No shanks thanks!

Today I spent a couple of hours at the pitch n putt course, which has become my practice ground, and where my emotions swung from despair to delight.

I went to practice my pitching distance control but in the event it turned into a technique session.

The first half of the story was all about the despair, because almost as soon as I started, I had a monster dose of the shanks, just like I had last year early in the season. I spent a considerable time trying different things to shake them but they got steadily worse and I was in the pit of depression and on the brink of giving up for the day when my mood turned to anger and then determination to figure out what I was doing wrong.

It felt like my back swing was getting quite armsy and then as I began the down swing I was lifting out of the shot a little, this meant that my right hip was in the way a bit and forced my arms out a touch in turn throwing the shank towards the ball.

So I tried one last thing; bending a little more at the waist and really rotating my shoulders back instead of my arms, then rotating through while staying bent at the waist. Basically really concentrating on keeping my spine angle.

I won't say that I found the ultimate answer, but it worked a treat today and I then spent an absolutely awesome hour hitting shot after solid shot with amazing distance control. I felt that taking the arms out of the swing and keeping my spine angle gave me perfect contact with the ball and made it just so simple to control the distance. 20 yard chip, 40 yard pitch, 80 yard pitch it made no difference, ball after ball the same distance and all really tightly dispersed. It was by far the best pitching I have ever managed and not a hint of neckiness in any of the shots.

I would have stayed till dark if I had not got a call to return home and sort out a PC problem for my wife. Not sure I have ever gone from such dejection to such satisfaction in one golf session.

I can't wait to get another chance to get out there and try and replicate the new pitching technique.

So how do you become a golfer?

(April 2008)

So how do you become a golfer?

I was not a member of a course and I knew that membership cost money. None of my friends played golf, I came from an climbing/biking background golf was alien to that. The only golfer I knew well was my brother so I sought his advice.

'Just get a cheap set of clubs, knock it around on the driving range and get a lesson or two and then I'll take you out on the course'

I also turned as I always do to the internet for knowledge, specifically internet forums, that where I found the Golf Magic forum which I was to lurk on for many hours in the beginning.

'just get a cheap set of clubs'

That seamed the obvious start as without clubs your not really a golfer are you!

So into research mode I went and quickly drowned in a sea of new information that made little sense. New brands about which I knew nothing of their relative market position, names and numbers for clubs that meant nothing to me, beginner irons, improver irons, blades, cavity backs, etc, etc. which numbers and names are for beginners clubs? Second hand, custom fit.

The learning curve was just too steep for my impatience, I needed guidance.

The next day saw me quite nervously approach the pro shop at our local golf course. A young assistant pro was behind the counter.

We had a chat, the pro was on vacation, he may be able to find me a second hand set of irons when he was back, in the mean time the assistant could give me a lesson using a demo 6 iron.

Result! the journey was on the move.

'You should get out more'

(March 2008)

'You should get out more'

That was the start of it all, those were my wife's words as yet another night past with me glued to the laptop screen shooting virtual solders in a virtual online world.

Sat on the couch, I was momentarily distracted and got shot by somebody playing the same game on the other side of the world, game over.

I would like to say I jumped up and immediately transformed my life after some revelation of the truth that I was wasting my life away. But that's not how it happened, it did however make me think for a minuet and I replied to my wife;

'Yes your right, maybe I should take up golf'

Unfortunately it took me nearly a year after first thinking it to actually doing anything about it. During the year I came across people that played the game and mentioned a few times that I was thinking of taking it up.

We even went to the local golf club on new years eve with friends and when I mentioned my plan to take up the game I was encouraged with lots of good advice.

The advice ran along the grounds of get some lessons from a pro it will stop you developing bad habits and get you started on the right track.

That seamed like common sense and the golf club seamed friendly enough. Actually that almost surprised me because as a young man I would have perceived it as a place of wealthy stuck up tossers and not gone near the place. In truth I had probably become one of them (well maybe not so much the wealthy bit) and no longer needed to feel antipathy towards middle class white guys of a certain age :D

Anyway after that good experience I decided to wait for the spring weather and figure out how to take some lessons.

A weekend in Mid March of 2008 and my brother phoned a bit out of the blue; 'So you want to go up to the driving range and hit a few balls?'

My brother played golf at a club and had all the equipment, as the weather was set fair, the time was right and in 30 minutes I was stood with a basket of golf balls in a little covered bay on a local driving range.

I teed up a ball at Martin's suggestion and taking an iron had a waft at it. Surprisingly it did not move, which rather put me out at the time. Cue more wafts until it did move, all I remember is lots of swinging and lots of duffs and a few hits which started off leftish and span right to left. My brother was hesitant to give out advise (which I praise him for now) all he did was put a club down for me along the target line and tell me to line up parallel to it.

I loved it. Swish, miss, swish duff, waft hit, swoosh miss... proper beginners golf... It was ace. I got the bug badly in less than an hour.

I was going to become a golfer!

Introduction

I started playing golf at the age of 35, very quickly got hooked on the game and on practicing at the driving range. Being in my opinion naturally above average athletically, I assumed that I would play golf to a high standard relatively quickly .

After all you hear these stories of people taking the game up and shooting sub 80 rounds within six months.

Alas it was not to be, I quickly found that golf for me is not as easy as it looks and that my journey to a low handicap would take some considerable time if it was even possible!

But although my beginners naivety is long past my ultimate goal remains to become a single figure handicap golfer with one caveat. I have to still enjoy the game.

In my few years of playing I have seen far too many players who although they are for sure addicted are also miserable at their performance or lack of progress. I want to enjoy myself in the good and the bad times. So if I ever get totally negative in this future blog please remind me of this goal and tell me to take a break or quit :D

Now I'm just into my third year as a golfer, but I have a good memory (for something's) and I remember my journey and lessons very well, so I will start this blog at the beginning and recount my golf journey from the start, in the hope that it may provide any new players with some nuggets of good advice and an awareness of potential pitfalls along the way.

Anyway, it will be fun for me to reminisce :p