This game becomes hard when we are fooled by illusions.  Examples are: You don't have to swing hard to hit far, and you don't have to help the ball into the air.

One of the greatest illusions happens at impact.  It would appear that the ball has to be hit in order to get it moving.  While there is truth to that, there is a bigger picture that most people miss.

That is, the golf ball has to be compressed to move it.  It actually flattens somewhat and sticks to the club for nearly an inch.

After that interval, of ball and club joined together, the ball springs back to its round shape, and jumps off the clubface.  It is the springing back to shape that ultimately moves the ball.

Without compression, you wouldn't go very far.  Try hitting a rock 200 yards!  The opposite produces another problem.  How far do you think you could hit a marshmallow?

Look at the photo above of a driver compressing a ball.  My camera is very high-speed, and can catch long hitters squashing it even more.

Just being able to see through the illusion will help your game.  Compression implies through, beyond, keep going, acceleration.

Next time you are in K mart or Toys R Us, get a package of silly putty, or clay, and roll it into a ball.  Smush it onto the sweet spot of any club except a putter, and take a swing.

Imagine you are sending the ball to a destination with your swing.  Feel you are accelerating enough to force the putty off just after impact.  The word fling, or send comes to mind, not hit.

Next time out, see if you can capture that feeling.  Go as far as to imagine the ball is already stuck to the club, and you are simply flinging it off, in the direction of the target line.

What might happen is a `flip' in the way you think about the golf swing  .It could be the AHA! you are looking for that simplifies the whole thing.