My lesson today...

[NCGolfer]

Went and had my first lesson in a long time today. My wife got it for my birthday. I usually work on my swing by myself with the aid of a camera, but I had a good hour with a great pro here.

We spent 1/2 hour inside looking at my swing on tape and analyzing it. For the most part, most of his comments were good except for some posture issues. I have a slightly flat address and hunched-over angle. While not too severe, he had me stand a little more upright and get my weight back on the balls of my feet...it had been more on my toes.

Once he told me what he wanted, I hit one shot with the changes and we looked at the swing again. I will have to admit that it looked much better. It felt like I had no angle between my arms and club, but there was. We proceeded outside and hit some balls on the range and after fatting a couple, I striped a bunch of 6 irons right on target with a higher ball flight and a slight draw. I normally hit the ball low, so the ball flight change was a welcome sight.

Then he started changing my grip. That's when it was a little uncomforatable. He did tell me not to mix the grip change with the posture change because that was too much at once and I definitely agree. My right hand was way too strong (something I knew) and he wanted it more over top of my left hand. I'll work on this change later...way too much at once.

Anyway, I got the entire lesson on tape and he went through all the checkpoints with me and I'll keep tabs on where I am in relation to where I should be. It will be interesting how long I stay with it because I had just started to play some really good golf in the last 3-4 weeks. I don't think the posture changes will be too drastic, so I'm going to slowly incorporate them into my swing. Patience is needed when change is involved. I feel sooooo close to getting my swing right where I want it. I'm going to hit the range this weekend to hit some balls. I'll post back when some results are in.

[iacas]

The thing I remember most about you Dave was your uncanny ability to get up and down from anywhere. Sometimes you'd only put the ball to 15 feet, but you made the putt most of the time. Other times you'd put it to tap-in range.

How much time have you ever spent working with someone on the short game? Is that something you do solely by yourself? Does your course have a dedicated short game area (as LV will, apparently, some day)?

Interesting what your swing changes are. My winter work was much along the same lines, and it was to lower my ball flight a little. I'd always had a bit too much slide and I squatted a bit (kinda like Tiger - perhaps the only thing I have in common with him) and hit the ball way too high. I've been focusing on maintaining my posture and spine angle throughout my swing and really getting a good weight shift with rotation, not sliding. Maintaining the wrist cock happens naturally, it seems, if I get the club in the right path coming down from the top.

[NCGolfer]

The thing I remember most about you Dave was your uncanny ability to get up and down from anywhere. Sometimes you'd only put the ball to 15 feet, but you made the putt most of the time. Other times you'd put it to tap-in range.

My short game is still solid. I was never a great ball striker. My putting is still a work in progress because of the new putter and changing my grip a little bit (conventional grip, but went from interlock to overlap). I love my new CG10 wedge...only one dot and the limited bounce is great for those tight fairway shots. I can get a bunch of spin and control it very well.

How much time have you ever spent working with someone on the short game? Is that something you do solely by yourself? Does your course have a dedicated short game area (as LV will, apparently, some day)?

Tanglewood has a great practice range with short game area. Lots of room for lots of people. I hit the putting green there (about 3x the size of LV's) about 3-4 times a week now that I'm done with school. My short game/long game practice split is at least 60-40. It will probably go to around 40-60 because of the lesson and some small swing changes. My putting goal is to average less than 29 putts a round and less than 1.78 putts per GIR. I'm on track, but still am not holing some putts I think are makeable.

Interesting what your swing changes are. My winter work was much along the same lines, and it was to lower my ball flight a little. I'd always had a bit too much slide and I squatted a bit (kinda like Tiger - perhaps the only thing I have in common with him) and hit the ball way too high. I've been focusing on maintaining my posture and spine angle throughout my swing and really getting a good weight shift with rotation, not sliding. Maintaining the wrist cock happens naturally, it seems, if I get the club in the right path coming down from the top.

I definitely focused on keeping my spine angle earlier in the year. During the tape review of my swing it was slightly rising. The interesting thing is that it was rising to the correct position and I was attacking from there. The pro just readjusted me to that position at address. The good thing is that the loop (outside to in) is totally out of my swing. I've had it for a couple of years now and have eradicated it for good and my ball striking is at an all time high.

I'll let you know how the range goes this weekend. I'm very curious to see how I hit it and if it is as consisitent as I have been in the past few weeks.