DGS49
Diamond Member
I took up golf at the age of 50, when my son's abandonment of HS sports left me with a lot of time to fill in the Summer months. As a lifelong athlete I assumed that my hand-eye coordination and good fitness would get me to a fairly good level, but I have been totally frustrated. I "quickly" got my game to the level of "bogey golf" and it's been stuck there for 20 years. "Bogey golf" basically means that I hit one bad shot on every hole, on average. I have the occasional par and the occasional double-bogey, but at the end of the round I'm about 18 over par.
I have tried every strategic "thing" available. I've practiced, bought gadgets, taken lessons, filmed myself, read books and articles, gone off on various tangents like "Natural Golf," "Square-to-Square," and others. But to no avail. My biggest failing has been long iron play. When I need to hit a 150 yard shot onto the green, I always end up just off the green, where only an outstanding chip shot will salvage a par.
But I think I may be on to something. I signed up for a couple of lessons with a local pro, and he measured my swing with an electronic gadget that measures:
But this pro says that there is nothing wrong with my "natural" swing. Run with it. The good thing is that I execute it very consistently, from shot to shot. But I can compensate for the misdirection by aligning the club-face to the left. In fact, if I stand over the ball at address, with the club behind the ball, the face is a couple degrees LEFT of the desired line.
The result is a shot that starts off headed right, then curves back to the desired line (a slight draw). In the world of golf, this is a "pretty" shot, when I execute it properly. Not all the time, obviously.
But it is a breakthrough. Now, for the first time ever, when I hit a bad shot I know what went wrong. And I can actually practice a stroke that works. In the past when I practiced there was no progress from the first couple balls to the last, because I didn't know what I was trying to do. Nice.
I have tried every strategic "thing" available. I've practiced, bought gadgets, taken lessons, filmed myself, read books and articles, gone off on various tangents like "Natural Golf," "Square-to-Square," and others. But to no avail. My biggest failing has been long iron play. When I need to hit a 150 yard shot onto the green, I always end up just off the green, where only an outstanding chip shot will salvage a par.
But I think I may be on to something. I signed up for a couple of lessons with a local pro, and he measured my swing with an electronic gadget that measures:
- Swing speed,
- The angle at which my swing strikes the ball, and
- The direction of my club face.
But this pro says that there is nothing wrong with my "natural" swing. Run with it. The good thing is that I execute it very consistently, from shot to shot. But I can compensate for the misdirection by aligning the club-face to the left. In fact, if I stand over the ball at address, with the club behind the ball, the face is a couple degrees LEFT of the desired line.
The result is a shot that starts off headed right, then curves back to the desired line (a slight draw). In the world of golf, this is a "pretty" shot, when I execute it properly. Not all the time, obviously.
But it is a breakthrough. Now, for the first time ever, when I hit a bad shot I know what went wrong. And I can actually practice a stroke that works. In the past when I practiced there was no progress from the first couple balls to the last, because I didn't know what I was trying to do. Nice.