Help with Swing

[spmurph]

I decided to start playing golf this spring and I am having a bit of difficulty with my swing. I read Ben Hogan's book and watched some instructional videos (Jim McLean and David Leadbetter) so I feel like I have a pretty good idea of the basic fundamentals and I have tried my best to apply them.

Two things have been happening consistently with my shot. It either shoots way left (I am left-handed) or it goes straight but doesn't get off the ground.

I am assuming the first is happening because I am not squaring the club face at impact. Not too sure about the second fault. Any suggestions?

If I wasn't getting married and buying a house this summer, I'd spend the $ for lessons.

[Honea72]

The biggest thing that u should work on in my opinion is tempo. Once you get your tempo down u can start in with the squareness of the club face and ur swing plane and all that. i hope that helps.

[spmurph]

Thanks for the response. I will work on that. I think I might be too fast on my downswing.

[right handed phil mickelson]

well it is always good to have acceleration through the ball. if you are hitting it to the right (blocking it), then what I would try to do is when you swing down, speed your arms up faster than your torso. Feel like your arms are ahead of your body on the downswing. Take a few hits like that and see if that helps.

[spmurph]

At which point should I start to speed my arms up? Should they still get a "free ride" until halfway down, and then speed them up? Maybe I've been too worried about my lower body controlling the shot that I am taking my arms completely out of it.