FourPutt
Head Pro
I'm sitting here still grinning from ear to ear after today's round! I was at the club the other day and was paired with a chap in his 60s, who has been playing for a lot of years. He was off scratch at one point but is off about 10 now, I imagine due to age/flexibility etc.
Anyways, he asked me after one particularly horrid shot what on earth I was doing with my hands when swinging. I told him I was trying to fight my slice and hit a draw. After he stopped laughing at me, he told me that there was nothing wrong with the way I swing the club and told me that I was setting up very closed to try and counter my slice and as a result I was either yanking it left or pushing it off right. He sorted out my alignment and told me to stop trying to hit at the ball and just swing through it and the difference was immediately noticeable.
Cue a couple more rounds where I played okay and had a mixture of good shots and ones where I tried too hard, not to mention the extra 20 yards that appeared after I stopped trying to hit it so hard made it very difficult to know what club to hit.
Anyway, I have never broken 90 on a par 72 course and today i had (drumroll please...)
..85!
Smashed my best round by 6 shots!
10 under nett and broke 40 on the front nine!
Strangest thing was, apart from my putting being pretty decent today, nothing was spectacular, it was just steady. I even stuck a ball in the lake on the 12th and knowing I was on a good round, messed up with an 3 off the tee and an eventual 8 on the par 5 18th.
Suffice to say, I'm chuffed to bits and can't wait to get out again to see how I do next round. I am under no illusions that it probably won't be a regular occurrence for a while, but I know I can do it now, and I hope that I can consistently get down to 90 ish and get a nice cut on the handicap!
Ahem... sorry for rambling, but I'm all giddy! 
Anyways, he asked me after one particularly horrid shot what on earth I was doing with my hands when swinging. I told him I was trying to fight my slice and hit a draw. After he stopped laughing at me, he told me that there was nothing wrong with the way I swing the club and told me that I was setting up very closed to try and counter my slice and as a result I was either yanking it left or pushing it off right. He sorted out my alignment and told me to stop trying to hit at the ball and just swing through it and the difference was immediately noticeable.
Cue a couple more rounds where I played okay and had a mixture of good shots and ones where I tried too hard, not to mention the extra 20 yards that appeared after I stopped trying to hit it so hard made it very difficult to know what club to hit.
Anyway, I have never broken 90 on a par 72 course and today i had (drumroll please...)
..85!
Smashed my best round by 6 shots! 10 under nett and broke 40 on the front nine!
Strangest thing was, apart from my putting being pretty decent today, nothing was spectacular, it was just steady. I even stuck a ball in the lake on the 12th and knowing I was on a good round, messed up with an 3 off the tee and an eventual 8 on the par 5 18th.
Suffice to say, I'm chuffed to bits and can't wait to get out again to see how I do next round. I am under no illusions that it probably won't be a regular occurrence for a while, but I know I can do it now, and I hope that I can consistently get down to 90 ish and get a nice cut on the handicap!
Ahem... sorry for rambling, but I'm all giddy!
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