Those who have been following my quest for quite some time, might remember a goal I set to reach a single figure handicap. Having five golf lessons with the local golf professional of my then club, thanks Marty, playing two rounds and a few sessions on the driving range each week, saw the target reached after twelve months. Slightly exceeded actually, but it didn’t last.
Lets take this back a little further. Years before I had my lessons with the junior pro. This started with changing my grip, interlocking to overlap, getting the club in the right position on the back swing and at the top etc. etc. Years latter, with the single figure goal being set, most things I had learnt had been slightly exaggerated. So things had to be reversed slightly, angling the club to far and getting the right body position during the swing. All of these lessons were done without video, but I always took notes as it was always handy to look back at what was changed.
Forward three years, the main aspects were still there but slight issues had crept in. Driven to the stage where there was no confidence off the tee on where the drive would end up, giving Tiger a run for his money on how far the fairway could be missed. Pondering the idea of getting lessons, some research was carried out, but no commitment was made to make the improvements. Even advising my golfing buddy to get lessons to help him improve, so when he took the plunge I knew I had to act.
Enter Dale Lynch, based at Yarra Bend Golf Club and co-founder of BannLynch Golf. I wasn’t sure what to expect and after getting the initial date wrong for my first lesson (a month early is a little too eager), not sure what he was thinking of me (is this guy a nut?). So giving a brief introduction and insight of my golf swing, Dale stood there in silence for a bit of time watching balls flying out into the range. Then the first question came.
Dale: Have you been losing a bit of distance?
Me: Hmm, no.
Dale: Well I think you could gain more
Me: Not what I am after but please divulge (thought bubble: I’ll smack that ball out of the park)
Video review time (or Chicken time as it is referred to in the NRL). What a great experience this turned out to be. Pre-conceived ideas I had on my golf swing were shot to pieces:
a. I thought on the back swing my arms where bent to get to the top. They were in fact fairly straight with the arms a little too tense
b. My follow through collapsed to quickly – quite the opposite, my arms stayed dead straight and did not swing with the body, causing shots to be pushed
c. The hands getting in front of the club face before impact – this I had suspected due to my high ball flight
Loaded with my exercises now to drill this into muscle memory and will be hard at work to make this improve my golf game. So my new goals have been set, no point going through this without some objectives:
[su_table]
| DATE | HANDICAP | FAIRWAYS HIT | GIR | PUTTS |
| Current | 13.6 | 37.5% | 31.6% | 33.6 |
| Dec 15 | 11 | 45% | 42% | 31 |
| Dec 16 | 7 | 55% | 50% | 29 |
Current (based on last 2 year average)
So not only do I expect this to improve my game, but also help me to enjoy some of the Top 100 courses I play along the rest of the journey. Hoping to see more of the fairways and less of the trees. I will give some updates along the way on how this is progressing.
