Fore! - Revelations From a Wannabe Golfer

Yes I am back from yet another extended disappearance, but no excuses this time (although I do have plenty), just going to try and get back on the blogging horse and hopefully stay for a longer ride.

So a few months ago, a friend of mine called me up one sunny day to go hit a driving range. I own a set of clubs, although the last time I hit a range was probably two or three years ago and I was never good at it. So we get to the range, and I first try hitting an iron. First swing, nothing but air. Second swing, ditto. Many swings later, I finally give up, my friend laughing at me and rightfully so. I try hitting my driver with marginal success, less than 10% of the balls managed to get a few feet off the ground. Unfortunately, I seem to have a curse with any sport involving a ball and a stick (i.e. baseball, street hockey, foosball) and golf was not immune to this curse.

Anyways, I decided that I would finally break the curse by learning how to a swing a golf club properly so a few weeks ago I enrolled in golf classes. Over the last few weeks, I've been hit (no pun intended) by a few golfing revelations that I'm going to share with you should you ever develop an interest in golf

Revelation #1: It was all wrong.

Ok this should come as a no brainer. After being introduced to the proper swing mechanics in my first class and taking a few practice swings, it dawned on me why I couldn't hit any balls: I was swinging totally and utterly wrong. I couldn't believe how way off my swing was. In fact, I was in utter shock. After this revelation I was getting about 25% of the balls off the ground.

Revelation #2: Relax, you'll swing better (said in best Arnold voice)

After about my second or third week of practice, I came upon another revelation. I don't remember exactly how I came upon this, but I came to the realization that I was using my arms too much to swing the club. Then I remembered something from either my instructor or somewhere I read, but anyways on a scale of 1 to 100 where 100 is a tight grip, you should gripping the club somewhere in the 10 range. I think I was gripping it in the 60s. Anyways, once I loosened my grip, I found that the club naturally whips around during your swing without using any arm. After this revelation, I started hitting about 40-50% of the balls, but I was still topping most of the rest.

Revelation #3: Keep it straight

I stumbled upon this revelation today and to me has been the most significant revelation so far. So I was watching my instructor do a couple of swings and I noticed that there was one big difference in his swing than mine. I noticed that his left arm was completely straight through his whole backswing and I tried to figure out how he was doing it. I finally determined that I had the steps in my backswing wrong. From my 9 o'clock position, I would shoulder turn and make my L, but that would make my arm bend at the top of my swing. Instead, it should be 9 o'clock, make an L, and _then_ shoulder turn. Once I did this, instant results! I hit about 130 balls tonight and of those I only crapped out on less than 10, so I was at hitting at least 90%

So those are are my revelations thus far, I'm sure there will be plenty more to come (I still have to master the weight shift and keeping my head down) which I'll keep passing on. My goal is to a hit a 9 hole course at the end of summer and see how I do, if I play decently then the curse is lifted. Tiger I'm coming for you!



Just like the pros! (hahaha, I wish)