psychologist to help them "find" their old swing.

I have talked to PGA golf instructors that say it's their clients that want swing advice (just like I did) even when they recommend working some other part of their game first. So maybe it's our own fault for most part in creating current situation where average scores of amateurs has not dropped one stroke in last 50 years despite advances in equipment technology. Now don't get me wrong, if you are a true beginner, you really should start out with learning basics of golf swing. But if you're hitting it solid most of time and finding fairway half time, you are good to go for a real scoring quest as more swing advice is not quickest way for you to drop your score. There is just so much more that you can do, on and off course, that will pay you back in saved strokes for far less time spent than changing your swing. Most of us have precious little free time that we can work to improve our games so why not work on that which will give us greatest bang for our (time) buck? And so, let me be first to make a pledge to golf spirit inside me (I always thought that golf is like religion): I for one, do solemnly swear that I will not pay attention to any swing advice of any sort until I can score in 70's consistently with swing I have (and maybe not even then).