Apparently, this is not an uncommon problem. Jamie cited a recent student who had played golf for years and had become progressively worse till he was ready to quit the game. He thought the left hand should have a dominant role in the grip too. Then Jamie changed his grip so he was more even-handed, and he went on to become a scratch player. Okay, maybe not a scratch player, but a better player than he was before.
Anyway, the take-home message, according to Jamie, was: "Golf is a game played with both hands."
During the lesson, Jamie advised me to do three basic things:
1) use the baseball grip (which I had toyed with before)
2) allow my hips to turn, rather than slide to the right, on my backswing
3) think about changing to a smaller-than-standard-size grip, since my hands are small (I haven't done it yet, but I am thinking about it)
Below are before (left) and after (right) pictures of my grip. In the "before" picture, it really looks like my right hand is barely gripping the club at all. I'm surprised the club never flew right out of my hands.
Jamie also taught me two drills:
1) the right-hand-only backswing drill, where I take a backswing with my right hand only, then bring the left hand over to grip the club.
2) the whirly-bird drill, where I grip the club and try to whip the club head around in a circle as fast as possible while keeping a secure grip on the club.
At first the baseball grip thing seemed totally insane, but with the new grip and the tips Jamie taught me, I saw an immediate increase in distance, especially with my irons. But once I got back home and played my regular course, I had a breakthrough. During a practice swing with my driver on the 10th hole, I took the grip Jamie taught me and really stabilized my legs so I wouldn't slide to the right on my backswing. As I rotated, I really felt my glutes and core "activate." When I released into the downswing, I made a "swoosh" sound louder than I'd ever made before. Then, when I actually hit the ball, it flew about 215 yards. This is about 45 yards longer than I'd been used to hitting on that particular hole. I was ecstatic! I was able to repeat the swing for the remainder of the round. There was a par 4 on that course that I'd never been able to reach in 2, and for the first time I could. It was an amazing feeling!
I played a few rounds with this more powerful driver swing, but my scores were totally erratic due to never knowing how my distances would actually pan out. Not knowing whether my 8-iron would fly 90 yards or 110 can result in some unnecessary strokes. Within the span of a month, I was shooting scores ranging from 89 to 104 on the same course!
And then, I suddenly lost the driver mojo. Not sure how, but it left me like a thief in the night. Now I am back to driving at 170 or 180 yards, occasionally more if the ground is dry and I get the ball to roll. Oddly enough, my short game seems to be improving. I can chip pretty accurately in the 30-to-50 yard range. However, my putting is still up to the golf gods. Today, for example, I made an amazing 30-foot putt where the hole just seemed to open up with divine light when my ball dropped in.
But it all just feels so erratic. My handicap is creeping up, too. I am trending at an 18.8 now. Hubby and I signed up for an MSGA play day tournament in a few weeks. So I've got some work cut out for me. I really wish I had a dependable, consistent swing. I need to get that mid-summer mojo back! And the only way to do that is get back on the course... tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment