Golf lesson

by Rob Tiller

Lots of things are blooming in our neighborhood — pear trees, red buds, cherry trees, forsythia, daffodils, and yesterday I saw  the first azaleas.  The cardinals, chickadees, and titmice are singing loudly.  Today it’s in the mid-sixties.  Definitely spring.

So, it’s time once more to address the game of golf.  This could be the big year.  The one to get over the hump, once and for all.  To never again find that the ratio of fun to frustration is such that it raises dark questions as to one’s ultimate purpose.  To find instead the beauty, the magic, the thrill of the well struck little white ball.  

So, I signed up for lessons at Golf Tec, and went to my first lesson yesterday with Rob G.  The basic idea there appears to be to use as much technology as possible to teach the game.  Lots of cameras, computers, and measurements.  I love gadgets, but I worried at first that this could be mere gimmickry.  Once I was strapped into the various instruments and into my evaluation, I started to believe.  Having clear measurements and clear video of my situation made me understand it better.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the camera clear showed that I’m still doing some of the bad things I’ve tried hard to stop, e.g. coming over the top.  Rob  G. proposed some drills as homework.  

I did a short session at the Knight’s Play range after the lesson, and found that my new swing thoughts had a significant negative effect on my results.  Not surprising, of course.  It’s hard to learn new things.  I predict the frustration factor will continue to be significant in the near term.  In the long term, there’s always hope.