My Swing (loadwire)

[loadwire]

Well played my first 18 since lessons started and results were, well, mixed.

Didn't help that I got there late, and didn't do a proper warm up as a result.  Completely chunked my first shot which barely made it off the tee.  I was a bit thrown (and embarrased!) by that and ended up scratching the first two holes.  Hit a decent drive on the third which settled me down a bit and played next 4 holes in one over.

After that it was steady enough but not spectacular.  Scratched four holes overall, got 30 points off 16 - pretty poor for me really but I was happy enough with it after the first two holes, plus it was quite windy.  Coming in I hit most of my irons well and a few very well, nice high draws and on the last I hit a sweet 7 iron up the hill to the green, a shot I always find tricky.  Driving was a bit hit and miss but most were straight at least.  I got a bit hooky with my hybrid which messed up a few holes for me, so I might leave that in the bag next time out and just concentrate on irons.

So overall it went pretty much as expected - didn't score well but definitely enough encouragement to go on.  I can't wait to get out again though don't think it'll be this weekend, so another range visit might be in order.

[clutchshot]

Your score doesn't always reflect your progress, sometimes you can be hitting the ball great, but just not judging things correctly, keep at it and lower numbers will happen eventually.

[loadwire]

Haven't posted here in a while.  I've had one more lesson since.

Mid-Irons are going quite well (he agreed after watching me hit some) so concentrated more on the Driver and short irons.

Short irons - I was striking them pretty well but had been blocking some right a fair bit.  He asked me to try and keep my right foot planted during the downswing - said my right leg was moving a bit early and I was getting ahead of the ball.

Driver - I've just been struggling to feel in any way comfortable.  I'm hitting them relatively straight but not great strikes and knocking down about one in five.  He worked on me pushing the hands through the shot rather than 'flipping' them at impact (I think it is similar to the straight left wrist in the 5SK).  It's not a problem with my irons but my 'old' way for driver was teeing the ball was very high and hitting it on the up, so that might have ended up with my becoming a bit 'flippy' with the big stick.

He warned against getting too obsessed with the Driver - said not to hit more than 5/6 shots in a row before switching back to irons.  I suppose that means the driver progress might be a bit of a slow burner!

I've got out on the course twice since that lesson.

First round was really disappointing, seemed to be a big step back.  Driving was poor but I was more peed off at the fact I wasn't striking irons well - catching a lot of them fat and just completely lost my tempo.  Seemed like a big step back.

Went to the range the next day and it was poor again, was feeling pretty disheartened and probably was guilty of just hitting balls without much thought too.  I went once more during the week and just tried concentrating on the initial changes - deep hands, striking down on the ball - and gradually I started to hit it better again.

Second round was yesterday and was much better, probably my best round since the lessons. Wasn't perfect by a long way - driving and putting were erratic - but I struck my irons really well for the most part, and very straight.  Concentrating on keeping my right foot planted on downswing was working for me with the wedges, hit a few very close from 80-100 yards.  Overall I hit five or six approach shots that were (for me) high quality.  Unfortunately I couldn't convert any of them for birdie but I don't mind about that for now.

On the back 9 I even started hitting my driver quite well.  My match with my playing partner finished all square and I did tighten up a bit on the last couple of holes :-P but until then I was very happy with how I played.

I have one more lesson in the batch of five I bought so I will probably take that in a couple of weeks.