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There’s barely enough light to see the ball pegged up at our feet on another sweltering, dew-drenched Florida summer morning. The ball itself seems to be sweating as Jeff, my playing partner, addresses it.
He abruptly pauses his pre-shot routine to ask, “Do you think they’re far enough down the fairway?”
“Sure,” replies Sal from his cart while lighting his first cigar of the day. “They must be 230 to 240 yards away. It’s safe for you to hit your shot.”
I immediately advise Jeff not to hit if the group in front of him is “in his head.” This seemingly ordinary exchange between three golfers perfectly illustrates the Tech Golfer vs Feel Golfer debate.
While every golfer has a bit of both tech and feel in their game, there is usually one predominant lens through which each of us views the sport. Golf is a kind of Rorschach test, and we see only what we are capable of seeing.
We primarily view the game through the lens of either a Tech Golfer or a Feel Golfer, although there are more than a few agnostics between the two camps. Why? Who knows? But the best questions, as any good philosopher will tell you, are often the ones without definitive answers.
Tech Golfer vs Feel Golfer: The Key Differences
What Is a Tech Golfer?
A Tech Golfer approaches the game through information, mechanics, measurement, and repetition. This golfer gains confidence from understanding what happened and why.
What Is a Feel Golfer?
A Feel Golfer relies more on rhythm, visualization, instinct, and physical sensation. This golfer gains confidence by picturing the shot, committing to it, and trusting the body to respond.
| Trait | Tech Golfer | Feel Golfer |
|---|---|---|
| Source of confidence | Information and preparation | Instinct and commitment |
| Practice style | Structured and repetitive | Creative and variable |
| Common tools | Video, launch monitors, GPS, statistics | Visualization, tempo, ball flight |
| Typical swing thought | A position or movement | A sensation, rhythm, or target |
| Potential strength | Measurable feedback | Freedom and adaptability |
| Potential risk | Overthinking | Misreading the cause of a problem |
The Tech Golfer’s Approach to Improvement
The Tech Golfer appears to remain the more common variety.
Tech Golfers view golf predominantly as a ball sport rather than a mind game—a physical activity in which improvement can be found, in the phrase commonly attributed to Ben Hogan, “in the dirt,” through practice, repetition, and mechanics.
They subscribe to the saying commonly attributed to Hogan: “Every day you miss playing or practicing is one day longer it takes to be good.”
My partner Sal is a textbook Tech Golfer. A retired engineer, he applies a no-nonsense, “two plus two equals four” approach to every aspect of the game. It is not unlike the old saying that when you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
For the Tech Golfer, golf is simply a matter of knocking a little ball into a gopher hole with a crooked stick. There are universal laws and mechanics that must be observed if one is to improve.
I often half-jokingly tell Sal that he’s the guy who couldn’t see the ghost players on the diamond in the movie Field of Dreams.
He wears this as a badge of honor. And why wouldn’t he? He regularly manages to shoot in the 80s, which also happens to be his age.
The Feel Golfer’s Search for the Perfect Sensation
I, on the other hand, am a career educator with a more traditional liberal arts background. I “see dead people” and feel chi energy emanating from the green.
Both Sal and I came to golf later in life. We were introduced to the game in our 50s. Sal was introduced by his son, who felt his dad needed a hobby. I started by tagging along with my wife and her friend one day to attend an introductory lesson at a local municipal course.
I accidentally flushed a 7-iron on the practice range and was transfixed as I watched its majestic trajectory against a cobalt-blue Florida sky. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
Playing through feel and trusting your instincts is what the Feel Golfer is all about. Feel Golfers are deeply distrustful of any universal system or method. Instead, they seek to trust their eyes and hands to accomplish any given shot.
As Feel Golfer extraordinaire Fred Couples said, “Everybody teaches a system. I just try to shoot where I’m aiming. I play by sight and feel, not by technical thoughts.”
Feel Golfers believe that Bagger Vance’s “Authentic Swing” and Shivas Irons’ “True Gravity” are just as real as the Tech Golfer’s copy of Hogan’s classic Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.
They instinctively grasp sociologist William Bruce Cameron’s observation that “not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
The Tech Golfer is convinced that improvement comes through rigorous adherence to a system or method—and practicing until their hands bleed.
The Risks of Becoming Too Technical
Tech Golfers can become obsessed with “shoulds” and mechanical swing thoughts, leading to paralysis by analysis.
They believe there are very specific, universal laws of golf and that the sole path to success is strict adherence to them.
They may dissect the swing of a successful tour professional and focus on the position of the hands, elbows, hips, or feet in the hope that copying the movement will miraculously produce the same result.
Feel Golfers harbor no such illusions. They wholeheartedly agree with 19th-century Scottish golf writer Sir Walter Simpson, who wrote, “For you or me to model ourselves on a champion is about as profitless as to copy out Hamlet in the hope of becoming Shakespeare.”
