Confidence in your game

For the past few months Richard has methodically taken me through a process of completely dissecting my previously horrendous golf swing, and then rebuilding it from the ground up. This process has taken time, and is still taking time (another lesson this week), but it has created the framework for what has become a reasonably decent golf swing with much improved ball connection.

6 iron. 10 balls. Technology recording my swing speed, angle of attack, club face position, distance hit. Assess. Discuss. Repeat. Another 10 balls. Repeat.

Over those months I’ve seen the improvements, week on week, slowly but surely. These improvements have then resulted in my confidence increasing, and with that even greater improvement in my game.

Challenging me to focus on small areas of improvement, Richard has kept me concentrating on what’s actually important (currently my follow through body position), and not on what I believed or perceived to be important (my back-swing). With each lesson, and then each subsequent session on the driving range, improvements.

Why is this important?

This week I took up an 8-year overdue offer to play at the world famous Woburn Golf Club; a club renowned for its 3 beautiful courses; but also renowned for its incredibly challenging holes (and very fast putting greens!).

Long-standing client, Bill, had asked me to play many years ago. However, due to my lack of confidence I always declined, not wanting to show myself up and be embarrassed. 

This week was different. I chose to accept the kind invitation.

How did I play you may ask?

Well, good and bad. Using stableford scoring I achieved a net eagle, 2 birdies, and 3 pars. This included a genuine score of 5 on a very long par 5. I also hit a lot of bad shots, mainly topping the ball (meaning no flight, but lots of ground!) – a result of you guessed it – poor follow through body position.

I’m still learning the beautiful game, but I’m getting better, much better.

The truth is that I choose to pay Richard because I need someone who’s an expert in their field. Someone to look at what I’ve been doing, assess, discuss with me, then advise (and coach) me on how to do things better.

I could of course just watch YouTube. Or I could sit at the driving range and watch golfers practice. Then do my best to interpret what they’re doing and try to mimic it in my game. This would probably be a complete disaster, not help me to improve, and no doubt further damage my confidence.

But it would save me money.

I don’t partner with Richard to just sort out my 6 iron golf swing. We’ve collaborated on a long-term plan to improve my entire golf game – from body positioning, to swing, to decision making, to putting, to how I feel, and how I behave when under (self-imposed) pressure.

Aligning this thinking to financial planning, and what we do here at Longhurst.

Our clients don’t partner with us to just build an investment portfolio, or to just construct and model a lifetime cashflow forecast.

Our clients employ us because we focus on all areas of their game, both financial and emotional.

A focus on them as humans and not just their money.

Helping them to become better personally organised.

Holding them accountable for the decisions we take together.

Being objective and ensuring they’re told what they need to hear and not what their want to hear.

Being proactive and thinking months, years, and decades ahead for them.

Identifying potentially devastating financial landmines that they can’t see.

Sharing our technical knowledge and experience so that they can improve their own understanding and confidence.

We are also here to ensure that, from time to time, the advice we give is to do nothing.

COVID19 has given us an opportunity to really re-install the do nothing message. That, unless your financial goals and time horizons have changed, we’re not going to be changing your investment portfolio, no matter how temporarily volatile the capital markets are behaving.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Richard Cartwright has been the best personal investment I’ve made to improve my golf game. My confidence is rising. My swing much better. My embarrassment gone. My enjoyment levels at an all time high.

We know, because our clients tell us, that Longhurst is the best personal investment they’ve made to improve their financial game. Trusting that we’ve got their backs. Working with them to ensure their financial life goals are met. Ensuring we always tell them the honest truth about their financial position.

Does your financial team give you the same confidence?

If not, would you like to talk to us?

We’d be delighted to host a virtual discovery meeting held at our expense.