Why Inconsistency is the Real Secret to Success in Golf

Consistency. It’s the golden goose every golfer chases. But what if the entire premise is flawed? What if, instead of striving for mechanical perfection, golfers embraced the inherent unpredictability of the game? This past weekend at The Players Championship was a masterclass in the myth of consistency—and a testament to the power of adaptability.

The Players Championship: A Case Study in Inconsistency

If you needed proof that golf isn’t about repeating the same thing over and over, just look at what unfolded at TPC Sawgrass.

• Emiliano Grillo opened his tournament with a solid 68, only to unravel with a staggering 85 in the third round.

• Justin Thomas stumbled out of the gates with a 76 in Round 1, then turned around and fired a course-record 62 in Round 2.

Both players are elite-level ball strikers. Both have won on the biggest stages. Yet within 24 hours, their performances swung from brilliance to bewilderment. If the best in the world can’t achieve true consistency, why should you expect it of yourself?

The Fallacy of Consistency

One of the most common things we hear from golfers is:

“I just want to be more consistent.” But let’s be real. You don’t want to be consistent. You want to be consistently good—and those

are two very different things.

As we emphasize in Be Golf, golf isn’t about robotically repeating a motion. It’s about being adaptable. It’s about building skills that allow you to recover, recalibrate, and react to the inevitable changes every round brings.

We teach our players that being adaptable is more valuable than being consistent. If you try to “lock in” one perfect motion, what happens when the wind shifts, the lie changes, or your body feels different from the day before? The answer: frustration. The better approach is learning how to adjust and trust your skill set in the moment.

A New Mindset: Striving for Skill, Not Consistency

Instead of consistency, focus on competence. Develop skills that hold up under different conditions. Learn to:

• Control the ball with various trajectories and shot shapes

• Adjust to changing conditions instead of fighting them

• Trust your feel and instincts rather than chasing a fixed, repeatable motion

At Be Golf, we believe in training golfers to handle chaos. Because let’s be honest—golf is chaotic. Instead of trying to force the same swing every time, train for the variability the game demands.

The Takeaway

The Players Championship proved once again that even the best golfers in the world ride waves of inconsistency. The goal isn’t to eliminate ups and downs—it’s to minimize the damage when things go wrong and capitalize when they go right.

So the next time you tell yourself, “I just want to be more consistent,” stop. Instead, aim to be more skillful, more adaptable, and more in tune with the game as it unfolds. Because in golf, the only true consistency is that every round will be different.

And that’s what makes it great.