Last weekend I played my 20th round of the year. Tomorrow I embark on the inward half of the journey to completing 40 for the season. The news is mostly good.
After finishing a series of four lessons with my instructor, I’ve seen payoff in three primary areas; driving distance, consistency of contact with the fairway woods, and accuracy with the wedges inside 100 yards. The latter of which was my primary reason for seeking professional assistance. The long iron game remains a work in progress. Mentally, I’m more at peace around the greens after switching back to my old Cleveland Tour Action sand wedge.
What’s most encouraging is my ability to play a good round right after a bad one, and I attribute that to the conviction in my approach. During a period of learning, your swing WILL fall off the rails, but rather than search for a band-aid, if you return to the fundamentals you are trying to correct, more often than not, you will have your fix. Fans of Tiger Woods know that when he changed instructors to Sean Foley, he entered a perpetual state of playing golf swing instead of playing golf. He became an engineer instead of an artist. This is to be avoided at all costs and my goal is to move steadily away from engineering to artistry. I’m still at some point in between but the difference is that when I hit a bad shot, I can take comfort knowing that it’s just the old habits reappearing.
Whether you’re an engineer or artist, at the end of the day, we measure improvement by score. 2016 concluded with my index rising to a recent historical high of 6.3. It’s down to 4.9 which is super encouraging since I’ve just completed the most difficult stretch of the season (Myrtle Beach trip). I had one goal at the beginning of the year and that was to improve to 10+ GIR. Through the tough stretch, I’m still between eight and nine but my index is down which is telling me my proximity performance with the wedges has improved. I also feel more confident with my short game. Now as I distance myself from the bi-weekly instruction, it will be interesting to see how quickly I can return to thinking about shots rather than mechanics.
So the learning process has been very satisfactory. One final note on instruction. My last lesson included only 15 minutes on the practice tee and then we went for a four-hole playing lesson. Get a playing lesson if you can. The time spent on the course with my instructor watching every aspect of my game was invaluable. I picked up information on ball position for bunker shots, course management, club selection, and a simple putting tip that made a huge difference in my round the following day (took only 27 putts).
See you on the lesson tee and play well!
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