Chipping

Today was my last lesson and we worked on chipping, pitching and a little bit of putting. The important thing that I learned was to swing like a pendulum...as much follow through on the chips as back swing. Also angle my feet about 45 degrees, keep the ball by my back foot, have the club pointing back so I hit the ground before the ball. Also I am supposed to "bounce" the club out of the sand and on the pitch shots so I get better lift. I almost killed a couple of kids with some wild shots but I definitely learned some stuff. Putting I am supposed to keep my eyes directly above the ball and be sure to follow through. I still move my wrists too much and don't let my club do enough of the work but I can see the improvements already.

Lesson #2

Today I went back to Stone Tree for my second lesson with Andy. I was joking with Kathy that I was so happy with the last lesson that I wanted to give him a hug but I didn't want to get banned from Stone Tree :) It started off slowly...they were out of balls at the driving range. We focused on a lot of the same things. He wanted to make sure I slowed everything down, so we focused on tempo and follow through. The other thing he mentioned was keeping the ball closer and trying to put about 60% of my weight on the front foot. I asked (again) about the hybrid and he said just to practice with it and take it slow and make the club do the work. Wednesday is out at Hepworth and Thursday is the work one. It should be a lot of fun. Next Monday is the next lesson...it's going to be all on the chipping green.

1st Golf Lesson

So I had my first golf lesson this morning with Andy at Stone Tree. It was a lot of fun. I was worried about the rain so I got there early and i got a bucket of balls to warm up. He got me to change quite a few things and I think it made a difference.

The first thing he got me to focus on was my stance. He wanted me to have the same stance all the time. Standing almost straight up so the ball would have to be closer. Then on my grip he wanted the end of the club to be out further so i would "choke up" a little bit. He also wanted my hands to be almost like a fist as opposed to holding the whole grip. THe next thing he wanted me to do was make sure I use my legs to turn...keep my left foot down when I swing, but put my right heel up after I swing and hold it until the ball lands. Also I was rotating the club the wrong way...hard to describe but I was twisting it forwards instead of to the side. THe last thing he said was to slow down my backswing, so do the backswing, hold for a count, follow through then hold until the ball lands. I hit some good ones, but there's a lot to remember. The key thing is to make the swing the same every time. It was different but I think it was working.

I asked about the hybrid...he said he had a hybrid...he could never hit with the 3 iron and he thinks the hybrid is great. I had to do the same I was doing except move my legs a little further apart. The shots were quite straight and not curving to the right as usual. I learned a lot, the weather held up and my next lesson is Monday at 5pm.

Probably golfing on Wednesday with work (depending on weather) and Thursday with Janet and Blaine after work so I'll have a couple of cracks at it.

golf lessons scheduled

I got a call from Andy this morning at Stone Tree and my first lesson is scheduled for Monday, June 29th at 10 am. I told him I wanted to work on irons and chipping. I told him I get the ball up with the irons about 80% of the time (which thinking about it is an outright lie...50% is probably closer). This is my lovely wife's birthday present and man I can't wait. I'm taking dad golfing on Thursday and *maybe* going golfing on Wednesday is I can get back from Walkerton.

Here's the writeup on my instructor from the Stone Tree website

Andy O'Leary, CPGA
Assistant Professional
andy@stonetree.on.ca

Andy, a long time Stone Tree employee enters his 1st full season as a certified CPGA Golf Professional. Born and raised in Owen Sound, Andy is well known to the numerous golfers that frequent Stone Tree on a regular basis. His likeable and popular personality make him a perfect addition to our professional teaching staff. Andy's qualifications are validated and thorough as a result of his completion of the CPGA Teaching and Coaching Certification Program Levels 1 and 2.