9-Hole Practice Round

Anything can feel natural if you do it often enough, and so it is with golf. Last night I went to bed visualizing my new swing (I go to sleep picturing myself hitting driver the way some people count sheep), and this morning I couldn’t remember what the old swing felt like. I had a 3pm tee time, so by 1pm my husband and I were out the door to get some quick lunch and hit some practice balls before the round.

At the range, I found that my distances were not much better than before. In fact I was hitting some clubs shorter. But I chalk this up to not taking a full backswing or hinging my wrist much, which Mike said we could work on later. I didn’t stress about it, since I was mainly concerned with being able to hit well enough to get through nine holes without making a fool of myself.

My new swing feels very compact, like my arms are closer to my body on the way down. If I ever find myself trapped in a 2-foot wide corridor where the walls are wired with detonators, I think I could manage to swing a golf club in it without setting off any bombs.

Overall, my 9-hole round went better than I expected, despite the fact that my husband, who shoots in the 80s and never practices, was not on his best behavior. As usual, he tried to give unasked-for advice and stated the obvious if my putts went past the hole by saying things like, “You hit it too hard.” I told him he better act more blog-worthy or I wouldn’t have anything nice to write about him. He said if I wrote anything bad, he would have to start writing a counter-blog, or a meta blog, in which he would run commentary on my blog commentary about him. That made me laugh. Good thing he’s cute or he would have been done for by now.

Distance-wise, I can claim two victorious shots. One was a drive that maxed out at 165 yards and the other was a 7-iron shot that flew a good 110 yards. These are 10-15 yards more than my usual. I also hit a good shot with my 7-wood on the 8^th hole, which is 128 yards over water.

And I even got closer to the hole than dear hubby!

The Golf Lesson

So I had my golf lesson today. I have had 3 golf lessons in my entire life. The first was in July 2008. I had actually acquired a set of golf clubs in 2005 and spent several years futilely hacking away under the tutelage of my then-boyfriend (now husband). And I really mean hacking. I am surprised I didn’t hurt somebody with my terrible swing, which was better suited to harvesting corn than hitting a golf ball.

In 2008, when it became apparent that I probably would not have children and would need some other all-consuming occupation to pass the time, I decided to take my first golf lesson at Golf Galaxy, and it is then and there that I credit with my official learning of golf. Mike, the PGA instructor at Golf Galaxy, taught me the basic grip and mechanics of the weight shift from right foot to left which is the foundation of the golf swing.

I only had one more lesson with Mike that summer, since I was really impatient and generally view golf lessons with suspicion. I think of them like entering the military or psychoanalysis. They break you down in order to build you back up. The goal is to keep you as long as they can, so they string you along with medals or meager insights that will have you coming back for more. Plus, golf lessons are expensive and I just didn’t want to fork over any more dough at the time.  

Instead, after my two lessons with Mike, I learned from a multitude of free sources. I studied my husband’s copy of Tom Kite’s “How to Play Consistent Golf,” looked at slow-motion video clips of the golf swing that various people posted online, and made good use of the pause button on the DVR whenever a women’s golf tournament happened to air on TV. I also spent hours at the range, which did cost money, but no more than a bad Starbucks habit would. I also played a lot of golf with my husband, which nearly busted up our marriage, but that’s another story. (Remind me to tell you about the couple’s rules of golf sometime.) By 2009, I was driving up to 180 yards and shooting 100 to 115 in a typical round. I considered myself a double-bogey golfer.

Fast-forward a couple of years, skipping the one where I thought I would never pick up a club again and referred to golf as “a game I used to play.” It’s the last days of 2011 and here I am knocking at Mike’s door once again. I did have one lesson over the summer with a female coach in California, but it was a quickie and didn’t do much except leave me confused. She tried to change my grip and it didn’t take. I just couldn’t swing that way. I needed Mike.

I told him about my back injury and how I had lost so much distance. I showed him my swing with a 7-iron, which he recorded on video. Then he analyzed it, saying that what I was doing was actually putting more stress on my back. He pointed to the arch in my back and the extended right leg which made it look like I was chasing the ball. I explained that I was imitating the way the female pros finish their shots, almost like a ballerina doing an arabesque. I mean, just look at the LPGA logo with the swoosh of the back and leg. That’s the finish I was aiming for. I forgot why he said it was all wrong, but it was. Also, my stance was too wide and I was reaching forward too much with my arms. 

So he taught me some drills to correct these things. It's hard to explain in words. Let’s take it to the video of my lesson at Golf Galaxy:

To the casual observer, some of the changes may seem slight, but to me, they are massive. I was so excited by what Mike taught me that after my lesson, I headed straight to the driving range to test out how these new mechanics would work out in real life.

It was flurrying outside (it is December on the East Coast, after all), but I was undaunted. As I entered the driving range clubhouse to get some balls, the staffer said, “How’s it going? And by that I mean, are you crazy? It’s snowing!” Of course, he was joking. It was only in the low 40s and the range stalls have heaters. I live in a pretty golfy town, so there were at least 8 other hackers out there on the range, refusing to let the weather deter them.

How did I do with the new swing adjustments? Well, I still need to work on properly hinging my left wrist (or “wrist cock” as Mike put it, which just brings to my mind some kind of misfortunately placed genital deformity), but I think I am liking them. I actually feel I am using a lot less energy to generate the same distance. Who knows what can happen once I learn to use more energy in my new swing. Can't wait to hit the range again tomorrow!

Golf Resolutions for 2012

New Year’s is a time of looking back as well as looking forward. People measure their success by different things – career, relationships, family. I do too, but all of that is way too private to post on the Internet. However, I will gladly share my golf resolutions for all the world to see. Because chances are, only a very few people in the world will actually see them. 

So, without further ado...

Resolution #1: Get longer. In 2011, I got my game back. After months of physical therapy recovering from a neck/back injury, I was finally able to play a full round of golf without worrying if I would hurt myself. I did lose about 20 yards off my driving distance since before my injury, so my resolution for 2012 is to take a few check-up lessons and figure out how to get that distance back.

Resolution #2: Enter a hole-in-one million-dollar shootout contest. In 2011, I actually made a hole-in-one. In 2012, I want to try my luck at a hole-in-one contest. Even though I have heard they use these weird, hard balls that make it next to impossible to get one in the hole, I could use a million bucks, and ya gotta play to win.

Resolution #3: Break 90. Because of the aforementioned hole-in-one, I broke 100 for the first time in 2011. So next year, there’s nowhere to go but down. I vow to break 90. Or at least break 100 consistently.

Resolution #4: Join a women’s league. My husband can only play on weekends and after work in the summer, so I need golfing gals with similar skills to hit the greens on weekdays. In 2011, I found a female golf buddy to play with during the week. In 2012, I hope to find more like-minded women to golf with.

Resolution #5: Play another charity tournament. In 2009, I won the ladies champion trophy at a local charity tournament (the ladies field was a slim half dozen, but still…). I took the year off in 2010 due to “the injury,” but in 2011, I was back on top as the winner of the women’s longest drive (it was only about 160 yds, but still long enough to beat others on that particular hole). In 2012, I would like to add another annual charity tournament to my roster, preferably one with low entry fees and big trophies.

Will I make or break these resolutions? Time will tell. I have to wait for spring or summer to fulfill some of these promises to myself, but I have already taken a step toward Resolution #1 -- I booked a lesson for tomorrow. So we’ll see what’s what. Stay tuned.