The travails and triumphs of seeking professional help.
Two things happen simultaneously to tank an otherwise improving golf year. I get busy, forgoing additional in-season golf lessons, and I get greedy. Greedy for lower scores. Greedy for swinging the club faster and hitting the ball further. Greedy for getting better faster.
Golf can be hard. It can also be a lot of fun.
The quality of the putt that I hit is inversely proportional to the amount of time I spend over the the putt at address. That is how I beat back my minor putting yips, for the time being. It really is that simple; so simple that I’m embarrassed that I didn’t arrive at this technique…
The golf trip to Southern Pines in August 2020 will mark my 8th consecutive year as a golf trip captain. Add in random long weekends and overnight golf excursions that pop up from time to time, and I’ve spent a lot of time chasing this crazy game far and wide. Each trip has been fun…
On my journey from hacker to avid amateur golfer, conquering the weather and various environmental factors encountered on a golf course was nearly as big a hurdle as poor alignment, a bad path on the takeaway, and coming over the top on the downswing. Along the way I have cast out most of the old…
My eldest son is 3 years old for a few more months. He’s a little tall, a little thin, and an absolute fireball of energy. He is super active and never, ever tires of playing or learning new things. After his “Soccer” team wound down this spring, The Wife and I discovered that there is…
Ego and insecurity can be terrible, debilitating handicaps in the game of golf. Just two days and four holes into 2017, I received my first embarrassing dose of involuntary humility. A welcomed weather anomaly resulted in above average temperatures, allowing Bryan and I the thrill of playing golf in Central Kentucky on January 2nd. The…
You can’t be just a little bit pregnant. Forgive the terrible colloquialism, but I find this is the best way to describe the dichotomy that is my golf swing. Either I’m consistently compressing the ball with a good swing. Or I’m not. There is not any middle ground, really. When I’m putting good swings on…
I predominately play golf on daily fee and municipal golf courses. Every once in a while I’ll be fortunate to receive an invite to play a private course in our area, or I’ll take a golf trip a couple of times a year and play some really nice courses. Always, without fail, the greens are…
Guns, in the United States of America, are an instant fistfight, hot-button issue, because everyone has an opinion on them, and most of those opinions are very strong. Regulation of guns and gun ownership is one of a handful of lingering cultural and political battle-fronts that will never be won or lost, but continually fought…
My teaching pro has taken me just about as far has he can, physically. He has told and shown me just about everything I needed to learn in order to construct a performing, repeating golf swing. It’s not the prettiest or most powerful swing on the range, but it is becoming apparent quickly that I’m…
“Swing your Swing, I know I did.” That was the punchline of a Dick’s Sporting Goods golf commercial of recent vintage, with Arnold Palmer extolling the virtues of individuality and uniqueness in every golfer’s swing. Certainly, no one has done it quite like Palmer in the 60 years since he burst onto the golf scene.…
Two months ago, when I started my Winter Golf Lessons package at Man O’ War Golf, I had modest expectations. I had just wrapped my up my most successful and fulfilling golf season to date, on the strength of a handful lessons spread throughout the year. I hoped maybe my pro could take some of…
Don’t be too proud to take a lesson. I’m not. – Jack Nicklaus In the short space only nine months, I’ve come a full 180° on golf lessons. Where pride and stinginess previously prevented me from seeking or accepting much-needed help with my golf swing, I now realize how invaluable having a knowledgeable second set…
I’m 35 years old, and much to The Wife’s chagrin, I still have several items of clothing that date as far back as my freshman year of college in 1997. I’m proud that I can (mostly) fit into those ragged old t-shirts and sweatshirts, stretched collars and sleeves aside. Admittedly, I’m in significantly better shape…
At the beginning of each round, I usually have a few parts of my game working well for me and a few other things that aren’t necessarily as good I’d want them. That’s golf as I’ve always known it. As regular readers are aware, I’ve invested in professional golf lessons this year in hope of…
I fully acknowledge that I am susceptible to sometimes wanting it too much. This applies to my golf game just as much as the rest of my life. I try to keep perspective; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I knew going into this swing reconstruction process was just that, a process, which would require…
Fresh off alternating several setbacks and successes, I showed up for my long overdue 8th golf lesson mentally somewhere between having my chest puffed out and my tail tucked between my legs. My new full swing is at a point that I need periodic check ups and corrections, but there is plenty within my golf…
This is a guest column by Jenny King, the Head Coach of the University of Akron Zips Women’s Golf Team in Akron, Ohio. Congratulations! You just entered yourself in a golf tournament! So what now? That initial excitement when you press “Submit” after registering online or once you seal the envelope filled with your entry…
My golf game’s evolution simmered this spring, but has begun heating up along with the Central Kentucky temperatures. It’s been an excruciatingly volatile process, with intermittent stretches of feeling in control and striking the ball really well giving way to an inability to get off the tee box, and back again. The inconsistency of my…
My sixth golf lesson with my teaching pro at Man O’ War was one part tune-up and three parts fine tuning. According to Mike, apparently I’ve absorbed most of what he’s been trying to teach me thus far. On the video monitor, all of my angles, lines, and ratios are significantly improved from when I…
In the two weeks since my last golf lesson, I’d almost gotten the posture and setup down, but was just a tad off. I had just about learned to keep my left foot completely on the ground, but it still slipped up now and then. I’d learned to be more free-wheeling with my arms and…
Wednesday was a great day on the practice range. Everything clicked and my swing found its slot. My legs were strong and my arms and wrists were relaxed. My four golf lessons culled together and culminated to produce a tension-free, repeating golf swing. I wanted to hit every club in my bag, because even the 3-iron…
After three weeks away from the practice range, including a week-long golfing vacation, I headed back to Mike for my fourth golf lesson. My swing had held up okay in Hilton Head, but I knew intuitively that my fundamentals had deteriorated since my last real practice session. One of my playing partners during the last…
I actually took my third golf lesson before leaving for Hilton Head, but completing my workload before bailing out-of-town prevented me from getting a column about it posted. The third lesson built upon the first two of course, and luckily didn’t leave me completely helpless once I made it to the golf courses down South.…