Thank you Golf Monthly

As a beginner I do spend a fair amount of time reading instruction pages of golf magazines. A little bit of me feels that this month's edition of Golf Monthly was actually written especially for me. No seriously, it was almost as if the esteemed editorial team popped round for a cuppa and engaged me in the process of planning the December edition. 

"Talk us through your problems then Tiger"

"Where do I start? It's been a tough year. I first picked up a set of sticks last August, I've had umpteen lessons and practice as much as I can but I'm rooted to a 28 handicap. In fact I can't even play to a 28 handicap. But here's the rub at times I can play some really good golf, my eclectic best is +2 gross but I either get off to a disastrous start or have a nightmare finish. Anything you can do to help would be great"

"No problem, leave it with us and we'll observe you over the next few weeks and see what we can do"


Trust me, the heel is well worn

They obviously clocked my glove as I let them out of the house as the first tip related to that. I have plenty of wear on my heel pad of my glove suggesting a tendency to have a lose left hand grip. Old glove's thrown away, new gloves and grips bought to help reduce slippage and promote a better grip.

Next? Reverse pivot...guilty as charged. When I lose concentration I do fail to maintain the flex and tension in my right knee. Spent my whole Thursday practice session working on it and have decided that will be my only swing thought until I have overcome it.

This is looking good GM what else have you got? Ah yes my chipping, now Bob Peltz (well his book) told me to have an open stance, but if you say I'm making things unecessarily harder I believe you. Feet parallel to target line from now on I promise and I'll spend half my Saturday practice working on it.

What about the other half of Saturday? Well I was going to go to the range and bash my long irons, hybrid and 3 wood but I can't now as I need to spend half the session on the short game practice area. Who says that would have been a waste of time, G-Who? Oh G-Mac well he's had a bit of a tasty year this year anything he says must be golden. Work on my distance wedges instead, no problem, I like doing that though I do struggle with my quarter swing. You don't call it that...pocket to pocket, that sounds much simpler. Will definitely give that a go. And I promise I will try to remember "hit it good, don't hit it hard".

What about my putting though, I have a tendency to overcomplicate when I can score and get tentative. How much will it miss by and adjust. Actually that's a simpler way of thinking, Nice. Really excited about my golf now, can't wait for the medal on Sunday it should be fun. Shame it's winter now though, wish I'd had these revelations when days were longer and temperatures were warmer. 50 reasons to enjoy winter golf, an immense competition to win some top quality warm clobber and the 100 top courses to salivate over...ok, ok you've done enough, I take my hat off and salute you. Golf Monthly...take a bow.