Lessons In, Er Golf LDO

Still in La Manga, coming back on Friday. For some reason. Alright, I miss grinding online poker. Which is good, because it means I still have the desire to play, which I wasn't sure about before this break. Anyway, sticking to the golf, I wasn't hitting it very well last week, although I would still have scored quite well if I hadn't putted so badly [1]. I thought my grip was off so I changed it a bit with marginal improvement but a certain amount of discomfort in the left wrist (especially after playing). So on Friday I thought it would be best to have a lesson just to check up on fundamentals, it is expensive out here but so is everything else golf-related, what can you do.

The pro was very good and almost immediately said my grip was pretty much fine either way and that we would be better off looking at my swing. Basically I was kind of swinging outside-in which meant I was cutting across the ball, slicing it and taking distance off the shot by effectively adding more loft to the club (so for example I was hitting a 6-iron like an 8-iron). So we had an hour where he was trying to get me to swing inside-out. It felt really weird to start with, but with his video box of tricks I could see how much better the swing looked with the new technique.

Now I've had two afternoons on the range trying this out (courses are busier at weekends anyway and the weather hasn't been great so no real loss not playing the course). About 70% of my shots are no better or worse than what they were before, on average - but the other 30% just go PIIIINGGGGGG into what seems to me like outer space, but is probably just how I should have been hitting it in the first place. The 30/70 ratio seems to be slowly improving as well, so we're going to give it a spin on the course tomorrow, and probably every day Monday-Thursday while I'm here. It's likely (but not inevitable) that my scores will suffer for a few rounds, because before I had at least a reasonable idea where I was going to mis-hit it, and distance control is going to be an issue if I'm hitting 1/3 of my shots 20 yards further than the other 2/3. But sometimes you have to take a step back before two forward (like in late November) and at least it's a beautiful setting in which to play whatever the scores on the doors. Bring it on !

[1] I know, putting is such a big part of the game that it's a bit like saying, I would have played well if I hadn't played badly. One thing at a time ...

PS Apologies to SeanB for not responding to a comment for 3 months. I didn't see it - better late than never :)