Working on mechanics is like having surgery in golf. It only fixes things that are broken. Skill development is the fitness routine or physical therapy of golf, it’s what you do to make sure you are running at full capacity. Both are essential parts of being the healthiest version of yourself yet most golfers focus on surgery and only a few have skill development as a consistent part of their life.
Surgery isn’t bad but it should never be the first answer when you have a bad round or two. Oftentimes I have golfers come to me with essentially a tummy ache in golf terms and they are looking for a coach to remove their gallbladder, thinking they need a huge change to fix what is a small problem. There is a time when surgery is needed, it’s the point when you truly need to be able to do things on the golf course that you can physically unable to accomplish with your current golf swing. This does not include the ability to hit it close to the flag from 170 yards on command to shape the ball into a tucked pin. It could be something like playing the ball effectively out of the rough, or hitting a good pitch shot from a tight lie. These are often characteristics of a swing that may need surgery, not missing an important green to the left. It’s important to keep your golfing goals in mind. To go from a 15 handicap to a 10 handicap doesn’t require the ability to shape the ball, it requires added touch around the greens, and making more 10 foot putts.
Skill practice is more often than not, what players need to improve their games. Sadly, like most work out plans it takes a while to see results and it seems more difficult than the benefits. Skill practice is what players need to do when they are looking for improvement not change. If they want more consistency, or control over their ball, that's when skill development comes in. It’s skill development that improves your game in a way that you can own, swing changes take time and take a lot of fine tuning. Skill development is the guaranteed way to make improvements that you know can stick. The fastest way to improve your golf game is to master your swing, not trying to learn a new one.