Trusting Instinct Instead of Imitating Pros
Feel Golfers know they tend to play their best when they bypass the rational mind and get out of the way of their instincts. They are also suspicious of attempts to improve by mimicking tour professionals.
They understand what Japanese philosopher Ichiro Kishimi meant when he said, “You can admire someone who seems more talented, but trying to become a copy of them just leads to you losing yourself.”
Why Quick Golf Fixes Often Disappear
Feel Golfers know that instant-improvement tips and hacks are often what Johnny Miller is credited with calling “W.O.O.D. changes,” meaning they “Work Only One Day.”
These short-term fixes may seem miraculous at first but mysteriously disappear overnight.
It’s good to remember this when you’re tempted by a late-night advertisement for the latest and greatest golf-improvement gadget.
Nonetheless, whether you are a Tech Golfer or a Feel Golfer, the objective remains the same: “To turn three shots into two,” as Bobby Jones said.
Does Your Golf Bag Reveal Your Playing Style?
What’s in the bag is often a good indication of which type of golfer you might be.
A Tech Golfer will likely carry a more traditional setup, perhaps replacing a few long irons with a hybrid or two.
My setup, in sharp contrast, features six lofted fairway woods, numbered 5 through 15, as well as a chipper. My first iron is a 9-iron.
Needless to say, I can’t rent a set that would suit my eye at any resort course. I also have an entire system just to manage all those headcovers. But it works for me.
Fred Couples changed his bag configuration by ditching his long irons in favor of three hybrids. The longest iron in the setup was a 7-iron.
That is a most unusual arrangement for a Hall of Fame tour professional, but it felt right to him, and he got results. That’s all that matters.
He takes snide comments from fellow tour professionals in typically smooth, easygoing Freddie style—perhaps heeding Marcus Aurelius’ observation that although we may love ourselves most, we often value other people’s opinions more than our own.
Chasing a Feeling, Not an Outcome
One of the most influential voices among Feel Golfers is sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella, who encourages golfers to focus less on results and more on the feeling or state of mind they want to carry onto the course.
This frees the mind from scorecards and expectations, shifting the focus to the experience and unique sensations associated with hitting a great shot.
Finding Your Authentic Golf Swing
Feel Golfers believe that to improve, golfers must seek out their own “Authentic Swing” and trust their instincts.
They point to players such as Fred Couples, Bubba Watson, and Jim Furyk as examples of highly individual swings that have succeeded on the biggest stage.
They are big fans of the golf film The Legend of Bagger Vance, in which golf guru Bagger explains that every individual is born with a unique “Authentic Swing.” You cannot be taught this swing. Rather, you must remember it.
In other words, you must trust your instincts to guide your body through the swing.
When you remember your authentic swing, you can access a phenomenon referred to by fictional Scottish golf instructor Shivas Irons as “True Gravity” in Michael Murphy’s novel Golf in the Kingdom.
True Gravity can be described as a spiritual experience involving a connection with a universal force or energy, not unlike the ancient Chinese concept of chi in Taoism.
According to Shivas, the ball and clubhead are connected through True Gravity. We need only become fully aware of this connection to play extraordinary golf.
The key is getting out of your own way—out of your rational mind and away from an endless stream of swing thoughts and mechanics. You trust your eyes to visualize the objective and allow your body to do what it needs to do to accomplish it.
Feel, Rhythm, and the Natural Golf Swing
Another popular take on this approach is found in Ernest Jones’ instruction classic Swing the Clubhead.
According to Jones, no two golfers swing the club exactly alike. He believed that focusing on the feel and position of the clubhead throughout the swing and into impact could quiet the rational mind, eliminate mechanical thoughts, and encourage a more natural result.
Jones didn’t discount the fundamentals. He believed that once they were acquired, they should no longer be the golfer’s primary focus.
He used the example of how we all learned the basics of walking, yet each of us developed a different stride. The same is true of our authentic golf swings.
Hall of Famer Sam Snead believed that a great golf swing should be like a dance—a kind of waltz. He often hummed Strauss’ “The Blue Danube” to himself on the course to encourage proper rhythm and tempo.
He believed that mechanical thoughts interrupted the natural flow of the golf swing.
This is not to suggest that a golfer should ignore fundamentals entirely. Once the basics are acquired, however, a golfer must learn to move beyond them, just as a jazz musician must master scales before expressing themselves through interpretation.
This is true for golfers on the biggest professional tours and at the “hot dog and potato chip” municipal track.
As golf great Nancy Lopez said, “Golf is a difficult game, but it’s a little easier if you trust your instincts. It’s too hard a game to try and play like someone else.”
Final Thoughts on Tech Golfer vs Feel Golfer
My weekly group is a threesome in which Sal is a devout Tech Golfer, Jeff is an agnostic, and I’m all about feel.
Over lunch at the 19th hole, I fondly recalled a challenging wedge shot that I had holed from below the green and over a bunker.
Sal responded, “Yeah, but can you remember what you did there?”
To which I thought, “No, Sal. It’s all about what I felt there.”
And so it goes.
