On the comeback trail

Like all those politicians seeking re-election I'm finally on the comeback trail. After a self imposed sabbatical following last Sunday's disaster I had a lesson yesterday and hit the range today. I saw a guy called Steve Cox from Sand Martins in Wokingham. Truth be told, it was booked by my wife who thought she was helping after I tried to get a lesson with my normal coach but he was fully booked. Damned inconvenient. Doesn't he know who I am! Actually it's a testament to how good he is.

Anyway I'd heard good things about Steve and he'd heard about me, my quest and my problems and was keen to see if he could help. I hit a few for him to watch and he put a couple of swings onto the video camera. The good news was that despite a total ineptitude towards the game last week, a lot of the basics are in place. My posture was a bit hunched and the stance too wide and so they were easy fixes. The main fault the video highlighted was that I was coming down way too much on the inside and driving the legs too soon and to hard. In simple terms the arms, body and leg action was all out of sequence. If it worked I'd hit a good shot. A lot of the time I'd drive too hard with the legs and spin the hips out and the club would be way open hitting huge slices or losing power. If the leg action wasn't too active I'd be playing catch up with the arms and so the hands would get active to try and square the clubface and the inevitable hook would ensue.

Problem identified but what about the cure. He got me to stand a little closer and taller, narrow the stance and flex the knees to correct the posture issue. As a drill he also got me to address the ball with this new posture but with my feet together and to make a 3/4 swing back and through. Too fast or any leg drive and I'd lose my balance and look like a numpty in front of everyone else on the range. No pressure then.

He also wanted me to get the feeling of the arms being more in front of the body and so got me to try and feel as though I was hitting over the top. Normally this would hit a horrendous slice but from my position way inside would actually get the club more in front. This worked great during the lesson, but once he had gone I started hitting a bundle of shanks.

I went to the range today to try and get it right. There was some definite improvement but also another bundle of shanks so I've definitely not got the answer yet. I feel another few evenings home on the range beckon. The good news was that I did take advantage of the excellent short game area at Sand Martins and spent the best part of two hours chipping, pitching and practicing my bunker play. I admit it wasn't what I was there for and I probably should have shown more diligence to the task in hand but I feel like I've turned a real corner with the short game woes I had (on top of the long game woes).

I did manage to get a booking with my normal teaching pro for next Sunday and was going to have him look at my long game for second opinion. However, the short game is the key to reducing my handicap. Trust Homer on this. I'm going to have a lesson on bunker play as yesterdays efforts were decidedly C+ at best. Whilst at Maidenhead Golf Centre today I was approached by the guy that I had a lesson with way back at the start of all this called Paul Harrison. He wanted to know how my game was as he hadn't seen me practicing for ages. I went through the loss of form, back injury etc and he offered me a lesson too.

I'm a little concerned that I'm getting too much information from too many sources. However I know Paul is a very technical coach and he'll be good for getting me to feel the right position on the way down and stop me coming from the inside. Grant Sayer is my tried and tested coach and has transformed my short game and so it makes sense for him to keep that side of the game ticking over. I'll probably go back to Steve at Sand Martins towards the latter part of the season so he can video the swing again and chart the progress.

I do feel a little more enchanted with the game again and hope the work I'm putting in will produce dividends. I'm determined not to take technicalities with me onto the course and to really just bash it and see (trust my swing) in competitions and see where we go.