The naughty golf swing model that throws out the technical instructions

Dear golfer,

If your golf game sucks. If you've tried every theory and still can't get out of second gear. If you're frustrated, don't know what to do next, and can't stand the thought of another lesson where someone breaks your swing into a thousand pieces and leaves you to put it back together -

then this is the most important thing you'll read this year.

Here's why.

I was a kid with a bit of talent

I shot my first par round within 8 months of hitting my first golf ball. Within 12 months I shot 64.

I wasn't gifted. My very first game I shot 156. The second was worse - over 160.

But I improved fast. I hit balls in a horse paddock near my home and worked out how to get the ball from A to B. I started beating mates who'd been playing for years.

Golf was fun. It wasn't hard.

Then the wheels fell off. And not the way you'd think.

I won a golf scholarship

The scholarship meant regular lessons, every week. And for the first time in my life I was told:

• How to hold the club
• How to stand
• How to start the swing
• How to pivot and rotate
• How to start the downswing
• How to hit the ball
• How to follow through

You'd think all of that would be gold for a motivated kid.

You'd think that.

It was a f#cking nightmare. The lessons. The positions. The tweaking. The thinking.

It made me worse. I went from hitting the ball well to not being able to hit the side of a barn. I developed a weak, insipid slice. I had my first air swing. I lost all my power - and I used to give it a rip.

And the most confusing part of all:

The harder I tried to swing correctly, the worse I got.

At fifteen, that made no sense. I was practicing hard. I was doing exactly what I was told. I was motivated. And I couldn't hit the stupid ball consistently to save myself.

So what went wrong?

The two things that changed everything

It took years to work out. Some days I thought about quitting. I'd play well one round and so badly the next that I honestly believed something was wrong with me.

Two unrelated things broke me out of it. They're the reason I've played scratch golf for nearly 30 years without taking lessons - or even practicing that much.

One: a wake-up call from my old man

My dad is a straight shooter. He doesn't suffer fools.

One day, at the height of it, I came home from golf completely dejected. He said words to the effect of:

“What the hell are you doing? You know how to play golf. Your game used to be amazing. Those instructors don't KNOW what they're doing. They're making you worse. You need to piss them off, right away.”

That was the wake-up call. I stopped thinking about my swing and technique and just played.

The effect was almost immediate. I went on to shoot 14 rounds in a row of par or better.

Two: rubbing shoulders with the smartest people on the planet

My game was chugging along without the theories, but I was still curious about “proper” technique.

Then I got lucky. My small profile attracted a New Zealand sports scientist who'd done remarkable things in cricket - he helped change the laws of the game - and wanted to research golf at the same level.

What he didn't have was someone who could play a bit and understood the frustrations golfers actually go through. That's where I came in.

I joined the research team and worked alongside an international group of sports biomechanists. Back in 2004 that meant:

• A multi-million dollar testing facility
• Analysis of every part of the swing and the club
• Simultaneous testing of the major muscle groups
• Measurement of ground reaction forces, so they could understand weight shift and foot action
• All of it fed into a complex 3D model of the human system - I was told it was the first time this had been done

I even presented some of the findings to the International Society of Biomechanics in Sport conference.

But the best part wasn't the data. It was the in-between times - playing golf and talking with these super-geeks. They taught me more about learning and peak performance than any golf instructor ever had.

And here's the insight that changed my career.

Golf instruction is one small piece of the learning cycle

It is not the whole game.

These blokes had the best golf swing data ever collected. And what they told me was:

“Cameron, don't obsess about the data. Information is a small part of playing golf. It's not the entire game. You still need to swing the club without fear of the consequences. What matters more is being able to communicate this in a way a golfer can actually comprehend. If you're going to obsess about anything, learn how to coach better.”

Holy shit.

That explained everything about my teenage years. My brain simply couldn't integrate what I was being told to do. The pro may as well have been speaking another language. No matter what he told me, I couldn't do it.

I've since learned that only a tiny percentage of golfers can take technical instruction and make it work. Human brains aren't wired that way. Research suggests it's around two percent.

That's why so many golfers struggle. It's almost certainly why you find golf so hard.

You don't learn from tips, tricks and technical theories. And no matter how hard you try, or how many lessons you take, you can't make them work.

It's almost unfair.

It's not you. It's the system.

If you've been playing for years and still can't swing decently, understand this: you are not broken. The system is.

Too many theories. Too much thinking. Way too much contradiction. And no way of actually learning something that holds up when it counts - like the first tee on Saturday morning.

Most golf instruction is written by golf teachers who happen to learn in a technical way. Fine for the two percent. Useless for the rest of us.

