We have launch monitors telling us exactly what the ball is doing, apps tracking every round, coaches analysing our swings frame by frame, and enough training aids to confuse the life out of you. We can get fitted for clubs down to the finest detail, start learning aim-point putting, measure our clubhead speed and spend an afternoon at the range without ever actually playing a hole.

Yet, for all this information, plenty of us still aren't getting any better.

Perhaps the problem is that we have access to a range of tools and styles of the game, making it easier to become far too interested in working on our golf and not nearly interested enough in actually playing it.

"None of that means we should throw the technology away; far from it. The modern golfer has access to information that previous generations could only have dreamed of, and, used properly, it can make a huge difference."

There is a strange contradiction at the heart of modern golf, and perhaps that is a result of the game expanding into numerous different avenues. We are constantly told that the quickest way to improve is to understand our numbers, identify our weaknesses and build a practice routine around them. All of that is useful, of course. Knowing your tendencies can be invaluable. A good coach can change a golfer's game. Properly fitted equipment will save shots. However, there is a point where improvement becomes its own hobby.

You can spend 45 minutes trying to find the perfect takeaway and still walk onto the first tee next Saturday and immediately forget everything you were working on. You can know your exact driver numbers and still hit it into the trees, or watch a dozen videos on how to stop coming over the top and then spend four hours thinking about your swing instead of actually seeing and hitting golf shots.

Sometimes the best practice is to throw your bag over your shoulder, get on the course, and play.

No simulator can replicate having a scorecard in your pocket, a tee time you can't move and a group playing behind you. Golf asks you to make decisions, it asks you to recover from bad shots, manage your expectations, read a lie, choose a club and, perhaps most importantly, accept that the next shot is more important than the last one.

The irony is that some of the things we now measure the most closely are the things that used to happen naturally. You learned how far you hit a seven-iron because you hit a seven-iron often, or which shots you could trust because you played enough golf to discover it. You learned how to manage a bad round because bad rounds were unavoidable.

None of that means we should throw the technology away - far from it. The modern golfer has access to information that previous generations could only have dreamed of, and, used properly, it can make a huge difference.

The information should serve the golf, rather than become the golf. There is a difference between knowing your game and obsessing over it.

Maybe the next time you are tempted to book another lesson, spend another hour on the range or start analysing another set of numbers, there is a simpler option.

Go and play 18 holes. Don't worry about your swing, or checking every statistic or trying to rebuild your game halfway around. Hit the ball, find it, hit it again and see what happens.

You might even enjoy it, and there is a reasonable chance that is exactly what your golf needed in the first place.