Grad School Winding Down

As school winds down, I have played more. For the past 5 years I played perhaps two to four times per year. It's good to swing the club again. During that time, I could reasonably expect to shoot in the low to mid 90's. And in an effort to get better, I got significantly worse... swing thoughts all over the place and too many things going on in the swing.

Yesterday, I took a half-hour lesson. The instructor was friendly, looked at my swing for about six balls down the line and head on. Then he put me on video. He identified and suggested three things:

• Stronger grip more in the fingers.
• Spin tilt which put my head on the back side of the ball rather than in front of it.
• Swing thought: "Hit the inside of the ball."
• Process thought: "Thought box and swing box." When you enter the swing box, there is no more thinking. Very useful.

My first swing with an 8-iron was a beautiful high draw. I took the new positions to the course and hacked it up a touch due to short game and mid-iron play. I think I need to look at set-up with the irons. However, I had a different ball flight and hit some shots that would have been impossible with the old motion. Piercing draws with a 3-hybrid are gorgeous. My driver was an asset, rather than a liability.

I had some fun.