Lesson: January 2nd 2010

Lessons are brilliant and in my opinion if you want to get better at golf the sooner you have them the better. There are a lot of things that are difficult to teach, like feel, but if you have the mechanics of a solid repeatable swing the game has got to be easier, right? Well that's my thinking and today's lesson underlined that. We have been gradually developing my swing and most recently the focus has been on the foundations (minimal lower half movement with good posture) and grip (recent change to stop me hooking). Today my pro highlighted two faults.

1. Overhinge
If you look at the December swing video I posted you will see that at the top of my swing the club is almost touching my left shoulder. This is bad and is resulting in me coming down on the ball and as a result getting an inconsistent strike. This explains why when I get onto the course my game collapses. On the range you are always striking from a good and level lie, on a course you are not which means each fraction you are off on impact is emphasised.

Solution: keep left arm straight and left palm in contact with the grip. Today my pro let me use a training aid which attaches to your right arm and has a hinge at the elbow. This lets you know if you are over-hinging. I also used the mirror and my pro recorded my swing with my iPhone to allow me to see it myself.

2. Spine Angle
I was starting my swing too slouched and finishing too upright which was causing me to thin the ball.

Solution: my pro adjusted my spine angle and reminded me of an earlier exercise regarding rotation. It did improve but I need to practice more to engrain it

Spent an hour and a half hitting balls and the last half hour is the best I've played on the range. Feeling very confident with 8 iron to sand wedge and am looking to become accurate and consistent with 7 iron down.

I then spent 45 minutes practising my putting as they had broomed the practice green. I am now starting to improve my feel and am looking forward to testing my skills when the weather and greens improve,

Comments:

Tiger
Following on from my lesson I’ve started to think about Course Management. Got some cracking advice on the Golf Monthly forum. To read the forum copy and paste the following URL

http://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk//showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/186559/an/0/page/0#186559

In short the top ten points I’ve taken from the thread are:

1. Understand my strengths and weaknesses and play to my strengths
2. Know how far I hit each club
3. Use course maps and web tools to gain a better understanding of course layout
4. Plot my route to the hole in reverse from preferred shot onto the green back to the tee
5. Where possible play with really understanding better players to learn how they play each hole
6. Don’t get suckered by pin positions
7. The best club from the tee won’t necessarily be the longest club in your bag
8. Dave Pelz Short Game book would be a good read
9. My course management will improve the more I play and it’s more of a learnt skill and a taught one
10. Practice, practice and practice my short game till my hands bleed