Okay - I've been playing golf for about two and a half years and I've never had a golf lesson. Everything I've done to change my swing has been from watching YouTube videos, watching golf tournaments and reading golf magazines. I finally got to the point where I realized, I couldn't fix it myself.
I was chunking almost every shot, missing right (not a slice, just a straight right miss) and just getting to the point where I was coming away from every range session or every round extremely frustrated that I just seemed to be getting worse.
To give you a clue of one club yardage - I usually hit my 7 iron about 125 yards, total, about 115-118 carry.
I started looking around my area for lessons and trying to get the most bang for my buck. The prices for PGA professionals at my local courses was a little more than I could get myself to spend ($100 or more for 45 minutes). I kept looking at the prices at the PGA Tour Superstore. The price for 3 45 minute lessons is usually $219.99, so about $73-$74 per lesson. PGA Tour Superstore ended up running a sale on their 3 lesson pack, so I bought the 3 lessons for $189.99, so about $63-$64 per lesson. I COULD NOT beat that price at my local golf course, especially with all the technology you get at the lesson.
I showed up for my lesson and the instructor was at the front of the store, waiting for me, which is super nice. She brought me back to the PGA Studio…
Hold on - let me talk about the PGA Studio - this is a super cool studio with Trackman technology, cameras, hitting matts, putting matts and computers that are used during the lessons and also during club fittings.
Ok, back to the lesson - The instructor and I chatted for a couple of minutes about my game, my clubs, my misses and why I was there. Once we did that, she pulled out my 7 iron and had me hit a few balls, while filming my swing. After 5 or 6 swings, she brought me back to the computer and showed me the video. My swing in a nutshell: I was standing too close to the ball, my stance was too narrow, my swing was too long and sweeping, so I couldn't get my clubhead to square to the ball at impact and was hitting the ground first and sending the ball to the right.
That seemed like a lot, when she presented it to me, but she broke it up into pieces to make it a little more attainable.
First things first, get the club resting in my left hand fingers instead of the palm.
Next, to shorten the swing. She encouraged me to think of it as more of a chipping motion, short and sweet. The power isn't in the backswing - it's in the down swing and your body movement.
After shortening my swing, we focused on the release. Turning my right hand over my left.
This felt totally different than my usual swing, but it showed an excellent change in my ball flight and launch angle.
We played a little with the ball location to find the ideal spot for the ball in my swing.
After all those changes and about 30 minutes of work, I ended up making solid contact in the middle of the club face, a nice little draw shot shape…and carrying a 7 iron about 140 yards with total yardage at 150. I gained 25 yards, just with a few little changes.
Now, that's one lesson, hitting just my 8, 7 and 6 irons (just to see the yardages). I have 2 more lessons to go and CAN NOT wait to get back in and work on a little more.
I walked in to the PGA Tour Superstore feeling a little dejected about my game and walked out feeling super excited to get back out and try out these swing changes.
I also walked out with videos of before and after and a sheet with what we worked on, instructor notes and a couple drills to use to make sure I keep the swing changes.
I'm traveling for the next couple of weeks, but playing 1 round of golf while I'm gone, so we'll see what happens.
I'll update you :)
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