Took My First Lesson Today After Hacking it About for 15 Years

[SullyGolf]

I've been golfing for 15 years or so and never taken a lesson before purely self taught and not to great effect either. I come from a decent competitive background of decently high level hockey in the northeast, I worked on a course greens crew through junior/senior year of HS and through my junior year of college which is when I started playing because free rounds in the afternoon. Over the years I've been able to adopt my hockey approach enough to hit in the mid to high 90s pretty consistently. Lately I've been playing 2-3x a year at most at least 1-2 of which were scramble format, buddy of mine just started golfing (playing a lot too I think he has 40+ rounds this year) and took me out and was flabbergasted when I shot a 95 and basically told me I needed to actually try at this so now I signed up for a $50 30min lessons down the road from me.

Gotta say I was nervous showing up, thinking how everything I was doing was totally wrong and that my years of "winging it" were going to be completely thrown out the window and I'd be back to square one and barely making contact. The Pro had me hit a few balls and basically told me all the things I am doing right backswing, tempo, alignment, aim etc... Then he went onto the not so good but it wasn't as much of a total shakeup as I had imagined he showed me how to correct my 10 finger grip without making me try a whole new grip, got me to stand up taller (was using a hockey stance before) and got me to work on my rotation and ball contact.

Showed me the L to L drill and sent me home to work on it. Spent like a half hour hitting into my net this afternoon after the lesson and I have to say is this what golf feels like???? I actually feel like I'm golfing and I'm making much more consistent of a strike with much less effort. He said work on it for a week and then come back to see where I'm at and what I should be focusing on next.

Just wanted to share, wish my luck guys and look out #89,  I'm coming for you...

[ChetlovesMer]

3 minutes ago, SullyGolf said:

I've been golfing for 15 years or so and never taken a lesson before purely self taught and not to great effect either. I come from a decent competitive background of decently high level hockey in the northeast, I worked on a course greens crew through junior/senior year of HS and through my junior year of college which is when I started playing because free rounds in the afternoon. Over the years I've been able to adopt my hockey approach enough to hit in the mid to high 90s pretty consistently. Lately I've been playing 2-3x a year at most at least 1-2 of which were scramble format, buddy of mine just started golfing (playing a lot too I think he has 40+ rounds this year) and took me out and was flabbergasted when I shot a 95 and basically told me I needed to actually try at this so now I signed up for a $50 30min lessons down the road from me.

Gotta say I was nervous showing up, thinking how everything I was doing was totally wrong and that my years of "winging it" were going to be completely thrown out the window and I'd be back to square one and barely making contact. The Pro had me hit a few balls and basically told me all the things I am doing right backswing, tempo, alignment, aim etc... Then he went onto the not so good but it wasn't as much of a total shakeup as I had imagined he showed me how to correct my 10 finger grip without making me try a whole new grip, got me to stand up taller (was using a hockey stance before) and got me to work on my rotation and ball contact.

Showed me the L to L drill and sent me home to work on it. Spent like a half hour hitting into my net this afternoon after the lesson and I have to say is this what golf feels like???? I actually feel like I'm golfing and I'm making much more consistent of a strike with much less effort. He said work on it for a week and then come back to see where I'm at and what I should be focusing on next.

Just wanted to share, wish my luck guys and look out #89,  I'm coming for you...

 

Glad your first experience with lessons was a good one. Personally, I'm a big believer in getting coaching. I know golfers who don't believe in it. I've even met a few who think coaching is counter-productive. Something about ruining your "natural swing" and what not. 

[SullyGolf]

1 hour ago, ChetlovesMer said:

 

Glad your first experience with lessons was a good one. Personally, I'm a big believer in getting coaching. I know golfers who don't believe in it. I've even met a few who think coaching is counter-productive. Something about ruining your "natural swing" and what not. 

I guess my profession and my style facilitates coaching and feedback so I have no issues receiving coaching. Weird to me that people think their way is better than the millions of hours of accrued knowledge acquired by professionals. But I have unfortunately run into the type more than once.

Went to the range to hit some just now and even though everything feels easier with my swing distance was slightly better. I even hit the most pure 4i shot of my life, it carried like 210 I'm amazed.

 

 

 

[StuM]

Most good coaches will not make a 100% change in what someone is doing because that often makes things worse.  It sounds like your teaching pro looked at what you were doing and found a couple things to enhance what you were doing vs. trying to teach you a totally new swing.  I would think you found a decent coach to begin your formal lessons with.  It also helps to have some athletic talent, which is sounds as if you do (fyi, that is missing from my game).  

[SullyGolf]

2 hours ago, StuM said:

Most good coaches will not make a 100% change in what someone is doing because that often makes things worse.  It sounds like your teaching pro looked at what you were doing and found a couple things to enhance what you were doing vs. trying to teach you a totally new swing.  I would think you found a decent coach to begin your formal lessons with.  It also helps to have some athletic talent, which is sounds as if you do (fyi, that is missing from my game).  

Yeah I was worried he was going to chew my whole swing up, but he basically told me he didn't need to. I appreciated that he found the time to give me all the positives first and then worked with me on the mechanics of an actually correct swing. He is also a 10 finger gripper so I think that helped, I have had good players try to help me before and they all force me to do the overlap and I just can't stand it. I can't get a feel for the club at all with the overlap, interlock is slightly better but totally not natural.

Also turned out he was a hockey player as well so he could relay some of the points in a language I understood. I think this made it easier to understand what are the good similarities like hip, shoulder rotations and what are the bad similarities arm action, low follow through and low stance. I think I definitely lucked out and found an instructor with a lot of similarities to me and my background which was totally a luck of the draw type thing. Also definitely helps that there are a lot of crossover skills between ice hockey and golf. I can see it in my friend who just got into golf and never played any sport really in high school. Things like turning the hips and shoulders together are really hard for him but I've been used to that for a long time already.

Edited August 29, 2022 by SullyGolf

[Vinsk]

2 hours ago, SullyGolf said:

I guess my profession and my style facilitates coaching and feedback so I have no issues receiving coaching. Weird to me that people think their way is better than the millions of hours of accrued knowledge acquired by professionals. But I have unfortunately run into the type more than once.

Went to the range to hit some just now and even though everything feels easier with my swing distance was slightly better. I even hit the most pure 4i shot of my life, it carried like 210 I'm amazed.

 

 

 

Be careful….you’re treading in dangerous waters….😮