The Month a Small Change Made a Big Difference

Golf is a patient teacher, but every now and then it throws you a jolt of clarity disguised as something unbelievably simple. This month, that lesson arrived through my hands…literally.

For weeks I’d been chasing consistency everywhere except the one place that truly matters: the connection between me and the club. I’d been gripping it like it owed me money. So much tension in the palms, tension in the forearms, tension in the swing. You don’t notice how much effort you’re wasting until someone points out that you’re working twice as hard for half the reward.

The grip has been something I changed massively in 2025, when I started working with Mike Alexander over at Alexander Golf. I started the year with quite a strong grip, and we worked to give myself a more neutral grip. This made sense to me but it was only this month that it actually clicked. I softened my hands. I let the grip sit more in the fingers. I trusted the club to swing instead of trying to steer it and instantly, everything started to move differently.

The club flowed. Contact felt cleaner. Momentum stopped being something I forced and started being something I allowed.

It was almost comical. This tiny shift, this tiny “why didn’t I realise this sooner?” moment, suddenly unlocked parts of my game that had felt stuck behind a locked door. If you ever needed proof that fundamentals are the real hidden superpowers of golf, there it is. Sometimes the breakthrough isn’t a new drill or a shiny piece of tech. Sometimes it's remembering that your fingers are supposed to feel the club, not strangle it.

Setbacks in the Real World (AKA: Winter With Kids)

Of course, the rest of life didn’t sit quietly while I was having my little golfing epiphany.

It’s that time of year again. The season of coughs, colds, and whatever mysterious new bug your child brings home that definitely didn’t exist last week. Anyone with kids knows the routine: one gets sick, then your wife, then you inevitably join the party. Suddenly your house feels like a live-in microbiology experiment, and the idea of practice, structure, or even a clear head feels… optimistic.

There were days this month where I didn’t touch a club. Days when I felt behind. Days where I wondered if this whole “getting to scratch” thing was slipping away while I was busy disinfecting every surface in my home and reheating forgotten coffees, but here’s the thing I kept coming back to: improvement doesn’t disappear just because life gets chaotic. Momentum isn’t lost; it slows, waits, and then picks up again when you do.

Every long-term journey has scrappy chapters. This was one of mine.

What This Month Really Taught Me

This wasn’t the month of highlight reels or big leaps forward. It was the month of fundamentals, humility, and learning to keep going even when progress looked quieter than I wanted. This last month has been interesting.

I found something in my swing that genuinely moved the needle. I had days where “showing up” meant resting instead of grinding, and I realised again (like a big slap in the face) that the road to scratch isn’t a straight line. It’s a winding one, with good grip and some winter-induced coughs along the way.

All of that is okay because the mission hasn’t changed. My drive hasn’t changed. My goals remain just as ambitious (and maybe a little outrageous) as they always were. And with these small “AHA” moments stacking up, I feel the next version of my game starting to take shape.

Here’s to a month where the fundamentals won, life did its best to derail things, and the journey still moved forward.

On to the next month.

I hope everyone has a restful holiday season.

Nollaig Shona Duit.