The rest of us need an uncluttered approach that gives us a chance:

• To own a powerful swing
• To make golf simpler and easier
• To have more fun
• To play better when it counts - on the course
• To think less and get more
• To find deeper satisfaction in the game

That's what's consumed me for more than 20 years.

Ask yourself one question

It's not hard to find a teacher who'll tell you everything you're doing wrong. But has any of it actually helped you?

• Are you dissatisfied with how you're playing?
• Have you had a ton of lessons and still don't know what to do?
• Are you horribly inconsistent and frustrated?
• Are you the shortest hitter in your group, despite being fitter and stronger than your mates?
• Are your back and joints sore from trying to swing in a way that doesn't suit you?
• Does your head feel like it's about to explode from all the theories rattling around in it?

Then you need to stop that shit. Immediately.

Solving this has been my life's mission

I've been writing golf coaching books for over 20 years. In late 2023 I set out to write what I believe is the simplest, easiest way for any golfer to learn a powerful, natural swing.

I wanted to cut through the bullshit and get golfers swinging freely again - because so many of them swing like they're scared of breaking something.

Here's the thing that bothers me most: too many golfers hit their best shots on the driving range and are next to useless when they get to the course. Only a small fraction can swing confidently out there and let their natural, instinctive talent come to the surface.

Because golf - as those scientists drummed into me - is not just about f#cking golf swing technique.

Trying to force a technical swing onto most of the population is trying to break the confines of the human learning system. Square pegs, round holes. It can't be done.

So I wrote a book about an easier way. And if I can be bold: the right way to learn a functional golf swing.

It came easily. It should have - it's my 16th book, and it's 25 years in the making.

A quick word on the track record

These are readers of Look & Shoot, my putting book - different book, same coaching approach. It's been read by more than 30,000 people and is based on what I coached one of the best putters on the planet.

Introducing UnF#ck Your Golf Swing

The hardest part was accepting the name. I knew it would upset a few people and I thought long and hard about changing it.

Then I thought: f#ck it.

This is a serious problem. Millions of golfers can't get the metal thing onto the back of the round plastic thing with any consistency. Golfers are quitting. Golfers are frustrated. Golfers think the game is too hard and something's wrong with them.

If the name upsets a few people along the way, so be it. Yes, it's naughty and a bit on the edge. But f#ck me, this is a game changer.

And it goes well beyond having a pretty swing that only works on the driving range. That doesn't interest me. The golf course is the ultimate arena - I want you out there shaking the living crap out of the game and extracting every last ounce of talent and enjoyment you've got.

Here's what I've found, time and time again: golfers wildly overestimate how good they can be today, and badly underestimate how good they can become next month or next year.

The secret is your approach. With a technical mindset you're doomed from the start. With a learning approach that works with your natural biomechanics, you're all but guaranteed to make a breakthrough.

That shows up as lower scores, a lower handicap, longer drives. But it goes deeper than that:

• An uncluttered approach: no more remembering 127 things
• Deeper satisfaction
• More enjoyment

And that almost always leads to lower scores without trying harder or reworking your swing. The ultimate win-win.

One of the great misconceptions in golf instruction is this: build a better swing and you'll play better golf. Problem is, most of what we're taught doesn't work - because most of us don't learn that way.

What's inside

• Why you can't play better golf, despite trying harder and taking more lessons
• The single most important golf swing fundamental your pro hasn't told you about
• How to produce more speed and power without putting undue stress and strain on your body
• Why almost all traditional teaching concepts destroy your swing - most teachers still teach this, and it's probably the biggest single reason for high handicaps all over the world
• The stupidly simple way to own the perfect golf grip for you: nothing to do with how many knuckles you can see or how hard you hold the club
• Why typical stance instruction isn't worth worrying about, and what to do instead
• The learning drill that instantly and instinctively shows you how good you really are - I've been using this for years and it never stops surprising me
• My favorite learning exercise that lets you hit the ball like a true master: high, low, fade, draw
• The commonly taught “fundamental” that's not only wrong, it's actively destroying your game - this one is so bad, and so common, it makes me mad
• How to stop slicing the ball: nothing to do with your grip, stance or downswing. So easy you can reduce the severity of your slice in a few minutes
• Why you don't want to focus on your body (the big muscle theory)
• How to practice in a way that virtually guarantees you'll succeed - and you don't need a driving range

Get it and start swinging your best

After 15 previous books, UFYGS is probably the best thing I've ever written.

I've been blown away by the feedback and by the roughly 17,457 copies sold to date. I knew golfers would like the relaxed, no-BS approach - but the response has been something else.

So this is your chance to join the UFYGS party. There is an easier, simpler, more enjoyable way to unlock your best swing without going around in circles and being made to feel useless.

Questions