Interesting? Very

Thursday night saw me at the Downshire Golf Centre in Bracknell for the latest lesson with my teaching professional Rhys ap Iolo. For those that don't know (and where have you been?), I started having lessons with Rhys in December. He's an advocate of the Jim Hardy Plane Truth coaching method and we've been on a journey to transform my old swing, ingrained over thirty years, into a simple more effective one plane model. This was our fourth long swing lesson and so far I've gone down in handicap, shot a personal best front nine score in competitive play at my home club, Royal Ascot, (level par gross) and come second in two events. Not too shabby.

Being a diligent pupil I got here early to warm up and was hitting it solidly enough. When we got into the teaching bay Rhys chucked the first curve ball of the night at me straight away. As most of you that have had lessons know, the teacher prefers the pupil to use a straightforward club like a 7 iron to make it easy to hit the shots and implement changes. Rhys pulled my 3 wood out of the bag. He then asked me to hit the shots off the mat, no tee. He wanted to see in closer detail whether I could compress down or was still coming in too shallow. I actually nailed the first couple and the figures on the launch monitor we good but could be better.

In essence, the take away we've been working hard to get right is better but I'm still coming across the line, courtesy of an excessive wrist cock which is just letting the club travel too far. This meant too many compensations were needed. He wants to get the back swing flatter with the club more offset, but more importantly wants the left wrist in particular to be much straighter and pointing to the sky.

Then came the next interesting change. At address he wanted my hands much lower, so much so that the toe of the club was off the ground. The logic behind this, in conjunction, with the flatter back swing is to force me to come down and compress it more. Standing over the ball it not only felt alien but just looked so wrong. Mentally I was convinced I was going to hit it out of the hosel or that I'd never get the face square or find the sweet spot from that position. The bottom line of all this work is to take some of the excessive shaping of shots I have and get the ball flying in a much more neutral flight.

I trust Rhys implicitly and so set the work, hands much lower at address and making practise swings focusing on getting the club behind me with a flatter wrist position. Once I'd found the feeling we hit some, and yes, he still had me hitting the three wood. Awesome is the first adjective that springs to mind. The swing guru had weaved his spell again. The first shot was arrow straight. Not only had I gained fourteen yards carry over my previous best, but spin rates were better and so was the compression. Of course there were the odd hiccups but all in all I was ecstatic.

I thought the low hands was a drill for the duration of the lesson but Rhys actually wants me to go out on the course with it, at least for the time being. MMMM, not so sure about that but we'll see what happens. Actually, the plan for Friday was to hit the practise ground at Royal Ascot and work on it. However the course was empty, and with a big competition this weekend I was intrigued to see how this flatter position and in particular the low hands would stack up when there was one ball and one chance to get it right.

It was one of those moments where you stand there after hitting a shot and think "did I do that?" So solid particularly off the tee. Some of the iron shots weren't quite so good and to be honest I used the round as a chance to play around with the short game as well as the new swing and so the score wasn't of any consequence. I really thought I'd struggle going straight from lesson to course and it isn't something I'd normally do. I prefer a few solid range sessions where I can take my time work on the swing and get the feeling for how the shot should be.

I wasn't convinced how it would hold together in a competition, but there was enough there to persuade me that yet again Rhys had moved the swing forward. He's not looking for perfection but it's a case of taking what I bring to the table, refining it and shaving the layers away bit by bit to make it effective, simple and repetitive. He is doing a great job to date and we're really on the right road. I need to put the work in, especially with the back swing position and then check back in for the next lesson on June 21st and see how far I've gone.

Low hands, 3 woods and flat wrists. Three very strange concepts for a lesson but hey, if they get me hitting shots like I did on the course, on a more frequent basis, I'm prepared to juggle balls and sing Danny Boy while making my shot if he asks me to and it would make a difference. Strange approach, although completely logical in the grand scheme of what is wrong with my swing.

All in all a very interesting lesson and a positive first effort on the course. Now to take it, without any practise or work, into a competitive environment in the Stone Cup. A stableford event over two rounds, where competitors can choose which two days (Saturday until Bank Holiday Tuesday) they want to play on. Saturday was already earmarked as my opening round. Caution to the wind!