Beginning lessons today..wish me luck!

[Jack Lee]

Well, I got lucky when I started playing golf last year. I caught a demo day at a local course that was advertising its new management a week after I started swinging a club. The demo day had a couple of club company reps there to show off new equipment and teaching pros there to work with anyone that came by. It was raining a bit off and on, so not too many people showed up to visit the course. The end result of that being that I was fitted for a driver by a club rep and then had a dozen or so bored teaching pros hanging out watching me swing. One of the pros stepped up after watching me slice ball after ball clean off the driving range and asked if I would like a pointer or two. After five minutes working with him, he had me hitting drives straight and true about 200 yards out. (Even drawing a few shots.)

Fast forward to this year....I start talking to a 14 handicapper I work with about who I should take lessons from locally. He is pretty into the golf community around here and I thought he would have some good tips and knowledge about local teachers. I explain that I am eager to see what a pro could do for/with me over a series of lessons after what happened at the demo day. He stops me after I tell him that story and asks if I know where the pro I worked with that day teaches. I admit I do but that he is 40 minutes from the house. My coworker tells me that if the drive isn't just TOO MUCH, that I should go try working with that pro as his style seems to be proven for me. So.....

I went out a couple of weeks back and talked at some length with this gentleman and set up to take lessons from him. We talked about recommended reading and my goals for taking lessons. The first lesson for me is noon today.

I play an average round in about 110 right now because I just can't get a reliable and repeatable short game going on. I hit my driver well and am getting to the point that I can repeat that swing most of the time. I absolutely CRUSH my 3 wood and have to work to swing poorly with it. My hybrid I am still adjusting to, but I hit it pretty well also. My trouble begins in my irons. When I get one pretty, it is REALLY pretty. I can even work a ball around with them. The issue is that I get that sexy swing 1 time in 3. The other times I alternate between a lovely chili dip and skulling the crap out of the ball. My wedges I get good clean swings 1 time in 5 or so. I leave a huge number of them short and have some of the fat/thin problem that I have with my irons. The putter is where I put in my most practice at the moment, so I am decent with that.

I grabbed the two books that the pro recommended and have begun working my way through them. (Harvey Pennick's Little Red Book and Practical Golf by John Jacobs if you are wondering.) Cover to cover on the Little Red Book and a goodly portion through Practical Golf and they both seem to contain a great deal of information. I understand parts of the swing (and how I think I am messing it up) much better now than I did before I began reading.

I am looking forward greatly to my time working with this gentleman and seeing what we can make of my game together. I set up a series of three lessons to begin and am planning to do them 2 or three weeks apart to allow time to practice on what we work on. After that, if I work as well long term with this teacher as I did in the time at that demo day, I will be likely going back every 4 to 6 weeks to keep my game from getting too far bent out of whack.

Wish me luck!
Jack Lee