Wife struggling - suggestions?

My wife and I have been learning to play the last two years. We took 12 private lessons last season and will do the same this season, we're about 6-7 lessons in.

Typically, we have a lesson every 2-3 weeks, as our schedules allow, go to the range 1-2 times during the week and once on the weekend and play 9 holes about every other week, sometimes more.

She has been struggling with her full swing, our pro this season seems to be a good fit for both of us based on where our games are and where we're trying to get to. But while he'll get her hitting great within a few minutes in a lesson she has not been able to carry that forward to the range and the course.

She's considering doing group lessons so she can do a bunch together back-to-back, or maybe a golf school...two intense days to try to burn in what she's learning.

Any ideas or suggestions? She had been really excited and now is beginning to dread golf. And, of course aside from the desire to see my wife succeed and enjoy herself, I also have the selfish motive that here not liking golf means less playing time for me .

The full swing for women can take a good while to find as they dont have the strength men have, though they have good power to strike the ball its hard for them to keep balance etc. This is all based on what i have seen with my mom, as she's a beginner to the sport. Her swing is looking much better simply time and coaching will take her a long way, as well as with your wife. Swinging in the back yard not hitting a ball is a great way to get the full swing feeling comfortable. Try it with your wife and help eachother out. I myself can be outside swinging and doing maintenence on my clubs for an hour and a half at a time some days. It's a perfect way to keep a good swing going between rounds and the range.

Is she any good at ironing?

What happens on the course? Is she topping it, slicing it? Hooking it? Not hitting it very far but it looks good? What exactly? How does she hit when she is hitting it "great?" i.e., yardage, ball flight, etc.

No idea what's going on with your wife's game, but here are the things that plague my wife who is a 2nd year player:

1) Setup issues: All of a sudden, she can't get the ball in the right place in her stance (usually too far forward); or she can't line up properly for ball flight; standing too far away and reaching; her stance is not square; all of the above at the same time.

2) Balance issues: Too 'busy' during the swing; pulling/leaning back on heels during takeway and leaning forward on toes at downswing. Produces 'squibbers' left off the heel of the club.

3) Swaying weight back to front: Same as #2, but causes heavy hits or tops depending on whether or not she gets back to center or falls short or rocks too far forward.

4) Another issue: She has a great left arm, but recently likes to push the club forward prior to takeaway. No idea where that came from but results in low-flying driver shots because she's effectively 'delofting' the club.

A repeatable good swing is really difficult for (most) people who haven't been at this game a LONG time! My wife has had lessons as well. Maybe it's time for a tune-up before the end of the year!

dave

Your wife (and you) should take notes after the lessons. Write down the top three or four things mentioned. Use positive statements ('Do this' instead of 'Don't do this'). Review the notes before your range sessions and next lesson. Your instructor should also give you some drills to work on between lessons. Video is also a great way to help because when your wife says 'I think I'm doing this', the video will show that she may be doing something else. Hopefully, your pro is doing this for you every few lessons.

It's not easy to take a swing from the range to the course. Try to go play 9 or 18 after your lesson to really get things to set in.

Another problem that seems to plague women more than men is trying for accuracy at the expense of power. At the range especially she should be trying to hit the ball as hard as possible (without hurting herself, of course). It may slice or hook all over the place, but that's the best place to experiment with different grips, etc.

My wife are currently going through the same process. We had a 2-hr lesson on Friday, then went and played 9. It went much better and gave her (and me) a chance to put the stuff from our lesson into practice.

Good luck!

I would give any beginner the same advice. Drop the lessons, get Ben Hogan's 5 Lessons, and practice for 30 minutes every day... paying close attention to the text in capital letters. You don't always have to hit balls, but at least swing the club and check yourself in mirror.

If you want, try it yourself first. You will be scoring in the 70's in 6 months I promise, as long as you apply yourself patiently and intelligently. You'll rediscover golf... no- you'll discover golf for the first time!

When her swing goes bad, she's grounding the club badly or topping the ball. On the mats she will get bad wrist pain from slamming the club into the ground, on the course the swing is like a V coming almost straight down into the ground. Or other times she tops it.

When she is hitting well, she drives about 200 yds consistently, ocassionally a little longer. She hits her 9 iron about 100 yards. Ball flight is nice and high, but not too high, straight down the middle. She's very competitive so that may play into it. She had been shooting in the mid 50's for 9 holes before this started.

Good point on the notes, I always make a point to come away from the lesson with 1-2 things to focus on, and then I do that at the range and on the course. I'll suggest that.

As for playing after the lesson, we did that a couple of times last year and it seemed to work well, have to try to plan that for the next lesson or two.

Wait... lessons on the mats, but playing on a course? That's something I struggled with, too. One driving range I went to mostly just had mats. They are VERY different to hit off of then grass. I couldn't do anything wrong on the mats, but I couldn't do anything right on the course.

I think your next lessons need to be on grass. This will give your wife (and you) a better representation of what you can do to translate the lessons to the course. GOOD LUCK!

My wife is experiencing the same problem right now. Actually the topping part; she is actually scared to hit the ground. Our teaching pro told her to hit it off a tee for now til she feels that she is hitting at the tee rather than the ball (yes, not just off the tee, but in the fairway or rough). The point being, if she keeps topping it she may get disgusted and give up. Since we aren't playing for anything more than the fun of playing, why make it not fun? She doesn't do it as much anymore, but it definitely got her over a rough patch of bad shots.