My First Lesson

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to let you know about the first lesson I had today. I started playing when I was about 10 until I was 17/18, then I went to Uni and golf became an expensive hobby I couldn't afford. Since I finished though and moved to London I have rejoined a club and developed a terrible slice with my driver.

I had never had a lesson before, simply taking the advice of playing partners and watching TV. I currently play of 15 and thought if I wanted to improve I would have to go and seek professional advice. So I did and what he said was very interesting.

Firstly, he dismantled my grip, worked on making me taller at address, ball position slightly left of centre and putting the weight on the balls of my feet. The pro said my swing plane was good, like most people, but the poor set up I had would probably make me work 50% harder per round of golf as I was trying the muscle the ball to fly the way I wanted rather than letting the natural motion of the body take over. After trying the new set-up for a few balls on the driving range the ball flight was already getting better, I know its much too early to be on the "I'm cured" train but certainly a step in the right direction!!

The main point of this post is to let you all know that sometimes I think we all focus on the swing, where the club is and how high the hands are when really its our initial set up which dictates how good we are and how good our swing can be. Work on getting all the basics right and then we can work on improving the rest of the swing.

Hope it helps a bit.

Pete

PS Rory and Tiger could go head to head in the final round of the Deutsche Bank tomorrow - here's hoping!!

Glad to hear you had a good lesson.

So many people today won't pay for a lesson but will spend �300 on a new driver, but have no idea how to use it!

I wish I had started playing golf with lesson as I spent years hacking my way around a golf course, before I was taught how to hack my way around the course correctly!!!

Russ

I spent a lot of money upgrading all my clubs from my Dunlop starter set, hoping I'd get better. After a while, I spent �18 on a lesson with the club pro. The �18 was the best golf investment I've made. It's not just I can now hit the newer clubs etc, it's that when something has gone wrong, I know where and why it has. Enjoy your golf Peter, all the best.