"I know most players do, but I always keep both eyes opened. I still do it. I see two shafts, the real one and the transparent one. I look for what's on the inside edge of the transparent one"
About this Quote
Ben Crenshaw is describing a private superpower that sounds like a glitch: two golf shafts at address, one real, one ghosted, and the crucial information living on the inside edge of the phantom. It’s a vivid athlete’s translation of what sports psychologists would call “quiet eye,” but Crenshaw frames it the way elite performers actually experience it: not as a technique, as a perception. The image is almost cinematic, like a double exposure. It captures how the best players don’t just “aim”; they create a stable, repeatable picture their nervous system trusts.
The intent is practical and confessional. He’s letting you in on the sensory trick that keeps his hands from hijacking the motion. By focusing on the inside edge of the transparent shaft, he’s not admiring the club; he’s choosing a reference point that organizes everything else: face angle, path, and the feel of squareness. It’s micro-targeting for a game where millimeters become mythology.
The subtext is a rebuttal to golf’s macho mythology of “just hit it.” Crenshaw admits to something meticulous, almost delicate: he needs an internal alignment ritual, even after decades. That “I still do it” isn’t nostalgia; it’s a statement about longevity. Greatness isn’t constant confidence, it’s dependable calibration. In a sport obsessed with externals - swing planes, launch monitors, equipment - Crenshaw quietly insists the real battleground is the image you can hold steady in your head long enough to let the body do its work.
The intent is practical and confessional. He’s letting you in on the sensory trick that keeps his hands from hijacking the motion. By focusing on the inside edge of the transparent shaft, he’s not admiring the club; he’s choosing a reference point that organizes everything else: face angle, path, and the feel of squareness. It’s micro-targeting for a game where millimeters become mythology.
The subtext is a rebuttal to golf’s macho mythology of “just hit it.” Crenshaw admits to something meticulous, almost delicate: he needs an internal alignment ritual, even after decades. That “I still do it” isn’t nostalgia; it’s a statement about longevity. Greatness isn’t constant confidence, it’s dependable calibration. In a sport obsessed with externals - swing planes, launch monitors, equipment - Crenshaw quietly insists the real battleground is the image you can hold steady in your head long enough to let the body do its work.
Quote Details
| Topic | Training & Practice |
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