Playing the game of golf is an acquired skill.  The skills we acquire as we learn to play are either good or bad.  Learning good skills early on is imperative to developing a repeatable and effective swing and a good game.

We learn the game of golf on two levels:

Conscious - This is the analytical part of the brain working to understand what it is that we want our body to do for us.

Unconscious - Once we have acquired the basics of the different golf swings, our sensory capabilities take over and we can rely on them to translate the skills we learned consciously into a swing we do not have to think about.

There are four levels of competence as we gain skill at the sport:

Conscious incompetence - Where we start as golfers.  We know we are incompetent.

Conscious competence - We are acquiring skills but we have to think about every aspect of what we are doing on each shot and putt.

Unconscious competence - We no longer have to analyze everything we do on the golf swing.  Our swing is natural and automatic.

Unconscious mastery - At this level, we not only do not have to think about each aspect of every swing, we hit the ball so well as to have mastered the game.  Few golfers reach this level.  Occasionally, someone at the professional level will have a round of golf where every shot and every hole is mastered.