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It's a community college class. Our last day is actually this tuesday unfortunately. I have actually seen some improvement with this instructor, mostly in short game (sand and pitch shots). I like her and I think she is a good instructor but she doesn't verbalize stuff as well as I can. In fact sometimes I do a better job of explaining to other people what she is trying to say and she asks me to put it into words that the other students can understand. I am getting more distance since starting her class but I do kind of a modified version of her swing. Also the way she taught putting just didn't work for me, I did learn to rotate my shoulders with the putting stroke from her but the set up is slightly different for me then what she teaches. I can't get alligned with the hole properly the way she wants me to do it and I do a much better job of putting doing it my way then her way. Since starting with her, when I miss hit, It's because of sway. I have this problem especially with longer clubs, If I sway back I chunk the ball and take a divot 6 inches behind the ball, if I sway forward on the down swing I hit a push slice. One of the things she does have us work on is to keep our weight on the inside of the heels, I'm pretty good at keeping my weight on the inside of the heel on the takeaway but durring the finish I tend to finish on the outside of my right heel. I deffinitely hit the ball a lot further than I used to but what is driving me crazy is I now out hit my dad with every club in the bag except for our drivers (we get the same distance ~210-220 yards.) One thing about the driver though is I get almost no roll with my driver and he get's about 30 yards of roll with his driver, so I actually hit it quite a bit further then he does I just get very little roll with it.

My instructor has been working with me on the takeaway and I'm listening to the PGA announcers talk about some of the swings of the professional golfers and watching some videos online I'm wondering who is giving the best advice. I'm a right handed golfer and my instructor wants me to start the takeway by rotating my left shoulder into my right heel, while letting my arms "go along for the ride." At the same time she talks about not worying about keeping the left arm straight it's more important to concentrate on the shoulder turn and it is "impossible" to pivot correctly if you try to keep your left arm straight. The majority of the advice given in online videos talks about taking the arms straight back along the target line and letting following with your shoulders and hips. Watching the PGA tour announcers they talk about keeping triangles and how straight the left arm stays keeps gives you the most power. Who is right?

Had my best round yet. Shot a 93 at my home course. It felt pretty good. I honestly could have been much better if I could have dropped more 5 foot putts. Its a par 68 course, so 25 over. No birdies, 2 pars, but I single boggied almost the all the rest of the holes. I hit 6 of 10 fairways, never I have I done that well. 39 putts is also a new best for me. My chips were pretty good today. All in all it was great for me. There was one par 5 that I scored a 10 on. So If I could have just done a little better on that hole I would have broke 90 when this is the first time I broke 100. Anyways, I'm really happy about it. It's funny a lot of you guys would consider a 93 an off day or worse, but for me, it was great.

So I went to the driving range today and had my best outing at the range. I bought a medium size bucket with 68 balls in it. The first several swings were with the seven iron, My first shot only went 125 yards but then after getting warmed up I was hitting it straight and about 140-145 consistantly. Then I went to my 3 iron, the first 10 balls were kind of all over the place, but then I concentrated on the fundamentals my instructor went over with me, and I started hitting it really well with a slight draw about 190 yards. Then I pulled out my 4 hybrid and was smashed three straight 185 yards straight as an arrow, so I put it back. Worked on pitching wedge for a little bit and was hiting it about 115 which is 20 yards further than I was hitting it previously. Finished off with the 5 iron and was hitting the 170 flag on almost every shot. So it was a nice day at the range, now if I can just do that at the course I would be a happy camper.

So I'm a true beginner, I've only been playing "seriously" for about 2-3 months. I decided that I wanted to take lessons so I went to the nearest golf course and found that they had a PGA teacher of the year guy working there and I signed up for lessons. I had my first lesson on Tuesday and we worked exclusively with the 7 iron. He gave me some good information on having a flatter swing, propper allignment, finish, and balance. So I took the information he gave me and practicedc a bit at the driving range, then played a round full and a half over the last two days. All of a sudden, I'm hitting my Driver straight and a consistant 185-195 yards. Which is great because prior to the lesson I would hit the driver 50 yards before it sliced 90 degrees and went another 50 yards to the right. I've never hit so many fairways in a round. It felt really good that I was either 1st or 2nd best off the tee on almost every hole. Now here is the weird part. My Iron play is now horrible. I was to the point where I was hitting the green about 40% of the time from 100-150 and about 60% of the time from 50-100 yards. Sometimes I would roll off the back or bounce off to the side, but I would atleast hit the green. Now all of my iron shots are going all over the place. Longer irons I'm hooking, Shorter Irons I'm pushing way right. I have another lesson with this pro in a couple of weeks so I'm sure we will work on this particular problem then, but I'm wondering why working with my 7 iron with a pro fixed my driver problems and now I can't hit my irons properly. It's driving me crazy.

I start my lessons on tuesday. I'm taking 4 lessons, but the instructor said he wanted to see how much "homework" he had to give me before we decided if it was going to be a once a week thing or once every couple of weeks. I'm really excited, I really just started playing a couple of months ago and I have improved so much in a short amount of time. I'm really hoping that the instructor can get me from being a double bogey golfer, to a bogey golfer, I knew it will take a lot of time, but I'm just loving this sport, and can't wait to start.

First time at Pleasanton Gofl Center. Interesting course in the middle of a horse race track. It has 3 par 4's and the rest are par 3's, with one small lake. I actually found it to be very enjoyable, It was hard to loose balls which is a plus for me. First time there I shot a 45, less than double bogey, yay me.

I'm a beginner, I hit one of goals allready which is to hit under 40 at this pitch and put course I've been playing at, (par 27). 39 twice in row. My next goal is to get under 40 at a par 30 course. and under 100 at a par 72 course. I'm hoping before my birthday in November I can break 100 on a par 72 course. That would make me verry happy.

My best shot of the week is really a best hole of the week. I got my first ever birdie. Hole 4 at Los Lagos Golf Course in San Jose. The hole has a medium size lake that runs out about 200 yards from the tee box, I have a bad slice with my driver so I decided to just use my 4 hybrid and lay up on the left hand side away from the lake. I got under the ball a little bit so the ball only went about 140 yards off the tee. So from my position on the fairway Im facing about 160 yards to the flag with and about 15 feet up a slope. I use the same 4 hybrid and get on the green about 40 feet from the hole. I was just happy that I got a GIR. My playing partner used a driver off the tee and hit two balls into the water than from his drop position hit it in the sand trap, ou tof the sand trap to about 15 yards off the green, and then finally hit a pitch wedge to about 10 feet from the whole. I had a lot of time to think about my putt, Instead of focussing on it, I just took my time to enjoy the scenery. So when it was finally my turn, after the 6 strokes my playing partner took, I lined up, took a deep breath, and made a nice up hill 40 foot stroke with my putter. There was a slight break to the right and my ball held its line all the way to the hole. Ker-Plunk, my first birdie. It was an amazing feeling.

I'm a college student